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 Since: January 2026 |
Stories
Funding Merchants in New York? What Don’t You Know?
May 15, 2024It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in an office located in Florida, California, New Jersey, or anywhere else, if you work with any merchants in New York State the legal stakes have never been higher. If you saw even half the commentary and feedback that deBanked has reviewed over the last two months about what’s taking place, you’d understand why you really can’t afford to miss this segment at Broker Fair this coming Monday in NYC. You’re not the only one with questions.
Don’t be that person that reaches out after it’s too late to say you wish you had known something ahead of time. Hear it from qualified attorneys that are both on the panel and in attendance at the event on May 20th in NYC. Already have a lawyer that advises you on all this? Great! Send them to this too. You only get one shot to do it right in this business. Register Here
This Funding Shop Puts Students on the Phone for College Credit
October 5, 2023
“We figured out the best way is to recruit,” said Khoury.
Chris Khoury, CEO of Cheetah Capital, isn’t just hiring talent; he’s teaching it. He introduced a funding academy for college students in the summer of 2022. It’s an actual internship program that is specially tailored to recruit and train aspiring brokers and sales reps and teach them everything from the ground up.
Starting in the business three years ago, Khoury eventually went on to establish Cheetah Capital. He recognized the challenges in finding quality hires in the industry and decided to tackle it head-on with the creation of the program.
“[The interns] learn various skills such as cold calling, crafting professional emails, and acclimating to the corporate environment,” said Khoury. “Our program aims to provide valuable real-world experience that complements their academic learning to develop in business, marketing, and communication. They also gain experience understanding the world of financial services.”
The program is a collaboration between Khoury, Jonah Farella (Director of Sales & Business Development), and Joe Zampell (COO). The program is split into three “spots” (Spot 1, 2, & 3), where they each mentor 10-15 students and assess them on a weekly basis. Each student has an individual mentoring session each week and a team meeting every Monday.
Based in Boston, Cheetah Capital partners with local institutions such as UMASS, Boston University, Boston College, and Endicott College. Many of these schools have accredited their students with college credits upon validation from their team but interns are also compensated for their efforts.
“For Fall 2023, we’ve taken a slightly different approach,” said Khoury. “Rather than our usual remote/and in person internships, we’ve partnered with local Boston schools for a fully in-person co-op experience. These students dedicate their full semester to Cheetah Capital, working regular 9-5 hours, immersing themselves in a comprehensive professional environment.”
Chris Bearden, a current intern from Endicott, discovered the program on LinkedIn and secured an interview with Farella. Considering he is required to complete a 32-hour weekly internship in his senior year, Bearden has decided to cut his teeth in business in the world of b2b finance sales. He actually started at Cheetah this past June despite the internship program not officially starting until the fall. The program, he told deBanked, started off with a lot of training and he says it’s prepared him to be able to talk more confidently to business owners and in general. He mused about the “100 different stories” he’s heard daily. “Everyone will tell you something different,” he said.
“The most I’ve made on a sale so far is $8,000 off of one deal,” Bearden shared. “That was really exciting, I can’t really describe the feeling being 22 years old and coming off of a phone call understanding that I just made that much money. But I think one thing that they have taught me at Cheetah Capital is just to keep your head down and kind of keep going…”
Farella, who oversees the program, also started out as an intern himself. As a graduate from Boston College, he was mentored by Khoury and he adapted to the industry quickly. Once he started closing deals and making money he realized, “I’m making more money than I ever have.” Helping the interns in his program at the time later turned into an offer from Khoury on running the program.
“Right now, we cap at around 45-50 [students] and that’s because we only have them for about three months,” said Farella. “But as it grows, and we bring in more managers, what we want to do is kind of offer interns a return offer.”
Offering real-world work experience to students while building up quality employees has felt like a win-win for Cheetah.
“We try to take good well-rounded kids here and teach them what we wish we knew at their age,” said Khoury.
Monday through Fund-day
September 8, 2022
Nothing screams excitement like a brand-new week filled with endless funding opportunities. Regardless of the type of funding, the ultimate goal is to find clients in need of capital and spring to action quickly.
“I would say Tuesday is like, a day that things get done,” said Michael Krepak, CEO of FlexCap Solutions. “People always talk about Friday’s a closing day. I’ve had a lot of success on Fridays as just like a funding day, like when the deals actually get done afterwards in all the underwriting and the back and forth and stipulations. So, Tuesdays and Fridays…”
Fridays may be hectic for some professionals in the business who are trying to close out a deal before the weekend is over. The pressure to close a deal can create competition within oneself to finish the week off strong or to make sure that nothing ruins it over the weekend.
“There’s always a push to get everyone funded right before the weekend, you don’t want deals rolling over,” said Brendan P. Lynch, CEO at Sharpe Capital. “Too many things can happen: negative days, they can go negative, and then the login, they have to redo it. And you know, the deal can die on Monday. So, you always want to get everything done before the weekend. That’s for sure.”
For equipment finance consultant Cheryl Tibbs, if she is able to finish funding by Thursday, she uses Fridays to either spend quality time with loved ones or to promote her business.
“I’m a bit different than most. I start off strong on Mondays and relax on Friday,” said Tibbs. “When I’m done Thursday, late Thursday evening, Friday is reserved for deals that will fund that day. If I don’t have anything booked for a Friday funding, I usually chill on Fridays and use that for marketing or family time.”
Sonia Alvelo of Latin Financial was non-committal to a day. “What gets us excited is the satisfaction of a job well done…” Alvelo said.
Krepak meanwhile, explained that if you’re working on commission, then there is an incentive to keep going strong every day. “Like every day, you want to do something every day,” he said. “It’s just a competitive face to begin with.”
Newest Round of PPP Funding Faces Some New Technical Issues
January 26, 2021New technical issues are plaguing the latest round of PPP funding, according to Rob Nichols, the President and CEO of the American Bankers Association. On Monday, Nichols wrote to the acting heads of the SBA and Treasury addressing them.
Though thousands of businesses are awaiting forgiveness, the SBA’s online portal is not allowing a second loan to be processed unless pending first-round forgiveness applications are marked as complete. This runs contrary to the official SBA rules that state a borrower can apply if they can prove they spent their first loan correctly by the time they get a second.
“We urge SBA to fix this technical error and permit a lender to upload a borrower’s second draw PPP loan application irrespective of the status of the borrower’s First Draw Loan forgiveness application,” Nichols wrote. “More broadly, lenders are receiving a high number of incorrect error messages when the lender attempts to submit PPP loan applications through the portal.”
Part of those errors come from confusion Nichols writes, between previous guidance handed out by the SBA and current stipulations. Funders are unclear as to why a $30,000 per employee loan cap exists or why some borrowers found that the documentation they prepared to prove a 25% reduction of revenue met requirements two weeks ago but don’t meet the criteria recently, Nichols wrote.
“Panic Induces Panic”: David Goldin on Small Business Funding and the Coronavirus
March 12, 2020With companies in Australia, Britain, and the United States, David Goldin has weathered storms of various sizes and seriousness over the past two decades. Whether it was the recent wildfires that saw state-sized infernos engulf the Australian countryside, the regulatory upheaval that is Brexit, or the unprecedented shockwaves sent by the 2008 financial crisis, the CEO has seen his fair share of global disruption.
So when deBanked got in touch with Goldin about his perspective on the coronavirus pandemic, how it compares to what he’s seen before, and what funders should do to combat contagion, he was happy to discuss the insights he’s garnered from twenty years in business.
The following Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity and succinctness:
deBanked: Generally speaking, how bad do you think the coronavirus pandemic is going to get?
“I don’t think anyone knows the outcome. I think what you’re going to see is the industry completely change over the next few days. In the last 48 hours you went from mild cancellations to, today alone, the NBA, NHL, and MLB. And Cuomo just announced in New York that there can be no more than 500 people at events, colleges are shutting down left and right, and schools as well. Basically, we’re heading in the direction of shutting down the entire country at some point.
So I think funders have two issues. One is their existing customers, right? And how do you lend in this market? There’s the obvious and the not so obvious, because, for example, a deal that may have been great a few days ago, let’s say there’s a college bar near SUNY Albany, and they just announced this shutting down of schools, that bar may not see any business for who knows how long.
I’m not the CDC, I’m not the WHO, I’m not a medical expert, but I know in life, people are always afraid of the unknown and panic induces panic, but this is just my opinion. So I think once people start getting this virus, which is inevitable, and they recover from it, I think that’s going to offset some of the panic.
I think you’re going to have a couple of more shock factors. I would not be surprised if we learn in the next few weeks that the President of the United States has it.”
And what about our industry specifically?
“I think right now, lenders will say, ‘Well, if I [tighten up], typically what happens in our industry is if a company runs into trouble, it’s usually just that company,’ right? So if they start tightening up, they lose the business.
The entire playing field will be level by Monday or Tuesday of next week, by the latest. I think some of the playbook will be that some funders may take the position to stop funding for the next couple of weeks and look to see what happens because no one knows how bad this is going to get.”
Do you have any advice for funders?
“I think you have to price the risk because I think everyone is foolish to think that the bolts are not going to go off. So you’re either going to have to increase the pricing to the customer or raise the rates to the broker and limit the amount they could charge the customer temporarily for the increased risk your portfolio is now going to take.
I think you need to shorten the term. During the 2008 recession, the industry was at a 1.35 to a 1.37 factor rate, averaging six or seven months. There weren’t too many providers back then going past a year, there really was no such things as a second or third position.
This is a much different world we live in. So I think, unfortunately, some of the platforms that tend to be longer-term players which do one year, two years, three years, even four years, I think they’re going to be in a lot of trouble. Their ships are too far out to sea and I think they’re really going to have to focus on portfolio management and collections.
There’s going to be opportunities in the marketplace for those that don’t take a prudent approach, but I think in the short term people have to shorten their terms, potentially raise pricing for risk, and decrease the amount of capital that they’re taking out of a customer’s gross sales.”
What lessons do you think can be learned from this?
“I think as a platform you have to look at redundancy of capital, and that the time to raise money is when you don’t need it. So I think this could be a lesson for all to perhaps have more than one funding source.
I think brokers are going to really have to diversify. There’s good and bad, I think the approval rates at companies are going to fall through the floor, but I think you’ll get a lot of borrowers over the next few weeks that can typically go to a bank that won’t be able to go to a bank. But you’re going to see a lot of watching and waiting right now. And you’re going to see the industry revert back to where it was a while ago: shorter term deals, pricing in the risk, lower gross sales taken.”
How does this compare to previous crises?
“So I think this one’s a little bit different. It’s affecting everything and your playbook is going to change literally daily. This will be affecting the majority of the major cities. When you’re shutting down things like the MLB, the NBA, the NHL, shutting down colleges and universities, I don’t think this country or the world has ever experienced anything like this for this extended period of time.
Now that doesn’t mean everyone’s going to go out of business, there’ll be a redistribution. For example, if it was a restaurant in midtown Manhattan that relied a lot on people going from work, and these people are now working from home, perhaps their local restaurants or supermarket may see an uptick in business.
I think you’re going to see decisions slowing down and really digging a lot deeper into the underwriting, understanding what the business actually does, how it’s potentially affected.”
What should funders be doing to combat contagion?
“They should be testing a disaster recovery plan to work remotely.
But most importantly it’s really about everyone being healthy, helping their families and their employees. That’s first and foremost.”
Clearbanc Offering Funding to Combat US-China Tariff Costs
November 16, 2019
Clearbanc, the Toronto-based funding company co-founded by Dragons’ Den’s Michele Romanow, has announced this month that it will be expanding its funding options to support those small businesses who need assistance purchasing inventory from Chinese suppliers.
Specializing in funding businesses who require capital for digital adverts, the Canadian firm decided to expand its offerings after Chinese suppliers started to require inventory payments upfront as a response to the pressure caused by President Trump’s trade war with China. “This isn’t really about the tariffs,” explained Romanow. “This is really about the fact that now all of the Chinese suppliers, because of the uncertainty, are asking for upfront payments for inventory.”
With the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend approaching, vendors are looking to be as well stocked as possible, especially when estimates are saying shoppers will spend more than $136 billion in Q4 2019. Most notably affected will be those merchants who deal in electronics. And with worries of the spending extravaganza weekend being affected by the tariffs having persisted for months, Clearbanc is aiming to step in and soothe some of the uncertainty.
Not being limited to goods coming from China, funding is also available to all businesses looking to secure capital for inventory purposes, regardless of the supplier’s location; with a charge of 9% of the total amount funded, and funds available being between $10,000 and $10 million.
Speaking on the company’s strategy, Romanow had to say that “every political change can certainly breed new business, but these are all fairly new so we’re just listening and figuring out what our founders are looking for.”
Kabbage, LendingPoint to Offer Real Time Funding Via Push Payments
April 9, 2018
Kabbage and LendingPoint each separately announced today that they will soon be able to get funds into their customers’ business accounts instantly and 24/7 via their pre-existing bank debit card. Hopes for this are not brand new. Last October, OnDeck announced a partnership with Ingo and Visa that would provide this convenience to borrowers, although this has not yet come to fruition, according to an OnDeck spokesperson. This is also not Kabbage’s first foray into real-time loan funding.
“We launched [a real-time loan product] through the debit network three years ago and we were really excited about the results,” said Kabbage co-founder Kathryn Petralia . “Our customers really liked it, [but] our challenge was that we couldn’t get broad enough coverage. Only a small percentage of our customers were able to use it…so we’re excited about our partnership with Ingo because it gives us the ability to broaden this to about 90 percent of our customers.”
Kabbage has entered into a relationship with Ingo and has plans to make this service available to customers this summer. One might wonder why, on a weekend, a merchant needs money and can’t wait until Monday?
“Our customers are always looking to expedite the process,” Petralia said, “not because they’re desperate for cash, but because they really are desperate for time, and they don’t want to spend a bunch of time reconciling their bank accounts [and] making sure the funds have arrived. This is a much cleaner way for them to get access to capital.”
Meanwhile, as part of an announcement by LendingPoint today, the company said that later this year it will be able to “instantly disburse loans to approved borrower accounts through their debit cards, 24/7/365.” This will be facilitated through the TabaPay platform, which also enables LendingPoint borrowers to use their debit card to make loan payments.
Fundbox Launches Fuse, A Funding Express Lane Designed to Increase SaaS ‘Stickiness’
January 22, 2018Fundbox announced the launch of Fuse, a new credit-integration service, on Monday morning. Via Fuse, SaaS business providers can now access Fundbox from within their workflows with just three lines of code.
“For small business owners, the process of applying for financing continues to be an arduous and demotivating journey that for many, does not end well,” the company stated in a release. “Since 2008 when the economic bubble burst, most banks made their small business underwriting processes more stringent in an attempt to mitigate potential risks from defaults.”
According to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index, in December 2017 only 25.3% of small business loan applicants are being approved for funding, leaving the other 74.4% struggling to find alternative avenues through which to pay vendors and stay afloat.
Thus, not only are small business owners hampered, but SaaS providers that cater to these budding enterprises take a blow as well.
Citing a 2016 survey developed by the SaaS growth marketing agency, Cobloom, the average SaaS provider serving small businesses faces between 5-7% customer churn on an annual basis. A significant factor for this volatility is strains on customer’s cash flow.
Fundbox believes that they can alleviate this situation by offering easy access to its lending products via the SaaS services themselves.
“For our SaaS partners, we intentionally created a solution that was easy to integrate, increases service value and customer stickiness with just a few lines of code,” said Sebastian Rymarz, chief business officer at Fundbox via statement. “And for small business owners, we’ve ‘democratized’ access to credit and the underwriting process right from within your favorite business app or platform.”
“We’re excited to partner with Fundbox and to add Fuse to our service,” said Ryan Jackson, founder and CEO of Paid, via release. “Anyone who works closely with small business owners knows that time and cash flow are their two most important assets. With Fundbox Fuse, our customers get the convenience of accessing credit without having to leave our workflow and we get the additional service value and retention stickiness.”
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