Sean Murray


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The Story Behind the Broker Battle Champion

January 26, 2024
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Anthony Truglia“I think I’m the best because I understand my clients very, very well,” said Anthony Truglia, an Account Manager at CapFront. “I listen to them, I ask the right questions, and I really try to dive very deeply into what it is the problem that they’re facing, and I try to find a solution to it to the best of my abilities.”

Truglia uttered these lines in a calm baritone voice on the red carpet at deBanked CONNECT MIAMI just hours before the inaugural Broker Battle in which he had been accepted as a contestant. The contest was designed to showcase the top brokers taking real but hypothetical questions and applying their knowledge live on stage.

At the time, Truglia had no idea how it was going to be conducted, not to mention that the other highly qualified contestants had also projected equally similar confidence in the likelihoods that they were going to win. It was anyone’s game at that point and the suspense was palpable. There had never been anything like it.

“I’m definitely going to be watching that,” said Manny Yosipov of Advanced Recovery Group during a show floor interview before it took place. “I’ve never seen a broker battle, never heard of a broker battle.”

“Broker Battle is huge because it shows the level that you can reach of talking to these clients, dealing with objections, and just selling in general,” said Joshua Hillian, Creative Director at Advance Funds Network. “I think a lot of people have the wrong idea of sales–but at the end of the day it’s question-based, customer focused, and that’s what it’s about.”

Hillian’s colleague Irving Betesh was slated to go first in the Battle later that evening. Betesh, like others, said that they had been preparing for this day well in advance. There was an overwhelming desire from all of them to showcase not only their technical knowledge but also their friendly diagnostic qualities. This was an educational opportunity for everyone.

broker battleWhen it finally kicked off, Truglia and Betesh squared off against fellow contestants Corey Digi, Stanley Mitchell, Danielle Rivelli, and Mike Brooks.

By the time Truglia went on stage, which was last in the order, the four judges and thousands in the audience had already heard five impressive performances. But Truglia delivered, earning a near perfect score that sent him to the final championship round against experienced veteran Danielle Rivelli. And when that close matchup was completed, he found himself wearing a gold belt and holding a big check that duly crowned him as the Top Broker.

For those that didn’t know him, Anthony Truglia was simply the man that had put on the most impressive performance, an Account Manager at CapFront who won the hearts and minds of his peers. deBanked wanted to know more as he was little known to the editorial team until the day of his victory. It turns out he’s got an interesting story.

Anthony Truglia

Truglia was born and raised in Stamford, Connecticut and got his education at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He interned for a paper company that he said was reminiscent of Dunder Mifflin in the hit sitcom The Office, where he got a taste of doing sales. There, he discovered his own inner drive but paper was not the business he wanted to be in. “I was very young and I’ve always been very ambitious, always trying to accomplish something,” he said. After that he aimed big and actually launched his own coffee business, which ultimately didn’t pan out. Truglia followed that up with real estate, which he enjoyed, until he met someone that changed everything for him, a mentor that was making a name for themselves in the world of small business financing.

Anthony Truglia“See, I know most people when they get into this industry they’re just thrown into the gauntlet, they maybe have a team lead that gives them some supervision and some pointers, maybe you go through like a training for a month with a group of people, but I actually got one on one training with Justin Friedman,” Truglia said. Friedman, as one might already be familiar, is currently the Head of Sales Training & Development for Enova International, the parent company of one of the largest small business lenders in the country. At the corporate level, one could confidently say that he is among the best of the best.

That was in 2018 for Truglia, where that one-on-one training included roleplay rehearsals, ones that eventually resembled the format of the Broker Battle he’d partake in nearly six years later. Truglia’s career has led him to CapFront. He speaks incredibly highly of the company and its CEO Zack Fiddle. If one suspected that Truglia’s time in the business had led him to slow down or retreat to back-office work, they’d be wrong. Truglia says that he’s on the front lines making about 150 customer calls per day on average.

“…my job is to contact [inquiring clients] as soon as possible to get a feel for whether they’re interested, if they’ve already been funded or not, but also just trying to figure out what it is they’re trying to accomplish really, try to gauge their urgency, gauge what their comfortability is, and see if we can find something that they will be comfortable with,” he says. “But also it’s a fine line because people’s aspirations are oftentimes not anywhere close to what they qualify for. And unfortunately, not a lot of people are aware of what lenders look for so that’s where we come into play.”

To get ready every morning to do this job he’s up at 6am and off to the gym before he even has his first cup of coffee. Then it’s game time, a lifestyle he’s accustomed to that doesn’t require anything else to pump him up.

“I’ve just gotten to that point where I’m very confident I know what I’m talking about. I’ve heard every question asked and I just practice it so daily that [outside motivation] is not really needed anymore,” he says.

Truglia is also confident that the type of role he fulfills is here to stay, that even lurking AI technologies are not something to fear.

“I definitely think that AI is not going to take away sales jobs because I’m one of those people that thinks that people enjoy talking to human beings. They don’t like talking to robots,” he says. “I think there’s something about—even if [an AI] sounded good, and you know it’s not really a human deep down, there’s no connection. So there’s no loyalty generated. I think people naturally like to talk to people, they like the personal connections relationship.”

debanked connect miamiBut in real life, one might not be the only person that a potential client is considering and how they make a final decision to move forward could entirely depend on the best vibe that they feel.

“I always tell clients, ‘check out our company, myself on Trustpilot’ and stuff like that, do they always do that? Sometimes, not always. But from a psychological standpoint, I think a lot of times it comes down to how professional you are, how polished, your tone—just the chemistry that you can develop in that first call is what usually decides if this is somebody that you enjoy speaking to.”

This entire thought process ultimately played out on stage where his approach, one which included warmly thanking the judges for their imaginary call and the reaching in for a fist bump to close a deal, wooed the judges in his favor.

“[My team was] all very ecstatic for me,” he says. “And I thank them very much deeply for it. They were certainly rooting for me.”

Watch this short reel of Truglia on Stage

Broker Battle Finds a Champion

January 14, 2024
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At the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, thousands of viewers packed a hall to witness the first ever Broker Battle™ at deBanked CONNECT. After the rules of the competition were explained, six broker contestants waited eagerly for their turn to face four judges and with that a chance to win a grand prize of $5,000. Their goal? Choose from one of three pre-defined sales scenarios and show off their knowledge and abilities to the judges. Here’s what happened:

The Broker Battle was introduced



Broker Battle judge Daniel Dames (Bitty Advance) held up a Title belt




Irving Betesh (Advance Funds Network) had the distinction of going first. He came prepared!




The contestants continued one by one alphabetically by last name

The conversational role playing on the stage covered the gamut, ranging from explaining APRs and contract terminology to diagnosing customer needs or trying to earn a customer’s business. Below, judges Jared Weitz (United Capital Source) and Cheryl Tibbs (Equipment LeaseCo Inc) listen in to a contestant’s pitch.



Mike Brooks (Best Connect Capital) came in with his own style




Corey Digi (Lexington Capital Group) put up a strong showing




Stanley Mitchell (CLM Financial) goes to work




Danielle Rivelli (United Capital Source) showed off her experience




Anthony Truglia (CapFront) made it known the competition wasn’t over yet




The judges had to add up their scores for each contestant to find out which TWO would make it into the final championship battle

Second from the right is judge Leo Vargas (Triton Recovery Group).




Anthony Truglia and Danielle Rivelli are declared the two finalists after racking up the highest scores







The final sales scenario is revealed!




Both contestants have to compete on stage at the same time! Oh my!




The contestants are sent offstage so the judges can deliberate



And the winner is…




Anthony Truglia!





All photos from the Broker Battle here
All photos from the rest of deBanked CONNECT MIAMI here

deBanked would like to thank all of the amazing broker contestants for participating in something bold and brand new. Thank you to Anthony Truglia, Danielle Rivelli, Corey Digi, Irving Betesh, Stanley Mitchell, and Mike Brooks. Gratitude is also directed towards the judges for their efforts, Cheryl Tibbs, Daniel Dames, Jared Weitz, and Leo Vargas.

deBanked hopes that this competition inspires all brokers to become better, to further master their knowledge of available products, legal compliance, style, and confidence. A video highlight reel of the competition is in post-production.

Interested in more from deBanked? Contact us at info@debanked.com or call 212-220-9084.

The Top Small Business Funders Now Vs. Then

January 11, 2024
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Top Small Business Funders By Year

2008 2014 2023
AdvanceMe (CAN Capital) OnDeck Square
First Funds CAN Capital Enova (OnDeck / Headway)
Merchant Cash and Capital (BizFi) Kabbage Shopify
BFS Kapitus PayPal
AmeriMerchant Rapid Finance Amazon
GBR Funding National Funding Intuit



Many people look at 2023 vs 2008 and arrive at the conclusion that the fintechs rose to the top, but if one were to narrow down the definition of those players a little further, they’d notice that PayPal and Square are payment companies, Shopify and Amazon are e-commerce companies, and Intuit owns the Quickbooks accounting software. These are actually older companies that took an old idea (split-funding) and made it new again with some key changes. Although in the present moment it may feel like some of them cannot be beat (which is how the industry felt about the top funders in 2008), much can change over the course of this decade.

Keep your eye on:

  • AI
  • Blockchain (as payment rails, record-keeping)
  • Regulation

BROKER BATTLE RULES EXPLAINED

January 9, 2024
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broker battleHow will the Broker Battle at deBanked CONNECT MIAMI work?

Round 1
Each of the 6 contestants goes individually in front of the 4 judges for a span of about 3 minutes. They begin with a very brief opening pitch and then the judges ask them questions. Each contestant can choose from 1 of 3 pre-defined scenarios so that they, the judges, and audience have a basic framework to work with. The MC will announce which scenario the contestant has chosen before the contestant goes so that the audience is aware.

Scoring
Judges will rank each contestant from a score of 1-10. 1 being the lowest, 10 the highest. After all six contestants have gone, the totals of each candidate will be tallied up. For example, if someone received a score of 6,8,5,and 9, their total score is 28. The contestants with the top 2 combined scores go to the final round. If there is a tie for the top 2 spots, the audience will decide the winner by crowd noise/enthusiasm.

Championship Round
Both contestants are on the stage at the same time in front of the 4 judges. They will be given the same scenario, which will be revealed and announced on stage right before they go. They will each individually begin with a very brief opening pitch whereby they will then field questions from not only the judges but also be given the opportunity to give rebuttals to their competitor’s statements.

Scoring
Each of the 4 judges will pick their favorite. If it is tied 2-2, the audience will decide the winner by crowd noise/enthusiasm.

Prize
The winner gets a $5,000 grand prize and the designation of Top Broker.


The Broker Battle is the final event at deBanked CONNECT MIAMI on Thursday. It starts at 5:10pm. While there will be cameras, it will not be livestreamed. Anyone hoping to see it will need to have a ticket. Please review this post I made in regards to the disclosure of any perceived conflicts of interest. None of the contestants paid to enter. As someone who has worked professionally with 200+ companies in the industry over the span of 18 years, I am unable to play favorites even if I wanted to. I have no idea what will happen but I will be MCing it. This will be a good clean fight!

Broker Prediction for 2024

January 2, 2024
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For many brokers the day revolves around going from call to call, email to email, deal to deal. Close one, go to the next, keep going, leave late, and continue to respond to merchants up until it’s time to go to sleep. Funders have come and gone, underwriting requirements have changed, and technology has made the business more efficient, but the broker role has remained. Merchants, time has proven, still just want to talk to someone.

Indeed, every time a new regulation or technology comes out that portends danger for brokers, life pretty much goes on like normal. Yes, it’s a competitive business and a changing business but here we are now in the mid-2020s and numerous brokers are just so bogged down with merchant calls and emails that they hardly have time to consider that anything is different other than so and so just changed their underwriting guidelines.

What’s my prediction for brokers in 2024? That brokers will keep brokering!

Surprising Stats of 2023

December 27, 2023
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Remember when interest rates soared, banks collapsed, and experts began to prepare for the worst? Well, appearances can be deceiving.

Business loan origination volume at Square, Enova, Shopify, and Funding Circle are all on track to surpass 2022’s numbers. When it came to bad debt, PayPal was the only large tech lender to announce that it had become a problem this year. PayPal’s origination numbers are consequently also down year-over-year.

The S&P 500 was at 3,839.50 one year ago and closed at 4,774.75 yesterday, a gain of more than 24%.

Unemployment was 3.5% last December and had only modestly increased to 3.7% this November.

Inflation was 7.1% last November and only 3.1% this November.

Bitcoin is up by 150% year-over-year!

Anecdotal reports at smaller non-public small business funders, however, have hinted at bad debt increases all year and underwriting has generally become more conservative. Despite this, brokers are still brokering deals and funders are still funding. The predicted mass AI-induced layoffs have also not yet materialized. In the grand scheme of things, the argument could be made that 2023 was actually a pretty good year.

But 2024 could be dicey.

  • The FCC closed the lead generator loophole.
  • The first wave of small business finance companies will have to begin complying with new CFPB regulations.
  • It will be a presidential election year like none ever experienced before.
  • Americans are overleveraged. Forty percent of student loan borrowers failed to make a payment after the covid-era pause ended.
  • General economic, societal, and political unease.

So what will happen? I guess we’ll find out. It could be terrible or awesome or anything in between.

Nice Asset, Sure Would Love to Lend Against It

December 6, 2023
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domainer expo“Sean,” said the moderator, “where do you see domain names in five years?”

At the inaugural Domainer Expo in Las Vegas this week, I was sort of a self-proclaimed emissary from the lending world, there to tell everyone that domain names had a lot more potential utility than what most people probably realize.

“When businesses are looking for capital, there’s sort of a diagnostic checklist,” I said (in substance). “You ask the business how much revenue they have, you ask them if they have equipment, you ask them if they have real estate, etc. and lenders are trying to figure out which of those assets is something they can use as the basis for financing, but nobody asks about their domain name.”

Maybe they should. If a million links on the internet point to a business’s domain name and search engines rank it, then that domain name is integral to the sales generated on the site. And if a business got a loan against a domain name that they’re using to generate tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in sales per month, they probably wouldn’t want to lose it because it’s worth a lot.

Usually in the business loan world the story ends here. Ok, domain names? sounds complicated, too techie, waste of time, dollar amounts are too small, nobody wants to deal with that, etc.

city viewBut you’d actually be surprised. The technology is just about there that if a business doing $1 million/year in website-originated sales said that they’d be willing to put up their domain name as collateral for a $100,000 loan today, you could send them a link that automatically transfers their domain name to escrow in seconds without them experiencing any disruption to their site. Then if they default on the loan, the domain name transfers to you, where if you understand anything about e-commerce, you should immediately be able to monetize their domain and capture those sales for yourself.

That means no trying to foreclose on a property, no trying to chase down equipment, no suing them, getting a judgment and then hiring an expert to find if they have assets anywhere. Just click-click yours, a revenue generating asset that you can use as leverage to cure the default or monetize immediately and start making your money back with. If you don’t know anything about websites, then maybe this concept wouldn’t be enticing for you as a lender.

I could go into the technical mechanics of how this domain loan process would work, but for now just imagine talking to a business owner generating a lot of revenue that really doesn’t have many assets to make use of. They need $100k and they can’t get it any other way. You tell them they can use their domain name as collateral with no disruption to their website. It will happen instantly. There’s no tax returns needed, no credit check. It’s based on sales, something we might all already be familiar with. Will some business owners say “yes” to such a proposal or would they tell you they’d rather have nothing instead?

Small Businesses More Understanding, Looking for LOCs

December 4, 2023
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rush“The ISO channel is an important part of our business and we remain committed to it,” said Jay Shaw, Head of Sales at Enova SMB. Enova, which operates OnDeck and Headway Capital, is one of the largest small business lenders in the United States. The company has originated more than $2.2B in loans in the first three quarters of this year, a lot of which comes through “highly compliant ISOs.” The relationship works, especially in times like these when banks are reducing their exposure to small business lending.

But officially we’re not in a recession. The S&P 500 is up 20% YTD, for example, unemployment is low, and inflation has backed off from its previous peak. Shaw says that a positive sentiment among small businesses is something they’re seeing along with this, that when they actually talk to small business owners one-on-one, many of them are feeling pretty good right now.

While most observers would point out that elevated interest rates have shaken up the game, there’s actually been a silver lining to how it’s played out.

“There’s a lot more education and understanding of cost of capital,” said Shaw.

Business owners, for example, who were used to a perpetual low interest rate environment, have watched banks dramatically increase interest rates over the last year or so and it’s actually brought attention and awareness to the fact that lenders have a cost of a capital to contend with as well, that rates come from somewhere. It’s made them more understanding, according to Shaw, when they’re presented with terms now from online lenders. That understanding is compounded by a greater openness to doing it all online in the first place, which businesses are now more accustomed with after having to do so much online during the covid years. In essence it’s a strong environment to be working in right now. Still, many businesses are coming in with a certain expectation of how online lending should work especially if they worked with a bank previously.

OnDeck“More and more businesses are looking for a line of credit product,” Shaw said, which Enova offers in addition to term loans. Businesses tend to appreciate this product not only because of the control it gives them but also because “they have continuous access to capital after every payment they’ve made,” Shaw said.

According to the Intuit Small Business Index Annual Report, 22% of small businesses applied for a loan or line of credit last year. Although this didn’t distinguish term loans from lines of credit, the demand for a revolving product is evident by an even more sought after type of financing, credit cards, which 30% of small business owners applied for. MCAs, by comparison, were a distant fifth, with only 6% of businesses applying for one.

Perhaps an all important measure is not only what businesses want but how they’re using it in the end.

“A lot of [our customer’s] borrowing is growth borrowing with a significant ROI,” Shaw said.