Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.
Articles by Sean Murray
How Mike Brooks Battled in the Ring and Won Top Broker in Equipment Financing
March 6, 2025
“Equipment Financing is HUGE,” declares Mike Brooks, CEO of New York-based Best Connect Capital and recent winner at Broker Battle 2025 in the equipment finance category at deBanked CONNECT MIAMI. If his name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he appeared on stage as one of six finalists in the previous year’s competition. He refused to give up after his loss and returned this year for round two, leading to him securing a title and prizes along with it. To hear him tell it, it had been a long road to get there.
When Brooks got his start as a 27-year-old broker in 2015, for example, he had technically been battling in a ring for most of his life already.
“I had [boxing] on my mind in high school, without any influence,” says Brooks, “and I walked into a gym one day and the rest was history.” That history includes 60 fights in just amateur-level boxing, resulting in 45 wins and 15 losses. When he followed that at the pro level he went 11-2-1.
“I started fighting at the regular club shows, the Golden Gloves, the metro tournaments, national tournaments, and at one point, I was ranked number seven in the whole country,” Brooks recalls. “I beat some really good fighters, lost to some really good fighters and I made it to the highest levels in the country.”
Some of those fights even aired on live TV. As he bobbed and weaved for years in the ring, he started to think about what a possible career in business might look like afterwards. When that day came, he went to work for a local financial service company on Long Island who taught him about helping small businesses access working capital. Eventually he realized it was a business that he was uniquely suited for and now he runs his own company doing it.
First, there’s the endurance aspect, he explains. There’s a lot of calls, leads that don’t pan out, and heartbreak that hits when deals get declined at the finish line.
“A very small percentage of people can be a successful broker,” Brooks says. “You have to be able to take rejections all day long.”
To that point, Brooks noticed that as the industry grew he was not the only broker offering revenue-based financing to a client. Sometimes there were even as many as four or five other brokers talking to the same client at the same time, which meant that he wasn’t going to win every one and he did not want to bend his ethics just to eke it out. That’s when he started considering another approach and expanded his offerings.
“An equipment financing deal was my first big check during [the covid] lockdowns,” Brooks says. It was a $200,000 deal for a packaging plant. The terms were very attractive and he had the help of an equipment finance veteran who mentored him through it. When it worked out, he knew he had something very big in his arsenal and he’s been offering it ever since to anyone that qualifies for it.
“I said to myself anybody that needs equipment, this is a no brainer right here,” Brooks recalls of it. Now Brooks says when there is competition, he’s almost always the only one asking questions about equipment and the only one prepared to actually move forward with a deal tied to it. Of that experience, Brooks says he’s realized that some brokers have become so accustomed to the mindset of telling customers to take a specific deal, that they don’t stop to consider what they actually want. So his approach is to go in and diagnose what it is they’re trying to do first and then advise them of their options accordingly. And that’s what he does day after day.
At Broker Battle 2025, it was very much like time spent in the office. He was expected to be his normal self, but on stage in front of a large audience, while three judges played the role of prospective client and asked him questions about what they should do. The end result of it all was that Mike Brooks, former fighter in the ring, walked away as the Broker Battle champion in the equipment finance category in 2025.
“It felt amazing to be able to showcase what I do on a daily basis,” Brooks says, making it a point to say that even the venue took note of his win and offered him a personal congratulations on social media.
In the final photo-op on stage with his prize check, Brooks was the epitome of his dual life—the suit and tie spoke of business, while the cigar and sunglasses hinted at his former life in the ring. “I was a crowd pleaser,” he jokes. “You want to be like ‘bam bam bam’ and the crowd to be like ‘AHHHH!!!’ I want them to do that. I had a great time at deBanked.”
Ryan Showe on Winning This Year’s Broker Battle
March 3, 2025
“What being a broker means to me is servicing your clients in the best way possible, really putting their needs before anyone else’s,” says Ryan Showe, VP of Sales at Long Island-based Lexington Capital Holdings. “Ultimately, at the end of the day, we don’t have a job if our clients aren’t happy, so just constantly doing the right thing, putting your best foot forward, and making sure that you’re doing everything ethically and honest.”
Showe was the winner of the 2025 Broker Battle at deBanked CONNECT Miami for the revenue-based financing category, earning him the recognition of Top Broker and the recipient of some prizes along with it. Showe has been in the business for just a little over three years, starting at Lexington during its beginnings. Back then, learning the ropes while doing the work meant putting in 70-80 hour weeks on a regular basis. That included not only seeking out advice from the experts but also watching videos and reading books to fully immerse himself in the mindset of what it would take to become successful.
That effort is paying off and today Showe specializes in the most delicate part of the process at Lexington, helping clients who have applied get to the finish line with a deal while managing lender-side negotiations and communications. On the latter side, that means being highly familiar with the guidelines of more than 60 financial service companies at any given time.
“Anybody can get someone to apply and just fill out a quick one-page application, send over a couple bank statements, but really selling the deal, there’s a specific art to it,” says Showe. “It’s really important to be an expert in your industry and know all the lender guidelines, know what the backend process looks like, because every lender is going to have a different process, whether there’s certain steps that some lenders want, whether it’s a manual-login or DecisionLogic. There’s so many ins and outs to every different lender. And just being able to know all that off the top of your head and just really sound like an expert.”
At Lexington, one of the recent educational team-building strategies was to host an internal Broker Battle in which 30 employees participated in a double-elimination competition. The company’s CEO, Frankie DiAntonio, devised the format and questions—not only role‑playing scenarios but also testing general industry knowledge with trivia. Showe says it’s good practice to be put on the spot in front of a crowd, because a key part of sales is thinking on your feet and executing when it counts. Doing it together with colleagues made for a fun experience in a company that prides itself on a family‑like atmosphere, while also mirroring the competitive nature of the industry where many brokers vie to serve the same customers. It’s game time all the time.
“I even tell my clients, ‘competition is always going to breed the best results,'” Showe says. “If you want the best of the best, you have to make people compete. And it goes down to even selling a deal, right? So if I have a deal and another company has a deal, compare my numbers against their numbers. I’m going to do anything I can to win that business.”
By happenstance, Lexington’s Corey Digiantomasso was one of the six finalists selected to compete in deBanked’s inaugural Broker Battle in 2024, where he put up a very impressive performance. This year was Showe’s turn where contestants weren’t given much background on the format other than that it would be roleplay-based. Showe kind of liked the mysteriousness of it.
“I’m best at showing up and just getting the job done,” Showe says. “So just doing what I do every single day made it easier for me at least.”
On his victory, Showe described the feeling as awesome while also recognizing that his opponent in the Battle, Joe Sasson, was a very worthy competitor. A large crowed showed up to support both of them during the championship.
“It was great to just see all the hard work that I’ve been putting in over the last three years pay off and be crowned #1 in the industry. It goes a long way for not only myself, but for the company as well.”
Jack Dorsey is Satoshi Nakamoto?
February 25, 2025If you’ve seen the analysis that connects Jack Dorsey to Satoshi Nakamoto floating around the web, that was researched by yours truly. I first proposed the possibility on February 24, 2024 and have since discovered a lot of compelling evidence to really support it. Here is a link to the recent tweet that went viral on the matter and a mirror of that tweet with source links. This is hardly all that I have. I did tag Dorsey so that he could see it but he did not reply to it or directly weigh in.
I have been following Dorsey’s company Square for deBanked since 2011.
In early 2024, a legal trial commenced on the matter of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity (Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Craig Steven Wright) for which Dorsey played a key role to prove that an individual named Craig Wright was NOT Satoshi. Wright had been claiming such for some time.
As part of the trial, a large trove of new emails and testimony surrounding Bitcoin’s founding were disclosed, including many emails written by Satoshi himself (Emails with Martti Malmi / Emails with Nicholas Bohm). Before the judge made a ruling on the outcome, Dorsey made interesting remarks in Block’s Q1 2024 earnings announcement on May 2, 2024. He mentioned Satoshi the person as the basis for the company’s crypto strategy. While skeptics have chalked this up to simple fandom or ideology, it was wholly unnecessary to reference Satoshi the person and potentially risky if he doesn’t know Satoshi’s true identity. Coinbase, for example, lists “the identification of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous person or persons who developed Bitcoin, or the transfer of Satoshi’s Bitcoins” as a risk factor to revenue. Block makes no such disclosure despite nearly half of the company’s revenue being derived from Bitcoin sales.
From Dorsey’s Block shareholder letter on May 2, 2024:
These statements could have been made without referencing Satoshi by name, especially in an era where longtime Bitcoin advocates have sought to minimize the influence of Satoshi the individual today. However, these statements would be very fitting if the CEO was speaking about himself.
Block has also self-published a book titled My First Bitcoin and the Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto which glorifies Satoshi and concludes by stating that “Satoshi’s vision is having an impact all around the world.” Hard copy print versions of the book were also made and distributed. deBanked obtained a copy.
That viral post again with source links can be found here. I am not an investor in bitcoin or Block. My experience with Bitcoin over the past 10+ years is as a payments mechanism, namely as peer-to-peer cash.
My email is sean@debanked.com
Broker Battle 2025 Champions
February 24, 2025Broker Battle 2025 took place at the Fontainebleau on February 20th during deBanked CONNECT MIAMI. Video highlights and more will be available soon. In the meantime, here are the results and the top brokers:
Revenue Based Financing
Top Broker: Ryan Showe, Lexington Capital Holdings
Runner-up: Joe Sasson, Advance Funds Network
Equipment Financing
Top Broker: Mike Brooks, Best Connect Capital
Runner-up: Yaro Yarema, Capital MBS
deBanked CONNECT MIAMI – Agenda (Check-in Time 11AM)
February 19, 2025Check-in starts at 11am for regular attendees.
Go to the Arrivals Entrance at the Fontainebleau and walk to your left until you reach the event space. It’s not far.
All the food at the event is Kosher. Provided by Events by Executive Caterers.
Event ends at 5:30pm.
See the rest of the agenda here.
Compete to Be The Top Broker in Person and Win Cash, Trophy, and the Title
January 23, 2025
If you sell revenue based financing, SBA lending, or equipment financing, deBanked MIAMI invites YOU to compete in Broker Battle 2 in Miami Beach at the Fontainebleau on February 20th. It’s simple, just register to enter it here if you’re already attending the event, and be judged in a short qualifying round in person during deBanked MIAMI. The two highest scored contenders for each of the 3 aforementioned categories will compete on stage at the conclusion of the event for a short championship.
THE WINNER OF EACH CATEGORY GETS:
- $3,000
- TROPHY
- TITLE OF BEING TOP BROKER
- INTERVIEW WITH DEBANKED (AT YOUR DISCRETION)
This year, Anthony Truglia, the winner of Broker Battle 1, will return as an MC! The judges are a mix of previous participants and industry veterans who are ready to make the competition one you won’t want to miss participating in. All attendees of deBanked MIAMI will get to watch the battle as part of the day’s normal course of activity. See the photos from last year’s inaugural battle here or watch the full video to see what it was all about below!
Revisiting the Merchant Cash Advance White Paper
January 21, 2025“Small and mid-sized businesses need cash flow to survive. A Merchant Cash Advance is a great tool to help them better manage and grow their businesses. But, like any other powerful tool, if used incorrectly, it can do more harm than good.”
That’s how the Industry White Paper, authored by AdvanceMe in 2007, began. At the time AdvanceMe was the largest such company in the industry. Some of the ideas and philosophies from this paper are timeless. If you’ve never seen it or want to retain a copy, you can download it here.
A Glimpse at Simply Funding
January 14, 2025
In around 2018 Jacob Kleinberger began calling merchants for a well known small business finance brokerage—a job he not only enjoyed but one that sparked his curiosity. “I always wanted to understand what my funders were doing,” Kleinberger says. He frequently asked questions to learn how decisions were being made across the board.
Though he worked closely with funders, being on the sales side didn’t give him the full picture. That changed in 2021 when an opportunity arose to join Simply Funding, a direct funder, as a partner. Today, he serves as Head of Operations.Transitioning from broker to funder was an eye-opener, leading Kleinberger to half-jokingly call the funders he used to work with to apologize for the challenges he had unwittingly created. Despite the learning curve, Kleinberger hit the ground running. Simply Funding, founded in 2017 by Bernard Mittelman, was a relatively small operation when he joined, but his mission was to help it grow. “We more than doubled the following year in funding and more than doubled the year after that,” Kleinberger says, reflecting the impact he’s been able to have with the team, which he’s said has been crucial to the success.
“We’re all a team, all here to show off each other’s strong points,” he says. For instance, the company already had a really good core foundation and underwriter in place when he got there.
The company describes itself as an A/B paper shop, with the majority of its revenue-based financing deals involving weekly payments, though they do daily payments as well. They also offer merchant processing splits.
Now a 28-person company, Simply Funding was originally located in Manhattan’s financial district but has since relocated to Jersey City. Kleinberger recalls the transition vividly, flying straight from the deBanked CONNECT Miami conference in 2023 to the new office to assemble all the furniture—an ordeal that lasted nearly 24 hours straight. One benefit of the move, he says, is access to a large talent pool in the area. But of course, it had to be accessible for the current team.
“A very big part [of the decision] was I had really good staff, and how would my staff come to work?” he says, since they make the whole operation hum. As a New York native from north of the city, Kleinberger is a commuter himself. The office now is just across the street from the PATH train station on the Hudson River. One can see the Simply team in person in the corporate high-rise there if they drop by.
When asked about the importance of security at Simply, Kleinberger is unequivocal: “It’s the most important.” The company takes no chances with data access, even to the extent that Kleinberger himself refuses to store work-related information on a laptop. He also emphasizes the need for clear, unambiguous rules in business operations to ensure everyone understands expectations and outcomes.
The company has no inside sales force, so Kleinberger gets a thrill when an ISO seeks his help with merchant communication—it reminds him of his early days. However, he remains acutely aware that, since it’s the company’s funds on the line, transparency and directness with customers are non-negotiable. From his perspective, some brokers in the industry walk a fine ethical line, and he and the Simply crew are determined to ensure things are done the right way.
“I do feel like there needs to be something to help make brokers accountable,” he says. Despite the challenges, Kleinberger remains optimistic about the future and is excited about what lies ahead as Simply Funding continues to grow.
“I think 2025 is going to be a sick year,” he says.
