00:11.760 --> 00:20.850 Moshe Kazimirsky: So good morning, everyone. First of all, let me start and say thank you to the D bank team for putting this amazing virtual conference together. 00:21.390 --> 00:33.750 I'm looking forward to the rest of the day. I see an amazing content coming up. So this morning, our topic is the alignment of data and people in a post-pandemic 00:33.750 --> 00:47.220 economy. My name is Moshe Kazimirsky. I'm the VP of Strategic Partnership and Business Development in Become. Together with me, Heather Francis, the CEO of 00:47.250 --> 01:03.330 Elevate Funding, very unique and boutique, MCA company. Also, one of our partners at Become. As well we have David Snitkof, VP of Analytics at Ocrolus, and I'm 01:03.330 --> 01:17.400 happy to say that another partner of ours we're also using the amazing Ocrolus technology, mainly to analyze bank statement and financial documents. So to all that 01:17.400 --> 01:27.150 don't know Become, Become is the leading online platforms for small and medium sized businesses to find an optimized funding solution. We started operating in 01:27.210 --> 01:39.570 Australia in 2016 and got into the US market late 2017. We are a FinTech company. And we are using our technology and algorithms to zoom into each small 01:39.570 --> 01:50.670 business, unique financial profile, analyze it and match it with the right and optimal funding solution for this specific business. Our ecosystem has more than 01:50.700 --> 02:05.850 50 leading lenders and FinTech partners. We are trying to cover all loan products from SBA to line of credit, cash advance, equipment financing and even more. As a 02:05.850 --> 02:17.100 tech company, we're very much focusing on that our secret ingredients obviously, is that we use data analysts to improve online funding processes using 02:17.130 --> 02:28.470 API's in order to integrate with our partners and share with them all the data that we have. Obviously in light of the COVID we've been tracking a lot of data and 02:28.470 --> 02:38.880 trends to better understand how the pandemic has impact businesses in the long run and obviously also in the short run. Obviously, in this panel we're gonna discuss 02:38.880 --> 02:51.180 in here about the new ways that in-human processes will be combined in a post covid economy. Things like how important is location following a lock down how the PPP 02:51.180 --> 03:05.940 and EIDL depositing customers account actually being viewed. Our businesses are managing the cash flow today. And also different way to merchant to interact 03:05.940 --> 03:22.080 with different new companies known bank, FinTech. So let me again, transfer this microphone to my team mates in this panel, Heather Francis. 03:23.500 --> 03:31.990 Heather Francis: So I'm Heather Francis, CEO and co founder of Elevate Funding. We are located in Gainesville, Florida, as you can see the nice, sunny 03:31.990 --> 03:43.090 picture from behind me. We are actually in office, we've been in office for over a month and a half now. We really are very fortunate with our location. I know 03:43.090 --> 03:53.530 a lot of people are like, where's where's Gainesville? Don't always know. But sometimes there's a benefit of being rural. And we had that benefit through this 03:53.530 --> 04:04.810 pandemic, and we're able to have the managerial staff continue to come into the office. We did keep some of the support staff more at home during this but so yeah, 04:04.810 --> 04:12.010 so I'm actually coming to you from the Elevate Funding office. Not sure if I'm the only panelist, you know, throughout Broker Fair that may be doing that. I know a 04:12.010 --> 04:21.850 lot of people are still stuck working at home. So, but glad to be here, glad to be sharing our insights. Elevate Funding is a direct funder. We've been funding 04:21.850 --> 04:33.340 throughout the pandemic. We are a balance sheet funder. We don't have any covenants, which has allowed us to continue to operate and to pick where we want to put 04:33.340 --> 04:46.180 our money in and to fund through that. So I find that we're very fortunate in that sense that we were set up in that manner to be able to do this. So I am I'm 04:46.180 --> 04:53.860 looking forward to the panel and discussing what we've seen while funding during the pandemic and you know how we're moving forward and what we're looking at. 04:56.080 --> 05:00.100 Moshe Kazimirsky: Thank you, Heather. To you, David. 05:00.690 --> 05:08.520 David Snitkof: All right. Hi, everyone. This is David Snitkof. I am head of analytics at Ocrolus and very excited to be here today at the virtual conference. I 05:08.520 --> 05:16.920 am not in Florida, it's not as sunny here. We're not back in the office yet. But we're in New York based company. And Ocrolus is a FinTech infrastructure 05:16.920 --> 05:26.610 company that's focused on document and data driven workflows. And so we work with many of the largest lenders in small business lending, personal lending, 05:26.610 --> 05:35.850 mortgage lending, auto lending, and our mission is to help financial services companies make high quality decisions in an automated and efficient way, with 05:35.850 --> 05:46.470 trusted data. And I think it's a very interesting time in history to be doing this. I've been in the data and analytics and product development world for about 15 05:46.500 --> 05:55.740 years, and I've worked in business credit, I've worked in consumer credit, as I've worked as a founder as an employee and manage various risk portfolios. And it's a 05:55.740 --> 06:07.620 pretty interesting time because the pandemic has caused everyone to really rethink their approach to lending both data wise and operationally and so many of the old 06:07.620 --> 06:17.490 ways of doing things. It's actually time to reimagine them. And people have had a bit of the time and space to do so. And so I think going forward in the in the 06:17.490 --> 06:27.300 aftermath of the pandemic, and this is what we'll talk about today, there's a real chance for both lenders, as well as the companies that support them to rethink the 06:27.300 --> 06:36.390 way they manage risk, the way they work with data, the way they issue credit. And ideally, to do that in a way that one makes these companies better off and and 06:36.390 --> 06:44.220 faster growing and more profitable, but at the end of the day, is better for the consumer or business in terms of access to capital that they need to grow the 06:44.220 --> 06:44.730 economy. 06:46.310 --> 06:55.700 Moshe Kazimirsky: Thank you, David. So just before we start with the first topic, we will be opening for questions. So if you would like to submit a question to 06:55.700 --> 07:07.820 the panel members, please do it via the Q&A section and not the chat section. Hopefully, we'll have enough time to review and answer most of the question. So for the 07:07.820 --> 07:21.770 first topic for our session, what kind of different things will people be looking for when assessing risk? Have you been seeing any kind of pattern? Anyone would 07:21.770 --> 07:22.490 like to start? 07:22.690 --> 07:30.730 Heather Francis: Yeah, sure. So yeah, as I stated in my intro, you know, we've been funding throughout the mitigation efforts. And it was slim pickings on what we 07:30.730 --> 07:41.170 could fund that is for sure. But during this time, we did transition our data sets. But it wasn't so much as adding new data, but weighing the data a little bit 07:41.170 --> 07:52.450 differently through this. So one area, I think that we had really put some more emphasis in was going to be and I think this is a no brainer for most people was 07:52.480 --> 08:03.130 monitoring state and national restrictions. So that's something that we do on a normal basis, usually, you know, month to month check in just from a regulatory 08:03.130 --> 08:14.650 standpoint. But we had to switch this to be as most of you know, a daily occurrence because of closings that we're taking place. And we had to assign one main person 08:14.650 --> 08:24.670 to continue to monitor state and local government. I mean, we were even going down to county regulations, at the height of everything to where counties were 08:24.670 --> 08:36.730 dictating what could be open and what couldn't be open. So we had to really lean on state local websites, and kind of go through and go through what they feel is 08:36.730 --> 08:45.820 essential business. Some places were allowing constructions, other was not some had construction, but the permitting office was closed. So there was no new 08:45.820 --> 08:56.260 construction to be done. So we really had to dive in, it wasn't just a macro view, we were having to do a micro view on this. We were also as you guys know, 08:56.260 --> 09:06.520 Elevate is very transparent. And so with this data, we shared it with all of our signed up ISO partners and gave them a link to a designated website that we 09:06.520 --> 09:18.100 created, where it highlighted and real time data, what was open in what state and what we could actually fund. And so we were very open and transparent with that and 09:18.100 --> 09:28.330 communication so that we could continue to service and provide funding options both for our referral partners and for our merchants, our renewal merchants. So that 09:28.330 --> 09:39.310 was one area that we had to really switch over and wait are decisions on. And it is going forward, what we continue to have to monitor. We, as most people know 09:39.310 --> 09:49.240 we've been, we created a new product called a bounce that was for states opening up and we've been monitoring and providing that data to our referral 09:49.240 --> 10:00.700 partners as well on where we can find now that it is moving forward. And you know what industries that we're looking at there. We're having to unwrite the 10:00.700 --> 10:13.690 consumer's activity, not our business owners activity. And so we really dove into while again, this is a data set that we continuously monitor, it was one that we 10:13.690 --> 10:24.760 had to put more weight in. So what you're seeing here, and what we're showing you is from Foursquare, the data is comparing foot traffic from a baseline date of 10:24.760 --> 10:36.910 February 19, 2020. Prior to everything going on with COVID-19. And before states stepped in and started asking people to shut down. The first time that you'll 10:36.910 --> 10:47.530 see here, it goes until May 22. This is when we started analyzing on an open up basis where the foot traffic was when we were opening and what we could fund into. 10:47.920 --> 10:57.790 And then we have another bi weekly review that we did. And you can see the changes that's associated with a June 5 date. As you can see, the data is very important 10:57.790 --> 11:07.990 during the reopening phase is we're learning where people are comfortable going, consumers are going to drive what remains open and what businesses thrive. And 11:07.990 --> 11:17.230 we need to understand what they're comfortable with. You can see some small changes in the two weeks clothing and casual dining did move up slightly. Casual 11:17.230 --> 11:26.350 dining has a 9% increase, we're still seeing restaurants that have takeout, do a whole lot better than if it's sit down, we're seeing a better response, 11:26.350 --> 11:36.370 if there's takeout available there. And then clothing stores actually had a 19% increase, which I don't know if that's a pent up demand there. Or if it's just more 11:36.370 --> 11:45.280 of people going we want to support local and small business and they're getting out and trying to buy something. I do know from, you know, our local area, 11:45.280 --> 11:55.390 we've seen where a lot of people move to boutique shops getting stuff online. And so some of that could be a little bit more of getting new customers through that 11:55.390 --> 12:03.670 online presence that they created. You can see foot traffic and grocery has actually decreased as well as the big box stores. Again, that could be a little bit 12:03.670 --> 12:13.360 too supporting local, I know farmers markets are coming back open as well. We have a couple people in our office who use farmer's markets a lot over going to the 12:13.360 --> 12:24.010 grocery store. And they were having to once that closed, you know go that route. So that's definitely what we pay attention to. And we do monitor it on a bi 12:24.010 --> 12:33.790 weekly basis to follow the trends and see where people are wanting to go and to be more comfortable with. You can go ahead and scroll down a little bit more. Now. I 12:33.790 --> 12:43.510 know some of us are a little shocked by some of these numbers, you're like, you know, why is a bar still at 50% occupancy? I mean, a lot of people felt like how, 12:43.540 --> 12:51.640 how is that happening? That's closed spaces for the most spot. And I know we all have the need to be social. And that's something that we all missed out on. 12:52.180 --> 13:02.470 But even as of last week, it only it only has a third, you know, third drop and what it normally sees. And that's a little shocking. And what you can see is that 13:02.470 --> 13:16.300 there are some areas in our country that were not heavily impacted. I know some of us have our optics of what's going on in our daily lives. So a lot of people 13:16.300 --> 13:25.630 in our space are located in New York and California. And these were the very heavily regulated areas where everything was pretty much shut down. And there wasn't 13:25.630 --> 13:34.810 a lot for everyone to go out and to do. Us here in Florida was a little bit different, especially in our county. We were able to move about a little bit more 13:34.810 --> 13:46.120 and still able to get out with more open seating, dining and, and things like that. So you can see in our bottom graphs that we went ahead and looked at 13:46.210 --> 13:59.230 demographic on a state by state basis, regional basis. And you can see in the beginning, the South really had a huge amount more of traffic and flow going on a foot 13:59.230 --> 14:10.990 basis wise and and where people were comfortable going out and about. And that's also some of the states that opened up the earliest in the COVID-19 response. As of 14:11.020 --> 14:21.100 last week, you can see it's a little bit more spread out now we're seeing you know, Midwest is coming into that they're having a higher foot traffic, even North 14:21.130 --> 14:29.800 East is seeing more foot traffic increase. So we're really able now to see on a regional basis that's spreading out and for Elevate, we're more comfortable. 14:30.010 --> 14:38.530 And those who are our referral partners know that we've opened up a whole lot more states that we're working with over the past two weeks, because of some of this 14:38.530 --> 14:48.460 data. And so this is definitely something going for that we'll continue to monitor and to continue to look at. It will be like I said it is data that we've always 14:48.460 --> 15:01.300 had. It's going to be more weighted in our review, probably over the next year as we go into a possible second wave and to see and understand what consumers 15:01.300 --> 15:13.990 are comfortable with. Because most of our small businesses do cater to a consumer model, and that that's who they're, you know, tending to. So I'll go 15:13.990 --> 15:18.250 ahead and turn it over to David to see, you know, what he had to say. 15:19.540 --> 15:20.170 Moshe Kazimirsky: Thank you, Heather. 15:20.690 --> 15:26.750 David Snitkof: Yeah, thanks, Heather, that data is really fascinating. And the whole approach you're taking is, is really interesting. And it's just an 15:26.750 --> 15:36.740 example of the old way of underwriting business credit is no longer sufficient. If you were to only look at people's repayment history, their credit profile, 15:36.740 --> 15:45.740 things like that, you wouldn't get all the data, you need to make the right kind of lending decision. And, you know, generally there's this idea that the past is 15:45.740 --> 15:55.760 prologue, and that the greatest predictor of future results is past behavior. And this type of pandemic really makes that no longer the case, if you had, for 15:55.760 --> 16:05.600 example, two restaurant owners, and one of them paid every bill he's ever had for the past 20 years. And another one of them was overextended and missed some 16:05.600 --> 16:13.790 payments and, and defaulted on a credit card or something like that, you would think the two of them are very, very different risks in a normal period of 16:13.790 --> 16:24.200 time. Today, they might both be good risks, or they might both be bad risks, depending on as you said, do they have foot traffic? Do they have takeout? You know, 16:24.200 --> 16:32.540 how much did they pay in rent? How much did they pay in payroll were they able to get disaster funding. And so there's so many other data points that lenders need to 16:32.540 --> 16:40.640 be able to consider to make a good small business credit decision. And the way I think about this is that there are three principles going forward for business 16:40.640 --> 16:53.450 lenders coming out in the recovery. And that's more data more time and more detail. In more data. What that means is, we need to think beyond the traditional data 16:53.450 --> 17:04.670 sets that people have used to underwrite credit. And so it's a great example to look at Foursquare foot traffic data. To look at, you know, COVID disease data at a 17:04.670 --> 17:14.480 very granular geographic level. To be able to actually underwrite, as you said, your business's customers, your customers, customers, because you want to know the 17:14.480 --> 17:23.390 level of demand for their products and services, to be able to not just look at people's repayment records, but also look at their bank statements, their 17:23.390 --> 17:32.990 transactions, their tax documents, their identity verification, their payroll, all these things to really understand the dynamics of the business in more detail. 17:33.410 --> 17:42.530 On the more time piece of it, very often, you had lead lenders looking at let's say, 90 days of bank statements or something like that, I think you're going 17:42.530 --> 17:52.220 to see a lot of lenders going to six months or going to a year and even doing things to make sure that they have persistent access to data from their customers. 17:52.220 --> 18:02.540 Because again, to look at only a short period of time doesn't encompass the seasonality and change that, in reality is has always been a part of small business. 18:02.540 --> 18:11.960 But I think that volatility is increased, even more so today, and will continue to do so in the future, particularly, if there's a second resurgence, and 18:11.960 --> 18:21.920 likely, you know, the recovery is not going to be even across geographies. And if there's a second resurgence of COVID, that's not going to be even across geography. 18:21.920 --> 18:31.400 So having a wider timeframe to look at is super important. Remember, third thing is more detail where I think in underwriting a small business, lenders need to 18:31.880 --> 18:44.480 be acutely aware of the unique financial dynamics of any particular business. So understanding the gross margin inherent to a particular industry, apart from 18:44.480 --> 18:53.450 just the revenue, understanding whether expenses are fixed or recurring, understanding how much cash a business has in the bank. And has that been trending 18:53.450 --> 19:03.110 one way or the other? How many days or weeks or months of expenses does that cash pay for in the event that they have to be shut down and they can no longer make 19:03.110 --> 19:12.230 revenue. So it just will become and I don't think we're going to go back to the old world. I think once people have woken up to this, lenders will realize well, then 19:12.260 --> 19:22.370 in order to make a credit decision, we need to have access to very deep, detailed and and wide timeframe data about our customers, and we need to be able to 19:22.370 --> 19:24.770 process it in an automated and efficient way. 19:26.370 --> 19:35.790 Moshe Kazimirsky: Thank you. Thank you guys, we actually cover quite a bit about what the industry actually need to do in order to adjust. So I completely 19:35.790 --> 19:44.340 agree with you, David, that our timing and more details. Do you believe the industry there's a more data that the industry need to look for in order to 19:44.340 --> 19:47.400 adjust for everyone to be able to really move forward? 19:49.040 --> 19:56.930 David Snitkof: You know, so I think there's one thing one thing that we haven't discussed yet obviously is the capital side of every lenders business and that's 19:56.930 --> 20:04.460 really interesting and Heather, you have an unique advantage There being a balance sheet lender and not having covenants. And so you, you luckily don't have to 20:04.460 --> 20:12.980 deal with that. But and that's a great position to be in. But of course, you know, what do lenders sell, they sell money. And so the money has to come from 20:12.980 --> 20:22.430 somewhere. And so for most lenders, managing that capital side is really important. And I think, you know, the debt capital markets, whether that is, you 20:22.430 --> 20:31.250 know, banks, or hedge funds, or pensions or family offices or things like that, that provide the capital for lenders to do business, they themselves are going 20:31.250 --> 20:42.230 to become more sophisticated and more discerning in terms of the criteria and the restrictions they put on top of that capital. So you're no longer and maybe be 20:42.230 --> 20:51.290 content to look at new very simple aggregate metrics on what their lenders are doing and what their underwriting, they may actually want to see some of the 20:51.290 --> 21:02.360 same data points that we were just talking about. And so for every lender, managing that market and trying to match up, you know, borrower demand, and the supply of 21:02.360 --> 21:06.740 capital will be really important, and it'll probably be in flux for the next year. 21:07.710 --> 21:16.230 Heather Francis: I'd also like to add on to that a little bit, and that we're also kind of in a titanic situation going forward. Right now, when we're looking 21:16.230 --> 21:27.540 at these merchants, we're kind of seeing the tip of the iceberg. And there's a lot of issues hiding underneath that we unfortunately, don't have visibility into just 21:27.540 --> 21:39.180 yet. And some of the data is going to be missing only because data is as good as what's coming in. And we have a lot of credit reporting, we have a lot of 21:39.180 --> 21:49.470 delinquency reporting that has been put on hold. We even have, you know, in some places where rent has been paused, you know, for two or three months, eventually, 21:49.470 --> 21:59.370 this is all going to come due. And this is all going to be out there lurking to come at the business owners. And it's definitely going to catch some people by 21:59.370 --> 22:10.470 surprise, if we're not going into funding and looking at these business owners with the assumption that what we see here is not the full picture. And understanding 22:10.560 --> 22:22.230 the ability to repay, not two months down the way, not three months. But in a six month time frame. And I know our space, especially and the tier A funding that 22:22.230 --> 22:33.540 happens, you know, we have people who do usually 12 to 14 months, some even out to 18 months, I think that's a very risky market at this time to put that on a client. 22:33.930 --> 22:45.570 And I think you'll you'll see going forward that those timeframes are going to start reducing, because we do have such a unknown coming up in the next three to six 22:45.570 --> 22:46.110 months. 22:47.770 --> 22:56.800 Moshe Kazimirsky: Thank you guys, I'm changing the topic a little bit. In the past two months, the focus for small businesses was mainly on the payment 22:56.800 --> 23:12.880 protection plan. And the idea. It's actually a two part question. Should the PPP deposit be separated from the regular cash flow or operational or even a position as 23:12.880 --> 23:22.810 a loan? And can you predict some kind of patterns coming from PPP transaction or the behavior of the small businesses? 23:24.250 --> 23:31.990 Heather Francis: Well, I know it Elevate. Yeah, we don't take PPP revenue in. That's definitely not something that we're looking at. It's great that they 23:31.990 --> 23:41.680 got it. I know, when we see PPP in there. It's especially for the customers that we already have an account with, we're really happy with that. We're more 23:41.680 --> 23:50.140 likely to renew, especially if we see that and it's very indicative of the merchant having a relationship with their bank. I think we all saw in the first round 23:50.140 --> 24:02.950 of PPP, that the bank relationship was very crucial. And then I think in the second round, we saw that the alternative finance avenue was able to get in on a 24:02.950 --> 24:13.330 timely manner, the PPP applications and we were able to see that as well. And we've seen that through our clients. I do know if we're funding a file that has 24:13.330 --> 24:24.580 that in there, it is a little bit more of a cushion, in the sense that we see it as that's one cash flow overhead the merchant has gotten taken care of. So we 24:24.580 --> 24:33.340 know that they're wanting to be open. They're making sure their employees are on the books so that they can continue once things return to normal. For us. It's a 24:33.700 --> 24:40.480 positive indicator for funding, but we don't look at the revenue from it when we're considering funding as far as you know what we count. 24:42.520 --> 24:49.600 David Snitkof: Yeah, it's very interesting and PPP has been a super interesting experience. You know, we were we were fortunate to work with a lot of the lenders who 24:49.600 --> 24:58.090 are doing PPP financing, and we were a big part of helping them scale their operations to be able to get a lot of funding to small businesses and we'll be working 24:58.090 --> 25:08.320 with with many, many lenders as part of that. forgiveness for PPP. And we have solutions around that too. It's you know, yet another unique thing about this 25:08.320 --> 25:19.180 situation is that, you know, it's A typical that a very large number of your small business customers all have a very large piece of cash flow all at the same time. 25:19.870 --> 25:28.150 And so you know, you do have to look at that distinct from other sources of influence a customer's bank account, you wouldn't want to count it as revenue, 25:28.150 --> 25:36.970 because it's not business revenue, it's not really indicative of their ability to sustain a business and have customers and run their operation. It is, as you 25:36.970 --> 25:46.030 said, Heather, indicative of their ability to have a cash cushion, and weather the storm. What I think will be interesting for lenders is to identify those people 25:46.030 --> 25:57.190 who have had a PPP deposit. And then also see how quickly that cash becomes depleted. So are they able to take that and really hold it in reserve for a rainy 25:57.190 --> 26:07.420 day? Or is it something that they have to deplete very quickly. And so that rate of PPP deposits depletion will be an interesting metric for lenders to track to 26:07.570 --> 26:10.180 understand the financial health of their customers going forward. 26:11.980 --> 26:23.320 Moshe Kazimirsky: Thank you. We touched a little bit about underwriting for the short term and also for the long run. What do you see has changed from the 26:23.320 --> 26:26.800 underwriting perspective, today, and also in the future? 26:28.820 --> 26:36.980 Heather Francis: As I stated before, we're looking more at consumer behavior for the merchant and the merchant alone. We've always been a funding company who looks at 26:36.980 --> 26:43.820 cash flow patterns, even up to the day of funding, that's something that we've all we've always done. I know it's a pain point for a lot of our referral 26:43.820 --> 26:51.650 partners, they'll be like, oh, we're always looking to see is the cash level still on-point from when we underwrote the file, that's always been something that 26:51.650 --> 27:04.370 Elevate has stuck to our guns on with that. So it's been a little bit of an adjustment for our underwriters from that cash flow point of view, because we're 27:04.370 --> 27:15.230 getting some somebody who's had no receivables in April and May, we're taking a look at some really heavy negative bank accounts, March, April, May. And we're 27:15.230 --> 27:23.360 still having to take a leap of faith, so to speak, on what they've done in the last week, what they've done the last two weeks, what they've done the last three 27:23.360 --> 27:33.710 weeks, and what they were doing prior to COVID-19 and make a complete picture for underwriters, that it's somebody that we want to invest in and to put money 27:33.710 --> 27:46.280 into. So I know that's been a big shift for Elevate and where our underwriters are definitely. We're having to kind of say, Oh, it's okay. I know, there was 12 27:46.280 --> 27:53.600 negatives in April, like I know, but we're going to have to look past that and, and move on. And where are they at right now? And what are we looking at going 27:53.600 --> 28:02.870 forward. So it has been an adjustment. And like I said before, we did create a new program to kind of accommodate for that are Bound program, you can reach 28:02.870 --> 28:11.960 out to our ISO partners, developers for that if you want to learn some more, Ken and Michael are here all day. But that's one of the things to kind of help 28:11.960 --> 28:21.860 accommodate, we did create something for underwriters and for the merchants alone to kind of to move forward with this new way of thinking of underwriting and 28:22.010 --> 28:26.030 people who have had no revenue for three months, and still find a way to fund them. 28:27.710 --> 28:33.950 David Snitkof: Yeah. What's interesting is that you know, what our computer is good at computers are good at automating things that already exist and finding 28:33.950 --> 28:44.420 patterns where that pattern has been borne out through history. at this particular time, there's a lot of there's a lot of things that are super unique. And so 28:44.990 --> 28:55.730 what's interesting is having that that combination of human intuition as well as automated data, and making the computers and the humans really work well together. 28:56.060 --> 29:07.100 What I'm very interested to see and also be a part of going forward is how we will begin to automate some of this logic and intuition. So it makes sense that now 29:07.100 --> 29:13.370 for a small business, you know, they're going to explain why they were negative 12 times in the last month, they can explain why they had no revenue and you 29:13.370 --> 29:23.810 understand it, you probably don't want to be having those one-off conversations forever. And so how do you actually start building that type of anomaly detection 29:24.320 --> 29:34.820 into your models and into your automated systems, where you can tell you know, someone who, who missed payments or something due to a very legitimate and 29:34.820 --> 29:42.920 understandable event, versus someone who is actually chronically unreliable and that'll be a very interesting thing to automate going forward. 29:44.900 --> 29:51.050 Host: I'm gonna chime in real quick we have a 10 minute mark, so we could start taking any questions and answers anybody has any? 29:51.930 --> 30:02.070 Moshe Kazimirsky: Yeah. Don't you want to cover another like last topic? I really want to discuss with you about merchant and business owners changing the way to 30:02.070 --> 30:11.340 interact with non bank. And now FinTech giving what we've seen in the past few months, mainly around the PPP, the first round of the PPP, the second round 30:11.850 --> 30:14.550 shifting between banks and FinTech. 30:17.120 --> 30:26.120 David Snitkof: Yeah, and I think, you know, a typical small business owner doesn't, they don't care. And they shouldn't care in the sense that if you are the 30:26.120 --> 30:34.670 business, your job is to keep that business running, your job is to keep that business funded, so that you have that lifeblood to run your business to pay your 30:34.670 --> 30:44.180 employees, to be able to provide services to your customers. So if you can get that from a bank, then that's wonderful, unfortunately, and, you know, one of 30:44.180 --> 30:52.970 the things that spurred the creation of the industry that we're all a part of is that banks have not been particularly good at providing credit to very small 30:52.970 --> 31:03.080 businesses. And, you know, it just hasn't been there focus banks can't really do it profitably. And they're much much better at dealing with larger markets. And so 31:03.440 --> 31:10.370 if you can get the right kind of funding from your bank, that's great. If you can get it from a FinTech company or alternative lender, then that's good too. 31:10.370 --> 31:21.920 But I think the bar has been raised, and in an age where switching costs are basically zero on the internet, we have this golden age of customer service. 31:21.950 --> 31:34.790 And so small businesses as well as consumers are going to demand, you know, good funding on the right terms with full transparency, with speed of decisioning. And 31:34.790 --> 31:44.060 with a good relationship, and if they can get that from someone who's not a bank, a FinTech company or alternative funding provider, then that's a great 31:44.060 --> 31:44.960 scenario for them. 31:46.910 --> 31:55.160 Heather Francis: Yeah, I definitely say, you know, in the past 10 years, there's already been a movement to more alternative finance versus bank. And some of that 31:55.160 --> 32:04.730 is technology based, we have a lot of people who are a whole lot more comfortable providing data through the internet through their phone device. And so it's 32:04.730 --> 32:15.830 definitely given way to non bank companies, alternative finance companies to grow and to have a relationship, you know, to David's point with with the customer at 32:15.830 --> 32:29.300 different levels. If I will say, we are seeing in our space, you know, in a funder, that a credit profiles that we haven't really seen in the subprime sector or 32:29.330 --> 32:39.620 in the alternative finance, because they've had direct relationships with banks that are no longer there. We're seeing bigger revenue streams coming through, 32:39.620 --> 32:49.700 we're seeing you know, better credit profiles. And so it definitely is a time and place for us to really highlight how our industry is able to assist small 32:49.700 --> 33:00.530 business, we should really take this opportunity to expand on what we can do and how we can help. I definitely think it's a little bit of our moment to 33:00.530 --> 33:05.060 shine, because a lot of banks have pulled back on what they're able to do at this time. 33:07.010 --> 33:16.760 Moshe Kazimirsky: Absolutely. So some questions from our audience. had, I think I believe this one, probably will be obvious to you, what percentage of decrease in 33:16.760 --> 33:19.760 the last three months is the limit that would walk? 33:21.770 --> 33:31.340 What percentage of decrease in the last three months, I'm assuming the business cash flow operation is the limit that would walk in order to be able to be able to 33:31.340 --> 33:32.150 get some funding? 33:32.840 --> 33:42.110 Heather Francis: Well, so Elevate, I guess a little bit of a look behind the curtain, we're actually not looking at the revenue from March, April and May. For 33:42.110 --> 33:51.080 our clients, we're really taking a look at what was done prior. And to David's point earlier, looking at banks over a year timeframe versus what we saw in the 33:51.080 --> 34:01.580 last three months. So that's fine. As long as prior to the pandemic we were looking at above 12,000. That's our requirement there. And is if we can see that 34:01.580 --> 34:11.360 they're on trajectory, to get back to that, whether it's based on their location being open. So we're okay with that. We are fine with that we have our Bound 34:11.360 --> 34:19.070 product that most of them will, you know, fall into. But I mean, we're not giving them 100,000 I don't I don't want to set anyone's expectations up for that. 34:19.520 --> 34:26.240 That's for sure. But we are looking at and funding files without holding them accountable to their April Mays. 34:27.330 --> 34:34.200 Moshe Kazimirsky: Yeah. David, are you seeing something from your own regarding the changes and decrees in the last in the past three months? 34:35.770 --> 34:43.030 David Snitkof: I think, No, I agree with what Heather said, I think it's going to be very particular to the individual business as well as to the lenders like the 34:43.030 --> 34:52.240 three the last three months or so anomalous that you wouldn't want to use them as an indication of a business's viability other than if the business didn't 34:52.270 --> 35:00.790 actually have the capital cushion to make it through which unfortunately, has been the case for many businesses. So I think you know, In a pandemic 35:00.790 --> 35:10.540 situation where just legally some businesses are not allowed to do business, the real name of the game for them is, is just to survive, to just have the capital 35:10.570 --> 35:16.480 to get to the other side no matter what, and then you really want to evaluate their ability to get up and running again. 35:17.350 --> 35:27.670 Moshe Kazimirsky: Yeah. Okay. What is your perspective of what will happen in the next 6,12, 18? months? I know, it's a hard question. 35:28.920 --> 35:38.430 Heather Francis: Oh, um, so I think we have a lot coming up against us in the next 6 to 12 months, we have an election, that every week goes a different way, 35:38.880 --> 35:48.840 we have a possibility of a second wave of COVID-19. We don't know what states and counties are going to do for that. I know what's been set at a national level. But 35:49.050 --> 35:59.370 I, from what we saw states kind of do their own thing as well. And so there's a lot there. We also have, you know, the rest of the plagues that were listed in the 35:59.370 --> 36:09.060 apocalypse, I understand 2020 is the year for that. So those are all coming down the line, I'm sure. But seriously, I'm kind of the mindset, if you don't know, 36:09.060 --> 36:19.020 you just don't know and say it. And I really don't have an idea of what's happening in the next 6 to 12 months, there's still a lot of shake up to come in our space. 36:20.670 --> 36:29.070 Elevate has always been forward looking three to six months, when we offer on files, we're going to continue to do that, you know, that three to six month 36:29.070 --> 36:41.160 timeframe, we may reevaluate in September, if we have a better idea of the landscape to extend out further than that. But there's a lot, a lot to happen in the next 6 36:41.160 --> 36:45.450 to 12 months, I couldn't even begin to speculate what it would all cover. 36:46.500 --> 36:58.050 David Snitkof: Yeah, I also don't have a crystal ball and wouldn't pretend to have one. But it you know, one thing that does keep coming to mind for me is that good 36:58.050 --> 37:09.480 enough, just isn't good enough anymore. And what I mean by that is when you're a FinTech innovator. And, you know, the problem you very often run into in financial 37:09.480 --> 37:21.840 services, is that, you know, the existing solutions are sometimes good enough. You know, someone may say, Well, bank financing is good enough, or existing capital 37:21.840 --> 37:29.370 markets are good enough for existing ways of underwriting are good enough. And maybe they're sub optimal. Maybe you could do better, maybe you could be 37:29.370 --> 37:39.480 a little more automated, maybe you could be a bit more data driven. But you know, what, it's good enough for now. And it works. The silver lining of what we've just 37:39.540 --> 37:50.820 been through as a country as a world as an industry is that all those things that were good enough, they were on pause. And so it's given people the time and space 37:50.820 --> 38:01.020 to reimagine what they could do, and actually look at the capabilities that are now technologically available to us, where we can say, well, maybe we can provide a 38:01.020 --> 38:10.050 great, personalized customer experience to every small business or consumer out there. And maybe we can be much more data driven and automated and our decisions, 38:10.590 --> 38:19.530 maybe we can actually extend better terms on financing to people, because we're able to predict risk better. And because we're able to optimize our marketing spend 38:19.530 --> 38:29.130 and optimize our cost of capital better. So I think one of the one of the good things about a disruption is it takes away some of the good enough and a lot of those 38:29.130 --> 38:39.270 sacred cows that couldn't be disrupted before are actually now ready to be disrupted. And we will hopefully in the next year, several years, see very, 38:39.270 --> 38:41.490 very rapid innovation along those lines.