How to Fund Your Small Business with Air Force Veteran Mark Rockefeller Founder of Streetshares

62: Mark L. Rockefeller is the Co-Founder & CEO of Street Shares, Inc., a peer-to-business funding marketplace that uses the power of affinity groups to decrease costs/risks in small business lending. The press calls Street Shares Shark Tank meets eBay for business loans.
Mark began his career as a military officer, attorney, and federal prosecutor. Following military service in Iraq, Mark worked on a micro-finance project in Africa. He later joined the prominent financial services law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, where his law practice focused on securities, financial restructuring, and international investment disputes.

Mark has been quoted or featured in Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Washington Business Journal, INC. magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine. He is a frequent speaker on alternative finance to crowds as diverse as Wall Street bankers, veterans groups, students, and local small business groups. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance, MBA and law degrees. He was a Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School and is a term member in the Council on Foreign Relations.

BRIEF HISTORY

After World War II, millions of Americans became business owners. This “greatest generation” sparked an economic boom, and America flourished. Banks were smaller, community-oriented, and supporters of small business. And business owners had access to small business loans.

Today’s small business owners face a very different environment. Strict lending regulations, big bank consolidation, and dwindling community banks leave small businesses with very few options. Business owners get to choose between difficult-to-obtain bank loans and costly online loan sharks. Learn more about Veteran entrepreneurship.

In 2013, StreetShares co-founders met for breakfast at a local diner to brainstorm a new Mainstreet funding source. The founding team had one vision: to breathe new life into the American Dream. And StreetShares was born.

On the StreetShares marketplace, small business owners can tell their story directly to investors. They pitch their business and retail and institutional investors place bids to fund a portion of their loan. It’s like Shark Tank meets eBay.

We’re so committed to growing small business, that we personally back a portion of every loan.

– See more at: Street Shares