If you get a decent return on your microloans, they can be a good way to make money (and give some capital to people who need it).

But I agree: I doubt Max has as much of an advantage in evaluating promising targets for microloans than he has building software.

The feel that I've gotten is that nobody is really making any money with Kiva. Most people I've read have gotten roughly a 1% return. Have you heard much about people having success with Kiva that exceeds a bare return on principal?

I agree, and, no, I haven't heard of people making money with Kiva, but that's (at least partly) because I haven't really heard of Kiva at all. My comment was meant to reference the success of e.g. Grameen bank which seems to get decent returns on its microloan business, but also applies a lot of local knowledge.