FYI: The $3.8 trillion municipal-bond market, which traces its roots back more than two centuries, easily swatted away a startup that sought to “disrupt” the way states and cities issue debt.
Bloomberg News’s Amanda Albright chronicled the brief rise and fall of Neighborly Corp., highlighting any number of reasons it failed in its pursuit to bring munis to the masses. For the most part, they were common pitfalls of Bay Area upstarts. Profligate spending? Neighborly embarked on a company trip to Hawaii after its first debt sale. Erratic behavior? It frequently shifted focus away from underwriting, annoying employees who were pulled off projects for new ones and sowing doubts among municipal finance officers. It even faced a lawsuit that accused it of a “racially and sexually hostile environment.”
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-21/problem-with-bringing-muni-bonds-to-the-masses
