One of the great advantages crowdfunding has at the current time is that is has really caught the public's imagination. There is a lot of ill feeling towards the banks and people like the idea of handling their finances differently and in a more relevant way to their lives. It's a fast growing market and those are always the most interesting ones to talk about and get involved in. Awareness of this new sector is growing all the time and it should be an interesting next few years for rebuildingsociety.com and the other players in the market.

Julian Wells

Good luck to rebuildingsociety and all the other alternative lenders that are giving SME's real options away from the High Street Banks. All we need to make a real difference now is for the Government to bypass the Bank's and find a way of pumping the £billions into these alternative lenders. Crowdfunding maybe high profile at the moment but the challenger banks (just wait until Metro get up to speed) , equity type crowd investments such as the hugely successful American Kickstart which shortly launches in the UK, spot invoice finance such as Mareketinvoice, big scale pawnbrokers such as Borro, and professional privately backed secured lenders, are all providing competition to the Banks in the SME space. I was with some fund managers in London last week who were saying the lending market currently feels like the dot.com world of the '90s. What we are witnessing now will change the borrowing habits of businesses for ever more. All the best to you and Daniel and lets hope we are all still around in 20 years time; unlike a lot of the dot.com businesses!.

David Jones

Crowdfunding will become an increasingly common form of finance for SME's and an alternative form of saving for investors offering far greater returns than many forms of investment albeit at a much greater risk. That is why any investment in Crowdfunding should be seen by investors as part of a balanced risk portfolio. The aim of Crowdfunders should be to be seen as a first port of call for borrowers seeking finance rather than the last. The process is simple and the rates being offered by Crowdfunding sites via their Investors are comparable if not favourable to other forms of unsecured high street lending. Crowdfunding is here to stay and its great to see RebuildingSociety starting out in Leeds and all of Yorkshire should try and support it were possible.

Gary Lumby

Best of luck with this Daniel. Some enormous names in business, the likes of Ed Wray the co-founder of Betfair (another disruptive technology) and Jon Moulton have personally backed FundingCircle.com, one of your competitors so there's clearly something there. My only reservation is that the loans in crowdfunding tend to be unsecured and when the going gets tough, there is no motivation to pay the loan back in preference to other creditors. I suppose that the proof will be in the eating............I for one will be watching with interest and I wish you all the best.

Chris Silverwood