00:05.310 --> 00:07.980 Johny Fernandez: Welcome back to deBanked News. Now, Sean, last 00:07.980 --> 00:11.220 time I interviewed you and we spoke it was back in early March 00:11.250 --> 00:14.490 in person. And you said that this was a shakeup, and that 00:14.490 --> 00:18.030 this was the time for action. Now, a lot has happened since 00:18.030 --> 00:19.740 then. Do you still feel that way? 00:19.000 --> 00:22.960 Sean Murray: I think a part of me honestly thought we were 00:22.960 --> 00:25.390 about to go on a two week long vacation, and then come right 00:25.390 --> 00:28.900 back to work. Looking back, I don't think shakeup was the 00:28.900 --> 00:32.050 right characterization. I think apocalypse is the right word. 00:32.650 --> 00:35.650 But I was still right. Because there's never going to be 00:35.650 --> 00:38.800 another time like the one right now. I mean, I don't want to be 00:38.800 --> 00:41.380 dramatic, but I don't think the situation we all find ourselves 00:41.380 --> 00:44.560 in, will ever happen again, for the rest of our entire lives. 00:45.220 --> 00:48.190 The playing field got completely leveled, everybody got crushed. 00:48.250 --> 00:50.860 Everybody went from like, you know, up here all the way down 00:50.860 --> 00:54.310 to the bottom back to square one or square zero. And so what's 00:54.310 --> 00:56.710 unique about the situation is that it seems like the bigger 00:56.710 --> 00:59.800 the company is, the bigger they got hit. I think we're used to a 00:59.800 --> 01:02.470 world where the smaller companies are the ones that take 01:02.470 --> 01:04.570 the brunt of it and the bigger companies kind of go off and 01:04.570 --> 01:07.330 survive. But that's not what happened here, everyone kind of 01:07.330 --> 01:10.750 got hit equally, or in some cases, the larger companies got 01:10.750 --> 01:14.800 hurt the most. There were even situations in the last couple 01:14.800 --> 01:17.980 months where you had shops with four or five people who were 01:17.980 --> 01:21.880 outperforming on an origination volume level companies with 300 01:21.880 --> 01:25.720 employees. That's not usually a thing that happens. I mean, here 01:25.720 --> 01:28.150 at deBanked, we have a list that we publish every year, the top 01:28.150 --> 01:31.360 20 funders. And let me just give you a few of these, to kind of 01:31.360 --> 01:33.220 give you an example what happened: OnDeck stopped 01:33.220 --> 01:36.730 funding, Square Capital stopped funding, Kabbage stopped 01:36.730 --> 01:40.900 funding, IOU, Rapid Finance, those are just ones that I can 01:40.930 --> 01:43.480 remember off the top of my head. And almost none of those 01:43.480 --> 01:46.060 companies have resumed funding. I mean, if we were to publish 01:46.060 --> 01:50.020 the top funders of q2 2020, we'd probably find companies that 01:50.020 --> 01:53.320 otherwise never would have made it into the top 50 that are all 01:53.320 --> 01:58.300 of a sudden, in the top five or 10. I think it was Central 01:58.300 --> 02:01.840 Diligence Group, guys you interviewed back in March, they 02:01.900 --> 02:04.270 recently told me that they had consistently put out like a 02:04.270 --> 02:06.850 million dollars per month over the last few months. Or maybe it 02:06.850 --> 02:09.670 was even more than that. And I looked at them and I told them 02:09.670 --> 02:11.650 like, "Hey, I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but I 02:11.650 --> 02:13.810 think that makes you one of the largest small business founders 02:13.810 --> 02:17.140 like in the entire country right now." That's how crazy it is. 02:17.170 --> 02:19.240 Johny Fernandez: So Sean, what you're saying is for everyone 02:19.240 --> 02:23.020 out there whose business took a huge hit, this great leveling 02:23.020 --> 02:25.450 effect means that a small company can actually make it to 02:25.450 --> 02:26.920 like a top five, for example. 02:27.520 --> 02:29.530 Sean Murray: I mean, they could but I don't think anyone's goal 02:29.530 --> 02:32.620 has to be to get into the top five. I think the message is, if 02:32.620 --> 02:34.510 you're looking at your own financials right now and you're 02:34.510 --> 02:37.990 like, holy shit, you know, I don't want anyone to know how 02:37.990 --> 02:40.750 bad these look, I've got good news for you. Everyone else is 02:40.750 --> 02:42.730 saying the same thing. Everyone's financials are 02:42.730 --> 02:45.160 terrible, You might not have the money to go out and rapidly 02:45.160 --> 02:47.320 expand right now, corner the market while everyone else is 02:47.320 --> 02:50.290 down. That's okay. What's important is what you can do 02:50.290 --> 02:53.170 outside of what you can spend. What relationships will you 02:53.170 --> 02:56.200 make? What solutions will you devise? What changes will you 02:56.200 --> 02:59.620 make to give you an advantage? If you think about it, I mean, 02:59.650 --> 03:02.440 if your competitor has no money either, what can you do to 03:02.440 --> 03:05.470 outcompete them? Pretend it's the first day in the industry, 03:05.500 --> 03:08.740 there's no investors, right? But there's a lot of opportunity 03:08.950 --> 03:11.620 right around the corner for when things are covered. Figure out 03:11.620 --> 03:14.200 what you can do execute that plan and hopefully the money 03:14.200 --> 03:16.960 will follow. That's what the shakeup has created. 03:17.320 --> 03:19.630 Johny Fernandez: So Sean, it's easy for you to tell people to 03:19.630 --> 03:23.320 figure it out. But what would you do if it was you? if you 03:23.320 --> 03:26.770 owned like a broker shop or lending company, for example? 03:27.110 --> 03:30.920 Sean Murray: Okay, so if it was me? I'd probably be sitting down 03:30.920 --> 03:35.060 with the legendary Johny Fernandez. I'd be making a 03:35.060 --> 03:39.770 promo, a promotional video with me in it. And it would be on 03:39.770 --> 03:41.600 social media. We get our brand out there. 03:42.170 --> 03:44.360 Johny Fernandez: I'd be doing the same thing with Sean Murray. 03:44.570 --> 03:47.450 Sean Murray: Okay. All right. Thank you.