SEAN MURRAY

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Sean Murray is the founder of deBanked (2010), deBanked Connect & Broker Fair (2018), and DailyFunder (2012).

Murray entered the nonbank finance industry in 2006 and has a Bachelors of Science in Accounting & Finance from University of Delaware. He is widely known for his extensive reporting on the merchant cash advance industry and fintech.




Sean Murray



Recently Authored by Sean Murray

Let's Hop on a 5 Minute Call
By: Sean Murray

There's a fantastic meme account on X where "Hunter" spreads the comedic gospel of cold calling one's way to becoming a billionaire. Hunter suggests that true sales people take freezing cold showers, tip their landlords for sub-par living arrangements as respect for creating optical conditions to grind, and to make cold calls every day, every night, during holidays, and while being seated in an ice bath at the Cheesecake Factory.
The account, which can sometimes be found trolling celebrities by asking them to hop on a quick 5 minute call in the comments, is likely relatable to any salesperson that's experienced the rigors of the hustle. For instance, I can recall one particular day in 2015 when I was making cold calls from a waterfront skyscraper in Jersey City when a plane flew by the window and then LANDED right there in the Hudson River. What to do? Go look? Not possible. Had to make more cold calls! That plane, of course, was flown by Captain Sully Sullenberger, of which the feat of landing there became known as the Miracle on the Hudson. I am proud to say that because I ignored all of it and continued to make cold calls while it was happening that I am now worth $463 trillion as a result.
My Real Estate Was Turned into an NFT. I Used that NFT as Collateral for a Loan.
By: Sean Murray

arizonaOoops, I did it again. I bought an NFT that grants me ownership of real land in Arizona in the same manner that I previously bought land in California. But this time I went a step further, I used it as collateral for a loan. Thanks to a proptech company called Fabrica, the owner of a plot of undeveloped land in rural Sun Valley, AZ transferred the rights to a trust for which control is governed by whomever owns the corresponding NFT. Long story short I bought that NFT. The difference between this NFT and say some digital collectible flavor of the month is that the land has some actual value in the real world. It's not dependent on the blockchain for its worth and I can go to Sun Valley and build something there if I wanted. But with ownership governed by the NFT, I can also do something that might be a little bit more difficult otherwise for this remote and somewhat illiquid property, and that's access liquidity in a highly efficient marketplace. Specifically, I offered this property up as collateral for a loan on NFTfi, a peer-to-peer NFT loan marketplace at a very modest LTV of 32%. My offer was filled and I was able to access the funds with a single click of a button. If I default on the loan, the NFTfi smart contract will transfer the NFT to the lender and with that the lender would become the legitimate owner of the property in Sun Valley. The stakes in this case are real. If you're thinking about what kind of person would ever want to make this kind of loan, consider that more than $400 million worth of NFT loans have already been conducted on NFTfi since inception. The most commonly used collateral is digital artwork like cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, which collectively represent $164 million of that total volume alone. When borrowers use this digital artwork as collateral the lender may end up stuck with an NFT with no physical connection to the real world. For an entire niche audience of lenders, this doesn't bother them. However, as someone with a more apprehensive view toward risk in lending, the introduction of real physical collateral, actual property in the United States no less, is a game changer. I am not the first person to ever engage in this type of transaction. According to Fabrica, the first property-backed NFT loan was transacted in 2021. However, if I might be afforded any claim to fame it is for conducting the first ever domain name loan over Ethereum.



Related Headlines

03/17/2022Sean Murray searches for gold
02/01/2022Sean Murray to Speak at NFT.NYC
10/11/2021Sean Murray on The Smarter Money Show
06/02/2021Video: Sean Murray with Oz Konar
03/31/2021Video: Jennie Villano and Sean Murray


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Stories

Sean Murray to Moderate Best Practices Panel at New York Institute of Credit Event

October 15, 2018
Article by:

deBanked President and Chief Editor Sean Murray will be moderating a best practices panel at the New York Institute of Credit Event on October 16th. The event is also supported by the IFA Northeast, the Alternative Finance Bar Association, and deBanked.

The subject of the panel is to discuss best practices when dealing with different financial firms, namely ABL, factoring, and merchant cash advance. The panelists are:

  • Bill Gallagher, President, CFG Merchant Solutions
  • Bill Elliott, President, First Business Growth Funding
  • Raffi Azadian, CEO, Change Capital
  • Dean Landis, President, Entrepreneur Growth Capital

Merchant Cash Advance APR Debate (Sean Murray v Ami Kassar)

November 24, 2015
Article by:

The other day, Inc. writer and loan broker Ami Kassar took some time out of his day from taking photos of his shadow in the park to engage me in a debate about the use of APRs in future receivable purchase transactions. He was apparently very bothered by my analysis of Square’s merchant cash advance program which has transacted more than $300 million to date.

To clarify my position here, I am indeed in favor of transparency, so long as it’s intelligent transparency. Coming up with phony percentages based on estimates and applying them to transactions where they don’t make sense is not transparency. Similarly, advocating that merchant cash advance companies and lenders alike move away from a dollar-for-dollar pricing model to one that requires the seller or borrower to do math or hire an accountant is also not transparency.

Even a Federal Reserve study that attempted to prove merchant cash advances were confusing inadvertently proved that APRs in general were confusing. If someone doesn’t know how to calculate an APR, then it’s unreasonable to assume that they could work backwards from an APR to determine the dollar-for-dollar cost of capital. In effect, APR is a surefire way to mask the trust cost despite arguments to the contrary.

My unplanned debate with Ami Kassar on twitter is below:

Sorry Ami. The only thing unclear is your argument.

Murray Loses Election for ENS Foundation Directorship

May 21, 2023
Article by:

BlockchaindeBanked president Sean Murray was one of two nominees earlier this month for an open director position of the ENS Foundation. ENS stands for the Ethereum Name Service, a protocol that allows users to substitute human readable usernames for long hexadecimal strings commonly associated with crypto addresses.

Instead of one’s address looking like this: 0x64233eAa064ef0d54ff1A963933D0D2d46ab5829, it could be debanked.eth or debanked.com or sean.debanked.com or some other domain name owned by the user.

Murray has been an advocate for ENS names as a form of web-based identity. He was one of the first 500 people in the world to use a .com address as an ENS name and the first in the world to turn a .com address into an NFT on mainnet using the official ENS Namewrapper contract. debanked.com, for example, is not only a website address, but also a crypto address and an NFT. Murray has been studying crypto since 2014 and deployed his first deBanked smart contract to ethereum in 2021.

Murray lost the election in a blowout but has expressed that his candidacy led to some positive changes in the ENS ecosystem. The ENS Foundation represents the technology’s official DAO. Murray’s competition was more qualified than he was for the role. The victor, Alex Van de Sande, helped launch ethereum, launched the first Ethereum wallet and Web3 Browser, and was a co-founder of ENS.

“I anticipate there eventually being some crossover between the traditional financial system and blockchain technology,” Murray said. “A username system would be an integral part of that. I’m not into speculating on coins or anything of that nature.”

A New Commercial Financing Expo Is Coming to Las Vegas This Fall

March 4, 2024
Article by:

Las VegasComing to Las Vegas in 2024, an inaugural commercial financing expo powered by deBanked in collaboration with the Small Business Finance Association will be held in the Fall. The conference will bring together the leading lenders, funders, and brokers from across the spectrum of commercial finance, leasing, mortgage, and revenue-based capital products. The event will replace deBanked’s annual CONNECT event that has typically taken place in San Diego.

“We’ve had our eye on Las Vegas for a long time and resolved last September that we’d aim to go there next,” said deBanked founder Sean Murray. “We’ve built up years of experience through running the annual Broker Fair conference in New York City and this event will have everything from across the commercial finance and small business finance industries.”

“deBanked is a powerful industry leader and we look forward to working with them to produce a high level event where the commercial finance industry can learn and network together,” said SBFA Executive Director Steve Denis.

The deBanked team has produced nearly two dozen events since 2017. Additional information will be made available soon. For inquiries, email events@debanked.com or call 917-722-0808.

First Ever Domain Name Loan by Smart Contract Was Executed on Ethereum

January 27, 2024
Article by:

EthereumHistory was made on Saturday when the first ever loan against a domain name was executed with a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. The significance is that the success marks the birth of a new asset class that can be leveraged to unlock capital for business owners or domain name investors in an expeditious and secure manner.

deBanked founder Sean Murray was the executor of the transaction. The process involved tokenizing a domain name (domainfi.net) into an NFT and then offering that NFT as collateral on an NFT loan marketplace. When a loan was executed on the platform with a smart contract, the domain name was automatically placed into an ethereum address to be held as escrow. If the borrower were to default on the loan, the smart contract would automatically release the domain name to the lender, who would now have full control of it.

The process involved two parties, the tokenizing registrar and the NFT loan marketplace. The loan, which was consummated for proof of concept, carried a 10% APY and a 7-day term. It took less than 20 minutes combined to complete the tokenization and loan execution process.

“I was guessing that this capability might still be another year away and I had not even dreamed that I would be the very first one to execute this type of loan,” said Murray. ā€œFollowing this space closely probably contributed to that stroke of luck. There is still time until this is ready to be a consumer-facing product in the marketplace, but the tech already exists and transactions of this nature are already viable. It will be fascinating to watch.”

About deBanked

deBanked was launched in 2010. For questions or inquiries email info@debanked.com and call 212-220-9084.

Hundreds of Brokers Registered for deBanked CONNECT MIAMI

January 9, 2024
Article by:

deBanked CONNECT MIAMI 2024MIAMI BEACH ā€“ Hundreds of small business finance brokers are registered for this year’s deBanked CONNECT MIAMI. Taking place on Thursday, January 11 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the event’s modified format includes the first-ever Broker Battleā„¢ with a $5,000 grand prize to the winning broker, on top of an all-kosher food experience. That’s in addition to a featured presentation from David Goldin, the first-of-its-kind Broker Brilliance education session, tech demos, networking, and cocktails. Bitty Advance is the Title Sponsor.

“This is our sixth event in Miami,” said conference founder and deBanked President Sean Murray. “I think kicking off a new year is as good a time as ever to reinvent yourself and change things up. I’m really excited for this show and I think 2024 is going to be a truly unique year.”

Registration opens at 1pm on Thursday and the event culminates with the Broker Battle at 5:10pm. That will lead right into the cocktail networking reception.

About deBanked CONNECT Miami

deBanked CONNECT events are operated by Foinse, LLC. Foinse, LLC is an events company based in Brooklyn, NY. To learn more visit: http://www.debankedmiami.com. For inquiries, email events@debanked.com.

deBanked CONNECT San Diego Reviewed

September 26, 2023
Article by:

debanked connect san diegodeBanked CONNECT marked its return to San Diego at the Wyndham Bayside Hotel directly across from the waterfront on N Harbor Drive, a prime location accompanied by many museums, restaurants, and a calming view of North San Diego Bay. The timing of the event paired perfectly with the Miramar Air Show, Hispanic Heritage Weekend, Adams Avenue Street Fair and other festivities taking place that weekend.

deBankedā€™s Chief Editor, Sean Murray opened the event by noting that California’s Commercial Financing Disclosure Bill thankfully didn’t cause the world to end. He also highlighted that California is the industry’s third-largest market, following Miami and New York. To his surprise, many attendees were experiencing a deBanked event for the first time.

Justin Thompson, CRO at National Funding, said that prior to deBanked’s expansion to the locale in 2018/2019 that most of the events there had to do with merchant processing, SBA loans, or equipment financing and that the 2019 show set the tone for more events to be brought out to the Southern California.

ā€œIt was great, I think it was appropriate to have something out here on the West Coast ā€“ probably in terms of the count of brokers is more on the East Coast ā€“there’s also some pretty large brokers on the West Coast and I think it was real good opportunity to have everybody here on the West Coast that maybe couldnā€™t have gone to the East Coast to do stuff,ā€ said Thompson. ā€œThere’s some new faces and some new opportunities to meet the people and build new relationships.ā€

deBanked CONNECT San Diego showcased tech demos from Ocrolus, Onxy IQ, and Dragin. Guest speaker Tye Hanna, CEO of Titan Asset Management, touched on what MCA portfolios are worth and how to value them. And Brock Blake, CEO of Lendio, drew in a large crowd discussing tech platforms that have entered the lending space and the necessity of innovation.

The panels began with the ā€˜Legal and Regulatory Developmentsā€™ with David Austin, Marshall Goldberg, and Scott Pearson and concluded with ā€˜Navigating the New Normalā€™ featuring Patrick Manning, Benjamin Flowers, Josh Jones, and Shelley Shivers.

At the end, attendees gathered on the outdoor terrace to unwind and continue the networking. The sunset met guests exactly as it began, a beautiful way to conclude the day. deBanked CONNECT Miami was also announced and set to be for January 11, 2024.

A Letter About Broker Fair

May 6, 2023
Article by:

When I started in the small business finance industry in 2006, I considered myself fortunate that the work I put in translated into real world measurable impact. We helped businesses obtain capital when potentially no other options existed. Whether that was for simple cash flow, to expand, or to keep the lights on after an unexpected hardship, I got to know the customers’ stories and see the results of their efforts. Few kids straight out of college going into a “finance job” get to experience what I did. But for those that were in it at the time, we were like a family, a core group providing a service that very few other people understood.

And for a period of about five years through both underwriting and sales, which started before and went on through the Great Recession, many members of that family discovered new and different ways in which they could play a role in serving the nation’s small businesses. Some of them became big entrepreneurs, CEOs, or hard working brokers. Others went into tech, marketing, legal, and payments.

And for me, well I saw a need for something maybe a little less glamorous, but nevertheless important, and that was to tell the stories about what everyone else was doing. That’s what led to the creation of deBanked in 2010, a website that I hoped would inform others about what was going on, who was who, and how certain products worked.

Most people actually told me that starting deBanked, in its early days, was a bad idea because my knowledge and experience would be wasted on storytelling when I surely stood to gain more personally by operating in the trade of the business itself. Well, in the end they were probably right but I was convinced, just like my early days, that pursuing my path would also translate into real world impact. Whether you agree with all the content we’ve produced over the course of almost 13 years now, just about any person that’s ever read something on deBanked has walked away informed about something they didn’t know before. And as the community of the industry multiplied over time, it became clear that one major thing with deBanked was lacking, and that was to put faces to all the names. Everyone had come to know the industry online and now they deserved to see it all for themselves in person. We started with golf in the summer of 2017 and a rooftop gathering in Miami Beach in January 2018 called deBanked CONNECT. That led to Broker Fair that May where the core tenets of the event were education, inspiration, and opportunities to connect and grow. They’re the same tenets that we strive for today.

At the time of the first Broker Fair I was just 34 years-old and this industry had been basically all that I had ever known in my professional life. Just like writing, event production was not high on the glamor list, but I believed that shows like Broker Fair would foster those that make a difference. Putting them on has been hard work. It is hard work. They didn’t teach me event planning on the underwriting or sales floor, but we got there somehow. And since then we have aimed to make the experiences fun while at the same time honorable and respectable. I remember what it was like to be 23 and hungry in the business and have also come to recognize the stakes on the national stage as I now turn 40. I know that the world is watching and how important it is that everyone conduct themselves like professionals.

I have spent nearly 17 years in this business and converse with participants in the industry on a daily basis. It is a great honor that the name Broker Fair is now known by so many people. I suppose there is some glamor in having accomplished that, but more importantly that Broker Fair has had an impact on so many people who serve much more important clientele, the small businesses across the country.

I’ve said that there is “only one Broker Fair,” and that’s because when you see that very specific name on an image or billboard or t-shirt, you’ll know not just who we are, but why we are.

Thank you to all of those who acknowledge that professionalism and decency are important and are respectful of the events our team puts so much effort into bringing to life. Our team literally spends all year working on them. I look forward to Broker Fair 2023 and seeing all of you.

– Sean Murray

Threads on deBanked


07-03-2019

Inform More, Earn More...
dale laszig has written a terrific article (http://www.greensheet.com/emagazine.php?article_id=6033) on the green sheet (http://www.greensheet.com/) a...




Found on DailyFunder:

07-03-2019

Inform More, Earn More...
sean murray, president and chief editor at*debanked, makes great points about education for sales agents being paramount to their success.*if knowledgeable about the diversity of financial products, and their distinctions from one another, agents can*help customers make informed decisions, which allows them to close more deals., , *, , customers trust in the person, brand or company they are working with is...
06-07-2019

How in the WORLD!!!??...
sean murray over at debanked to do a nice piece for his magazine debanked., , this is just getting crazy!!! still waiting for approval/denial and merchant has been called 4 times already.... wwooowwwwww!!!!...
01-28-2019

Quicksilver...
sean murray would have stepped in to stop this but i guess doesnt want to hurt his bottom line...