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Johny Fernandez: And welcome
back. I'm Johny Fernandez with

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deBanked. TV. And we're here at
the 20th annual SEAA conference.

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And right now I am with Ken Peng
with Elevate Funding, Ken thanks

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so much for coming here.

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Ken Peng: Absolutely.

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Johny Fernandez: So Ken, let's
talk a little bit about, you

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know, just your experience so
far here. How has it been, what

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have you seen? And this is one
of the first events in person

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that we are in. So how does that
feel after a hectic year?

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Ken Peng: It's amazing to be
back in person seeing people's

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smiling faces. I've missed that.
And it's been awesome, because I

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think the last thing I was at
was deBanked Miami in 20 to

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January 2020.

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Johny Fernandez: Okay.

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Ken Peng: So it's been some
time.

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Johny Fernandez: Yeah.

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Ken Peng: It took me a minute to
get back into the rhythm, but

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Johny Fernandez: Yeah.

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Ken Peng: I'm good now.

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Johny Fernandez: That's awesome.
So let's talk about Elevate

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Funding.

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Ken Peng: Sure.

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Johny Fernandez: Elevate
Funding, you know, exactly, why

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is a company like, Elevate here
at a payment show?

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Ken Peng: So we are primarily
partner driven, right? We're a

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true direct funder in the MCA
space. I know a lot of folks say

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that, but we really are, and we
are almost entirely partner

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driven. And so we like to work
with ISOs, brokers and things

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like that. So we're out here
meeting all kinds of awesome

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ISOs and all kinds of awesome
brokers.

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Johny Fernandez: So within the
last year, and compared to the

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people that you've been talking
to, what have ISOs, and brokers

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told you directly, regarding,
you know, partnerships, and then

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also just with the crazy last
year that they've had, let's

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talk about that. What have you
been hearing? What have you

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been, you know, seeing in
regards to ISOs and brokers?

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Ken Peng: Yeah, so I mean,
obviously, with COVID,

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everything happening, a lot of
funders fell off the map. And I

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think what we're starting to see
right now is a lot of ISOs, that

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are trying to readjust and look
for new partners to work with,

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because maybe whatever partner
they were sending that deal to

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in the past, has dropped off. So
it's been a whole lot of well,

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tell me about you, like, you
know, who do you compare to? And

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like, how can I fill my, my, my
slots right now, with with your

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products? So it's been a lot of
that so far.

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Johny Fernandez: So I know, Sean
and I, we've talked a lot about

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the specifics of doing meetings
and interviews, etc, via zoom

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and a phone call versus being
here in person.

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Ken Peng: Yeah.

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Johny Fernandez: Do you think
that makes a difference?

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Ken Peng: All of the difference?
You know, I've done a couple of

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the virtual conferences over the
last year. And it's just not the

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same. There's no substitute for
face to face interaction, you

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know, you kind of like building
that rapport with that person,

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because it's all about building
relationships. And it's hard to

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build relationships over the
internet, over a chat.

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Johny Fernandez: Yeah.

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Ken Peng: And so there's, I
mean, for me, this is wonderful.

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This is actually back to normal,
and, you know, doing things that

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we're supposed to do.

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Johny Fernandez: Yeah, so
talking about normal. We know

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here in Florida, things have
been relatively normal.

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Ken Peng: Yeah.

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Johny Fernandez: For the last
couple of months. You guys are

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based based out of Gainesville.
So let's talk a little bit about

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how business has been like in
Gainesville, and your

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experience, just tryna get the
company, you know, back on its

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feet moving forward, out of
Gainesville?

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Ken Peng: Well, so, you know,
obviously, we're kind of out of

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the madness, that is a lot of
the major cities out there,

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right. And so for us, we've
actually been back in office

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since May of last year. And so
everything has been going pretty

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smoothly. For the most part.
Gainesville itself has kind of

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been a little bit more on the
conservative, like, not

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conservative side, but a little
more careful in terms of masks

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and whatnot. Little less lacks
than the rest of the state. But

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for the most part now, after the
CDC announced that things are

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okay, basically, you know,
things have gotten back to

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normal, I went to a grocery
store with no mask on the other

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day.

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Johny Fernandez: Oh okay.

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Ken Peng: It was the most
amazing experience in my life.

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Johny Fernandez: So let's also
talk about, you know, what the

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experience was like in 2021.
Really quick. And then now

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moving forward, what is Elevate
plan to do? You know, 2021 2022,

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let's talk and compare versus
2020.

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Ken Peng: Yeah, we're gonna
continue to grow. We were one of

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the lucky few that actually
continued to grow throughout

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2020. And we're gonna take that
momentum and keep it going. We

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just brought on two more
underwriters. We've been honing

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in on our new website, we
actually just launched that on

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Friday. And then our tech team
has been very busy working on an

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API integration capabilities.
And so we're starting to roll

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that out as well. And so we're
just gonna continue to build on

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that momentum and keep going.
We're gonna start building out

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of sales floor as well, and
continue to build out some more

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organic growth. And hopefully,
things continue to go our way.

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Johny Fernandez: So a pattern
that we've seen here is that a

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lot of the business owners and
people that are here

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specifically, that's one thing
that they've said that 2020 has

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been a year where they've seen
tremendous growth.

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Ken Peng: Yeah.

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Johny Fernandez: Versus other
businesses that have, you know,

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fallen through the cracks or
that have closed, why do you

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think it is that people have
succeeded in 2020 versus, you

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know, in other, you know, versus
not succeeding?

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Ken Peng: Well, I think the
downturn was kind of a blessing

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in disguise for a lot of people
because it let them take a step

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back, and kind of reevaluate
their business as a whole.

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Right? So, you know, for us, we
started looking at a lot of it

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was out of necessity, because of
you know, what was happening

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with all the industry types
closing down, and all the all

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the states closing down as well.
So we actually had somebody that

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was dedicated to monitoring all
of that stuff, making sure

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things were, you know, still
viable for us, right, because we

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wanted to fund quality and not
quantity. So, I think that made

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us smarter. You know, we were
able to make smarter decisions

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now and honed in on our
underwriting guidelines and our

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requirements, and I think that
kind of holds true for a lot of

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different businesses as well. So
they're operating more

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efficiently and smarter now,
from what they've learned.

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Johny Fernandez: That's great.

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Ken Peng: Yeah.

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Johny Fernandez: That's great.
So what are you most excited

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about today?

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Ken Peng: I mean, all the
networking, there's a lot of

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people still showing up to this
thing. There's a ton of people

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here.

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Johny Fernandez: Yeah.

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Ken Peng: So I'm really excited
to actually meet some new folks

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and see some familiar faces too.
So it's awesome. Yeah.

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Johny Fernandez: So and for
people that are not here, what

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would you say to them, you know,
that are watching right now.

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Ken Peng: Start going out to
shows. It's perfectly safe.

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We're good. It's time to get
back to networking and growing

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your business. Let's keep it
going, 2021's gonna be awesome.

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And yeah, we'll just let's do
it.

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Johny Fernandez: All right.
Well, thanks so much Ken

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appreciate you being here in our
space chatting with us. So

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again, if people want more
information about Elevate

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Flevate Funding, where could
they find that?

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Ken Peng: You can come check us
out if you're here at the show,

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but then also
www.elevatefunding.com Take a

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look at our brand new spankin
new website and shoot me an

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email. I'm
Ken@elevatefunding.com

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Johny Fernandez: Awesome. Thanks
so much, man. Appreciate it.

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Ken Peng: Thanks, Johny.

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Johny Fernandez: And thank you
guys. Of course we will be back

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soon with another live interview
right here from the 20th annual

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SEAA annual conference.