1 00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:22.650 Vlad Sherbatov: My guest today is Mario Bottone. Mario has led 2 00:00:22.650 --> 00:00:26.070 global organizations in various sectors over the past 20 years, 3 00:00:26.550 --> 00:00:29.850 and is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Thinking 4 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:34.410 Capital. Thinking Capital is one of Canada's original FinTech 5 00:00:34.410 --> 00:00:38.160 companies, and in many ways has transformed the way small 6 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:42.270 businesses access capital they need to grow. The Montreal based 7 00:00:42.270 --> 00:00:46.170 company has been around since 2006. And since then, has helped 8 00:00:46.170 --> 00:00:50.070 over 16,000 small businesses with smarter access to 9 00:00:50.070 --> 00:00:54.030 financing. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Thinking Capital has 10 00:00:54.030 --> 00:00:57.720 created an extensive resource library, including the Small 11 00:00:57.720 --> 00:01:01.500 Business Health Index, which gathers sales data on a daily 12 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:05.430 basis from 600 merchants to illustrate the impact on the 13 00:01:05.430 --> 00:01:08.700 Canadian small business landscape, by industry and by 14 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:13.170 region. Mario joins me today to discuss the impact of COVID-19 15 00:01:13.410 --> 00:01:16.050 on the small business industry, as well as the lending 16 00:01:16.050 --> 00:01:20.070 community, new important trends that are emerging, as well as 17 00:01:20.070 --> 00:01:23.400 what the short and long term economic recovery process may 18 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:23.540 Mario, thank you so much. And let's just dive right in. I've 19 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:23.910 look like. 20 00:01:32.390 --> 00:01:35.090 been following the Small Business Health Index that 21 00:01:35.090 --> 00:01:38.120 Thinking Capital has put together, that breaks down the 22 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:41.570 impact of COVID-19, or small business owners, both by 23 00:01:41.600 --> 00:01:44.330 industry as well as by geography, can you just share 24 00:01:44.330 --> 00:01:47.180 some of the main insights that you've been able to gather so 25 00:01:47.180 --> 00:01:49.490 far from this health index? 26 00:01:49.900 --> 00:01:53.830 Mario Bottone: We started to keep track of the potential 27 00:01:53.830 --> 00:01:59.440 impact of COVID Burley in March. But it got obviously amplified 28 00:01:59.440 --> 00:02:02.680 pretty dramaticly over the course of two weeks and around 29 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:06.010 mid March, we were all caught a bit off guard. And this is where 30 00:02:06.010 --> 00:02:09.820 we kind of took an initiative, in light of the fact that we had 31 00:02:10.150 --> 00:02:15.040 roughly around 600 or so merchants data on a daily basis 32 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:18.040 that we were tracking, we decided that at that point in 33 00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:21.280 time to kind of take a look at what was happening with direct 34 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.210 sales activities. And, of course, we kind of wanted to 35 00:02:25.210 --> 00:02:29.410 kind of look at the progress or the lack of progress, I would 36 00:02:29.410 --> 00:02:33.550 say from week to week, day to day, and also benchmark it, you 37 00:02:33.550 --> 00:02:36.160 know, we had a situation where we had to kind of figure out 38 00:02:36.190 --> 00:02:38.560 what would be a good benchmark, we come to suggest something 39 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:42.190 earlier in the year on February 8, in terms of the data to have 40 00:02:42.190 --> 00:02:45.670 a benchmark. But we also wanted to kind of track what was 41 00:02:45.670 --> 00:02:48.580 happening in the short term in terms of we want to have a 42 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:53.290 rolling week over week type of look of the data. And hopefully, 43 00:02:53.290 --> 00:02:55.930 at one point or another track the recovery in the economy to a 44 00:02:55.930 --> 00:02:58.990 certain extent as well, right? Like some of these industries at 45 00:02:58.990 --> 00:03:03.760 this stage of the game have been able to make the giant leap to 46 00:03:03.970 --> 00:03:08.410 the next phase and kind of conditioning themselves for 47 00:03:08.440 --> 00:03:12.130 COVID-19 world to come up restaurants offer takeout 48 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:16.750 opportunities to provide your product through an E commerce 49 00:03:16.750 --> 00:03:20.140 channel. There are companies that are better adapting to 50 00:03:20.140 --> 00:03:23.440 this, the way the data was set up. It's kind of a combination 51 00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:27.040 of amalgamation all these types of companies. So by no means are 52 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:31.900 we able to parse out specific strategies that certain sectors 53 00:03:32.290 --> 00:03:36.010 are implementing and seeing if they're less effective, or more, 54 00:03:36.040 --> 00:03:40.360 it's anecdotal. That being said, it still was very early on, you 55 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:44.680 saw dramatic declines, day to day, week over week. And when 56 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:47.020 everything stopped specifically for the restaurant and bar 57 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:50.620 sector, that's where it fell off the cliff, that are some that 58 00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:53.170 are basically adapting better than others. So it's an 59 00:03:53.170 --> 00:03:55.660 interesting look, you know, by no means that we have all the 60 00:03:55.660 --> 00:03:58.660 small businesses in Canada, you know, we don't have like, four 61 00:03:58.660 --> 00:04:02.410 or 500,000, you know, merchants reporting their daily activities 62 00:04:02.410 --> 00:04:06.760 here. But it's a snapshot. And it still gives, you know, along 63 00:04:06.760 --> 00:04:10.510 with other information that we provide in our resource center, 64 00:04:10.510 --> 00:04:12.490 and it's one of the first things we did, I think we did pretty 65 00:04:12.490 --> 00:04:15.220 quickly as we started building up something we thought was a 66 00:04:15.220 --> 00:04:20.050 useful repository for small medium business that we could 67 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:23.650 direct some of our customers to. But this is an extension of 68 00:04:23.650 --> 00:04:26.500 that. We're hoping that it also gives us the first lead 69 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:29.350 indicators that the economy is starting to slowly but surely 70 00:04:29.350 --> 00:04:29.900 Vlad Sherbatov: I mean, I'm looking across the board and 71 00:04:29.900 --> 00:04:29.950 come back to. 72 00:04:31.880 --> 00:04:34.730 like you said, it may not be capturing every business owner 73 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:37.070 out there may not be capturing all the tactics and how they're 74 00:04:37.070 --> 00:04:40.730 actually adapting to what's happening. But when you compare 75 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:43.940 them side by side, certain things definitely jump out. Like 76 00:04:43.940 --> 00:04:47.090 for example, when you look at the grocery sector, they are 77 00:04:47.090 --> 00:04:50.540 down but they're down only about 12% when we're looking at this 78 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:54.200 particular week versus the benchmark week versus average, 79 00:04:54.200 --> 00:04:58.520 it's minus 60%. And the sports and leisure industry had an 80 00:04:58.520 --> 00:05:01.970 uptick because people are now work to by fitness equipment. 81 00:05:02.270 --> 00:05:05.780 Can you just speak about some of the outliers that you've noticed 82 00:05:06.050 --> 00:05:08.540 the impact and pull it is different on them than the rest 83 00:05:08.540 --> 00:05:09.200 of the industries. 84 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:11.700 Mario Bottone: There's winners and losers in any crisis, right? 85 00:05:12.150 --> 00:05:17.970 In many ways, this particular industry emerged from the 86 00:05:18.030 --> 00:05:22.740 industry that were in, emerge from the ashes of the 2008 87 00:05:22.740 --> 00:05:27.450 crisis, right. So companies do emerge from these types of 88 00:05:27.450 --> 00:05:30.750 situations, what's different in this particular situation is 89 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:33.570 that some of the companies have to get through the storm before 90 00:05:33.570 --> 00:05:36.300 they see the light of the day afterwards, afterwards, right. 91 00:05:36.300 --> 00:05:41.070 So there's a lot of work to be done. The key to this situation 92 00:05:41.070 --> 00:05:44.640 is to be able to weather the storm, and to be in a position 93 00:05:44.700 --> 00:05:49.320 of, you know, kind of adjusting your business model to reflect 94 00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:52.800 this post COVID-19 world, because I don't think we're ever 95 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:57.810 going to return entirely to a state of normalcy that we had 96 00:05:57.810 --> 00:06:02.610 prior to this place is not going to happen. So you know, we have 97 00:06:02.610 --> 00:06:07.260 to be as an organization able to identify, you know, those types 98 00:06:07.260 --> 00:06:14.610 of sectors that are going to be able to survive, stabilize, and 99 00:06:14.610 --> 00:06:17.490 then potentially thrive, and entrepreneurs across this 100 00:06:17.490 --> 00:06:21.750 country, those who've been doing business a certain way, have to 101 00:06:21.750 --> 00:06:26.040 adapt the bounce back, or the rebound scenario on the economy 102 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:29.040 is going to be slow and gradual, it's going to be a bit of a 103 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:33.960 dance in many ways that certain sectors of the of the economy 104 00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:38.640 opening up while others stay quarantined. And some of these 105 00:06:38.670 --> 00:06:43.410 merchants will reemerge those with better models that allow 106 00:06:43.410 --> 00:06:45.840 them to go through the storm and others who are going to, you 107 00:06:45.840 --> 00:06:50.430 know, literally kind of re emerge from this situation as a 108 00:06:50.640 --> 00:06:54.360 completely different business, or significantly different 109 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:56.670 business settings, probably a more accurate way of saying it. 110 00:06:57.150 --> 00:06:59.730 So, you know, we'd look at it and say to ourselves, okay, 111 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:06.330 merchants that had embraced an E commerce type of approach 112 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:11.220 platform, are had a significant digital footprint. Now they're 113 00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:15.660 well equipped to potentially weather the storm. You know, 114 00:07:15.690 --> 00:07:20.910 physical businesses, such as restaurants that provide like an 115 00:07:20.910 --> 00:07:26.340 ordering takeout option. Again, they're probably down 116 00:07:26.340 --> 00:07:29.310 considerably in our index, which suggests that but those who 117 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:32.550 basically have a takeout option at least have a lifeline, those 118 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:38.310 businesses are our best equipped to kind of see, see it through 119 00:07:38.370 --> 00:07:42.480 and stabilize over the course of the recovery, which will be 120 00:07:42.810 --> 00:07:49.440 fairly long. There are local construction businesses, who are 121 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:54.450 going to be called upon to retrofit establishments to abide 122 00:07:54.450 --> 00:07:57.060 by post COVID-19 regulations, you're starting to see it right 123 00:07:57.060 --> 00:08:02.340 now and go to grocery stores, you see these glass or plastic 124 00:08:02.340 --> 00:08:07.410 partitions that are being put up. That in itself, is we look 125 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:10.890 as a lender and look at organizations that have the best 126 00:08:10.890 --> 00:08:14.850 opportunity for stabilization, potential growth, those are 127 00:08:14.850 --> 00:08:16.020 other areas too. 128 00:08:21.640 --> 00:08:24.160 The other thing that I think is being underestimated here, and 129 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:29.500 it's not really, I would say, was not in our, our sweet spot 130 00:08:29.500 --> 00:08:32.410 as a lender and talking about the capital, but is something 131 00:08:32.410 --> 00:08:36.820 that has been emerging over the last five to 10 years, and it's 132 00:08:36.820 --> 00:08:41.020 going to become more prevalent, I think, in this new world is 133 00:08:41.020 --> 00:08:45.100 the gig economy workers. They'll technique to you know, in some 134 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:48.760 instances, or one or two people shops, maybe they'll have to be 135 00:08:48.760 --> 00:08:51.040 three, four or five, they'll have to make some investments, 136 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:57.010 because now you can see a lot of our traditional businesses 137 00:08:57.010 --> 00:09:00.640 needing to require new skill sets, whether it is to get an E 138 00:09:00.640 --> 00:09:04.180 commerce site, or additional it, maybe some specialized 139 00:09:04.180 --> 00:09:10.000 marketing, digital marketing, some logistics, some physical 140 00:09:10.150 --> 00:09:15.610 Embarkment or retrofits for their product, or their weather 141 00:09:15.640 --> 00:09:18.370 stations and how they deliver their product. All those 142 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:24.040 different elements now will make for smaller workers, smaller 143 00:09:24.280 --> 00:09:29.470 sized organizations or gig economy type workers to be 144 00:09:29.710 --> 00:09:34.450 potentially more solicited. And those are type of organizations 145 00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:39.220 that might need to invest to handle more demand for their for 146 00:09:39.220 --> 00:09:43.510 their services. And the other thing too, is, you know, in 147 00:09:43.510 --> 00:09:47.320 light of some of the issues with supply chain, we all experienced 148 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:52.030 that initial shock of going to Costco and seeing that we're 149 00:09:52.030 --> 00:09:54.760 running out of toilet paper and other products. Try to find a 150 00:09:54.760 --> 00:09:59.500 Lysol wipe somewhere it's impossible. There's gonna be a 151 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:03.910 greater dependency moving forward on doing something 152 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:07.330 related to local supply and manufacturers and distributors, 153 00:10:07.810 --> 00:10:11.110 I can ensure local suppliers and businesses might be able to 154 00:10:11.110 --> 00:10:14.680 benefit from some of these changes that are occurring. 155 00:10:14.860 --> 00:10:18.850 Vlad Sherbatov: We actually did a survey a few weeks ago. And we 156 00:10:18.850 --> 00:10:22.150 served a couple of 1000 business owners that are in our database. 157 00:10:22.150 --> 00:10:25.240 And we just asked them about their situations. And in the 158 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:28.240 very end, we also asked them to just share sort of their story, 159 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:29.650 you know, if they're comfortable, because we just 160 00:10:29.650 --> 00:10:32.320 wanted to see sometimes it doesn't come through and stats, 161 00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:34.690 what the builds business or actually experiences, we asked 162 00:10:34.690 --> 00:10:38.410 him to share some stories. And there were so many cases that I 163 00:10:38.410 --> 00:10:43.030 read, where a business was actually set up here. And it 164 00:10:43.030 --> 00:10:45.730 could be in the manufacturing space, for example, or something 165 00:10:45.730 --> 00:10:48.490 in the construction related field, that they were actually 166 00:10:48.760 --> 00:10:51.820 able to work. But the problem was that they were expecting 167 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:54.430 materials to come in from somewhere else. And that was 168 00:10:54.430 --> 00:10:58.000 literally the only sort of barrier to them actually getting 169 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.250 through this crisis, you know, they didn't get shut down here, 170 00:11:00.250 --> 00:11:02.650 they were able to stay at home, they don't have a retail store, 171 00:11:02.680 --> 00:11:04.840 they don't need it, but they just couldn't get the materials, 172 00:11:04.840 --> 00:11:05.620 they couldn't do the work. 173 00:11:06.640 --> 00:11:10.540 Mario Bottone: Exactly, exactly. I think that's also gonna be a 174 00:11:10.540 --> 00:11:14.500 major consideration in terms of how we reopen the economy, is 175 00:11:14.500 --> 00:11:18.430 what access you do have in terms of supply. As I mentioned 176 00:11:18.430 --> 00:11:24.250 earlier, there's no quick fix to this. And I think the fix is 177 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:28.780 really figuring it out from the health perspective, ensuring 178 00:11:28.900 --> 00:11:32.710 greater testing quarantine people faster, more effectively, 179 00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:39.550 and letting people come back to work, socialize, with less 180 00:11:39.550 --> 00:11:42.820 concerns about whether they're getting this thing. There's so 181 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:45.610 many things emerging in terms of information right now, I'm gonna 182 00:11:45.610 --> 00:11:49.300 help friends. And I suspect in a couple of months from now, you 183 00:11:49.300 --> 00:11:52.510 know, we're gonna go much, much more, much more testing. And 184 00:11:52.900 --> 00:11:55.930 that's when we'll feel a little bit more confident that we truly 185 00:11:55.930 --> 00:12:00.730 are not going to get really true back to the normal situation, we 186 00:12:00.730 --> 00:12:04.780 were back in, let's say my first term in February when until we 187 00:12:04.780 --> 00:12:05.980 have the vaccine, I suspect. 188 00:12:06.250 --> 00:12:08.740 Vlad Sherbatov: Right. Mario, you talked a little bit about 189 00:12:08.740 --> 00:12:12.070 how everybody sort of needs to adapt. And that includes the 190 00:12:12.070 --> 00:12:15.280 lenders as well. And we all know that access to capital is so 191 00:12:15.280 --> 00:12:18.160 important for small business owners and small business 192 00:12:18.160 --> 00:12:20.980 owners, really anybody in Canada? So what are you 193 00:12:20.980 --> 00:12:22.810 currently doing with your current customers that are 194 00:12:22.810 --> 00:12:25.000 coming to you and calling you and saying, Hey, I have a loan 195 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.450 outstanding? This is my situation? How can you guys help 196 00:12:28.450 --> 00:12:33.250 me? And my second question is post crisis, how does a business 197 00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:37.420 owner think about now in terms of setting themselves up to be 198 00:12:37.450 --> 00:12:40.150 eligible for financing in the future and have a type of 199 00:12:40.150 --> 00:12:44.110 business structure and systems in place that will make them 200 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:48.010 attractive to a lender, for example, like thinking capital, 201 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:51.340 so they will be able to access the working capital that they 202 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:52.120 need in the future? 203 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:55.379 Mario Bottone: Well, the answer to your first question is, you 204 00:12:55.379 --> 00:13:01.409 know, we've, we've been finding ways to extend loans, reduce 205 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:06.329 payments, accommodated some of the cash flow restrictions that 206 00:13:06.329 --> 00:13:10.889 our customers have. So I think we owe it to them. Our senior 207 00:13:10.889 --> 00:13:13.859 lenders have been very accommodating as well. So in 208 00:13:13.859 --> 00:13:18.569 many ways, we've been paying it forward in terms of the type of 209 00:13:19.589 --> 00:13:23.429 understanding that everybody has at this stage, the game, this is 210 00:13:23.429 --> 00:13:25.739 something that one could have predicted, especially small 211 00:13:25.739 --> 00:13:29.279 businesses who are so tight, and Representative big portion of 212 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:29.939 our economy. 213 00:13:35.150 --> 00:13:39.890 The challenge we'll have is that what worked pre COVID might not 214 00:13:39.890 --> 00:13:43.760 necessarily work post COVID. And we're going to have to figure 215 00:13:43.760 --> 00:13:48.110 out, you know, based on conditions that we think are 216 00:13:48.110 --> 00:13:51.650 going to prevail, have a bit of a crystal ball, we got to look 217 00:13:51.650 --> 00:13:53.900 at companies differently. Certainly we want to look at 218 00:13:53.900 --> 00:13:56.570 businesses that were able to make it through the crisis, 219 00:13:56.600 --> 00:14:00.260 because they had something to offer that sustained itself, and 220 00:14:00.260 --> 00:14:05.270 are probably in the best position to take, you know, to 221 00:14:05.270 --> 00:14:09.230 take the situation and just evolve and good business owners 222 00:14:09.230 --> 00:14:13.790 good business practices, a well known presence may be in a 223 00:14:13.790 --> 00:14:17.150 certain community, good customer base, you name it, those are 224 00:14:17.150 --> 00:14:20.810 type of organizations are going to, I think continue. I'll be 225 00:14:20.810 --> 00:14:23.600 it, you know, probably hurt by this, but probably continue. And 226 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:27.890 we want to look at them maybe in similar ways. But it is also 227 00:14:27.890 --> 00:14:30.380 about looking towards the future and getting a better 228 00:14:30.380 --> 00:14:37.340 understanding as to which which of these organizations are best 229 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:40.130 suited to take advantage of some of the emerging trends I 230 00:14:40.130 --> 00:14:43.880 mentioned earlier. Right. So yeah, we'll be evaluating them 231 00:14:44.150 --> 00:14:47.720 differently. There's no question the risk model we had before 232 00:14:48.020 --> 00:14:51.470 will have to be adjusted to reflect this post COVID economy. 233 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:55.050 Vlad Sherbatov: Do you think that in addition to just the 234 00:14:55.050 --> 00:14:59.430 risk model, there will also be changes to the actual product 235 00:14:59.430 --> 00:15:01.920 offerings, I mean right now in the industry, some of the 236 00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:04.770 primary small business financing options, you have a term loan, 237 00:15:04.770 --> 00:15:07.590 you have a merchant cash class, maybe a line of credit as well. 238 00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:10.620 Do you think that there will be sort of evolution of product 239 00:15:10.620 --> 00:15:12.600 offerings as well, most of the surprises? 240 00:15:13.230 --> 00:15:15.810 Mario Bottone: That's a very good question. I think there 241 00:15:15.810 --> 00:15:20.670 will be adjustments made, I think the primary vehicles are 242 00:15:20.670 --> 00:15:23.130 going to stay similar. So there might be adjustments made 243 00:15:23.130 --> 00:15:27.180 accordingly, to reflect some of the intricacies associated with 244 00:15:27.990 --> 00:15:30.840 an economy that's emerging, you know, maybe there's more risk 245 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:36.360 sharing, potentially, in certain circumstances, more guarantees 246 00:15:36.390 --> 00:15:40.950 that need to be offered in some instances. But that being said, 247 00:15:41.130 --> 00:15:45.000 I don't think there's going to be dramatic changes, I think 248 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.580 there's just going to be a different way of applying them, 249 00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:51.930 perhaps to these to these organizations, and how we 250 00:15:51.930 --> 00:15:55.260 evaluate risk is going to change, that's for sure. You 251 00:15:55.260 --> 00:15:59.190 know, somebody in my entourage said the other day that 252 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.230 restaurants have been around for 4000 years. So they'll be around 253 00:16:04.230 --> 00:16:08.010 after this too. They might be different, they might have to 254 00:16:08.010 --> 00:16:12.990 abide by certain codes and approaches. But there's still 255 00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:17.850 the need for people to get together and have a meal. We 256 00:16:17.850 --> 00:16:22.140 just got to figure out which ones have the best chance of not 257 00:16:22.140 --> 00:16:26.370 only being sustained through this process, but also thriving 258 00:16:26.400 --> 00:16:30.420 in a new model, a new a new post COVID economy. 259 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:38.040 Vlad Sherbatov: What do you think, is the role of the 260 00:16:38.040 --> 00:16:41.010 FinTech online lending community as a whole and I know Thinking 261 00:16:41.010 --> 00:16:44.190 Capital is one of the one of the oldest players in the game, you 262 00:16:44.190 --> 00:16:46.680 know, so I've even heard somebody say that they were they 263 00:16:46.680 --> 00:16:50.490 were FinTech, before FinTech kind of became a word. So I 264 00:16:50.490 --> 00:16:53.070 would like to know from your point of view, what is the 265 00:16:53.070 --> 00:16:57.120 responsibility or the role that the that the online FinTech, 266 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:01.530 small business lending community should have? Or has right now to 267 00:17:01.530 --> 00:17:03.960 help us as a country sort of get through this period? 268 00:17:05.190 --> 00:17:07.740 Mario Bottone: In general, if you look at the fact that the 269 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:12.750 natural reaction everywhere, is to try to tap on the shoulders 270 00:17:12.750 --> 00:17:14.850 of the banks and say, Can you help us? Remember the 271 00:17:14.850 --> 00:17:17.130 government's here. Can you help us get the money to the right 272 00:17:17.130 --> 00:17:21.090 hands? Well, FinTechs are uniquely positioned because we 273 00:17:21.090 --> 00:17:23.940 deal with these small businesses on a day in and day out basis, 274 00:17:23.970 --> 00:17:26.700 we're talking to them, they're calling us. And we have the 275 00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:30.720 mechanisms and the technology to get the money to them within a 276 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:35.310 period of time. That's extremely reasonable. So we're hoping that 277 00:17:35.580 --> 00:17:39.780 we can be a big player in this, in all this. That being said, 278 00:17:39.810 --> 00:17:44.100 this is about helping Canadian small businesses. And we believe 279 00:17:44.100 --> 00:17:49.530 that the answer is technology. Really, the answer is processes 280 00:17:49.530 --> 00:17:54.180 that go between 48 and 72 hours from application through 281 00:17:54.300 --> 00:17:58.890 disbursement of funds, we want to make sure that we're a 282 00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:03.330 solution that the government could utilize the agencies can 283 00:18:03.330 --> 00:18:05.910 utilize to get the monies to the right people at the right time, 284 00:18:07.170 --> 00:18:10.350 isn't going to happen, we're hoping, we're definitely gonna 285 00:18:10.350 --> 00:18:12.570 be there for the recovery. But we'd like to be there during the 286 00:18:12.570 --> 00:18:13.230 storm as well. 287 00:18:14.410 --> 00:18:16.330 Vlad Sherbatov: I think that's really great. And I get to see 288 00:18:16.330 --> 00:18:20.320 the letter that you did with the OnDeck. And, and I think that 289 00:18:20.320 --> 00:18:23.320 common goal that we have for the entire end for the entire 290 00:18:23.320 --> 00:18:26.530 economy to really be bound is how all the different even 291 00:18:26.530 --> 00:18:30.010 competitors are rallying together. And because we all 292 00:18:30.010 --> 00:18:32.290 have that common objective, and I think that was really, really 293 00:18:32.290 --> 00:18:34.480 great to see, I'm actually very proud of the way that our 294 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:37.840 industry has responded so far, overall. And they're in a very 295 00:18:37.840 --> 00:18:40.390 proactive way, not just human on the business lending side. But 296 00:18:40.390 --> 00:18:42.910 even on the consumer lending side. There's so much great 297 00:18:42.910 --> 00:18:44.980 information that you've shared, I want to really, really thank 298 00:18:44.980 --> 00:18:47.230 you for your time. And for these insights. 299 00:18:47.290 --> 00:18:48.940 Mario Bottone: Thank you for this. Well, I think we need to 300 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:51.490 be confident that the economy will get back on its feet one 301 00:18:51.490 --> 00:18:54.910 day, we just need to figure out, you know, who will be best 302 00:18:54.910 --> 00:18:58.300 suited to kind of take advantage of these new dynamics that we're 303 00:18:58.300 --> 00:19:01.240 going to have to face. And that's, I think, the goal of 304 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:05.320 this, of this financing community now, look at the world 305 00:19:05.350 --> 00:19:06.820 a little bit differently than we did before. 306 00:19:07.950 --> 00:19:09.960 Vlad Sherbatov: Thank you so much for your time, Mario once 307 00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:12.630 again, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.