00:07.560 --> 00:10.080
Johny Fernandez: Located just
north of Central Florida Elevate

00:10.080 --> 00:13.140
Funding has its headquarters in
Gainesville deBanked took a trip

00:13.140 --> 00:15.870
there to chat with CEO Heather
Francis.

00:15.960 --> 00:19.110
Heather Francis: So we are a
merchant cash advance provider

00:19.110 --> 00:25.170
to small businesses. We are a
boutique type shop. So we're, I

00:25.170 --> 00:28.530
say boutique because we like
quality over quantity. We're not

00:29.850 --> 00:34.170
a big powerhouse in a space. But
we are, I think one of the

00:35.370 --> 00:38.610
funders in the space that are
really more conscientious to the

00:38.610 --> 00:40.830
small business owners and you
know, the product that we're

00:40.830 --> 00:44.280
providing. And the services that
we're giving them.

00:44.310 --> 00:46.440
Johny Fernandez: Francis has
been in the alternative finance

00:46.440 --> 00:49.590
business world for more than a
decade. She says her company's

00:49.590 --> 00:53.310
location away from big cities
like Miami or Manhattan is an

00:53.310 --> 00:53.560
Heather Francis: Gainesville is
always had that college feel,

00:53.560 --> 00:53.970
advantage.

00:57.560 --> 01:03.770
but it's starting to adjust a
little bit to more of family and

01:03.770 --> 01:07.220
young professionals. So we're
seeing a big growth in that now.

01:07.430 --> 01:11.750
Most of its medical I mean US is
Shands US. And that's a big,

01:11.750 --> 01:16.190
huge medical facility there. So
a lot of that is, you know, what

01:16.190 --> 01:20.030
is here is medically based, you
know, health based. So there's

01:20.030 --> 01:23.300
not always a lot of finance to
go from, but I think it makes

01:23.300 --> 01:27.500
Elevate stronger, in the sense
that when we bring on people,

01:27.530 --> 01:31.430
they're not from this industry,
they're from other areas,

01:31.430 --> 01:34.670
they're from other backgrounds.
And they make us as a whole

01:34.670 --> 01:37.460
better because they're bringing
in different ideas, different

01:37.460 --> 01:42.560
ways to handle things. And I
find that just makes us stand

01:42.560 --> 01:45.890
out and different, you know, in
the alternative finance space.

01:46.040 --> 01:48.140
Johny Fernandez: Her business
approach is unique and

01:48.140 --> 01:48.560
Heather Francis: You know,
embarked on my own, I wanted to

01:48.560 --> 01:48.710
meaningful.

01:51.270 --> 01:56.370
provide a product, again, at
time, high risk being a credit

01:56.370 --> 01:59.640
profile, not high risk on
stacking, but high risk with

01:59.640 --> 02:03.600
credit profile, I wanted to
provide them something that made

02:03.600 --> 02:06.690
them feel of worth, something
that said, you know, yes, this

02:06.690 --> 02:09.900
is my credit score, this is
where I'm at. I know that and

02:09.930 --> 02:13.530
most business owners, I think
what we fail to, to think about

02:14.070 --> 02:16.650
when we're underwriting and
we're looking at files is that

02:16.770 --> 02:19.140
they didn't pay their car
payment. So they keep the doors

02:19.140 --> 02:21.960
open. They didn't pay that
credit card bill so that they

02:21.960 --> 02:24.630
could do payroll. And so when
you look at a credit score, I

02:24.630 --> 02:29.880
don't think it's the true value
of a business owner. And I

02:29.880 --> 02:33.930
wanted to have a product and a
company that represented that

02:33.930 --> 02:39.120
and provided a path forward for
those business owners to have

02:39.150 --> 02:44.220
financing that was meaningful,
that was going to provide an

02:44.220 --> 02:45.600
opportunity to grow.

02:45.630 --> 02:48.150
Johny Fernandez: With the space
changing constantly, Francis

02:48.150 --> 02:51.240
says she's always adjusting. So
how does a company like yours

02:51.240 --> 02:56.100
compete with technology giants
like Square and Paypall. And

02:56.100 --> 02:59.130
just companies and businesses
that offer similar types of

02:59.130 --> 02:59.640
technologies.

02:59.640 --> 03:02.293
Heather Francis: Oh, it's very
difficult to compete in that

03:02.357 --> 03:06.191
market. It's not easy at all,
and we're constantly having to

03:06.255 --> 03:10.344
adjust and I would say, more, so
keep looking to what the future

03:10.408 --> 03:14.241
like I said, you know, being
proactive versus reactive from,

03:14.305 --> 03:18.075
you know, our IT guys, which you
know, with our proprietary

03:18.075 --> 03:18.139
What do you think about having a
direct sales?

03:18.139 --> 03:21.589
software, which is a huge
benefit for us to be able to

03:21.653 --> 03:25.423
compete in that market, we're
able to really quickly change

03:25.487 --> 03:29.001
things, we're really quickly
able to have merchants who

03:29.065 --> 03:32.899
interact with our we call it
Elevate view, who interact with

03:32.962 --> 03:37.052
that, have different looks when
they come in, we're working with

03:37.052 --> 03:37.116
Um, it's something that we're,
prior to this I didn't think was

03:37.116 --> 03:40.949
our marketing, you know, doing
more information and training

03:41.013 --> 03:44.655
for our small business owners.
We have a new thing that's

03:44.719 --> 03:48.169
coming out. It's a blog post
that we're doing with our

03:48.233 --> 03:51.811
accounting company that we
actually use. And they worked

03:51.875 --> 03:55.837
out some automation for elevate
in ourselves in our accounting

03:55.901 --> 03:59.798
department. I was like man, if
small businesses knew of this,

03:59.798 --> 03:59.862
a good fit for Elevate prior to
COVID we were referral based,

03:59.862 --> 04:03.121
and could get away from you
know, the day to day of

04:03.185 --> 04:07.146
accounting procedures and have
this automation available, it'd

04:07.210 --> 04:11.235
be very beneficial for them to
the business. So partnering with

04:11.299 --> 04:15.261
things like that and doing the
education, I think kind of sets

04:15.324 --> 04:15.900
us apart.

04:29.280 --> 04:31.950
the type of product that we have
was was very necessary for

04:31.950 --> 04:37.620
referral base, going forward,
and what we noticed in COVID, is

04:37.620 --> 04:39.990
that you know, people's
marketing dollars were very

04:40.110 --> 04:42.660
affective, which obviously
affects applications we receive

04:43.110 --> 04:47.040
and it felt that it would be
beneficial for Elevate itself to

04:47.040 --> 04:52.410
start working some direct.
However, for us direct isn't

04:52.410 --> 04:55.140
going to be like a dialer. It's
not going to be that on the

04:55.140 --> 04:59.520
phone. You know calling leads
buying leads. Direct for us is

04:59.550 --> 05:00.240
SEO.

05:00.360 --> 05:02.910
Johny Fernandez: Francis says
2020 was a big year for the

05:02.910 --> 05:07.290
company. So let's talk about
2020. I mean, it was a big year

05:07.290 --> 05:09.570
for you guys, you guys
rebranded, you guys had a

05:09.570 --> 05:13.620
million dollar in contracts,
introduced new programs to help

05:13.770 --> 05:18.390
during small businesses. You
know, in this time when things

05:18.390 --> 05:21.960
were just a lot of unknowns were
going on. So explain how you

05:21.960 --> 05:23.190
guys did so well.

05:23.420 --> 05:27.950
Heather Francis: So that goes
to, I think a little bit of the

05:27.950 --> 05:32.660
philosophy for me and our
company is to be proactive, not

05:32.690 --> 05:37.460
reactive, we adjusted for our
underwriters, they were able to,

05:37.550 --> 05:40.610
through our proprietary system,
see what was restricted, we were

05:40.610 --> 05:42.710
able to change it on the back
end, and they're like, oh, nope,

05:42.710 --> 05:45.680
we can't do that anymore. This
is what it falls under. Now,

05:45.680 --> 05:48.950
this is the we call them tears.
This is a tear that they're

05:48.980 --> 05:53.300
eligible for at this time. So we
kind of we're really just trying

05:53.300 --> 05:56.540
to be like, in the now. And we
would have weekly meetings on

05:56.540 --> 05:59.840
it, go over what we felt
comfortable with, we created a

05:59.840 --> 06:05.240
new program, called it abound,
it was for restaurants. And we

06:05.240 --> 06:08.510
were able to give them it was
very small amount of money, it

06:08.510 --> 06:11.960
was to really help them just for
immediate needs, whether it was

06:11.960 --> 06:14.780
reopening and having to get
things stocked back into the

06:15.140 --> 06:18.080
restaurant. And it was very
short term, but it was very low

06:18.080 --> 06:22.970
cost. And so we would do what we
call a bound. And once we had

06:22.970 --> 06:26.210
that payment history and saw how
they were performing, we were

06:26.210 --> 06:29.390
able to say okay, like, we know
how you're going to behave, we

06:29.390 --> 06:32.000
know how you know your customers
are behaving in this pandemic,

06:32.300 --> 06:35.930
will go ahead and throw more
funds at you put you in one of

06:35.930 --> 06:38.810
our tier products and build it
out that way.

06:38.870 --> 06:41.360
Johny Fernandez: She said
businesses also had to adjust to

06:41.360 --> 06:44.390
get by and will continue to have
to get creative.

06:44.460 --> 06:47.004
Heather Francis: So I think PPP
was was huge. I think it did

06:47.064 --> 06:50.674
have a positive effect for the
true and legitimate businesses

06:50.733 --> 06:54.165
that applied for and got it. So
we would see that from our

06:54.225 --> 06:57.539
clients. But when COVID
happened, we allowed for payment

06:57.598 --> 07:00.912
holds for those that were
affected by COVID. We actually

07:00.972 --> 07:04.759
we had our software, we had our
IT guy set up a software part of

07:04.818 --> 07:07.896
it that where we would label
them as COVID effective

07:07.955 --> 07:11.565
affected. And then we would do
payment holds and we would you

07:11.624 --> 07:15.057
know have them monitored and
work with them on that. And a

07:15.116 --> 07:18.667
lot of them would be like, oh,
you know, as soon as I get my

07:18.726 --> 07:22.573
PPP, we'll, we'll take that off.
So we actually got paid off by a

07:22.632 --> 07:26.243
lot of people through the PPP.
They just, you know, took care

07:26.302 --> 07:30.090
of their outstanding balance. We
did see that it was beneficial.

07:30.090 --> 07:33.004
Johny Fernandez: Her advice to
ISOs business owners and people

07:33.069 --> 07:34.170
in the MCA space.

07:34.200 --> 07:36.456
Heather Francis: Study, learn,
know. There is a lot of

07:36.517 --> 07:40.360
misinformation in this space and
a lot of misinformation on the

07:40.421 --> 07:44.324
products provided. And I've said
this a couple of times I'm sure

07:44.385 --> 07:48.044
people who know me or have heard
me talk and have heard this

07:48.105 --> 07:52.009
where it's like telephone in our
space. Don't just try and learn

07:52.070 --> 07:55.790
how do I get to sell. How do I
you know, convince this person

07:55.851 --> 08:00.060
take the money understand the
product, understand what you're giving.

08:00.090 --> 08:02.293
Johny Fernandez: In Gainesville,
I'm Johny Fernandez with

08:02.348 --> 08:03.120
deBanked News.