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♪♪♪

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Sean, thanks for
doing this again

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No problem. Happy to be here.

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So lets get straight to it.

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So what trends are you
noticing right now?

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I get the trends question
all the time.

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I will tell you that there
is actually a trend now

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There is a shake up happening.

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That shakeup that people
have been talking about
for years

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It's actually occuring.

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I think we've all heard and read
over the past 5 years

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about how  consolidation and
acquisitions are going

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to happen and there's going to
be this big shakeup

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and then it never really
materializes and now all

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of the sudden there's a ton of
activity happening

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and I think it's flying under
the radar that

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So its like hey, wake up.
this is literally the shakeup.

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I mean look, just in the
last two months.

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You have Lendio who raised
$55 million in a Series E

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Funding Metrics secured a
$100 million credit facility

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Intuit is buying Credit Karma

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Lending Club is acquiring
Radius Bank

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You have Visa aquiring Plaid.

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You've got Bitty,
a merchant cash advance company

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in Florida, which sold
a stake to an investor

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We've seen a few very small MCA
companies acquire other ones.

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We've also got a number of
companies in the industry

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where there has been some top
level management changes like
Nav and Fora Financial

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And this is a much less
significant event, you know,

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but we acquired Daily Funder
recently too.

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But you know things are happening
I mean it's only March

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and we've got this COVID-19,
Coronavirus thing looming in
the background of the economy.

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We've got a presidential
election

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and the stock market is
doing backflips.

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So this is the shakeup.
This year is probably the best
window of opportunity

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in a while to raise capital or
sell, or adjust for whatever is
coming next.

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If you're sitting in your office
wondering when the right moment
is to make some kind of major
move, it's right now.

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And Sean, are you noticing
anything in regards to the
small business finance
front changing?

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Yes, I'm seeing a lot of
cross-pollination, more so
than ever before.

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We have brokers and funders
from the MCA world going off

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and leading with different
products now like equipment
leases.

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We're seeing unsecured small
business lenders dabble in
commercial real estate lending.

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Some of these transactions now,
you read the contract,

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and it's like hey, this looks
like a mortgage.

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And it turns out some lenders
are saying well, yeah, why not
lend against property?

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There's collateral, we're more
protected, we can do larger
deals.

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I'll just give you an example.

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I went to a hard money lending
conference last year just to
learn what was going on

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to find out what was
happening in the space

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and I bumped into
way too many people there that
I know. Worlds have truly
collided.

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Is that why you're calling this
year's Broker Fair a
"commercial finance" expo?

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Yea.That's exactly why.
That's what it is now.

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A big reason for a broker to go
is to network with companies
that are going to fund or
lend to their clients,

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and if all they know is MCA
or a few online lenders,

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they're going to die.
Or if that sounds too dramatic,

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and you're like, hey I'm a
broker and all I do is MCAs and
unsecured business loans and
I'm doing pretty good,

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that might be the case now.
But is that a long term plan?

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Are you getting rich?
Because if you're not getting
rich now doing that

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it's not going to magically
happen in the future by doing
the same thing.

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I can tell you that I was an MCA
broker in 2008 and there was a
point where it's not that MCA
approvals decreased,

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they shut off almost entirely.

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And I made zero dollars
as a broker for like two months.

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Every single deal was getting
declined, so can you handle
making zero dollars per month?

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And, alot of people cant.
So how are you hedging against
that and what can you change
about what you are doing now.

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To get to the next level is the
question you have to be asking
yourself.

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I'm telling you,the top players
right now, and they don't all
say it,

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they're brokering SBA loans,
real estate deals, lines of
credit,

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equipment leases, factoring. I
see companies getting back into
selling merchant accounts.

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You can meet all these types of
companies at Broker Fair.

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You keep throwing "real estate"
in there, do you know anyone
who has been successful in
real estate?

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Well it's funny you
picked up on that.
Real estate.

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We've got this really young
very successful entrepreneur
speaking at Broker Fair.

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His name is John Henry.

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and he sold his first company
at 21 years old for $1 million.

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He was a venture capitalist
afterwards the host of a small
business help show called
Hustle on Vice TV.

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And you know, he's 27 now, he
has this incredible life story,
and what is he  doing now?

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He's a real estate investor.
He tells me it's the best
business that he's been in so
far

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and that real estate is the
#1 fundamental building block
of wealth.

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And I think as time goes on
more and more people and
companies

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are thinking about what their
assets are and the idea

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physical collateral, its just very
very attractive.

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Wow, it sounds like things are
really changing.

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And Sean, what advice would you
have for viewers and readers
in your opinion on what they
should be doing.

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My advice would be.
Whatever you were putting off
to the future,

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Do it right now. This
is the moment.

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And I will see you all
at Broker Fair on May 18th
in New York.

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Sean, thank you so much.

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Thank you.

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♪♪♪