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How to Lend Money to Strangers

How to Lend Money to Strangers

By: Brendan le Grange
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About this listen

A podcast about lending innovation and lending leadership in all the markets in which it takes place, however diverse those markets may be. In fact, it’s a case of ‘the more diverse the better,’ with guests from New York to New Zealand discussing everything from crypto-backed mortgages to crowd-funded loans for refugees to gamified loan journeys to AI-powered credit scores.


I am the host, Brendan le Grange, and I have spent the last twenty years working in - or alongside - lenders in Africa, Asia, and Europe and I’m using that experience to find and learn from industry insiders in a series of weekly interviews. Sometimes, those interviews discuss the inspiration behind a new start-up, sometimes they look back at a career spent at the lending coal face, and sometimes they explore where the latest technologies might take us. In the end, if it shapes a lending decision, we’ll talk about how. You can join us every Thursday here, or wherever you prefer to find your podcasts.


You can find more at www.HowToLendMoneytoStrangers.show

Or follow my other projects at https://confirmu.com/, https://www.joinhumoni.com/, https://chaos-out-of-order.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Career Success Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • How AI and behavioural economics can re-humanize financial services, with Diederick van Thiel
    Dec 18 2025

    "We live in a world where AI is transforming everything, but the real opportunity isn’t in automation: it’s in reimagining systems around people." In today's episode, I'm speaking to Dr Diederick van Thiel, fintech entrepreneur, executive, academic, and, most recently, author of Brilliant Data, a call to leaders, innovators, and policymakers to create intelligent systems that don’t just think quickly, but also care deeply. "The future doesn’t belong to those with the most data. It belongs to those who understand it".


    Oh, and because Dr van Thiel is a fintech founder, too, we also discuss a range of other topics, including how AdviceRobo's personality-based credit scoring can open up new sectors and thus approve more loans than traditional methods.


    AdviceRobo is at https://advicerobo.ai/ and at https://www.linkedin.com/company/advicerobofixingglobalcredit/

    Find links to the book at https://advicerobo.ai/brilliant-data/ (or via my featured book page https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/recommended-reads)


    Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlegrange/

    As is the show, please follow its page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/how-to-lend-money-to-strangers/ (once you have followed, look for the circle with the three dots in the header section, click that and then 'invite connections' and invite any of your colleagues who you think might like the content


    Commercial partners include (when you click one of these affiliate links, I earn a small commission but you won't pay a cent more)

    ProtonVPN Browse privately with a community-owned secure VPN that safeguards your privacy. https://go.getproton.me/aff_c?offer_id=26&aff_id=12767

    Ogma Risk & Analytics: Customized risk management and analytic consulting for you https://www.ogmara.com/?utm_source=HTLMTS&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=OGMA+intro&utm_id=2501


    Friends of the show include: https://www.ontap.co.za/pages/hoedspruit-store-details (for all your Hoedspruit-based bathroom needs), https://www.joinhumoni.com, https://www.haboomoney.com/, and https://beetlesense.ai


    And since you like podcasts, I'm also co-create hAIghtened senses with Christo van Zyl, in which looks at the intersection between human senses and technology

    Keep well, Brendan

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    53 mins
  • Giving credit credit in the board room, with Marlize Buys
    Dec 11 2025

    Data analytics is no longer an isolated and arcane backroom activity to be understood by only a handful of geeks, it's at the core of every successful lending business.


    For those of us that have grown up in data science, that's great news, but that rising prominence also means that a new audience must now come to terms with the implications of machine learning versus logistic regression scores, with gini coefficients and information values and bins and weights, etc. And that new audience is an important one: the Board.


    Marlize Buys started her career getting hands-on with credit scorecards, then she helped to build a lending business of her own, and now she is advising the boards of major banks with that particular transition.


    Marlize has been so busy optimising lending businesses that she hasn't quite got her website up and running, but Most Probably is on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/most-probably/

    Or you can speak to her directly https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlizebuys/


    I'm on LinkedIn, too, at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlegrange/

    As is the show, please follow its page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/how-to-lend-money-to-strangers/ (once you have followed, look for the circle with the three dots in the header section, click that and then 'invite connections' and invite any of your colleagues who you think might like the content


    You can support the show by buying one of my guests via the affiliate links on my site (it doesn't cost you anything extra): https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/recommended-reads


    Commercial partners include (when you click one of these affiliate links, I earn a small commission but you won't pay a cent more)

    ProtonVPN Browse privately with a community-owned secure VPN that safeguards your privacy. https://go.getproton.me/aff_c?offer_id=26&aff_id=12767

    Ogma Risk & Analytics: Customized risk management and analytic consulting for you https://www.ogmara.com/?utm_source=HTLMTS&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=OGMA+intro&utm_id=2501


    Friends of the show include: https://www.ontap.co.za/pages/hoedspruit-store-details (for all your Hoedspruit-based bathroom needs), https://www.joinhumoni.com, https://www.haboomoney.com/, and https://beetlesense.ai


    And since you like podcasts, I'm also co-create hAIghtened senses with Christo van Zyl, in which looks at the intersection between human senses and technology

    Keep well, Brendan

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Put a bit of juice in the tank, with Katherin Chan
    Dec 4 2025

    We typically explain SME under lending as a supply gap: staid banks don't want to, or simply don't know how to, lend to new-fangled businesses. And to some extent, that is true, but there is also a demand gap. "There is a lack of knowledge, confidence, and trust when it comes to seeking growth capital through loans. While many founders hesitate to borrow, nearly 60% abandon loan applications midway, citing fear of rejection or complex terms".


    This "confidence gap" - and how Juice's Smart Growth Capital - is what I'm discussing today with Katherine Chan.


    You can get Juice (or just read more about them) at https://www.getmejuice.com/ (head on over to their Growth Hub for some great content https://www.getmejuice.com/growth-hub/growth-hub)


    Meanwhile, Katherine is on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chankatherine00/

    I'm on LinkedIn, too, at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanlegrange/

    As is the show, please follow its page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/how-to-lend-money-to-strangers/ (once you have followed, look for the circle with the three dots in the ehader section, click that and then 'invite connections' and invite any of your colleagues who you think might like the content


    You can support the show by buying one of my guests via the affiliate links on my site (it doesn't cost you anything extra): https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/recommended-reads


    Commercial partners include (when you click one of these affiliate links, I earn a small commission but you won't pay a cent more)

    ProtonVPN Browse privately with a community-owned secure VPN that safeguards your privacy. https://go.getproton.me/aff_c?offer_id=26&aff_id=12767

    Ogma Risk & Analytics: Customized risk management and analytic consulting for you https://www.ogmara.com/?utm_source=HTLMTS&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=OGMA+intro&utm_id=2501


    Friends of the show include: https://www.ontap.co.za/pages/hoedspruit-store-details (for all your Hoedspruit-based bathroom needs), https://www.joinhumoni.com, https://www.haboomoney.com/, and https://beetlesense.ai


    And since you like podcasts, I'm also co-create hAIghtened senses with Christo van Zyl, in which looks at the intersection between human senses and technology

    Keep well, Brendan

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
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