Articles by deBanked Staff
Broker Show Ends in a Cold Call Showdown For The Ages
March 3, 2022
The nearly 1-hour long season finale of Equipping The Dream aired on Thursday, concluding the first reality show to ever capture the business finance industry. The six-episode series which followed four aspiring equipment finance brokers, proved, if nothing else, that cold calling and phone sales are not dead.
The show’s contestants capped off their week of sales training with a calling competition that came down to the wire and an outcome that left viewers shocked. Josh Feinberg, one of the sales trainers in Equipping The Dream, explained it best. “It almost seemed like it was scripted, but it couldn’t have been more real.”
Two episodes were released each week starting on February 15th. The March 3rd airing of the finale means that eager viewers can now binge the entire show on deBanked TV without having to wait for future episodes. (Start With Episode 1 here)
The show captured a real life broker training at the office of Everlasting Capital in Rochester, New Hampshire. deBanked’s Sean Murray served as Executive Producer.
“I really had no idea what we were going to capture by having our camera crew there all week,” Murray said. “But what we got is something everyone doing sales in the industry should watch at least once. It came out that good.”
Connecticut Revives Commercial Financing Disclosure Bill
March 3, 2022The State of Connecticut has resurrected its commercial financing disclosure bill, adding to the pile of states doing the same. Senate Bill 272 is a throwback to earlier versions of legislative drafting in that it contains the term “double dipping.”
The bill was only just reintroduced today, March 3rd, where it has been referred to the Joint Committee on Banking. When it was raised last year, it was met with fierce opposition.
The full text of the bill can be read here.
deBanked Spins Off Crypto News into a Separate New Brand
February 28, 2022
Move over de-banked, one segment of fintech is becoming completely de-cashed as crypto transactions continue to flourish. The universe of bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, smart transactions, and NFTs only scratch the surface of the innovation and potential that could one day replace the financial system as we know it.
deBanked began reporting on crypto in 2014 in the early days of Bitcoin and since then, through fits and starts, has increased the amount of coverage in that space. After much internal deliberation, our team decided at the end of 2021 to create an off-shoot brand focused entirely on crypto-related news, deCashed.
deCashed will cover everything from crypto-lending to fintech to smart contracts to NFTs. deBanked launched its own NFT smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain last September and deBanked Chief Editor Sean Murray will be speaking at NFT NYC in June 2022.
“Everything with the deBanked brand and business will remain the same,” said Murray. “I’ve been using and following cryptocurrency for eight years at this point. deCashed will finally provide us with the journalistic runway to expand our horizons into a market we already know and one that has so much untapped opportunity.”
As independent media, deCashed is still in its early days. “It’s live already but stay tuned,” Murray said. “We’ve been talking about doing this for a really long time.”
Square Loans Originated $850M in SMB Funding in Q4
February 24, 2022Despite Block feasting off of Bitcoin sales revenue last year, the company’s small business lending division, Square Loans, originated $850M in loans in the 4th quarter of 2021. That was spread out across 103,000 loans.
That brings the full year 2021 total to $2.45B, a new annual record for Square Loans, whose non-PPP related lending had dropped by more than 50% in 2020 when compared to 2019. It also put them ahead of rival OnDeck for the first year ever.
Square Loans was not mentioned by name during the company’s Q4 earnings call, but Square CFO Amrita Ahuja said, “We continue to believe our Square ecosystem is differentiated due to our integrated and cohesive set of products across the hardware, software, payments and financial services, serving seller needs in a more comprehensive way. We are making progress in surfacing incremental product adoption to serve our sellers across multiple vectors, with a goal of creating a more retentive and valuable relationship.”
Reality Show About SMB Finance Sales Rockets to The Top Spot
February 20, 2022
Four aspiring equipment finance brokers traveled to Rochester, New Hampshire last November to get a hands-on sales training from the management team at Everlasting Capital. With a variety of backgrounds and dreams of turning commercial finance sales into a lucrative career, each trainee wasn’t sure what they were in for when a team of mentors and a film crew awaited them inside.
That’s the basis for Equipping The Dream, a deBanked TV produced web-based reality show that debuted on February 15th. The six-episode show is dropping twice a week until the finale scheduled for March 3rd.
Over the weekend, Episode 1 of the show became the most visited page on deBanked in 2022 so far.
“There’s never been anything like this about the industry,” said Executive Producer Sean Murray. “We did a screening of it for some people who had nothing to do with sales or finance and they were captivated by it.”
Partners Josh Feinberg and Will Murphy were already well-known throughout the industry. The two were featured in a 2018 deBanked story that explains how their journey began years earlier in a pawnshop basement. Since then, the pair now also run Equipment Broker School, a training course for aspiring brokers.
The sales tips and experience in the show, therefore, are as real as it gets. Viewers have shared what they thought of the first two episodes out so far:
“It was inspiring to see other people doing what I’m doing.”
“Awesome production!”
“This is getting good! COLD CALLERS watch this!!!!”
“This did not disappoint.”
“Your camera quality is better than most shows on Netflix.”
“I’m rooting for these brokers to succeed.”
“Now that’s reality!”
Episode 3 will be released on Tuesday, February 22nd. The four trainees range in ages 35-50. The show is exclusively on deBanked TV.
Shopify Capital Originated $324M in Funding in Q4
February 16, 2022
Shopify Capital originated $324M in Q4 2021, bringing the full-year total to $1.39B. That figure represents a massive increase over the company’s previous originations record of $794M in 2020.
During the quarterly earnings call, Shopify CFO Amy Shapero listed Shopify Capital among the divisions that drove revenue growth for the company in 2021.
“As merchants build momentum, inventory and marketing needs to grow alongside it,” said Shopify CEO Harley Finkelstein. “And this is where Shopify Capital comes in, offering merchants the funding they need to expand their business.”
Total originations came in just shy of the numbers that rival OnDeck reported a week earlier. OnDeck originated $1.76B in funding to small businesses in 2021.
“Equipping The Dream” Premieres on deBanked TV
February 15, 2022
On February 15, deBanked TV released the first episode of a new one-of-a-kind show.
Equipping The Dream, a six-episode series that wrapped up filming late last year, follows the journey of four aspiring equipment finance brokers as they get put through a rigorous training regimen at a real-life sales office in Rochester, New Hampshire.
Episodes will be released on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Episode 2 airs on February 17th. Watch free on deBanked.com/tv/
Executive Producer: Sean Murray
Cast: Josh Feinberg, Will Murphy, Angela Thompson, Thomas Long, Juan Carlos Marcano, RJ Rochelle, Brian Perry, Steve Feinberg, Evan Sowa, Johny Fernandez.
Copyright: © deBanked 2022.
Even More Commercial Financing Disclosure Bills Emerge Across Additional States
February 9, 2022
It’s not just New York, New Jersey, California, Virginia, and Missouri with disclosure legislation out there anymore.
Utah – On Monday, the State Senate introduced the Commercial Financing Registration and Disclosure bill.
Maryland – On Monday, the State Senate introduced the Commercial Financing Transactions bill.
Mississippi – Last week, the State legislature introduced two commercial financing disclosure bills but both died in committee.
The Maryland Bill is the latest iteration of a multi-year campaign to pass legislation aimed at restricting MCAs in the state.
The bill in Virginia is still continuing to advance.
The bills in New York and California have already long ago passed and implementation of them as laws is still underway. The New York Department of Financial Services is expected to provide an updated proposal by the end of next month.
