Johny Fernandez: Hey, what's going on everyone, and welcome
to deBanked News. I'm Johny Fernandez.
Sean Murray: And I'm Sean Murray.
Speaker 1: If you're looking to grow your ISO business, your
broker business, your funding business, this is the event to
be at.
Speaker 2: There's tons of networking.
Speaker 3: Whether or not you're a funder, you're a broker,
you're a service provider, you're the media. It's really
wonderful to be here.
Sean Murray: Okay, hello, everybody. My name is Sean
Murray with deBanked. Thank you for your patience and waiting
for us today.
Johny Fernandez: And I'm Johny Fernandez. And as you can see,
we are not in the studio, we're in a different location today,
here in midtown Manhattan, because today is going to be an
awesome day where we have a day full of live interviews planned
out, but we'll get to that in a little bit. But Sean, let's kind
of go into what we usually go into. Let's talk about the daily
news and kind of, you know, the different topics that we've been
talking about for the last week or in the last couple of days.
Sure. So Sean, first thing, let's start talking about COVID
recovery. I mean, that's obviously on everyone's mind.
And that's something everyone's been talking about with the
vaccine. But also, you know, in the business, in the industry,
and just in general here in New York and across the country.
Let's talk about number one, how we've seen businesses affected
because of COVID. And then we'll talk about the comeback, the
recovery aspect of it, because here in New York, we have seen
that, you know, there are a lot of businesses that are shut
down. So it's definitely something that's impacted, you
know, the city and the economy across the board.
Sean Murray: Sure, yeah. And when you were talking about what
we've been talking about, what Johny's referring to is that
we've been live streaming, technically, for the last few
months. Yeah. Right. This is our first off site, live stream,
we've actually been doing this every Monday and Wednesday for
the last few months, we usually do it around 1215. So if you
ever want to tune in, you can go to debanked.com/tv. And you can
tune in and you can watch Johny and I anytime for free. You
don't have to register, you don't need to subscribe. You
don't need Zoom. It's usually Johny and I. And so we've been
talking about different things throughout the last few months.
And now here we are off site kind of in celebration of the
COVID era starting to wind down. Yeah. And you were mentioning
about businesses being impacted and how it's affected New York.
And what's interesting is that we've been in it. Yeah. In New
York, right.
Johny Fernandez: From the start.
Sean Murray: From the start.
Johny Fernandez: Do you I remember it like looking back
when we when this kind of thing, that we did not know what it was
started last year. You know, we like you got everyone in the
office together and said, hey, we're gonna go ahead and take
two weeks off, and, you know, hopefully come back. But those
two weeks turned into the longest year ever. Yeah. And now
we're back though now things are things are starting to wind you
know down, especially the last couple of weeks with, you know,
the the amount of vaccines that people have been able to get and
then just I don't know about you, but for me specifically
here in New York, you know, it's just been different seeing
spring come around and seeing the winter really kind of come
to a close because that also put a huge damper on just life in
general here. But now things are starting to kind of seem more
alive and the weather's great, and you walk outside. But one
thing that is very interesting is seeing like when you do walk
outside how different companies and how different businesses
are, are no longer there. But there's also a sense and a
feeling of hope that new things are coming along.
Sean Murray: Sure. Yeah. And I don't remember what article it
was. But I saw a stat that said, like one out of every six, New
York City restaurants has already gone out of business,
but that the rate of new restaurants starting up in New
York has actually doubled over what it normally is. And so
that's great from an economic standpoint, but I think as it
pertains to our audience, who is heavily invested in the business
finance industry, that it's in a huge opportunity. And that's
because typically, if you're a small business, you need a large
track record, a lot of time to go and get a bank loan. Yeah.
Right. And if you're starting up, if this is the year you
started up, and you're like, you know, I here like, I'm helping I
started my restaurant. Yeah. I'm gonna go get a loan from a bank.
They're gonna find out pretty quickly, you know what I mean,
that banks aren't going to lend to a startup. Yeah. And so what
we're going to find as we begin this recovery is a lot of
startups who are going to come out of the woodwork and be
applying for capital for the very first time and that's a
huge opportunity for the business. You the you know, the
alternative nonbank business finance industry.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And I think it's interesting to also
point out that, you know, there, there has been different things
going on in New York. And something like me and my
girlfriend were discussing yesterday, for example, is that,
you know, New York always changes, but specifically with
COVID. And how it hit New York, it has revolutionized and it has
changed how New York operates, I believe so. But some people
would say it may be in a good way some people may or may not
fully agree. And, you know, we've seen people leave to go to
other states. But I think overall, the New York recovery,
specifically for COVID, because of COVID, is going to be
something completely different. And I think it's going to change
New York, and it's going to change, New York in a unique
way. And I think like you said, we are going to see different
businesses come back to New York, and they're going to be
probably a lot of startups. You know, there was an article that
I did read that businesses and you know, millennials are now
this is their opportunity to come into the city and enjoy it
at a cheaper price. Sure. And it's definitely an opportunity
for business owners, like you said, to start something, and
also, you know, take advantage of alternative finance if they
can't get the funding from a bank. So Sean, let me ask you
this, when it comes to having people in the industry, utilize
this specific opportunity to help other businesses really
capitalize on making sure they get funded correctly. What would
you say to that, like, what would you say to the people in
the industry that are trying to, you know, maybe feel stuck right
now and or aren't getting enough leads? Or, you know, are trying
to survive?
Sean Murray: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, that's a, that's a long,
you know that's a long topic, right. And we have some guests
today, who will probably weigh in on that. But, you know, we
just had the COVID winter. And it's kind of twofold, because
you have businesses whose revenues dropped down
significantly, and that heavily impacted their ability to get
funding, but you also had PPP, and the EIDL program, and
imagine competing against a free government grant. It's like
impossible. Yeah. In fact, the whole concept of a free
government grant or forgivable loan is what it really is, isn't
really supposed to exist, right? And yet, it did in the last
year. And so if you're a broker out there, and you struggled,
it's kind of it goes back to what I said before, is going to
get better, a lot better, because PPP will be over, EIDL
will be over. And then you're gonna have all these new
businesses that are going to come in, that are not going to
have a track record, to go to a bank, and they're going to need
alternative finance. So I had been saying it since the very
beginning, that we're going to have the largest demand for
capital that we've ever had, ever had, you know what I mean,
once this is all over, and you mentioned something about
millennials moving into the city, in the wake of COVID, I
actually moved to the city to Manhattan in 2008. Okay. The
whole city was, you know, clearing out because of the
financial crisis. Yeah. Rent plummeted. And guess what? I
moved right in. Yeah. You know what I mean, so, you know, they
were talking about the death of New York City back then, in
terms of, you know, housing and all that stuff. But for me as a
young person, in those days, I moved right in. So I think right
now, if you're a broker out there, and you're struggling, I
think, just hold on, and I think you're in for, for pretty good
times.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. And let me ask you this, Sean, like, do
you think that brokers, you know, in the industry, but also
people that are moving here, new business owners, when do you
think they will need this assistance from, you know, I
feel like everyone can benefit from everyone. So when will the
brokers need the assistance of the new businesses, new
businesses, need the assistance of the new brokers? Do you think
it's something that if you're watching this right now, you
should join in immediately and start taking advantage of these
opportunities? Because even though COVID isn't over, but we
are starting to see the cusp, end of you know, what COVID.
Like I guess a hardcore COVID, time. So what would you say?
What do you think people should start jumping in and really
starting to seize advantage and start looking ahead or start
focusing on what they've lost?
Sean Murray: Well, I don't think anyone should be looking back at
what they've lost. I think it doesn't make any sense to look,
you know, look in the past and only look forward. And as far as
should they just jump in. I think it's gonna depend on the
geography of the country that you're focusing on and on the
industry that you're focusing on, because we've already seen
in Miami that the economy has kind of already rejuvenated
itself there, right? And as for a business owner, when are they
going to when are they going to go and apply for this capital? I
think part of it is going to be as soon as they realize that
they are that they need the employees and that they need the
inventory. Because a lot of these vendors out there who are
selling the supplies to restaurants, they're gonna want
to get paid in cash even I mean, I don't know how forgiving
they're going to be with terms and stuff and stuff like that.
So they might say, I'll take you on, but I need to get paid in
cash, the restaurant or the business it doesn't have to be a
restaurant, it's like, well, I really need the cash upfront,
I'm going to turn it all over and make a lot of money. Yeah.
That's the time when they're going to go out and get funding
from an alternative finance provider. Same with employees, a
lot of the companies that at least in the New York area that
survive, they really, you know, they downsized substantially.
And once they realized they are going back to full capacity,
it's going to create a hiring boom, but it doesn't mean you.
You all of a sudden have all the money to hire. Yeah. You kind of
need the money first. Yeah. It's risky to just hire someone
hoping that you will make the money quick enough. To make the
first payroll. Yeah. Right. Like you have to you kind of have to
get the money first, then do the hiring, and then hope everything
else. I mean, that's what I would do. Personally. And, you
know, we we mentioned before we've both been here. Yeah.
Through COVID.
Johny Fernandez: Through whole thing.
Sean Murray: Through the whole thing, right? And.
Johny Fernandez: We didn't leave, to think about that is
wild to me, because we literally did not leave, at all.
Sean Murray: Yeah, well, a little disclaimer, I did leave
for from March or March, March to June, and then I came back.
And I've been taking the subway ever since. So since June of
2020. I've been taking the subway and I took the subway to
the studio here today.
Johny Fernandez: So talk about that, I also took the subway
here to Manhattan. What was your experience ike? What is New
York, in your eyes, I mean, you know, going into the office and
going home, what has it felt like for you?
Sean Murray: Well, in the beginning, it was weird, because
there were times when I was actually the only person on a
train car. Yeah. And usually, that's a really bad sign. You do
not want to be the only guy in a train car. Because that means
something bad happened in that train car. And you don't want to
be in that car. But there were a lot of train cars like that, and
nothing bad happened in them. And and then I started to worry.
Should I be worried that I'm alone in the train car? You
know, because something happened? Yeah. You know what I
mean, so I and I took pictures and I have some video footage
where you know, I'm like, took 360 degree shots. I'm like, here
I am on a train by myself. Yeah. But that has started to change
substantially. I noticed it around the holidays where people
started to pick back up. Yeah. And ride and ride the train. And
then today I took the took the the B train. Yeah. And, you
know, it wasn't like what it was, but I thought it was pretty
full. Yeah. You know, I mean, like, people were standing, you
didn't have to get. Yeah. You didn't get a seat.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. So it's funny, because I think I believe
I've had a very similar experience to you being here,
you know, locked down in my apartment, when everything went
down last year, and then seeing the city progress. And then like
all the changes, you know, we went from like, I used to live
close to the park. So I would see like no one outside, and it
was the craziest thing. But then from there, like I would see
people starting to come. And I think a big factor is definitely
the weather, the weather is a huge factor when people come out
here specifically. So you know, last summer, things were a lot
different things were a lot livey, but a lot more live. But
I also did notice that people were a lot cautious. They were
super cautious about moving, you know, and being close to people.
But as time progressed, and now that we're here, it definitely
feels a lot different, because I feel like people have finally
been able to relax a little bit. Yeah. But also, like you said,
the transportation getting in a cab, you know, getting on the
bus, you know, it's definitely different because now, similar
experience to you, I had to take the blue line, you know, the A,
and then I transfer. And it was very interesting, because there
was no room to sit, you know, and I think that's a really good
indicator of you know, what exactly is going on in regards
to number one people going back to work. Sure. And then also
people being comfortable to take public transportation or to take
something as simple as a cab. Like, I feel, I felt like that
was something that people were also very nervous about doing.
But it was a safer way than riding the train. And I've been
in situations like you where I was also, you know, the only one
in the, you know, the subway car that is just like me, by me by
myself. So it was also very interesting seeing that, you
know, at certain times that you're just the only one there
and I think I've gotten used to that. But now I have to
reprogram my mind and realize that like this may have been a
once in a lifetime thing. Yeah. Seeing New York like this. And
now things are coming back.
Sean Murray: Yeah. You mentioned something about people getting
more comfortable. I want to give a special shout out to all the
people I saw on the sidewalk this morning with the mask down
smoking old fashioned cigarrettes, just blowing the
smoke around. I was like alright. We're back. Yeah that's
a sign. Like that's the sign. That's the recovery. That is the
recovery. The New York recovery looks like this with smoke
blowing. Yeah, I was like alright, we're back baby.
Johny Fernandez: We're back. We're back. Let's do it. And
it's exciting to see the city come back. You know, it's
exciting to feel the energy and I went to Times Square because I
had a friend visit from college and we went to Times Square and
it was packed. It was crazy because the first time in
probably maybe six months that I've seen it, that pack where
you're like, literally having to fight your way from 42nd Street
just to get in and like, kind of move around. And it felt like
old times, even though it wasn't and you know, there's still the
pandemic going on, but it felt like old times, and it was
great. It was great to see just the city, you know, start
coming, becoming alive again.
Sean Murray: Yeah. And, you know, that's good, because a lot
of people been working from home. And I think that we'll
find a lot of people return to the office. Yeah. And I think
that what we're going to see is, we're going to see brokers
return into the business. I said on I said on social media before
that, the brokers will come back, and a lot of them never
left. But interestingly enough, and this is a stat, I haven't
told anybody, but people want to know how many how many people
left or are gone, right? Well, we happen to run the
DailyFunder, which is a great, which is a great way to measure
that activity. Yeah. And we sent out, here's what we did, we sent
out an email in March of 2020. Okay. And then, without adding
anyone to the email list, from then until March 2021. So this
doesn't include any of the new people that have joined
DailyFunder since we then send out a second email. Okay. Right.
And we've just to see, you know, for a variety different reasons,
but one was to monitor how many of these people don't exist
anymore. Yeah. And it was about seven and a half percent of the
audience. It was. I mean, that's, that's significant.
We're we're talking about hundreds, hundreds of. And these
are, these are the accounts. These are the email addresses
that no longer exist, right. So there was more brokers that left
the business who whose domains haven't expired, or you know
what I mean, or they haven't cancelled them. Those are ones
that have lapsed to the point where their domains don't exist
anymore. Seven and a half percent, is what was what fell
off. Now we've gained a lot of new followers on onDailyFunder
since and we've seen a huge influx, I don't want to say
huge, but an influx. Yeah. Of brokers joining DailyFunder. And
that brings us back to well, people are joining joining the
business. Yeah. For the first time.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. Well, I was gonna ask you this, I think
that that's a perfect segue for the next conversation that we
want to have is if a new broker joins the business within this
year, which has been a crazy year, what would your piece of
advice be for that new broker a day in the life of a new broker?
Like, how do you get started? How do you, you know, pretty
much gain these leads? How do you compete with number one,
everyone else that was here before you, but also in a time
that is very unique, that no one's really, really had an
instruction manual, about how to navigate?
Sean Murray: Yeah, well, it's a little bit of a different period
of time starting to be a broker now, I said a long time ago,
probably at this point six, seven years ago, if you only
have a couple 1000 bucks in startup capital, don't start a
broker company, because you're gonna find out that the cost,
you know the learning curve is enormous. You have all these
other costs that come with running a shop that are
enormous, you're going to have to pay out something in attorney
fees or something. So if it's just a couple 1000 bucks, I
would, you should go work somewhere, you should go work
for a broker shop, but you shouldn't start a broker shop.
And we were just talking about this, just, you know, I don't
think we've done on video, but we were talking about what does
it take for a broker to start up? And it's as simple as, you
know, a phone, an email, and leads and also a relationship
with the funder, right? And five years ago, you know what else
was there? What other piece of it was to that whole thing? It
was you were competing against other brokers. Yeah. Right. And
leads were expensive. You were competing against other brokers.
And what's changed now, especially after COVID? You say,
well, how is it any different? I think one of the main
differences is that you're not just competing against other
brokers or you know or funders, right? You're not just
competing, you know, against other people. And I don't want
to say you're competing against, you know, tech, right? Yeah. But
you're competing against a button, like an actual button,
that now exists in a lot of software that business owners
use. Yeah. Whether it be an inventory thing, a point of
sale, a credit card processing thing. It's pretty common now to
see a button. Yeah. I've seen it in Square Yeah. You know, you
can swipe a card or you can key enter a card, and then or the
capital button, and it will tell you how much you're pre approved
for and you just click it and you're funded. And that's it.
Right so if you're, if you're a broker, you now need to compete
against that and you need to find out you need to figure out
if your product is competing against it, or if your product
is an add on to it. Are you the broker that comes in that says
what you got through Square, or Stripe or you know what any of
these companies was it not enough and can I help you with
additional? Or if you believe to be if you believe yourself to be
competing against those customers, how do you reach that
reach them in such a way that they trust you more or that
they, I feel like one of and this, this is a larger
discussion. But one thing that you could potentially use as a
broker is to convince somebody that it's better to have
somebody to hold your hand through the whole thing and
compete for a better deal versus whatever the machine, you know,
the software, the button is giving you because if you click
the button, oftentimes there's nobody there to guide you
through anything. And I don't think there's any competing
offers presented to you. It's kind of like, here's what you're
approved for. Do you want it yes, fund, right? And so if
you're a broker, and maybe it's about proving your value of
working with a person who could potentially get you some
something better, and also talk to you through the whole thing,
because I know, you know, when you get the fine print, and
it's, you know, they brag about how you can do it all from your
smartphone. And are you signing like a 20 page contract on the
smartphone? You know what I mean? Yeah. Do you really know
all the terms? Yeah. I don't, maybe, you know, maybe they do.
I don't know.
Johny Fernandez: I mean, yeah. But it's also like,
realistically speaking, like, usually you just scroll
everything down, and then you just don't even read it.
Sean Murray: You just yeah, it's like when you sign the, you
know, the new license, the new license agreement, right? Yeah.
Like when you download anything that's like, did you accept the
terms? It's like when Facebook updates. Yeah. And you're like,
I just want to get to my Facebook. Yeah. And it's just
like, do you agree to this new 100 page of like, you know,
surrendering your identity to Facebook? And you're like, yes,
because I want to post a picture.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's it's great advice. And,
and I think throughout the rest of the day, we're also going to
be hearing about different tactics and just advice from the
different people we have. So Sean, let's go ahead and just
walk people through what people and what our viewers can expect
today for the rest of the day. And what we have planned in the
agenda.
Sean Murray: Yeah, so it's, this is a two and a half hour event.
So this is going to be over by about one o'clock. One o'clock.
We have two brokers and funder here with us today. We have
Horizon Financial Group, we have United Capital Source, those are
from the broker end. And then we have Central Diligence Group
from the funder side. So Horizon Financial Group will go first.
These are not presentations. Yeah. These are these are these
are conversations, there will be an interviewer. It is for the
most part, unscripted, there hasn't been any rehearsing, or
any or anything like that. So it'll it'll be an open
discussion, you get to pick the brains of the brokers and and of
the funder. Yeah. And there will be some content that's played in
between that as well. And this, you know, this isn't necessarily
an event. In fact, this is just a way for us to, you know, bring
you back into the industry, right? Because it's the spring,
it's new beginning. And if you want to keep following these
type of things, well, you can do that every day or not every day,
every Monday and Wednesday. Tune in you can hear from Johny and I
sometimes we will have guests there. And if you want to be a
guest you can you can reach out. Reach out to us. Yeah.
Johny Fernandez: So and obviously if you know viewers
have any ideas or they have they want any they want to take you
know, any input and give it to us hand it over to us.
Definitely reach out online, email us, and really let us know
because we definitely want to hear from our viewers and kind
of really start a relationship with them and us and really give
them what they would like too and like you said it's kind of
like your, your jacket, things are blooming. So.
Sean Murray: Yeah, my jacket bloomed this morning.
Johny Fernandez: What was your reaction when you left the
house?
Sean Murray: I got some, you know, eye rolls. And even some
well, not on the subway. Okay. On the subway. Yeah, I look this
is. This is New York. This is the normal getup, right? Nobody
batted an eye. That's how you know we're back.
Johny Fernandez: That's how you know we're back yeah, people. I
had a performance on my subway today. You did? Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. So that's how you know New York is back. So.
Sean Murray: Nice.
Johny Fernandez: Hopefully soon.
Sean Murray: Oh, I want to give a plug. Because here we are
doing this live stream. And for those of for those of you who
are wondering, when are we going to be all together in person.
Well we're going to have Broker Fair, our biggest event it's
going to come back to New York. We're in New York right now. But
we want all of you to come back to New York on December sixth,
at convenient Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan, you can go
to brokerfair.org To learn more information and also register to
get a ticket. And so, you know, this is just this is you know,
this is not a virtual event. This is not really even an
event. Yeah. The event is coming in person, massive event and
Broker Fair.
Johny Fernandez: What's what's great about that is that that is
going to be, you know, just a preview of next year when
hopefully things get back to normal and we can all be
together again, and we can all kind of get back to what we
knew. But I feel like this is going to be next year's just
going to be a way for us to reunite and be better than what
we were before. Yeah. So, totally exciting. It's an
exciting time, I think it's an exciting time.
Sean Murray: And to that end when you talk about next year.
We'll be back in Miami in 2022. We do not have a date yet so
stay tuned for that but Miami we'll be back we have not
forgotten Miami in fact, you've been in Miami.
Johny Fernandez: A few times. Yeah. And it's really
interesting seeing just how things are going down there and
for the business aspect of things to also just seeing, like
the community and the vibrancy of Miami, so Miami is definitely
back. And they're excited to have us. I mean, everywhere, you
know, within the industry, everyone knows deBanked.
Everyone knows, Sean Murray, everyone knows, you know, we
have a couple of surprises when Miami happens, you know, and
it'll be exciting. So yeah, so again, it's an excitement just
like your jacket. And we'll definitely be seeing everyone
soon. And again, for deBanked News Live. I'm Johny Fernandez.
Sean Murray: And I'm Sean Murray.
Johny Fernandez: And we'll see you guys next time in the
studio. But for now, stay tuned. Because there's definitely more
exciting things coming up.
Allyson Berger: It doesn't seem like COVID slowed your business
down. You were out there making calls and things are happening.
James Celifarco: Yep. phones are ringing, which we're doing the
best we can, you know, did a lot of work with PPP. We got people
coming back into the office. It's just good to be here with
everybody. And it's it's exciting.
Allyson Berger: Yeah, we're happy to have you here. You
pride yourselves on making things happen in 48 hours. Has
COVID slowed that down a bit? Are you still keeping that time
in?
John Celifarco: At the beginning of COVID, I'd say things slowed
down a little but we are back to normal timing on things now.
Things are, it's a new normal, but it's not a bad normal.
Allyson Berger: Yeah. What do you think?
James Celifarco: Well, I think that, you know, the phones are
ringing again. So we're happy to talk to our clients that we've
had for years. We're happy that our lead sources are starting to
get us some new clients. But like John said, it's a new
normal, you gotta you got to change with the time so we're
ready for it.
Allyson Berger: Right, we got to keep it moving. And we're in
midtown Manhattan life is here. We're doing things.
John Celifarco: Yeah it's I mean, it's a little weird
walking through the streets. It's not like it used to be. But
not having been in the city in probably five, six months. It's
really good, just to be back and see that things are starting to
get back to where they should be.
Allyson Berger: Yeah. Do you still feel the vibe and the
energy of New York?
James Celifarco: Yeah. I'm glad that Sean announced the new, the
new deBanked event coming in December, I cannot wait for it.
So that's something to look forward to.
Allyson Berger: Events are always a good thing. I mean,
we're together now people want to see each other right?
John Celifarco: Oh, definitely. It's Zoom was great to help us
get us through this whole thing. But to actually be in a room
with people. There's a different energy, different ability to get
things done than when there's not a computer screen between
you.
Allyson Berger: Was it weird adjusting to doing business via
Zoom?
James Celifarco: You have no choice. You know, it's survival
of the fittest. So whatever we had to do to get clients in and
clients funded. If it was Zoom, if it was over the phone,
whatever's gotta be done. We had we gotta conduct business.
Allyson Berger: Yeah.
John Celifarco: Yeah, no, at the beginning, there really was no
choice. So if it was weird or not didn't matter, it was find a
way to make it work, get used to it. But now that we're moving
out of that, and there's some in person meetings happening, it's
nice to get that human contact back.
Allyson Berger: So people are coming to the office to meet
with you?
John Celifarco: They're starting to I mean, it's definitely a
different sort of vibe, I'm in masks and all that. But it's
nice just to know that you have that ability that you could say
come to the office or have a meeting outside six months ago,
that wasn't even an option to be able to say that. And some deals
get closed a little easier when you could meet somebody face to
face.
Allyson Berger: Right. How have you seen the the needs for these
businesses change over time?
James Celifarco: Oh, well, their income is really down, you know,
so they need money. You know, whether it's through PPP or
EIDL, or MCA or SBA, it's just hearing their story and
providing the service. So it's everybody has a different story.
And you have to be really open to their situation.
Allyson Berger: And we're so excited to hear more about your
story, the brothers in business.
John Celifarco: Thank you very much. No, we we love deBanked,
we've been working with Sean for a long time. So anytime we get
the ability to come on and have a conversation with him about
the industry and just what's going on. We look forward to it
a lot.
Allyson Berger: Yeah, it's exciting, fun, and then you end
up with trouble like me.
James Celifarco: I'm looking forward to trouble. Anything but
staying in the house. So trouble is fine. And maybe Sean will
teach me a little fashion advice. That jacket is
everything, man.
Allyson Berger: Yeah, he Spring has sprung for him. It's about
your time to you know, get the colors going.
James Celifarco: I look a lot like Johny Fernandez. So I'm
trying to look like Johny but I gotta shop with where Sean
shops.
John Celifarco: I don't know. I don't think I could pull off the
jacket like Sean does. I think I'll leave that to him.
Allyson Berger: That's alright. He's the boss anyway, right. But
it's great to have you be a part of our family and get things
going and talk and then you'll head into the hot seat.
John Celifarco: Thank you so much. We look forward to being
here.
Alright, guys. Stay tuned, there's more to come on deBanked
live.
Kevin Travers: Hey, so it's deBanked TV live. You guys had a
little behind the scenes with James and Johnson Celifarco from
Horizon Financial Group. But now we're going in with our sit down
just conversation. So this is my first time finally meeting
brokers from the industry after a year of quarantine. And even
in the greenroom, they were taking calls left and right. So
tell me how have you guys managed working in one of the
worst years ever?
John Celifarco: I would say definitely kept us on our toes.
The industry was changing so fast between what's going on
with our clients and how fast their business fell off, and
what their needs were, and what funders in the industry were
offering, because of that, I would say I learned, I didn't
think there was so much more to learn. But because of new
products, different things that our clients needed, we had to
learn a lot more in order to fulfill their needs, especially
with a lot of the government programs, PPP, EIDL, a year
ago, none of this existed. So we both had to learn it very quick,
and then be able to explain it to our customers, for the ones
that needed that as well as 20 million other problems and
things that you never would have expected to come up in such a
short period of time.
James Celifarco: You know, I think we're in a service
industry. So we're trying to service other people's
businesses, but we're looking at each other try to help our own
business. So, you know, it's tough for us as a business
ourselves. But then you have other people coming to us for
answers. So not just, you know, trying to help other people, but
trying for us to stay in business as well.
John Celifarco: Yeah, I mean, just so many funders at the very
beginning, stopped funding. So then it was finding who you
could get deals done with. And then as people came back, I
mean, we're both in the industry going on 10 years, 11 years
each. And you think you understand our product, and then
underwriting all these things change at the beginning of PPP,
and we had to relearn how things were getting done, and then be
able to be good at it so that we could deliver for our customers.
So it was it was definitely an interesting year to say the
least.
James Celifarco: We we really relied on other people in the
industry as well. So we'd call up, you know, other partners,
what are these banks doing? What kind of restrictions are in
place? Who are they funding? Who aren't they funding? So just
being an open source of education back and forth.
John Celifarco: Definitely being in the industry, as long as we
have, relationships, being able to call up somebody that I trust
and say, is this what you're seeing, or them being able to
call me. Yeah bounce ideas off of each other was a huge help
getting through this whole time.
Kevin Travers: Absolutely. And I know, one of the things that
sort of sets you guys apart is you have an in person, sort of
brick and mortar branch in Brooklyn. And I wonder what I
mean, what has it been like having to deal with closers and
openings? How has that affected your experience, and also the
experience of many people you do deals with who have their own
branches or businesses in person?
James Celifarco: Well, you know, it's great, because people
always would just come in, just stop in and if something went
wrong with their POS system or the credit card, or they wanted
to discuss SBA, all that stopped, you know, we, you know,
they didn't want to come in, we didn't want to have people in,
John was in the office for most of the time. And, you know,
everybody else was working from home, I got a, you know, family
at home. So I was doing the whole homeschooling thing. And
so it was it was different, you know, we that brick and mortar
thing that we had to our advantage really went to the
wayside when you know, couldn't have people in so people were
opening the door grabbing a card, you know, we were having
conversations outside, but it it changed.
John Celifarco: Yeah, I mean, people, someone come in ask
about credit card processing, ask about an SBA loan, that
completely stopped. But now you get a lot more someone knock on
the door, take three steps back and be like, oh, could I get a
card? Do you do this type of thing. And definitely a few more
conversations out in the street on the sidewalk, then, instead
of in the office, but again, things are coming back. Now we
have more people coming into the office we have, we're able to go
to other people's offices, six months ago, that wasn't even
possible. So every day, it's getting a little bit more and
more back to normal. So that's a good thing.
James Celifarco: We do a lot of work with the community too. And
so we have a park down the block from us. So anytime something's
going on. We see a lot of people from the community at the park
and we'll show other business owners are there too. So events
and stuff like that. So a lot of things are happening outside,
things are starting to open back up the community starting to
buzz again. So a lot to look forward to.
John Celifarco: I'm just ready for it to get back to normal
every day, we get a little bit closer. And we see it in
business, our phones every month, the phones are ringing
more and more. when this first started, at the very beginning
of the pandemic, everybody was so worried about how to keep
their business alive, its I mean business fell off. Probably
those first couple of months it may have been with like 80%. But
as each month it's gotten busier and busier, and now we're almost
back to normal. And with a lot of the new products and stuff
that we didn't even offer at the beginning. There's whole new
parts of our business that may not have existed if it wasn't
for the pandemic it definitely made us think outside the box to
expand our business in some new directions.
Kevin Travers: Yeah, and about that there's the paycheck
protection program we're on. This year. There was a new round
released for this year, but that's a major thing funders or
brokers had to deal with is how to either offer programming
through that or products. How have you guys sort of adapted to
this new environment with the PPP program? And is there any
new deals or anything things you worked on?
John Celifarco: Well, there was two rounds, the first round that
came out last year, nobody knew what it was. So we really
weren't very involved in that we were just sort of like learning,
getting information. But what we saw was that with the government
offering all this low cost or free money, people weren't
looking for more conventional types of money that we were
offering. So when the second round came out, we wanted to be
more involved with it. So we got as much information as we spent
a lot of time figuring out A where we could get the deals
done. And then also how we could bring deals in so that we could
try to capitalize on it, we signed some good deals, we had
some good partners, and it's been, it's really been the focus
of our business for the last two or three months just being able
to process as many of these as possible.
James Celifarco: We brought a lot of deals in you know, and
it's giving us the opportunity to work with a ton of new
businesses that we, you know, wouldn't have access to, without
PPP, now that they're in we have their information, we're talking
to them about, you know, cross selling them different products,
credit card processing, or MCAs, it's giving us a good
opportunity to have access to a ton of data that we can now
market to.
John Celifarco: It's a whole new pool of customers that we
wouldn't have had if it wasn't for this. And now they trust us,
we were able to help them through this hard time. And
doing a doing that for them. Now, next time they need
something if it's short term financing, an SBA loan, that
credit card machine isn't working, they need new credit
card processor, now, they know us, they'll come back to us. So
it's definitely been something we never even thought of before
that's now become a very big part of our business.
Kevin Travers: Absolutely. That's, I mean, that's great to
hear. Is there any major deals you guys would like to talk
about through PPP, or?
James Celifarco: Well, we did strike a deal with the Uber
union. And we're working with all the Uber drivers on their
PPP loans. So there are, they're independent contractors, and
they're, they use their schedule C to get a PPP loan. So we're
working with them. And you know, we're talking about 1000s, and
the drivers all through the city. So it's been a huge
opportunity for us. So.
John Celifarco: That's been the biggest, I mean, probably six,
7000 of those applications alone. And that's without even
talking about the regular customers that we got. So that
was a huge deal for us. And hopefully we're doing a good job
by helping them get the money they need. And whatever comes of
it, just help us grow in the future.
Kevin Travers: Awesome. Well, I guess we're gonna move to some
bonus round questions. More auot because I'm finally meeting
brokers in person. Yeah. But I guess I first want to ask like
is, in this day and age is coffee still for closers, or I
Janene, our events coordinator. Keeping it together, she said
it's more like Irish coffees.
John Celifarco: Coffees, for everybody, if you were able to
get through the pandemic without drinking coffee. I don't even
know how that's possible.
James Celifarco: I don't care if you're an open or closer or a
secretary that you're bringing in business, I'll give you
anything you want. Bourbon, coffee, water, anything you want
at your desk is A okay in my book.
Kevin Travers: Absolutely. And I guess sort of on that vein, I've
been looking through all the necessary background reading
would buy me movies about brokers, and Wall Street's is
running like a boiler room a thing that's possible in 2021 or
2020?
John Celifarco: There are companies out there that do that
sort of thing that was never, I never liked doing business that
way, it was we're more relationship driven. We want to
know our customers, be able to give them a good experience.
There are companies out there that have huge call, call
centers, big floors, very that type of thing. But that was
never, I didn't come up working for a company like that. And
then when we went out on our own, that wasn't the type of
deal that we wanted.
James Celifarco: We always went with service services, our whole
thing. So we're the kind of guys that we don't schedule calls,
you can stop in our office, you can call our cell phones, very,
very informal. And I think it goes a long way when people feel
comfortable with their businesses, is their most prized
possession. These are small business owners, they live,
breathe and eat everything about their business. So for them to
trust you with a lot of time commercial mortgages, you're
dealing with their biggest asset, their their buildings,
and their homes and their loans. And this is a very, very
intimate thing. So you got to you know, you can't be that,
that. That type of style, I guess.
John Celifarco: And it could work for some people just not
for us, I would say.
Kevin Travers: Cool. Well, good. I guess if you were a young
broker starting out, how would you what would you have to do to
make a million dollars in a year?
James Celifarco: I guess it's all relative, I would say I
mean, I.
John Celifarco: A young broker starting out. If you're coming
in with the hope of making a million dollars your first year
you're getting into the wrong business. I mean, the most
important thing for a new broker is go work for a company. We're
going to learn your craft learn the right way to do this.
business, if you have the know how, if you work for the right
company, if you learn the right way to do things, the money's
going to come. If you're good at what you do, you will make money
in this industry. But if you walk in looking for a quick
buck, just walk in and make a million dollars right away. I
don't care if it's this industry or another industry, that's not
just not the right way to come in and look at something.
James Celifarco: And it's all it's also relative, you know, if
you're making a million dollars, but you spend the 950. You know,
it's, you know, a lot of people make a lot of money, but they're
also spending tons and tons of money to do it. So it's all
relative.
John Celifarco: It's also how do you want to live, some people
are very happy, you can make a ton of money, but you have to
work a million hours to do it. Some people may want are happy
making a good living with and having some an outside life. So
I guess it again, comes down to what's most important to each
individual person.
Kevin Travers: Cool, well, what's important to each and
every person what I guess speaking about that, what has
kept you drawn towards the broker, sort of salesman,
lifestyle, going into work, trying to make money, leave
work, put in time, tell me about it.
John Celifarco: What drew me to it originally, is, I always like
to eat what you kill. If you put in the work, excuse me, if you
put in the work, if you work hard, you're good at what you
do, you're gonna make money, it didn't require somebody else
giving you a promotion, or somebody else giving me a raise.
Any dollar I ever made in this industry is I earned it, I
worked for it, and I got it. And that was what always brought me
back and what I always liked about it.
James Celifarco: You're in charge of your paycheck, exactly
what John said, I'm driven by my family, you know, I got mouths
to feed. And if I got to make 150 calls a day, that's what I
got to do. This is you know, I've been doing this 10 years
now, or probably longer than that. But this is my, this is my
industry, you know, so this is what I have to make it work. So
if it's, I gotta call this lead, I gotta get that paperwork in, I
gotta get it submitted, I gotta get it approved, I gotta get
funded, I gotta keep this relationship going, I gotta find
the leads, I gotta be the accountant, I gotta keep the
website running, you know, you got to wear all the hats, and
you got to get it done. It's, it's, like I said, I got a
family to support. So that's what drives me.
Kevin Travers: And learning, I guess, it must take an
experience to learn how to sort of manage all that is there any
sort of advice you have about through the years things you
picked up, learned, mistakes made about how to, obviously
stay alive through a pandemic so far?
John Celifarco: Don't be scared to make mistakes, I think is
really good advice. We've tried a million different things.
Since we've gone into business, some have worked and made us a
lot of money, some have failed, and they didn't. But always be
willing to try something new look at a new technology, a new
lead. So it's a new product. Sometimes it works, sometimes it
doesn't. But most of the times it doesn't. But you can't be,
you can't be scared, you can't be scared of failure, you got to
be willing to try new things. Look for the next big thing and
try to stay out in front of the industry. That is always
changing, keep your ear to the ground know what's going on.
James Celifarco: There's always lead sources, you know, you
could try 10 lead sources, and you could invest all this money
and you know, you wasted money. But if you find one lead source
of out of it, they could supply you with lead for years to come.
So, to talk on John's point, you got to be willing to take
chances, spend money to find the right relationships.
John Celifarco: Yeah it's and be willing to grow. Don't put
yourself into like one box. We started as strictly an MCA
company, and we grew into SBA loans and credit card
processing. Now we're doing PPP as time changes, who knows what
the next thing that we're going to have to learn or grow into is
but you need to be willing to grow and stay at stay ahead of
the curve.
Kevin Travers: And staying ahead of the curve is I guess, just
what you got to do to stay treading water this year, but
it's almost over soon. And we're opening up soon, hopefully.
James Celifarco: Cheers to that.
John Celifarco: Yeah, looking forward to it and looking
forward to the event is great news. December 6, everybody's
gonna be back together again. And looking forward to that.
James Celifarco: Yeah, been too long since we were at one of
those events. We could see everybody's faces see what's
going on.
John Celifarco: And get down to Miami
Kevin Travers: Were you heckling Sean off screen here?
John Celifarco: Book a Miami event, please.
Kevin Travers: Well, I can't wait. I've never been to one of
the events before but I'm so excited to go and it was so
great meeting and speaking with both of you guys. And well I
can't wait to see what comes next.
John Celifarco: Thank you so much for having us, really happy
to be here and be part of this, our first, deBanked TV live, was
that?
Kevin Travers: That's right.
John Celifarco: Okay, there it is.
Allyson Berger: Hey, everyone Allyson Berger here for
deBanked, we are live in midtown Manhattan. I am now joined with
the lovely Jared of United Capital Source. How're you
doing?
Jared Weitz: Great. Thank you. How are you?
Allyson Berger: I'm fantastic. I'm so happy to have you here.
Jared Weitz: Thanks for having me.
Allyson Berger: It's so nice to be in person. Doing things live
in real life. And not virtually.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, used to Zoom calls most of these days, but
this is my first in person, which is nice.
Allyson Berger: Oh, I'm so honored to be the first person
for you. So how has it been doing things so virtually?
Jared Weitz: I'm not so much of a virtual guy or a Zoom guy more
of an in person guy. So I've had a difficult time adjusting to
Zooms. But my team's doing great.
Allyson Berger: That's fantastic. Is it coming back to
life a little bit more? Are you moving away from the virtual?
Jared Weitz: So we've had actually our new sales and our
renewals in office, and we've had our operations accounting
and marketing out of the office.
Allyson Berger: So it's a little balance.
Jared Weitz: We've had a good hybrid.
Allyson Berger: That's great. And do you see yourself going
full back to normal anytime soon?
Jared Weitz: I think we're gonna keep this hybrid going.
Allyson Berger: Really? And why is that?
Jared Weitz: You know, sales for me is more of an in person day
to day, I think you have a better handle on what your peers
are doing. And what's happening through different funders
changing their rules and guidelines. When you're at home,
I just for me, as well, it just felt like I was more out of
touch with everyone. Right? Right. My marketing team and my
accounting team, my operations team, they more so work on their
own anyway. So they're used to working in that environment and
can work at home easier.
Allyson Berger: It's interesting, you know, everyone
has a different outlook on how life has changed, and what's
better for them and what's easier for them. But it's nice
that you're so aware of how your team does better in different
avenues.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, absolutely. I try to look at myself and how
I'm feeling about my day and my workday, and then just
understand how my team would also feel about that.
Allyson Berger: Yeah, and I'm glad you thought today's gonna
be a light day. You didn't know I was gonna hit you with some
hard hitting questions.
Jared Weitz: No, so far it's been okay.
Allyson Berger: It goes light and then hard. You never know
what's gonna pop out, especially when we're doing live events.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, I'll take it whatever you guys have.
Allyson Berger: Do you see a live events happening anytime
soon? How do you feel about attending them?
Jared Weitz: Yeah, I think live events. I'm thinking more toward
the end of the year, as the vaccine rolls out more. I think
people will definitely want to attend them in some fashion and
probably have to do some color coding to understand how close
you are allowed to get to certain people.
Allyson Berger: Yeah, we're both in black. So I guess we're
allowed to be a little closer.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, black means only one foot apart.
Allyson Berger: Oh, okay. Perfect. That works out. Great.
So how has your business model change? I know, we talked about
Office, how, who, who's where working? But how has your
business model changed throughout this past year?
Jared Weitz: Our model has not really changed. Actually,
throughout the year, we've always been a marketplace broker
that was able to produce different offers and products.
And so as one product, you know, may have been slower, we were
able to just look at others. And thankfully, we were able to
participate in the PPP program and help a lot of businesses and
save a lot of jobs.
Allyson Berger: That's fantastic. I mean, we all need a
little help these days.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, me included. I'll take it.
Allyson Berger: I'm not there for your help, though. I'm there
for everyone else. But that's so fantastic. So where do you see
the future going?
Jared Weitz: You know, for us we'll continue to hire and we'll
continue to grow out our multiproduct channel. I think
that the business loan landscape is becoming more normalized, as
this vaccine does rollout and as this PPP program finishes.
Allyson Berger: That's great. It's good to hear see a positive
light at the end of the tunnel.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, absolutely.
Allyson Berger: Fantastic. Well, Sean's wearing different colors.
Everyone else is wearing different colors. So you're
gonna have to figure out the new color coding on how close you
can get can get to them.
Jared Weitz: I'll figure it out with Sean, we'll do a winking
system.
Allyson Berger: Oh, that sounds exciting. Alright. Well, stay
tuned, everyone, there's more to come from deBanked live.
Johny Fernandez: So Jared, let's go ahead and talk a little bit
about your background, your business. The first question is
going to be let's start from the beginning. You know, you're a
born and raised Brooklyn, boy. And you you went to college at
St. John's, you know, you also ended up going to the south. And
then you ended up back here in New York. So walk us through how
you went from, you know, doing these normal jobs. You know,
where you were a teacher at one point, you know you also worked
at the JCC. When you were in New Orleans. You also ended up in
plumbing. So from that to where you're at now, let's let's kind
of go back to that a little bit.
Jared Weitz: Yeah, definitely. You know, I think like most of
us in school, you're just trying to figure out what your actual
passion is. And I just had a lot of things that I really enjoyed
doing. And I just remember always loving to stay busy. And
so I always had multiple jobs at once and coming from a big
family, it was important to be able to provide for myself as
well. You know, mom and dad had a lot of my younger siblings to
take care of. And so like my first working papers were at
like 13 years old. My first job was at McDonald's. And, you
know, from there I had so many different different careers and
jobs. And then through college, I was just taking any job that
was paying a certain amount so I can pay my way. That's really
what the mindset was. And so that's how I ended up in so many
different industries throughout, it was all different pay levels
to really be able to pay for my education. So I followed a girl
to the South that I thought I would end up with and then
didn't end up there. I met Hurricane Katrina. So then I had
to come back to St. John's. And I had to do some more schooling
over there and kind of start from scratch because I had lost
everything in the hurricane. And so I was going to school and I
was working at night as a valet. And one of the guys that I had
been Val laying for said, Hey, why don't you get a job with me
in the plumbers union. My name is Jean Cardoza. I own Cardoza
plumbing, and it was one of the largest plumbing outfits in the
city. And so once I just understood the opportunity, and
then it could really schooling, I just said yes, I was literally
in his office the next morning, and I signed my paperwork, and I
was in the union. And so I was working in the day, and then I
was going to school at night. And then I was still valeting at
night. And then one of my buddies that I was laying with
got a job in the city at Merchant Cash and Capital, which
was later biz fi, and they were hiring new people. And he had
said to me, you know, you gotta meet this guy, Steve shine down,
he's super charismatic, like this company is gonna blow up.
And I'm like, you know, I'm doing pretty good in the Union,
and I'm probably gonna finish out and become a teacher. And I
remember talking to one of the guys in the Union about the
opportunity, and he's like, You're crazy. If you don't meet
that guy. I'm like, really why? He's like, Jared, I told my son
to go be a doctor, don't don't be a plumber. And he showed me
his hands. And his hands were like this. And he said, you
know, 30 years of plumbing do and it just kind of stood out to
me, you know, and it made me want to go meet this guy. And,
and I met Steve and Mike was right, he was super charismatic.
And I really believed in the vision. And so I took a shot
again, and I shelved my book for 90 days in the union. And I
tried this job out for 90 days. And after 60 days, I was pretty
sure that it was for me, and I left the union. And I just
started working full time at this company. And I really put
200 of myself 200% of myself into it. And I started in
underwriting. I worked my way up to business development. And
then I co founded their inside sales division next level
funding, they had made me a 10% owner of it, I was, you know, I
really hit the roof, I was like you really made it, you know, I
was 25 at the time, 26. And so it was a pretty big deal for me.
Most of the peers that I had started there with, I watched
them all leaving and kind of going on their own in the
industry. And that just hadn't really dawned on me. And then
one day I was talking to Steve, and he was explaining to me that
as they were building the company out, they needed some
more gray haired folks he had said, which really just meant
people with experience, to build and be on their board. And he
was kind of nicely telling me like you're not going to be a
board member anytime soon. And so we just worked out a deal
where I sold my shares back to him and I went on my own with
United Capital Source at the end of 2010. And then from there,
it's it's been a pretty wild ride for almost 11 years.
Johny Fernandez: That's wild. Yeah, that is wild. So Jared,
something that I've noticed about you just talking with you
and reading up on you is that you took different risks in
life. Yeah. 2020 has obviously been a big part of many people
taking a risk, and being scared of starting from scratch from
like building your way back up. So what advice do you have to
someone that is either new to the business, or that is
thinking about starting in the business? Or that is thinking
about just taking a risk like you did? What advice would you
give them?
Jared Weitz: You know, the first thing I would say is to just,
for me a lot of the risks that I took, thankfully, I was at a
eugenic place in my life as well. I wasn't married yet. I
didn't have any kids yet. And so I also felt kind of bold enough
to do that. So I would definitely take that into
consideration today. But more importantly, I would say if you
have a skill set, and you have a real desire and will to succeed,
I don't think there's much that would stop you these days from
going on your own and being entrepreneurial and starting a
business. The one thing I will say is that you will be tested
time and time again, whether it be with a world pandemic or some
of your largest partners closing some of your closest employees
leaving. So you really have to have like zero quit in you if
you're going to take this path.
Johny Fernandez: And what would you say in regards to people
that are trying to figure out what their next step is and how
to maneuver? You know a next step, whether it's whether it's
in the business or whether it's just doing something new in
general.
Jared Weitz: I think if someone has an entrepreneurial spirit,
and they look at what they're good at and what they like
doing, and then look at the different industries of what
that looks like, they can pretty easily I think, create a plan to
start something. And something that I did, you know, I had
emptied my 401K, and I had emptied my savings at the time
to start United. And so it was, it was really an all in move for
me.
Johny Fernandez: So at this point, you know, you had you
couldn't just, you couldn't quit it, you know, there was no
option for failure.
Jared Weitz: There is no quit. Yeah, after 11 years,
thankfully, I can say that, you know, I've bootstrapped this
business, we have not had any loans, and we have no debt. You
know, I've grown this business from all the dollars that it's
earned itself. Most of my staff that started there is actually
still there with me, the average employee tenure is about eight
and a half years.
Johny Fernandez: So what do you think? Why do you think your
business specifically is different? And people have been
able to stay there long. And also, you know, you guys haven't
had to close, because of something like the pandemic,
what do you think has made you successful in regards to being a
business owner?
Jared Weitz: You know, I watch a lot of different shows and
reading different books on business. And one person that I
really admire is Marcus Lemonis. And he talks a lot about people
process and product, right. And so in an industry like ours,
where everyone has access to a certain product, right, you
really have to differentiate yourself with people in process.
And so for me, what differentiates us definitely is
our people, you know, I focused on building a culture versus a
business. And I think that is what has made us successful on
the on the people side. And then our process, you know, a lot of
people in the industry throw around the word fintech. We're a
finance brokerage. We're not a tech company. But we have some
really cool tech built, and we have some really cool technology
that enables us to make our process faster.
Johny Fernandez: So what advice would you have to someone that
is in the business that's fairly young? What advice would you
have to them about moving up about just trying to get ahead?
Jared Weitz: I say that someone should look to partner with a
larger firm, and learn the business and understand what
their growth pattern is going to be. And learn from a mentor. You
know, that's why I think I was able to be successful, you know,
I did start my business on my own. But I had this background
from MCC. And I worked with some of the most talented people. And
still to this day, you know, I talked to Steve Shinebam, I
bounce things off him. And I think it's important to have
business mentors that enable you to stay on your path.
Johny Fernandez: Really interesting question that I've
seen, you know, not only in this industry, but in other
industries, is how do you not burn out?
Jared Weitz: That's a difficult question. You know, sometimes
you'll feel like you are burnt out, right. And I think that's
just part of the job. I actually don't have an answer for why I'm
not burned out with the amount of hours I work, I feel like I
should be I just, it really goes back to having that zero, quit.
I just I don't really think about that to be honest, it's
really not even in my head. I don't think about how many hours
I work a day, or how many hours I worked this week, I focus on
goals. So as long as I'm just reaching those goals, I'm not
too focused on much else.
Johny Fernandez: That's awesome. So moving forward, you know, the
business in general, you know, the business, the industry, what
exactly do you think is going to happen in the future, and also,
how has business had to adapt and change because of something
like the pandemic?
Jared Weitz: So I think the future for the finance industry
is always bright. And you know why I say that is because I
believe in entrepreneural. I believe in entrepreneurship. But
I also believe in small business. And I know that 52% of
the economy is small business. And so that just doesn't go away
tomorrow, whether there's a pandemic or not, right. And so,
today, what I see happening in our industry is that states will
come in and they'll create some more regulation around what's
happening. I think that's positive for the industry.
Right? Once a set of regulations is in place, there's nothing to
really worry about nothing looming. I think disclosures
will become more and more potent in our in our industry, whether
it be commission rate and term. And I think that brokers are
really going to have to become really familiar with privacy
laws, privacy guidelines, and data disclosures, because that's
coming down the pipe, as I see from different states as well.
Johny Fernandez: So speaking about that, I know there has
been different states that have put different that have wanted
to pass different bills, different laws into place, you
know, pretty much hindering the business from moving forward or
putting different, tying down brokers and having them follow
different rules. What would be your advice, you know, for
someone that's just starting out about, you know, working around
these different rules, different hurdles that someone like you
didn't really have to go through because it was in place.
Jared Weitz: You know, I think for us, we've always focused on
being a consultative brokerage. And so we've never hidden
anything about our pricing or our term or our product. And so
if there were disclosures that were to come out, we've already
been operating that way. And we've already been selling that
way. And so if you're doing the right thing, and you're being
honest with your clients, any of these things aren't really an
issue for you. It's the lenders that are going to have a little
bit more of an issue with their borrowing base and their cost of
capital if there are certain cap on rate and term for them. In
turn, that trickles down to the brokers a bit. But there's other
folks and products coming out like American Express's Kabbage,
and those guys are coming back out. Folks like Idea, folks like
business backer in headway, you know, most of these people are
already following the guidelines. So when these things
come out, it's already that you're working that way.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. So obviously, 2020 was a big year,
and it changed a lot of people changed the way businesses work.
So from what you can say, for the future for you guys, what
does that look like?
Jared Weitz: You know, we'll continue to operate as a
marketplace and offer multiple products. Equipment Financing
has become bigger, as I see right now, as is, you know, the
SBA loans. I think as the government loans calm down, our
industry will begin to tick back up. And for us, that is the
focus, is just understanding what product is going to be the
best at the time for our clients and then pushing it there.
Johny Fernandez: And then what advice would you have to people
that are wanting to get into the business, the industry?
Jared Weitz: I think it's a good industry to get into, but I
think that there are areas of it that you can get caught in a bad
way. And so I would say to align yourself with some of the best
folks in the industry. And you can probably find a lot of those
people on the SBFA's website, and on deBanked's website, where
you can see all of the different funders and brokers and their
ratings and what they're doing. And I would say there's who you
really align yourself with over the next two years.
Johny Fernandez: So in regards to moving forward, just how you
guys do business? Do you, how do you think that's going to
change? Or not only you, but just the industry in general, do
you think there's gonna be any changes because of COVID-19?
Because of the pandemic, do you think, do you believe that the
industry has to kind of evolve and change? Or what are your
thoughts? And what are your views on that?
Jared Weitz: So I think that a lot of brokers and funders as
well will continue the hybrid model of working from home and
also having some in the office, right. I know a lot of funders
are getting rid of office space and finding that their
operations and underwriting are able to work well from home. So
I think that the way that people work will continue to change, I
think the products that we sell, will not change the pricing and
the terms of them and the disclosures around them will
change.
Johny Fernandez: That's awesome. And it's interesting in regards
to, you know, starting something from the ground up for someone
that just is starting, what would be your best advice to in
regards to financing, something like that, and trying to bring
the money to be able to start from the ground up?
Jared Weitz: I think starting from the ground up, is is is
really great, because there's nothing like that initial grind
and really learning from your mistakes. I will say that in
this time, you should be especially careful with capital.
And you should really understand and have a plan for you know,
your first initial six months, but try to plan to have at least
12 months of operating capital, if you're going to go out on
your own and start this way, especially during this time, I
will say that you have a benefit because you don't need office
space. And a lot of people are working from home. And so you
can probably save a little on your SG and A costs.
Johny Fernandez: And someone, someone watching these two that
are watching this set, see you and see your success that our
business owners already that are in the game, what advice would
you have for them in regards to just trying to get through the
rest of this pandemic and just moving forward?
Jared Weitz: I think in general, the same as me, anytime you see
someone that level of success, you're likely not seeing what
they're doing to achieve that success. And so I would say that
everyone, whatever level of success you're at, you're
working really hard. And the advice I would give to anyone is
you have to work really hard all the time to stay on your own and
be in your own business and be successful.
Johny Fernandez: So when you say like working hard and just
grinding, what do you think has helped you kind of eliminate
time wasters or eliminate things that number one, people that
waste your time but also just techniques or or habits that,
you know, have pretty much made you productive.
Jared Weitz: You know, most of the things that I've learned are
from the mistakes I've actually made. So I can tell you that,
you know, a lot of the good processes that I've come up with
is because I've worked through the bad processes first. And
that's what I think people are going to go through, you know,
it's difficult to tell someone, this works best for you, because
you're not them. And you're not in that in that area. Even in
our sales floor, you know, we don't have scripts, because I
don't think there's one way to kind of sell and operate. So I
think that there's an overall looming bunch of rules that you
should follow. But then you have to kind of make it into your
own. So for me, I understand, don't waste your time, follow a
schedule, have a strategy, I use different apps that helped me
follow my time and schedule. So it's difficult to operate
loosely.
Johny Fernandez: Yeah. So really quick, because we have to wrap
up soon, what apps do you use, and what time do you wake up?
Jared Weitz: So I generally wake up about 430, five o'clock every
day. And then I'm generally going to bed between 11 and
12pm.
Johny Fernandez: So very little sleep.
Jared Weitz: So a little bit of sleep, but I've not ever been
someone that was someone that slept or rested a lot, you know,
so that's not for me. And the apps that I use, I can tell you,
I use my iCalendar for almost everything that I do with my
alerts. I also use LastPass, which is huge for me, because
it's an encryption software for all my passwords that I need to
get into. Okay. So that actually is big. I don't know any of my
own passwords. They're all in this thing, you know. And that's
a time saver, and also a data protector for me. And so those
are like my two biggest apps and scan easy and sign anywhere.
Johny Fernandez: Awesome. I'll definitely take that one into
consideration too. Alright, Jared, thanks so much for
joining us.
Jared Weitz: Thanks for having me.
Johny Fernandez: And you guys. Thank you guys so much for
joining us. Again. I'm Johny Fernandez here with Jared Weitz.
We'll see you guys next time.
Allyson Berger: Hey, everyone Allyson Berger here for
deBanked. We are live in midtown Manhattan. I am now with Andrew
and Nick of the Central Diligence Group. How're you guys
doing?
Nick Gregory: We're doing great, nice to meet you.
Allyson Berger: You too.
Andrew Hernandez: Nice to meet you as well.
Allyson Berger: So we are going to keep this fast and simple.
Just like your business motto. Have you been keeping things
fast and simple throughout this past year?
Nick Gregory: Absolutely. Without a doubt.
Allyson Berger: Do you agree?
Andrew Hernandez: As much as we can with everything going on.
Allyson Berger: Has it? How has it changed for you guys?
Nick Gregory: Well, we've had to obviously adapt to the company
culture and people working remote and trying to work
through problems and issues through you know, social media
and other types of chat platforms.
Allyson Berger: It sounded like when we were chatting earlier
that it's been a little difficult at times to do things
virtually. How has that been for you?
Andrew Hernandez: So we did a couple months working from home,
everybody was working from home. A few of us got back into the
office in July. And eventually the whole office was backed by
October. It's just easier to work from home doing what we do.
Easy to communicate. We tried the Zooms. We tried the chats
and whatnot. But ultimately, we all like being together anyway.
So works out.
Allyson Berger: It is nice being people to people, face to face
it, and it must help your business doing things face to
face.
Nick Gregory: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's it's very difficult
now that even just to, you know, cultivate the relationships that
we've had, for so many years, it's just you know, we're
working through it. We're working through it as much as we
can. So.
Allyson Berger: You guys have been doing great. I mean, you're
here right now to tell us all about it. How do you see things
going in the future?
Andrew Hernandez: We think this is a good, you know,
reassessment of everything that's going on with just small
business in general, we've made the changes to and adapted to
what's going on, in terms of, you know, what's going forward?
I don't have a crystal ball. But.
Allyson Berger: Wait, you don't?
Andrew Hernandez: Unfortunately not. But we're doing our best.
You know, we're always talking to each other communication is
key with not only ourselves, other funders, other brokers in
the industry, and looking to build on those relationships
that we've cultivated over not just this time, but over the
years.
Allyson Berger: Most definitely. And I wish you had that crystal
ball, it would help out with a lot of things. Do you see
anything happening?
Nick Gregory: I think we're definitely at a at a moment
where we're going to springboard forward from here. You know,
there's constant media news with different variants coming out
and everyone's getting vaccinated and not vaccinated. I
think eventually we'll get to a plateau of, you know, kind of
somewhat normalcy, but you know, it's going to take time, but
we've been pushing through and, you know, trudging forward as
much as we can over the past several months,
Allyson Berger: Of course, and I mean, we're here right now.
We're live in person. I feel like this is a good step
forward.
Nick Gregory: Oh, 100%. Yeah.
Andrew Hernandez: Absolutely. It feels good to be back. The
weather's nice. Good to just be around people again, people we
know. So.
Allyson Berger: Right. Of course you're most welcome. How do you
feel about New York coming back?
Andrew Hernandez: Little by little, like I said, we've been
back in the office since late June, early July. And we've seen
the progress that, you know, has been happening over the past 10
months or so. And we think it's gonna bounce back, New York
always bounces back. So we're looking forward to it.
Allyson Berger: I definitely agree, we got to see the hope.
Well, I'm gonna let you bounce to the next hot seat. So you can
get into some more about your story and what you guys have
going on. So stay tuned, everyone, there's more to come
from deBanked live.
Kevin Travers: So here we are, again at deBanked TV live. Now,
Allyson, started to introduce these two from behind the
scenes, but we're here with Andrew Hernandez and Nick
Gregory from Central Diligence Group. And how's it going, guys,
I hope your family and friends are staying safe and healthy in
this time. What can you tell me about, how long have you been
open and working in the office?
Andrew Hernandez: We started to come back late June, early July.
And once everybody got comfortable with everything, the
whole office was back by about October. So it's been a slow
progression towards that. But I think everybody now is
comfortable with everything. It's better to be back in the
office for us. I think everybody has realized that as we've been
going through it. We tried the Zoom chats, we tried the chats,
the regular chats. And ultimately, I think the
communication is just better being all in one place.
Nick Gregory: Yeah, no, I would definitely agree with that. I
think the human interaction of you know, being face to face,
especially in our type of business where we actually need
to interact with the underwriter and, you know, you convey your
message a little bit more effectively in person as opposed
to, you know, discussing a deal or talking about a file over a
chat, you know, for that matter. So it's definitely more of a
collective approach when working on certain files.
Andrew Hernandez: Exactly.
Kevin Travers: And speaking of, I guess, trying to adapt this
year, how has underwriting changed or had to maybe
accelerate, or what changes have you looked at through your
underwriting process this year?
Andrew Hernandez: I think one of the, you know, in terms of
underwriting, especially for alternative financing, in
general, the criteria is always changing, you're always kind of
looking to see what's going on in the world. And COVID-19
really kind of took that to the next level, there was multiple
changes that needed to be made, and they needed to be, they
needed to be made quickly. And we had to pay attention to what
was going on. And, you know, things change over time, as you
know, what an essential business was in one state wasn't an
essential business in another state. And that made things a
little tough, but not only with us, you know, and our other
partners, our actual underwriters, our employees had
very much to say, and kept track of everything, and they provided
their feedback to get us better in, you know, underwriting and
doing our diligence.
Nick Gregory: Yeah, for sure. No, I was just to kind of add on
to that. I think, prior to the pandemic, and working remote, we
were definitely looking at files in a more traditional manner,
you know, what kind of business they were dealing with what kind
of FICO score, what kind of cash flow, etc., things of that sort,
and just kind of placing them in different boxes and risk
associating that, you know, accordingly. I think, you know,
as things have kind of evolved through this, this, you know,
era, if you will, we've we've definitely had to shift gears
and look at businesses that are, you know, were high risk before,
and now they're, you know, deemed essential, you know,
trucking for example, you know, you hear that industry thrown
around, and nobody wants to touch trucking and everything is
just, you know, let's keep it to, you know, tier one, retail
shops, but those are actually becoming more problematic, at
least now in the short term than they were before. So we've
definitely had to shift gears and kind of look at deals a
little bit differently. Definitely.
Kevin Travers: And I guess, talking about shifting gears,
how did you guys look through staffing and finding your
training new underwriters, I that has to be different, when
suddenly, were a lot of the world's remote.
Andrew Hernandez: Definitely makes things difficult. And it
always depends on, you know, the position that you're hiring for.
Obviously, if you're you know, underwriting in, especially
again, and whether it's MCA or alternative financing, um, it's
a very particular thing and you're looking for someone
that's kind of going to fit with the whole team. And at the same
time, you know, somebody that's gonna want to be in the office,
and that was very challenging for us. I think Nick can speak
to that in terms of bringing people in and making sure that
they were comfortable with being in the office again, so.
Nick Gregory: Sure, yeah. I mean, definitely from from an HR
standpoint, you know, there's you're dealing with the
implicant the implications that were, you know, obviously dealt
to us, and just trying to adapt from a company culture. And now
everybody's working remote and everyone's in their own silo
and, you know, working independently. And from a
management stand, we're dealing with underwriting files. So it's
it's very, very simple in that regard. But at the same time,
like I said earlier, to, to work through a deal and to work
through a file and to really kind of pin pin the, you know,
the high points and the low points and discuss if this is
something that we want to approve or not. That's where we
had to adapt and make certain, you know, fine, fine tuned
adjustments, if you will.
Kevin Travers: And I guess, knowing how to adapt is what you
guys are good at, you've been around underwriting for a very
long time, what can you tell me? I mean, what's kept you afloat?
You have to be making good decisions if you're underwriting
for this long.
Andrew Hernandez: Yeah, you know, as far as kind of what we
touched on earlier, it really comes down to being able to
adapt to whatever's going on, and making those changes in your
underwriting criteria, and what you're looking for always
learning new data sources that become available, you know, your
own internal information, whether, you know, just
performance on your own portfolio, what you hear from
other funders or other brokers that are obviously in the space,
and what's going on, what they what they hear from their
clients. So, taking all that into account is always, you
know, it changes the criteria from month to month, week to
week. And we you have to be willing to do that, in order to
keep going.
Nick Gregory: Sure, yeah. I mean, you know, obviously,
making sure you have a pretty sound collections process is
also imperative, especially during, during COVID. And, you
know, we tend to try to understand the situation with
each merchant independently, and not just throw them into one
specific box, everybody's in a different location, dealing with
different circumstances, but collectively as a whole, we
understand what's going on. So we've been trying to work, you
know, those files we can and, you know, keep those
relationships strong. So I think that's, you know, the other side
of it.
Kevin Travers: You need an enforcer.
Nick Gregory: Yeah.
Andrew Hernandez: Absolutely. Ultimately, you need somebody
that understand what's going on. As Nick said, every business has
its own individual, you're dealing with an individual, for
the most part, and especially with these small businesses, and
everybody has their story, and you have to be willing to work
with them. You know, everybody's in the same boat. So just
understanding that it's key.
Kevin Travers: Now, what do you have to, working with an
individual, a lot of your work is sort of sifting through
making sure the deals you agree to are deals that are, I mean,
get a profit. Go ahead. So how, I guess on the other side, what
can a broker do to sort of bring the most attractive, the most
likely to get funded deal to you guys, what sort of stands out
when looking through stuff that, you know, this is gonna make
money?
Andrew Hernandez: I think in terms of kind of touching back
on the collections aspect, and, you know, understanding the
client's needs, I think that's key for a broker understanding
that, you know, what do they need, what are they gonna use
the funds for? Is this the right product for them, spending more
time with them to understand that makes our job easier as
well. And, you know, it's something that that's how we
build our relationships, understanding our client's
needs, which are the brokers, and building on that, so they,
you know, if they do the same thing, I think we'll all be
very, very successful. So.
Nick Gregory: Yeah no, I think we do that from from both
levels, actually, you know, from the merchant side, you know, we
want to bring those relationships, you know, and
expand those relationships over many, many years, as long as the
products the right fit, but at the same time, we also want to,
you know, cultivate those broker relationships, which are hard
during, you know, that's, that's our, our niche, and, you know,
we like to provide good customer service, they can get on the
phone with the underwriter, if they have questions, they want
to sort through certain issues, or whatever may come up from a
black and white standpoint, but sometimes that black and white,
you know, we're living in a gray world. So, you know, that ends
up getting, you know, through in a very structured manner, where
it runs through our checkpoints, but you know, if it, if it hits
all that those those data points, and we kind of provide
the right assessment, then yes, ultimately, that's a that's a
client we want to keep and some someone that we're willing to
work with. It's funny, because, you know, yes, we've been doing
this for so long, and the businesses that you think are
not going to pay back and not going to perform actually do
better than the ones that you think so. You know, there's
there's a fine line between looking at just the data and
understanding the business and the relationship. So.
Kevin Travers: And I guess part of the changes of the this year
is an increase in fraud, I imagine, I mean, I get like two
robo calls a day trying to steal my bank information. So I can't
imagine like well targeted fraud attacks towards funders or in
your industry. What can you tell me about how you guys have
managed and dealt with that new or changing environment.
Nick Gregory: I think just, you know, from our underwriting
practice, you know, once once a file comes in, we do more of the
heavy lifting up front, you know, we don't just kind of run
it through a quick process, send out a contract and kind of
handle the deal from there, we do you know, more of that, that
diligence and that analysis upfront. So we kind of get a
good handle as to what we're working with who we're dealing
with. But ultimately, we have our checkpoints, sort of the pre
approval all the way through the underwrite to the, you know,
contract being signed, and the merchant interview. So we have
different levels of, you know, fraud checks, if you will. And
some of the data sources that we use are proprietary, I think
that kind of gives us a little bit of an edge to mitigate that,
that fraud.
Andrew Hernandez: Yeah, I think part of it is or a key part of
it is always having the manual underwrite in place, it doesn't
always have to be a full manual underwrite. There's always
pieces of that process that can be automated. But you always
need eyes on that. And again, understanding what's really
going on with the business, you can look at all the data you
want. You know, we've seen tons of fraud from other parties just
using data and kind of pushing it through the process.
Kevin Travers: Yes, speaking about data, it's like,
everything is automated this year, but you're saying it's
good to have still some hands on approach. But speaking about
data and tech, there's changes this year that have seen
automated process, automated funding, do you think leaving
from the pandemic, after this are things going to change, are
we're going to build back better with a bunch of tech and
automated process or are things going to return to a lot the
same with in person transaction?
Nick Gregory: I think, you know, as we kind of come out of this,
you know, people talk about going back, and you know, what's
life like before, and I think this is just the new norm, and
what we have to adapt to, and it's gonna take, you know,
months, maybe, you know, a few years before things get to more
of a level playing field that we're, you know, maybe
comfortable with or accustomed to, there's always going to be
little nuances in between and, you know, people have made
shifts during this time, whether it's from how they operate their
own business, are they going into the office? Do they
realize, hey, you know, I'd rather just work remote in
Tahiti, as long as I got a WiFi connection. I mean, these are,
these are the the changes that we're seeing, you know, in the
landscape. And, you know, as far as certain retail businesses,
that we've probably traditionally underwritten in
the past, that have performed well, we're not seeing too many
of those right now, because there's a longer curve to kind
of getting them, you know, back on track, and one that we're
willing to really, you know, overreach for, I think,
collectively, just from the type of paper that we've seen, you
know, if you want to touch upon that, you know, credit and
certain pedigree of the client.
Andrew Hernandez: Yeah, I think, you know, similar to 2008, in a
way, you know, when this industry was still kind of in
its infancy, you know, we started to see back then, a
higher quality candidate. We've seen that 10 times over, I
think, this time, this time around, guys that normally
wouldn't be applying for this type of financing. Everybody was
hurting, obviously, during this time. And, you know, looking for
those alternative financing types. Definitely, you know, we
got more of those. So, and understanding their needs,
obviously, is challenging, but, you know, we got through it with
our team. So.
Kevin Travers: That's excellent. And I know you guys are both
living and working in New York City. And we're now talking
about building back better, we're still trying to build back
at all, we haven't opened up in a while and we're still waiting
for restaurants and stuff to or bars or outdoor spaces. What can
you tell me what it's like to live in the pandemic in New York
City?
Andrew Hernandez: It's been, it's been, it's been
interesting. It's been it's weird times for sure. Again, you
know, back to when we first started those first few months,
the city was I've never seen the city like that. New York City's,
always. There's always something going on. Morning, noon, night.
And this time around, there was completely dead ghost town. No
walking to work or taking the subway or whatever it was. You
saw maybe a few other people around. I think when we first
got back to the office, you know, our office building was 44
stories. Only 15 people a day were showing up, and we were
about six of them. So yeah, it was it was weird. But it was
definitely an experience and we got to live through it. And
we're on the other side of it. Almost so.
Nick Gregory: Yeah, no, I mean, I would definitely agree with
that. Definitely a ghost town. Not much going on. A lot of the
normal lunch spots shut down. Where am I supposed to do and
you know, it just kind of changes your whole you know, day
to day. You know, at the same time, I was happy to be back
because I couldn't do the remote work from home for so long.
Maybe if I was on an island, different circumstance, but you
know, just going through that that grind every day and kind of
just being in your own, you know, world. It definitely
detaches you a lot, you know, from from just interaction with
people. And I think that's just at a big point, you know, in our
space and at least in what we do in underwriting, we need that,
that back and forth and just kind of, you know, discussion,
because that's how we succeed. And we're able to look at deals
and, you know, make the right decision.
Kevin Travers: Absolutely. As soon as deBanked was able, we
were in the office that distance, but still at least
sharing space together, because that's sort of how that's how
Seans used to doing business. That's how that's how we do
things in the world, as you said, a lot of. Well on, I
guess, working remote working from remote or changing your
working location, a lot of people I mean, we've written
stories like moving to Miami, and do you think it's possible
to I mean, have you thought about moving or opening offices
in Miami? Do you think it's possible to like shift a New
York style New York hustle business all the way down to
Miami?
Andrew Hernandez: I think, I mean, we've all thought about
it. In the office. I think there's some functions that
could definitely be placed that down in Florida. There's some
that I think needs to be up here to be honest. But yeah, we've
always thought about, you know, either a satellite office in
Florida, California, you know, to handle some more of the West
Coast stuff, due to the time difference and whatnot, but it's
always a possibility.
Nick Gregory: Yeah, I mean, Florida is another another MCA
hub. So there's definitely some good talent down there. You
know, something like Andrew said, we've we have discussed
briefly, but we have to make sure everybody's on board, if we
were going to do something like that. I don't think that's a
quick shift for us. You know, we're kind of humming right now,
with our current operation, I think we're looking to grow and
expand as things begin to continually open up. And yeah,
maybe in the future, we'll we'll definitely consider that.
Andrew Hernandez: Yeah, we're about to sign a lease to stay in
the city. So I don't think we're gonna be going to Florida
anytime soon, aside from maybe a small office to support some
people. But.
Kevin Travers: Well as a New York based business ourselves,
that's good to hear. Talking about opening up soon, what's
what's what are you looking forward to when the pandemic's
long gone, and businesses back to usual?
Andrew Hernandez: Things like this just being around other
people. We haven't been in contact with too many other
people within the space for quite a while now. And that's
part of the business, you know, the deBanked events that you
guys have. That's, you know, we look forward to those and I know
you guys will be having one later this year, hopefully. So,
you know, what we welcome things like that. And hopefully those
are back to normal sooner than later.
Nick Gregory: Friday, happy hour.
A year spent indoors. Yeah. Well, happy hours, hopefully
Kevin Travers: Friday happy hour?
Nick Gregory: Yeah, we're definitely missing out on that,
you know, getting out is what the weather's getting a little
bit warmer. It'd be nice to you know, kind of have some kind of
social side of life these days. So yeah, I think that's
definitely something that we're, we're all kind of, you know, you
know, eeking towards and wanting as, as the time progresses,
because it's been over a year now. So it's quite a it's quite
a ride.
coming soon. deBanked. Our event is on December sixth. But
otherwise, I guess we're signing off. Thank you guys so much for
coming on.
Thank you. Thank you.
Johny Fernandez: Hey, what's going on everyone, and welcome
to deBanked News. I'm Johny Fernandez.
Sean Murray: And I'm Sean Murray.
Speaker 1: If you're looking to grow your ISO business, your
broker business, your funding business, this is the event to
be at.
Speaker 2: There's tons of networking, whether or not
you're a funder, you're a broker, you're a service
provider, you're the media. It's really wonderful to be here.