1 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:18,030 Devin Delany: First things first. Hello everyone, Devin Delany here with Rapid Finance. You know, it's just an 2 00:00:18,030 --> 00:00:24,990 honor to be here closing out Broker Fair 2020 Virtual and representing Rapid finance as a platinum sponsor. 3 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:31,500 You know, throughout the day, my team and I were just thrilled to see how successful this unprecedented 4 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:38,760 industry event turned out to be under, you know, some pretty tough circumstances this year. So big shout out 5 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:44,520 to the entire deBanked team, Sean, under your leadership and special thanks to Janene and Gigi for 6 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:51,720 their constant unwavering support. On the sponsor side, you guys truly are the best. Just for some context, 7 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:57,780 everyone, I'm coming to you live, from Bethesda, Maryland, working from home, just outside our nation's 8 00:00:57,780 --> 00:01:04,620 capital, Washington, DC, hence the flag behind me. And you know, before I get into a few topics that I'd like 9 00:01:04,620 --> 00:01:11,550 to cover. I would like to introduce myself. And you know, for those of you who don't know me yet and aren't 10 00:01:11,550 --> 00:01:17,190 familiar with my role Rapid. So again, my name is Devin Delany. I'm the Director of Business Development with 11 00:01:17,190 --> 00:01:26,850 Rapid Finance. I've been with Rapid just over 14 years, May 30, 2006, it was a Tuesday who's counting. I spent 12 00:01:26,850 --> 00:01:33,870 nine years in partner sales, and then transitioned into sales leadership, both leading a new origination team, 13 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:40,230 and then ultimately running the renewal retention department. I started assisting with the BD leadership 14 00:01:40,230 --> 00:01:48,630 team about two years ago, and then came on full time about a year ago, this time last year. And under the 15 00:01:48,660 --> 00:01:54,840 spectacular leadership of our phenomenal Chief Revenue Officer, Mark Cerminaro. I'm tasked with coordinating 16 00:01:54,840 --> 00:02:04,410 the execution and strategy around Rapid's partnerships, from the one person shop to smaller ISOs, to large 17 00:02:04,410 --> 00:02:12,180 marketplace partners, even national brands. I'd like to answer a few direct questions from the audience. Before 18 00:02:12,180 --> 00:02:20,370 I do, so I'd like to kind of cover a few topics, we'll get into, you know, what Rapid was like pre COVID. What 19 00:02:20,370 --> 00:02:26,970 were you know, our response to COVID was, what we were doing during this, you know, last few months, opening 20 00:02:26,970 --> 00:02:34,860 up new and renewal funding, as well as, you know, kind of getting into some of our goals and plans. So, that 21 00:02:34,860 --> 00:02:45,150 being said, let's start pre COVID. So Rapid was on an absolute tear, pre COVID, we were significantly growing 22 00:02:45,150 --> 00:02:51,390 the top line in the balance sheet as well as the bottom line. You know, for four years, we were averaging 50% 23 00:02:51,870 --> 00:02:59,610 year over year growth in originations year after year after year after year. And during that time, you know, 24 00:02:59,610 --> 00:03:05,910 we felt a big capacity strain. Because with that growth, you got to keep up with it. But, you know, 25 00:03:05,940 --> 00:03:11,580 fortunate for us, especially over the last couple years, you know, our customer and partner experiences, 26 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:18,300 you know, not only did not suffer, but we actually were able to improve those along the way. And the reason we 27 00:03:18,300 --> 00:03:24,600 were able to do that is because, you know, we found ourselves you know, as a business organization, finally 28 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:32,070 realizing those hard fought gains that we had been working on so long in terms of retooling, refactoring, 29 00:03:32,070 --> 00:03:40,770 rethinking to find better ways. And it really panned out for us, especially in terms of just processing 30 00:03:40,770 --> 00:03:50,190 paper the right way, in a quick way. And it really voted well. So, you know, last but not least, we were 31 00:03:50,190 --> 00:03:58,050 seeing loss rates, where we wanted them to be we trusted our risk model. We put a lot into it. We leaned 32 00:03:58,050 --> 00:04:03,750 in there, and it was working for us, you know, pre COVID, we saw handfuls of team members being hired in 33 00:04:03,750 --> 00:04:09,720 both our Bethesda site, and Detroit site month over month. So needless to say things weren't just good. 34 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:18,210 They were great. And then all of a sudden, this pandemic hit. So that changes things with that we had 35 00:04:18,210 --> 00:04:27,240 to adapt. And our response to COVID was pretty similar to what I would imagine everyone, you know, listening 36 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:31,920 to this call with their business organizations were experiencing themselves. First things first, safety 37 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:38,490 first, you know, we wanted to take care of our clients, partners and team members. Do the right thing. 38 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:46,530 Obviously, we transition to work from home. We had some essential people stay a little longer. But that didn't 39 00:04:46,530 --> 00:04:55,020 really faze us. We executed our continuity of business plan very well. And we shifted into a mindset of Okay, 40 00:04:55,770 --> 00:05:01,320 who the heck knows what's going on? Let's just do the right thing by our clients and try to figure out 41 00:05:01,470 --> 00:05:08,970 getting them the best information possible. Outreaching to them to figure out, do they need, you know, hardship 42 00:05:08,970 --> 00:05:16,320 plan to be put in place, you know, work out, if you will. And that was successful. We stood up a resource 43 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:24,600 site to give good information and a world of misinformation in terms of state and federal funding 44 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:34,740 programs, as well as independent grants. So we were able to pivot and do that pretty quickly. You know, we 45 00:05:34,740 --> 00:05:41,250 looked, we looked at it in more than just a one dimensional way. Rapid has always thought of partners, 46 00:05:42,030 --> 00:05:49,770 sounds hokey, but certainly true, as our clients as well. So we not only outreach to clients to try to get 47 00:05:49,770 --> 00:05:55,890 them funneled to the right site for EIDL, giving them the right information, just being a helpful hand doing 48 00:05:55,890 --> 00:06:02,610 the right thing again, but we did that for partners as well, you know, our broker partners, specifically are 49 00:06:02,610 --> 00:06:11,280 small business owners and entrepreneurs. So we just felt like that was the right thing to do. You know, of 50 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:16,050 course, we invested in the PPP plan, and directly customers they're on took care of that was successful 51 00:06:16,050 --> 00:06:23,040 there. But fortunate enough with our team members, throughout COVID, both in our Bethesda site and our 52 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:29,640 Detroit site, we have not had to layoff one employee, we have not had to furlough one employee, which is 53 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:44,280 certainly a proud fact for us. As far as next steps, so renewals, we are successfully funding renewals, chunks 54 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:48,720 and chunks of renewals are going out the door more and more each day, which is a pretty happy thing to see. 55 00:06:50,100 --> 00:06:58,770 Guidelines are tight, it's very hard to determine risk right now. You know, we're not shy about that, or it's 56 00:06:58,770 --> 00:07:05,130 clear to all of us. But we're looking to expand that. And you will start seeing some of your deals get 57 00:07:05,130 --> 00:07:10,680 signed, submitted to underwriting be evaluated, hopefully funded. We didn't change any of the 58 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:16,740 commisions as for our renewal products. And we have from what I understand, we don't intend to at this 59 00:07:16,740 --> 00:07:23,730 time. For new deals, we're looking to open that up soon, if you saw the Great Debate, my Chairman and Co 60 00:07:23,730 --> 00:07:29,550 Founder Jeremy Brown, was mentioning that we're going to be looking to open up and retooling new funding, 61 00:07:30,870 --> 00:07:35,850 hopefully later this month. And he said that if you hadn't heard from Rapids BD department, you will be 62 00:07:35,850 --> 00:07:43,740 soon. And that certainly is true. So once we have a better idea of guidelines, which we just don't have 63 00:07:43,740 --> 00:07:48,870 right now, because we're still evaluating, still trying to figure that out, we will certainly be in contact and 64 00:07:48,870 --> 00:07:55,230 we look forward to working with you. The last thing Rapid wants to do is have a false start in terms of 65 00:07:55,230 --> 00:08:04,110 funding new deals, the next six months are going to be pretty uncertain, with second wave potential, uncertain 66 00:08:04,110 --> 00:08:13,290 vaccine, you know, uncertainty on the vaccine front. And ultimately, we have also a presidential election. 67 00:08:13,290 --> 00:08:19,650 So there's going to be a rocky road. But we're certainly prepared for that journey. And we're well 68 00:08:19,650 --> 00:08:26,370 positioned to do so. it's not a when, or excuse me, it's not an if, it's just a when in terms, we come back 69 00:08:26,370 --> 00:08:33,960 for new funding. Let me talk a little bit about partnerships specifically. And then kind of our goals 70 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:43,590 for post COVID. And then we can turn it over for questions. Broker partnerships. So the success of Rapid 71 00:08:43,590 --> 00:08:51,120 in the recent past has been built on partnerships, specifically, but mainly Broker partnerships. So that's 72 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:56,130 a model that we like. And that's a model that we want to continue to work with short term and the very long 73 00:08:56,130 --> 00:09:01,830 term. What I will say is that obviously we know things are going to be different. We just want to be 74 00:09:01,830 --> 00:09:06,720 transparent about what we can do mean what we say, say what we mean. So we don't waste your time, your effort, 75 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:13,140 your resources. But we really look forward to getting back in the broker market on a wide scale. Strategic 76 00:09:13,140 --> 00:09:18,750 partnerships. We've been successful there and we're going to be open and able to work with strategic 77 00:09:18,750 --> 00:09:26,190 partnerships. From the Broker side we have a 25 person, partner sales team that's well equipped to handle 78 00:09:26,190 --> 00:09:32,160 significant volume. And just like that, on the Broker side, we have that same capacity on the strategic 79 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:42,750 partnership side. So we think that we're very well positioned to get through this rocky time. A few things 80 00:09:42,750 --> 00:09:49,500 that you can count on is that we will be funding new deals soon. With partnerships. We will be looking to 81 00:09:49,500 --> 00:09:57,300 grow originations month over month in a smart and conservative way. You know, we will be looking to 82 00:09:57,300 --> 00:10:03,840 expand products when it makes sense that was something that we were Looking heavily into prior to COVID. And 83 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:09,450 we're going to be putting a lot, a lot of investment from the development side into our partner portal, 84 00:10:09,450 --> 00:10:14,670 existing partner portal, which isn't too shabby at this current moment, but it's only going to get better. And 85 00:10:14,670 --> 00:10:23,190 as soon as we get through the immediate short term, we'll be looking to reinvest into that. So with that, 86 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:29,610 that's my spiel. I'd love to field any questions. I know it's later in the day. Hopefully, some of our west 87 00:10:29,610 --> 00:10:35,940 coast partners are still engaged here. I know it's happy hour time, but you know, if there's questions, 88 00:10:35,940 --> 00:10:42,540 I'd love to field them and see if I could give you some insights of things that you guys are wondering about. 89 00:10:43,230 --> 00:10:44,670 Cindy, do we have any questions? 90 00:10:44,730 --> 00:10:49,710 Moderator: We don't have any questions right now. If anybody has any questions that they could put directly 91 00:10:49,710 --> 00:10:52,620 in the chat? We'll give you a few seconds. 92 00:10:53,740 --> 00:10:58,150 Devin Delany: Yeah, I don't see any? I mean, I know it's already happy hour. So 93 00:10:59,620 --> 00:11:07,810 Moderator: yeah, everybody's probably having a drink in their hands right now. All right. Oh, here we go. Shawn 94 00:11:07,810 --> 00:11:13,450 Smith says great job. For Shawn, are you looking at what's happening with OnDeck? 95 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:19,690 Devin Delany: Yeah, yeah, we are Shawn. So good question. Um, we've worked with OnDeck and we continue 96 00:11:19,690 --> 00:11:28,960 to work with OnDeck. So and we know that a lot of folks over there and respect those guys and gals. We are very 97 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:35,590 similar to OnDeck and a lot of ways and dissimilar and others. It's interesting because we were going down a 98 00:11:35,590 --> 00:11:42,550 path of automation. Similar to their online checkout. We were almost branded it more as a an auto checkout, 99 00:11:42,550 --> 00:11:49,780 meaning that when you get the list of items, it just funds. So like the time horizon between submitting 100 00:11:49,780 --> 00:11:57,460 everything and funding is immediate. Oh, we still think that there's a significant opportunity in automation. 101 00:11:58,750 --> 00:12:04,210 Because a lot of the underwriting just once once you get it done, if you trust your underwriting, and you've 102 00:12:04,210 --> 00:12:11,740 seen past success there and you continue to maintain kind of a manual review model at some point in your 103 00:12:11,740 --> 00:12:22,570 process doesn't have to be a deep dive into everything, then you can find quickly and efficiently. In terms of 104 00:12:22,570 --> 00:12:27,880 like their securitization, and the stock price and, and their guidance, yeah, we're looking at everything 105 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:36,370 there. And we were like I said, pre COVID, we were expanding our balance sheet pretty significantly. And 106 00:12:36,370 --> 00:12:42,280 it was a it was a terrible time for us to experience this pandemic, because of the size that we had been 107 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:53,500 booked, been booking. But our portfolio has bounced back in phenomenal ways. The hurt wasn't as bad as we 108 00:12:53,500 --> 00:12:58,750 thought it was going to be. And the recovery has been pretty tremendous. So we're excited there. 109 00:12:59,860 --> 00:13:05,530 Moderator: Okay, we have one more question from Jay Shaw. How are you guys accounting for revenue changes 110 00:13:05,530 --> 00:13:06,820 in future underwriting? 111 00:13:09,420 --> 00:13:15,480 Devin Delany: So it's not quite nailed down yet, Jay. You know, we're certainly one of the one, we certainly 112 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:20,940 want to look at more activity, in terms of like the last three months specifically, probably won't cut it, 113 00:13:21,330 --> 00:13:31,770 like it used to, we're discounting the revenue. We're obviously less inclined to work with fun businesses 114 00:13:31,770 --> 00:13:41,730 right now that have like severe drop offs. So we're looking at maybe a cut there. We're looking to fund in 115 00:13:41,730 --> 00:13:50,100 50 states. And we're looking to look at all industries. However, as my Chairman and Co-founder Jeremy Brown 116 00:13:50,100 --> 00:13:55,860 mentioned in the Great Debate call that we want to be clear with what we want to our partners, and we simply 117 00:13:55,860 --> 00:14:05,490 don't have that yet. But it won't be long until we get it. So I'm, I'm excited at the opportunity that will 118 00:14:05,490 --> 00:14:13,590 turn back on as quickly as we turned off on March 18, 2020. Date I won't forget, but it's just too early to 119 00:14:13,590 --> 00:14:13,980 tell. 120 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:22,590 Moderator: Okay, um, Shawn just wrote, does what just happened mean that some level of manual underwriting 121 00:14:22,740 --> 00:14:28,140 will always have to exist that will never be able to totally turn over the reins to automation? 122 00:14:29,890 --> 00:14:36,640 Devin Delany: Yes, and so Rapid has historically, Shawn had manual underwriting and a lot of what we do. It's 123 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:42,250 been quick. I mean, we literally the term that we use internally is streamline underwriting for what we feel 124 00:14:42,250 --> 00:14:48,820 are low risk files. And the streamline under is a cursory review to look for fraud flags and things like 125 00:14:48,820 --> 00:14:55,960 that. Most of those go through pretty easily. We're not going to divorce from streamline underwriting, even in 126 00:14:55,960 --> 00:15:02,290 a post COVID environment, but there's still manual review there. For streamline underwriting deals that 127 00:15:02,290 --> 00:15:10,420 funded, most of our partners wouldn't even feel that because it was so seamless. You know, Rapid historical, 128 00:15:10,420 --> 00:15:15,400 I've been there, you know, 14 years, and I've seen a lot of different versions of Rapid and one thing that I 129 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:22,360 respect and I'm proud of, with our firm is that we are like, we do like to grow smart. And we do like to be 130 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:31,120 conservative in some areas, I just think that's the way to achieve longevity, and, and what, frankly, is a is a 131 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:41,230 risky space. And that was proven to us by, you know, the recent events in the past. So I think that you 132 00:15:41,230 --> 00:15:47,650 know, a little bit of manual underwriting if you're staffed up, and you can do it quickly. If you can, you 133 00:15:47,650 --> 00:15:55,030 can do the things like ingest the paper and get all the data done quickly, on the front end, that you can take 134 00:15:55,030 --> 00:15:59,920 a little bit more time on the back end, where it matters more that I don't think it will be a painful 135 00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:01,540 experience for the broker and or client. 136 00:16:04,500 --> 00:16:11,970 Moderator: Good. I think that is all the questions that we have so far. Anybody else wants to put anything on 137 00:16:11,970 --> 00:16:14,610 the chat? still have a little time? 138 00:16:15,090 --> 00:16:20,640 Devin Delany: Yeah. And, you know, again, just thank you for all for listening. And please reach out to me 139 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:25,050 directly or any of the other folks that you know, rapid. We sincerely look forward to working with 140 00:16:25,050 --> 00:16:33,450 everyone again at scale, and be like a contributing force here in our space. And it's, it's, it was very 141 00:16:33,450 --> 00:16:40,170 cool to to be the last, you know, rounding out this last event. So thank you again to the deBanked team. 142 00:16:40,170 --> 00:16:44,790 eing virtual is pretty darn cool. And hopefully, you now, we'll have a live conference here in the near 143 00:16:44,790 --> 00:16:46,860 uture when this pandemic gets under control.