I’ve always said that you can gauge the success of an industry by the growth and enthusiasm of its annual convention. It’s also a great barometer of market peaks and bubbles – especially when you have the chance to really get into the psyche of industry participants.

With venture capital pouring into online lending businesses at valuations reminiscent of dot com days, and the industry’s annual conference looking more and more like Internet World ’99, it’s hard not to wonder whether peer to peer lending has reached bubble territory.

Entering LendIt 2015, the annual P2P and online lending convention, was like stepping into a time warp. I had flashbacks of Internet World’s elaborate exhibit booths, the Internet CEOs who literally sweat hundred dollar bills, and the thousands of attendees high on information technology standing on lines to check their AOL email accounts.