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Johny Fernandez: Welcome back.
I'm here with Sam Shapiro from

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Fundomate, Sam. Welcome. Thank
you for being here.

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Sam Shapiro: Yeah it's good to
be here. Nice sunny Florida.

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Johny Fernandez: I know it's
great, great weather. Great.

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Great day so far.

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Sam Shapiro: Yeah. Beautiful,
beautiful event.

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Johny Fernandez: So Sam.

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Sam Shapiro: It's good to be
back in person.

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Johny Fernandez: Yeah, exactly.
That's what we were talking

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about the fact that you know,
we're actually here being able

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to network. So Sam, let's go
ahead and talk about Fundomate,

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kind of walk me through what you
guys do and how long ago did you

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guys start?

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Sam Shapiro: So Fundomate's been
around about five years, we

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started out as a as an
automated, like Kayak for

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lending for business owners that
needed funding. And what we

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learned was is that going
directly to the businesses, when

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they're shopping in multiple
places, it's hard to actually

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give the better businesses, what
they're looking for. So we

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started a white labeled square
capital model, per se, where we

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go to payment processors, and we
offer them a white label, plug

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and play lending platform,
funding platform. So we take

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data in real time, give them an
API into their POS system, or

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any other platform or an email
directly to their merchants

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taking processing data, what
we're able to do is, is give

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them an offer. So the merchant
clicks an offer, accepts the

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offer, gets funded. And it's
just a one touch funding

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program.

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Johny Fernandez: Quick and easy.
Yeah. One and done. So five

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years ago, obviously, when you
guys started it, the business,

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it was completely different than
what we just went through last

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year, in a quick elevator
elevator like response, kind of

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walk me through what 2020 will
look like for you guys.

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Sam Shapiro: So starting in
March, you know, obviously, like

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everybody else, we panic. And
then obviously, thank God with

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God's help the human race is
resilient. And we realize how

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much stronger we can become. The
first thing that happens is

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we're worried about how our
collections is going to go when

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you have a lot of money out on
the street. So thank God for the

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US government giving business
owners money. But what that also

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did was, is gave businesses so
much money that you're competing

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with a trillion dollar zero
interest lender. So I think

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everybody in this space realizes
that funding slowed down,

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because you have people getting
money from the government. But

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what it also did was since our
model is working with payment

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processors, and getting a
percentage of their sales, so

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the first couple months, sales
were down, processing was down.

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So our collection percentage was
down. But as soon as their

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collections went back up, we
didn't have to go back into

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collections, we were getting a
percentage of their sales. So

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that went back up again. But we
are seeing they're coming,

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roaring back now as the economy
opens up. And I think one of the

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best benefits of what PPP and
EIDL did was it showed

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businesses that not necessarily
like taking lending, and like

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taking money, what it ended up
doing is showing them that how

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much value cash is for them. So
now we see businesses that

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wouldn't actually borrow money,
start borrowing money and start

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paying for money, because it
infuses their business with

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growth.

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Johny Fernandez: So seeing
obviously, this difficult time

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you guys went through how you
guys are overcoming it. Let's

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look into the future in the next
year, in the next five years,

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what does Fundomate look like to
you?

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Sam Shapiro: So we're actually
looking to start branching out

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into the ISO business and start
providing a platform we're

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giving A plus businesses
programs that aren't available,

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like what Square's doing and
Stripe's doing to the ISO model.

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And that's why I'm here
discussing it on deBanked. But

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also more importantly, we want
to change how businesses look at

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credit. You know, any successful
businesses in America today or a

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successful financially set
person has access to capital at

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all times, right, you pick up
the phone, you get a banking

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line, you get a car line, you
get a house line, etc. Small

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businesses, they're kind of have
a constraint on them for to

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access to cash, and they're
always living from, you know,

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sale to sale. And every time a
big expense comes up is when

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they need short term capital,
what we're looking to do is

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what, companies like Brex and
Stripe and Square are doing and

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say, hey, we want to give you a
dashboard that gives you access

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to capital before you need it.
Almost like a mini VC, except

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we're not taking a piece of
their business. So we're

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offering payment processors, and
ISOs. And businesses right now

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as a dashboard that kind of
predicts what their processing

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is going to be in the future and
makes that money available for

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them for free, really short
term. And what that does

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business wise, is now positions
ourselves to be in front of

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those businesses, to be able to
get them the money, they need

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longer term, and being able to
create a network of adding

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businesses to that network.

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Johny Fernandez: That's great.
That's awesome. That's exciting.

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Good. So as a business leader,
what has this whole time taught

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you about moving your business
forward?

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Sam Shapiro: So really, it's
about slicing and dicing focus,

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and realizing when you look at
everything in a big picture it

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becomes overwhelming, you know,
and it can become really, really

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scary. And everybody at some
point throughout this turbulent

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time was scared of something,
you know, whether people did

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lose family members, the economy
did get shut down. It's been a

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turbulent election period. So
there's a lot going on. But when

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you realize that how resilient
we are, and we have, you know, a

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God that has a plan and
everything that's going on, and

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you really need to focus on
small, you know, mini bites and

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small baby steps, then that's
how really big things happen by

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taking small steps.

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Johny Fernandez: Awesome. And
any advice to business owners

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that were in your shoes, you
know, less than 10 years old,

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just trying to move forward?
What advice would you give to

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them?

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Sam Shapiro: Stay calm and power
on you know, that's our, one of

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our lending models is, you know,
stay calm and finance online. So

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find us on that line, you know,
so it's really about really just

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staying in the moment because
when you think too much into the

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past and too much into the
future. There's a lot of anxiety

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involved in, that there's a lot
of stress. There's so much

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overwhelmingness there's so much
to conquer. But when you stay in

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the moment, you realize that I
just really need to take care of

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one step at a time. And that's
really how you double down,

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compound and grow.

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Johny Fernandez: So people that
are interested in checking your

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business out where can they go,
and how can they contact you?

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Sam Shapiro: Sam at
Fundomate.com, Fundomate

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automate, Fundomate.com.

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Johny Fernandez: Awesome.

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Sam Shapiro: F U N D O M A T E
.com.

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Johny Fernandez: Thanks so much.

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Sam Shapiro: Thank you, man.

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Johny Fernandez: Likewise,
alright thank you guys for

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tuning in. Like I said, we will
be back with more interviews

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right after this.