Financial Freedom through Social Trust
In the smallest state in the union, Maurice Camara starts his second powerlifting set. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, rest, and then repeat.
Although not a Rhode Island native, Maurice embodies the tiny state’s fittingly short motto: Hope. He never gives up, but rather relentlessly pursues progress with an obsessive drive, unwavering determination, continuous curiosity, and an abundance of hope.
How does he manage to stay so driven? For Maurice, it’s simple: “The fear of being obsolete. If you become obsolete, you are not providing value. You are no longer needed.”
Maurice was raised in Mali by parents who were just as industrious as their son. His father was a hydraulic engineer and owned a successful travel agency; his mother was a Peace Corps medical officer. Maurice had a firmly middle-class upbringing, although his parents never flaunted their status. “The financial system is very different. It’s not based on getting a mortgage right? We built a house from scratch, and the cost of living is much lower.”
According to a survey published by Yahoo! Finance, three in five Americans (61%) are in credit card debt, with an average of about $5,000 of debt per person. In comparison, people in Mali carry about $443 dollars of debt per person—significantly less. Loan opportunities and financing are not widely available. Maurice notes, “There isn’t really a true middle, and that’s because it is a third-world country.”
In 2004, Maurice moved to the United States to pursue a degree in computer science, but he shares, “I changed my major so often that by the time I graduated, I graduated with a general business degree.” After parlaying his general business degree into several job opportunities in finance, Maurice decided to go back to school to become a certified financial planner.
He took a course on coding which reignited his interest in making his way into the tech industry. “I did the classic thing that a lot of people do, you know, I left my job cold turkey.” It was again, Maurice’s relentless drive for self-improvement and fear of being rendered obsolete that fueled his studies in software engineering. Yet, in taking the time to pursue these opportunities he found himself in a precarious position. “I went through a time where I was very underemployed, which happened to coincide with when I found SoLo Funds, cause I was in dire financial straits at the time.”
SoLo Funds first launched in 2018 as a platform where people could lend and borrow money without getting trapped by debt or straining family relationships.
A user can join the peer-to-peer lending platform as either a lender or a borrower. Borrowers specify the amount they need, and once a lender agrees to fulfill their request, the borrowers have the option to tip the lender as a gesture of appreciation for the loan.
SoLo Funds removes common hurdles that prevent people from receiving traditional loans while keeping the process streamlined and simple. There is no compounding interest on the platform’s loans, and the entire process, from the original request to the transfer of funds, can take as little as 20 minutes. Today, SoLo has over one million users and continues to innovate and find new ways to serve them.
Maurice joined the platform as a borrower, requesting loans to help him make ends meet as he was pursuing career changes and education goals. He notes, “I didn't get my first tech job until summer 2018. Pretty much slowly moved up the ranks and got promotions.”
Without a platform like SoLo Funds, borrowers often resort to predatory payday loan programs, which seem to punish users for needing immediate funds. SoLo Funds was created to be a unique type of loan platform, emphasizing the importance of a borrower's behavior on the platform itself, rather than relying on a credit score.
Maurice shares, “My credit wasn’t worth a damn. I signed up for the program, started small. Slowly, I built my reputation there, which I really liked—you’re not judged based on what you’ve done in the past. You are judged on your behavior on the platform.”
It’s exactly this level of social trust that empowers SoLo Funds borrowers to focus not on surviving, but on thriving. In Maurice’s case, the gradual progress towards financial independence not only enabled him to concentrate on his education, but also allowed him to explore new opportunities for providing for himself and his family in the future.
He started Ultimove, which marries Maurice’s love of powerlifting and wellness to create supplements for joint health.
Maurice notes of his SoLo Funds experience, “I always did my best to be the model borrower, and slowly but surely, my score kept going up and the amount I could borrow kept going up.
This year has been kind of like the year where I’ve finally gotten tighter control of my finances in that sense. Some of my other ventures have started to grow fruit, so I’m in a much better position financially.”
The support, opportunity, and social trust that Maurice built on the Solo Funds platform was based on the 96 loans he received, which he always repaid on time. His integrity as a borrower allowed him to pursue job opportunities, career changes, business ventures, and so much more.
These days, Maurice is able to give back to his community on the platform in a new way. He shares, “I don't have to borrow as much, and I’m actually in a position where I can start lending.”
With help from SoLo Funds, Maurice’s newfound financial freedom allows him to support the same community that helped him during his financial struggles.
Access Ventures was proud to invest in SoloFunds and its mission to help increase access to capital through an innovative peer-to-peer lending marketplace, furthering AV’s vision of supporting an equitable economy. Not only have we invested, but we are also lenders, supporting the dreams of many Americans as they work to provide for themselves and their families.
To learn more, check out our interview with SoLo Funds Co-Founder, Travis Holloway on our podcast, More Than Profit: “Protecting Dignity Through Equitable Lending.”
