Sean Murray: Today on deBanked News, BlueVine secures a $75
million credit facility, New York restaurants sue for indoor
dining, and we spoke with a non-bank commercial lender who
told us what lending is like right now on the front lines.
But first, let's go over to Johny Fernandez, who is in
Queens.
Johny Fernandez: Hey, Sean, so I'm standing right outside of Il
Bacco restaurant here in Little Neck, Queens, like many
restaurants here in New York City, it's enjoyed outdoor
dining during the summer months, but with colder weather
approaching it's starting to feel the pressure regarding the
state's restrictions on indoor dining.
Tina Maria Oppedisano: Being that we are three floors we're
operating off of one, at first operating off of none. So our
financial loss has been, I would say roughly, if not more a
million dollars, just for Il Bacco. Our busy season, the
month of May we were entirely shut down. So this year, we had
zero percent for the month of May. And for June, I would say
we did 10% of what we would normally do.
Johny Fernandez: If a New York City indoor restriction is made
all the more upsetting for restaurants like Il Bacco, it's
because Little Neck, Queens is one block to the Nassau County
Long Island border, where once you cross, the rules change and
indoor dining is permitted at 50% capacity. Il Bacco has
responded by filing a class action lawsuit against New York
City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo seeking $3
billion in damages on behalf of the class. In it the restaurant
makes the point that there is absolutely no science that will
prove that indoor dining is safer one city block east from
where it is.
Tina Maria Oppedisano: That's what we know is going to wake
them up. You know, that's what we know is going to cause the
pandemonium, the chaos, the ruckus that's gonna say, Oh my
god, we're being sued for $2 billion.
Johny Fernandez: Health-wise New York has been in pretty good
shape. Covid infection rates are less than 1% here in New York
City, but when you think about Manhattan, you think about
skyscrapers and tall buildings. But here in Little Neck Queens,
it's more suburban with houses and yards, which is why the
restaurant would like to city to ease up on restrictions for
indoor dining. Reporting here in Little Neck, Queens. I'm Johny
Fernandez with deBanked News.
Sean Murray: Thanks, Johny. Boy, what a debacle. Okay, so that's
what's happening on the small business side. But let's go over
to the lending side. BlueVine, a FinTech company historically
known for online lending, has recently introduced a suite of
new products. That includes business checking services. It's
a step in the direction towards becoming full service, so much
to the point of now calling themselves a leading provider of
small business banking. And despite the pandemic, BlueVine
is pretty well positioned. They recently secured a $75 million
revolving credit facility to support their expansion. As
recently as 2018, they were already ahead of Shopify, BFS
Capital, and Kapitus in annual origination volume, and were
even nipping at the heels of Funding Circle and Amazon. Our
guest today is Chris Hurn, CEO of Fountainhead. Fountainhead is
a non-bank direct commercial lender. And Chris told us a
little bit about what it's been like to lend in the front lines
in 2020.
Chris Hurn: We specialize in SBA 7(a), SBA 504. And we have a low
LTV conventional product, that we oftentimes will refinance out
other SBA products and it's only on our owner-occupied commercial
real estate. We did a little over 8,200 PPP loans with my
team of 28 full-timers, which is a pretty Herculean task, if I do
say so myself. We, my life in the last six months has been has
been a lot of a lot of lows, the occasional high, which I noticed
the inverse of that saying, We've had a lot of chaos,
there's been a tremendous surge of demands as technology
continues to evolve. I think more and more people, you know,
they don't want to go into a bank branch, for instance,
they'd much rather operate off of their smartphone or online,
you know, on their desktop or what have you. And I think what
this event has done is just simply accelerate that. I've
been a huge supporter of the small business community for my
whole career. I'm a passionate entrepreneur myself, I want to
see entrepreneurs succeed. I know how powerful their impact
is throughout the greater society. And I find it just
heartbreaking that there's going to be so many folks that never
come back from this. I also see some some glimmers of hope in
the economic data that I see on a weekly or monthly basis. And,
you know, I think I think we're back on the right track.
Sean Murray: Thanks, Chris. And thank you for watching deBanked
News. I'm Sean Murray.