‘Team’ category

The Zopas ‘07

Posted by Chris at 9:36 am

We recently held the 2nd annual Zopas, a chance to acknowledge some of the star performances over the past year. All nominations were received, everyone dusted off their best gladrags, Doug and James gave some rallying speeches, and then we took ourselves to Embankment to board ‘The Cockney Sparrow’ for the main event.

A great time was had by all (photos here). Giles provided excellent narration of the sights and as we headed up the river, Tracey and yours truly took on the role of MCs.

Nominations and winners below - thanks to everyone for your hard work and for providing all the nominations.

The Zopa for Outstanding Achievement

Richard Duvall

“Even though I did not know him personally, he was a man with a vision for the future of banking and inspired others to follow”
“… An unbelievable driving force behind everyone at Zopa. After his death he is still inspiring people who worked with him and even those who never met him to make Zopa the company he always knew it would be”
“Without Richard I don’t believe we would be here today”

The Zopa for Best Comedy Performance

The Zopa Directors

“For their outstanding dance moves at the Xmas party”.

The Zopa Award for Being Green

Siobhan (by a country mile)

She makes us recycle and wears a green ambassador green outfit around the office.
“Because she’s a happy-clappy tree-hugger”
“For her valiant efforts at recycling”
“Recycled paper, eco-friendly cleaning stuff, sorting a new water supplier”
“Making the London office being greener than it might otherwise be… and for that special green top - that makes me feel hung-over when Siobhan isn’t”

The Zopa for Best Delivered Line

Thomas

“(Sigh!) What!?” – To Drew
/Sigh!

The Zopa for Best Costume

Natalie
“For her cool outfits for work and always looking trendy”
“For having such a funky dress sense, every time I see her she has a different style that compliments her so well”
“For being the funkiest dressed in Tipton, style and fashion are her middle name”
“Always a different outfit daily, forefront of fashion”

The Zopa for Best Soundtrack
Allan & Sid (Joint)

Allan - “Alan and his E-Pod (Elvis pod) in the one ear, while singing some obscure songs which no-one has heard of before. Elvis has re-entered the building”

Sid – “For his contribution to killing music with his attempt at singing all take that songs - he’s crap but so are they”

The Zopa for Best Make-Up and Hair
Kavina

“Because she always looks glam”
“Without fail she will always have her make up on and hair nice and curly”
“Kavina always comes to work looking perfect without a hair out of place and makeup perfectly applied”
“Not only looks lovely is lovely person too! (cheesy I know but true)”

The Zopa for Achievement in Direction

James Alexander

“For being positive about the future, knowing where Zopa should and motivating all to achieve”
“For being able to tell us what is forthcoming for Zopa, and he has the strength to keep Zopa going for years to come”
“For being a communicator, for getting the best out of people, and for being a team player”
“For the scene in the posh boardroom in the BBC1 News piece”

The Zopa for Best Ensemble Performance
Underwriting

“The best girlies in the business for getting the job done”
“For always being approachable and friendly and always getting the job done”
“It’s the best team in Zopa and the best team to be a part of!”
“They have best track record for keeping bad debt too a minimum, without them loans would not be paid out, they are ‘ Simply the Best ‘ And also they are the most attractive team throughout”
“Less than 0.2% can’t be wrong”

The Zopa for Best Leading Male

James Alexander

“What a horrible year for James! Provided outstanding leadership in very difficult times and ensured we came out stronger. Remember, it’s just one more hill….”
“For leading from the front and for taking the time to talk to staff, whether new or old and making them feel part of the team”
“After the sad news of Richards death James took over his role brilliantly and has always motivated and encouraged everyone at Zopa. He still manages to drive the company forward and remains friendly and approachable”

The Zopa for Best Leading Female

Linda

“Has been a great Director and a great friend. Has a lot on her plate and just deals with it without moaning… well, she does sometimes but we don’t mind!”
“Utterly and brilliantly putting up with everyone’s shit and being a great stand for the customer”
“For working long hours when everyone else has gone home. Keeping the Tipton office motivated. Generating an excellent experience for member queries”

The Zopa for Rising Star

Adrian

“Being with Zopa from the start and imminent career move to London”
“For being so positive and ambitious. Adrian has the ability to get very far with Zopa”
“For combining work and study, and for staying with Zopa to do bigger and better things”
“For running the marathon, swotting for studies and still always being great at work”

Posted in Team, General, Office, awards | 1 Comment »

Now we are two.

Posted by Dave at 11:45 am

“Happy Birthday dear Zopa, happy birthday to us!”

Crikey - was it really 2 years ago that we pushed the button on the Zopa website, and opened it up to lenders and borrowers for the first time?

A quick check of the BBC news site or the Daily Telegraph suggests quite strongly that it was indeed.

That was a mad day - we got far more publicity than we thought we would get - radio, press, online and TV - and we got a little submerged in the flood of visitors to the site, but the site stayed up, and Linda and her team battled through literally thousands of emails and enquiries.

A lot has happened since then (much of which has been recorded on this here blog) - the site has changed beyond all recognition (take a look at what we looked like when we launched, courtesy of the Wayback machine), we’ve launched new markets, new features to help people lend and borrow, opened an affiliate scheme, won an award, opened to up Zopa Powerlenders, and admittedly, screwed up at least once.

We also had to endure the tragic loss of an inspirational leader - Richard Duvall, who died last October. Although this was obviously a huge blow for us, we’re confident that Zopa will continue to grow and succeed both in the UK and internationally, and become a fitting monument to Richard’s vision and leadership.

I’ll finish this little post with a personal thank you to every single Zopa member - you’ve all made something that was once an idea, and then a Powerpoint presentation, into a living, thriving community of lenders and borrowers who are slowly changing the face of finance. We’ve a long way to go, but we’ve made a great start. Thank you.

Posted in Team, Members | 1 Comment »

Come and play at Zopa - seeking a Product and Sales Director

Posted by James at 4:29 pm

Hi there

We’re looking for a new addition to our senior team at Zopa to help drive the business through its next phase of growth.

We’re looking for a Product and Sales Director.

Accountability
- To deliver the UK sales result through product
.. Owns the marketing budget
.. Leads all sales and communications activity and people
.. Drive quality traffic to Zopa.com
.. Convert, retain and upsell prospects and Members

Proven record in:
- Must haves
.. All aspects of online marketing (search, SEO, affiliates, member get member)
.. Value proposition and product experience development
.. Creative marketeer
.. Partnership and affinity creation, delivery and development
.. Brand empathy
.. Team building, motivation, management

- Nice to haves
.. Offline marketing experience (DM, stunts, outside, telesales etc)
.. Financial services experience

Personal Characteristics
- >5 years experience at leading online player
- Tenacious and focussed on results delivery
- Fun

This is a senior role, reporting to the UK CEO. Compensation c.£80k plus options

If you’re interested, please fire though a CV to james@zopa.com in the first instance

Many thanks

James

Posted in Team, jobs | No Comments »

Hair today…

Posted by Dave at 6:48 pm

Of all the mad things that people do to raise money, running the London Marathon is right up there with the maddest of them. Not only do you have to run 26 (ish) miles, but you have to raise prodigious amounts of cash for the privilege!

Adrian (who works up in Tipton) is running in this years race - and as part of his fund raising, he recently volunteered to shave his head….the before and after pictures are offered below for your delectation!

Good luck Adrian!

Posted in Team | 1 Comment »

Let them eat cake (for Children in Need)

Posted by Chris at 3:11 pm

Last Friday our team in Tipton came to work as usual, albeit looking a little more tired than usual. Why? They’d been baking… Buns, fairy cakes, cheesecakes, yoghurt cake, chocolate everywhere. And all for Children in Need.

Heres a couple of pic’s Tony managed to grab on his mobile phone.

Staff from all the local offices flocked to the stall, and cravings for cake were fulfilled.
All said and done, the team raised £106.67 by feeding the locals, compared to only an extra £65 from the London team.

1-0 to Zopa West Midlands this time around. Well done everyone.

Posted in Team, Office | 3 Comments »

The hardest post

Posted by Dave at 6:01 pm

It is with enormous sadness and regret that I write these words on behalf of everyone at Zopa.

Richard Duvall, our co-founder and CEO quietly passed away early on Monday morning, with his family by his side, after a short battle with cancer. We send our heartfelt condolences to his family.

It is very hard for me to put into words how we are all feeling at this time - but we wanted to tell you, our members, what has happened to Richard, and what this means for Zopa.

Richard was always a lot more than a CEO. To those who knew him or worked with him, he was simply an amazing human being. Passionate, inspirational, possessed of an extraordinary creativity, intelligence and gentleness - a husband, a leader, a father, and a friend.

Over the years that many of us at Zopa had known Richard, he was unceasing in his commitment both to the companies he was involved in, and the individuals he worked with. His understanding of people was unerring, and he would do whatever he was able to bring out the full potential of those he knew. We have all benefited from the times we spent with him, and become better people through his efforts.

His passing leaves us all with a hole in our lives that is uniquely Richard. He is irreplacable and yet we, and Zopa, must move on without him.

Zopa will continue to be led in the UK by James, and our San Francisco team continues to work towards launch in the US. Our Chairman and our investors remain totally committed to the success of Zopa and believe that we are well positioned for strong growth in the coming months.

There is no question that we will miss Richard intensely, but although we are a company in mourning, we believe that Richard’s memory is best served by building Zopa into the company he hoped it would be, and we are committed to achieving that.

For those that knew Richard (or even those that didn’t) - please feel free to write something in the comments - a memory, condolences or just goodbye. We will collect these, and pass them to Richard’s family.

Richard’s wife Krys has asked that rather than send flowers, if people would like to give, they donate to Pancreatic Cancer UK. To this end, we have set up a page at JustGiving to collect - please give generously.

Thank you.

UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon (20/10) we’ve raised £840, thank you to everyone who has contributed. I have had a letter from the founder of Pancreatic Cancer UK thanking us for our support - they are hugely appreciative of our efforts.

UPDATE: Friday evening - thanks to a wonderful contribution from Bessemer Venture Partners, we have met the first target of £1,500, and so I have increased the target to £3,000. Thank you to everyone for your generosity.

UPDATE: Tuesday 24th - Thanks to yet more kind donations, we have met the £3,000 target, and so I have increased it again to £5,000 - thank you all again.

Richard Duvall.
24/1/62 - 16/10/06

Posted in Team | 125 Comments »

It’s good to talk (to our members)

Posted by Dave at 5:11 pm

A few weeks ago, Justin and myself had a really great evening.

Not by ourselves, I hasten to add (Lest our our better halves be reading), but with a group of Zopa members.

I organised a ‘Zopa member dinner’ - the aim of which was to gather a group of really engaged members, ply them with decent food and wine, and get to the bottom of why they were so damn interested in Zopa. We had members who log in daily (Even i don’t do that!), members who have been in regular contact with us practically since we launched, and members who have commited large sums of cash to lend to complete strangers.

I had to investigate. And I needed a wingman.

So, the wine flowed, the conversation was great and the evening passed all too quickly. I’ve got pages of notes written up about all that we discussed, and we’ll be working some of the ideas that were mentioned into future development work. Many, many thanks to those who came. And to those who didn’t - there will be more!

What I was most amazed at though, was the number of questions these members still had about Zopa. People who have been members for a year, and log in with amazing frequency, still had so many things they wanted to ask, or check up about, or just get clear on.

So what must all the other members be thinking and asking and unclear on?!

The upshot of all this is - we’re thinking of providing some form of Q&A session with the Zopa team, and I want to know if you think that’s a good idea.

I’ve started a discussion thread about it over here but you can also respond in the comments in the blog if you’d rather.

Hope to talk to you soon! (And see the previous post for more communication related ideas as well.)

UPDATE: The link now works. Thanks philipg27!

UPDATE2: Justin has pointed me to a good little article on communities. Worth a read.

Posted in Team, Members | 3 Comments »

Skyping Zopa

Posted by Dave at 5:22 pm

We’d love to be the next Skype (Well, wouldn’t you?), but in the mean time we’ve finally got ourselves Skyped up - and much hilarity in the office ensued as some of the less technically literate of the team struggled with such advanced concepts as headphones. (Hello Giles!)

Anyway - we did it to cut down our communications costs between the UK and US offices, but if anyone fancies a chat with me please feel free to:

If you want to get in touch, please do, and if you want to add me as a contact you can do as well - but put something about Zopa in your contact invitation or I probably won’t accept you…too much dodgy Skype spam otherwise!

Posted in Team, Technology, Members | 4 Comments »

If you’re going to San Francisco….

Posted by Dave at 5:24 pm

…we’ll be sure to wear some flowers in our hair!

Oh yes - we’re coming! Richard (”Yes of course I’ll write a blog post”) Duvall and myself are heading out on Monday to kick off Zopa California, and Tim (”IT Guru”) Parlett is coming out the following week to start building the Zopa magic mechanical adding machine. With his bare hands.

Watch out West Coast!

If anyone out there in internetland fancies catching up for a beer (or indeed has some recommendations for top hostelries in SF - it’s been a couple of years since I was last out there) drop me a line at dave@zopa.com or post in the comments and I’d be delighted to enjoy some American, and share some British, hospitality!

I think the phrase is “Woooohoooo”

:-)

UPDATE: We made it, and it’s raining like you wouldn’t believe. And there’s power cuts. Maybe we should try LA next time!

Posted in Team, General | No Comments »

Join Zopa?

Posted by Tim at 7:06 pm

Zopa is growing. We’ve tons of new features and facilities planned … and our database is growing big and fat, full of important data that we have to analyse and protect.

We need someone to help us implement changes in our website and help operate our MI. Someone who loves to work in a team and get great stuff done. Someone who has a couple of years IT work experience and is really proud of the quality work they produce. Someone who wants to make a dent in the universe by helping develop one of the most innovative new services on the web.

You will have experience working in a SQLServer, HTML, Javascript, Flash environment, and maybe .NET ASP. (Although note that most of our active page development is outsourced).

We’re a small and growing company, so there’s no bureacracy to worry about. You’ll get a lot of exposure to our management team and report to the CTO (that’s me). You will work closely with our lead web designer and our Management Information manager.

The work involves this:
- detailed design of website enhancements, working to an outline spec
- implementing / enhancing new website functionality
- managing releases from development through testing and into live
- data mining to support our sales and management teams
- setup and administration of our contact management and email mail management systems
- assisting with user experience testing
- assisting with the design of new features.

Work is based in our central London office (near Oxford Circus) in a dynamic, friendly environment.

If you’re interested please email me: Tim@zopa.com

Posted in Team, General, Technology | No Comments »

Join Zopa

Posted by Tim at 3:42 pm

Zopa is looking for someone to join our team and build-out our web site.

We have big plans for the future, which involve significant development. We are designing Zopa 2.0 now and this will be a big step on from the existing Zopa. We also have a steady stream of changes.

This role is to take responsibility for the detailed design and development of all aspects of the non-transactional aspects of our site. You will be working closely with our business architect, brand manager, sales director and our media/design agencies.

You won’t be expected to create too many gifs, as our agencies do them, but we are talking about creating landing pages for specific campaigns, re-developing the structure of the site to reflect and support developments in our product, enhancing and tailoring the site for specific partner relationships, keeping the site up-to-date, tracking/researching how users actually use the site and helping develop new ideas to improve the user experience of the Zopa service. There is significant scope for the role to grow over time. Reporting to the CTO.

Essential experience:
- you have been developing IT systems for at least three years
- you are used to working to tight timeframes
- you have developed website elements for high-profile public use
- you have worked in a commercial environment
- you have worked with HTML, Dreamweaver, SQL Server, Flash, JavaScript, ASP .NET.

Essential attributes:
- you work well in a team
- you communicate well with designers, managers & colleagues
- you are passionate about building highly usable systems that people love to use
- you are interested in design and well-written pages (but it’s probably not your core competence)
- you are focussed on end-results and take pride in getting the job done
- you think Zopa’s a good idea and want to take a role in making it work bigger and better.

Your main customers are based in London. This role could be done in part from home, but requires a lot of communication with the core team. You will also need to coordinate closely with the development team managing the transactional part of Zopa’s systems.

If you would like to be part of building Zopa’s future, please send your CV to tim@zopa.com.

Posted in Team, General, Technology | 5 Comments »

Thank you for helping to create Zopa

Posted by James at 11:26 am

When I worked for a Corporate, you had to pay up front to get anything done. And even then most of what you wanted done, never got done because the world would conspire to say no before you’d even started.

Co-creating Zopa has been a totally different experience. Once upon a time there were 3 of us sat in a Barn generally wishing that we had an idea so that we could stop pretending we were anything other than shamateurs at boules, pool and table tennis. Fortunately, Dave had one. Better still it intrigued. And even better still, a group of intrigued collaborators materialised that were willing to take a risk to help, shape, create and transform Zopa from an intriguing idea into something real.

So we’d like to thank them all for choosing to help:

• Our Members, for giving Zopa a go, and for continuing to help us make Zopa so much better for everyone
• Bruce, for having moments of brilliance in a sea of long and complicated words and theories that quite frankly we don’t always get and aren’t totally convinced you get either
• Carlotta Perez, for creating a context that inspired Richard
• Ruth & Hughie at Slaughter and May, Emily at Lovells and Victoria at Lawson Graham for your passion and legal sleuth in finding a way for Zopa to launch legally when the others said it could not be done
• North for doing an amazing job, in no time and with no budget, of creating the logo and what I am told is a full set of corporate ID
• Naresh and all the team at Karmarama, for translating the essence of Zopa into a real brand, for being the first ever Zopa Member, and generally for being a saint
• Damon, Dan and Pynk & Fluffy for creating a brilliant website, for pointing out the stupidity of so many “clever” ideas that no-one would actually use or even understand, for guitar, pooh and happy and grumpy trousers
• Mark and Karen @ Murmur for trusting us, telling it how it is and for being a better DJ (we suspect) and perfect sparring partner for Iain
• All the ridiculously clever and fabulously straightforward people at BJSS – and Ian in particular, who actually created a system that did what we hoped it might
• Kate, Penny, Lucy, Debs and all the team at Sputnik for creating a press launch and ongoing beyond our wildest dreams
• To Iain & Michael @ Equifax, Dylan @ Call Credit, Martin @ the FLA , Mark@ TDX and Andrew @ CRS for saying yes and helping, when everyone else said no
• To James & Patrick @ Wrightson Wood and Julie @ Ariadne for believing in us and connecting us to so many interesting and helpful people
• Katherine, Gill, Kelly, Annette & Jerome @ Benchmark Capital, for giving us such a fun start
• Johan and George @ Benchmark Capital for believing and Bart and Frank @ Wellington Partners for saving the day
• To Kathryn, Jay, Darren, Matthias and Rupesh for being trusted guides in the curious world of Venture Capital
• Judith and Rob, for always being there
• To our families and friends and all those other Freeformers for their abundance of support

…. And coming soon, our thank-you’s to those creating Zopa in the US

Posted in Team, General | 1 Comment »

Flickr photos

Posted by Dave at 6:25 pm

I just found a new feature on Flickr - probably the greatest photo sharing website in the world - you can create a Flickr badge with you own photos - this is mine! (I tried to make a snazzier one…but it didn’t work )

Posted in Team, Non Zopa | No Comments »

Zopa - What’s Inside ?

Posted by Tim at 2:37 pm

I look after the IT for Zopa. At the moment, I spend about 90% of my time on Zopa and the other 10% on helping-out a couple of other clients.

Sarah and Dave just reminded me about this new blog, so I thought I’d share some of the details about how, who and what makes Zopa tick (technically speaking) …

I’ll start with what we have now.

We have our servers tucked-away in the corner of a very large datacentre in London run by a company called Level3. (They run a huge chunk of the internet). I’ve only been in the datacentre once (a sort of state visit to see the boxes). The security is second only to that of the Swiss banks (one of my ex-clients designed their datacentre to withstand a direct nuclear hit …). We don’t go that far, but we do have our servers sitting behind many layers of firewalls and a full set of servers just sitting in an office on standby, just in case ….

We run .NET on a series of Dell servers around a MS SQL Server database.

A company called Magex manage the servers and network for us. They have a small and dedicated team of technical infrastructure specialists who install the kit, keep the network connections running, manage the firewalls and generally keep a close eye on all the Zopa infrastructure. They monitor it 24*7 so that I can get some sleep. The environment is very secure, and since we want to keep it that way, I won’t tell you much more about it.

Our application is quite complex. At the heart is the “matching engine”: a sleek bit of code designed and coded by Ian, our chief developer. (I would ask Ian if he’d like to put something up here, but chances are he’d prefer to improve the matching engine instead…).

Supporting the matching engine, and all the screens, is something we call “the cradle”. This manages all the database interactions and ensures that every transaction is authorised, and is completed fully, or not at all. It also logs every single update ever made to the database … which gives us a full audit trail of everything. All the other code nestles inside the cradle …

Ian and his colleagues work for a development company in Leeds called BJSS. They specialise in high-performance mission-critical systems and have done lots of work with City trading systems and a slew of Big Name IT firms … We don’t call it “near-shore development”, but I suppose that’s effectively what it is.

As well as the active parts of the website, we have quite a few other pages: the one’s which describe who we are, Contact Us, the Markeplace display, Help, and how to Lend and Borrow. These were built by a small agency (Pynk and Fluffy .. who aren’t pink and aren’t fluffy) and are now maintained by our current digital agency Harvest (as well as ourselves: we regularly update the wording…the easy bits anyway).

About once a week we do an upgrade. It’s been a bit quieter over the summer, but that’ll stop soon. We’re embarking on a lot of new changes and we’ll soon be back to the weekly “down for maintenance” page. We try really hard to keep these releases short, so that it has limited impact on users - normally about 30 minutes. Not all releases mean the site has to come down: only those which change the database.

Oh, and about me: I’m old enough to have coded in COBOL & to wonder if an upstart called Microsoft would ever make it big ….. I’ve worked in the finance sector for much of my career, including many of the big finance houses and Egg (where I met Richard & what led me to Zopa).

It’s been great fun getting Zopa off the ground, taking a great idea and a Powerpoint presentation and turning it into something we can all use.

Next time I’ll post up something about ‘How we built Zopa’. The time after that I could post something about Zopa’s MI and Risk Management. We have some tricky stuff running behind the scenes.

Meantime, feel free to post any comments.

Right now, I’d better get back to work. I need to design and arrange the next release …

Tim

Posted in Team, Technology | 2 Comments »

Where did the Zopa brand come from?

Posted by Sarah at 12:53 pm

I joined the Zopa team in October 2004 with a remit to develop the Zopa brand. What a fantastic brief! A brilliant idea, a blank sheet of paper from which to develop an identity, no consumer preconceptions and no organisational hierarchies to wade through to get things done (I’d just completed a short stint at highly corporate Marks and Spencer where things were rather different)….

With a very small budget, the task was to find a name (in October we were name-less), to create a visual identity including a logo, and a language through which to communicate. And once we’d got all those elements, to integrate into the website and customer experience.

The naming bit was quite easy. During a team brainstorming, James - Zopa’s CFO - remembered from business school a term for negotiation theory – Zone of Possible Agreement. I liked it because it really reflected what Zopa is, so it ticked the ‘transparency’ box as well as being memorable. North, the design agency we worked with to develop our identity, liked it because it was typographically bold – and differentiated – how many brand names start with the letter ‘Z’?

North then took the name and brought it to life. The logo is a visualisation of ‘the Zopa’ – interlocking circles with a zone of overlap in the middle. They developed the colour palette, typography and visual devices to meet a brief ‘to engage and to inspire consumer trust without being corporate….’

We then worked with an agency called Karmarama to develop our language. Many financial services providers talk in a way that’s stilted and highly corporate – I wanted to create a tone of voice that was warm, human and friendly without being patronising. I was also conscious that our proposition could be perceived as complex – so being able to communicate who and what we are in really simple, clear terms was incredibly important.

Pynk and Fluffy, a small agency who’d been heavily involved in designing the customer experience with us, then took all the elements and turned them into a website! No easy task, but I think they’ve done a great job.

In August we ran our first advertising campaign in the Guardian. I wanted to find a way of communicating Zopa to the outside world through our members – and so our members are at the heart of the campaign. They’re visualised as character illustrations as a means of generating visual impact and interest, as well as setting us apart from banks and traditional lending institutions. ‘People are better than banks’ is our lead message – this is what Zopa’s fundamentally about. If you saw any ads run, I’d love to know what you thought.

The great thing about creating online brands is that they’re not set in stone. We don’t need to spend millions of pounds branding shop fronts or printing logos on carrier bags. If something around the brand experience isn’t working, it’s very easy to fix. And being so young, we don’t have rules that can’t be broken. I believe brands are organic things, shaped in conjunction with the people that are using them, and this is how I’d like to evolve the Zopa brand. Comments welcome!

Posted in Team, Brand | 2 Comments »