1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.250 Johny Fernandez: Alright, so let's get straight to the topics 2 00:00:02.250 --> 00:00:05.190 of conversation. So Sean, we're gonna talk about fund through 3 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:08.400 acquisition, now fund through announced their acquisition of 4 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.960 the factoring division of BlueVine. So let's talk first 5 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.900 things first. Sean, when you heard this did this surprise you 6 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:16.380 at all? 7 00:00:17.230 --> 00:00:21.970 Sean Murray: It did. It shocked me legitimately shocked too no 8 00:00:21.970 --> 00:00:25.480 like legit shot. Why? Because fun through the Canadian 9 00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:30.640 company. And blue vine. In my at least, my understanding was was 10 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:35.500 a much larger American company. So here I'm seeing a smaller 11 00:00:35.500 --> 00:00:38.530 Canadian company buying not the whole company and BlueVine 12 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:40.760 Johny Fernandez: Exactly the factory division. But it's 13 00:00:40.760 --> 00:00:43.850 something that's interesting, because when we spoke with them, 14 00:00:44.330 --> 00:00:47.090 they told us that the deal had been in the works for a while. 15 00:00:47.390 --> 00:00:50.180 Like, it's not like it's not like this happened overnight. 16 00:00:50.180 --> 00:00:54.230 Like it was something you know, from yesterday to today. But we 17 00:00:54.230 --> 00:00:57.620 do know that the move is substantial because the company 18 00:00:57.620 --> 00:01:02.090 has acquired their largest. It's the compares integral product. 19 00:01:02.360 --> 00:01:07.970 So back to the conversation. So you were surprised? Do you think 20 00:01:08.180 --> 00:01:11.660 the you know this specific move? From what I'm reading up on? It 21 00:01:11.660 --> 00:01:14.480 definitely made it seem like, you know, it's gonna benefit 22 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:18.110 everyone. Because at the from what I got, it's gonna benefit 23 00:01:18.110 --> 00:01:20.300 everyone. It's gonna benefit vine through 24 00:01:20.630 --> 00:01:23.810 Sean Murray: BlueVine. Vine. That would be a good name for 25 00:01:24.110 --> 00:01:26.480 combining. Yeah. Vine through. 26 00:01:26.510 --> 00:01:30.050 Johny Fernandez: We're gonna vine benefit bloom, or fun vine 27 00:01:30.110 --> 00:01:32.870 fun. Remember Vine? You know, 28 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:36.290 Sean Murray: you know how I do remember Vine? Yeah. vine 29 00:01:36.290 --> 00:01:37.070 through, vine through. 30 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:38.600 Johny Fernandez: It's a good one 31 00:01:38.630 --> 00:01:41.180 Sean Murray: Yeah, we'll send them that as a tip afterwards. 32 00:01:41.210 --> 00:01:46.580 Johny Fernandez: Exactly. But back to the conversation. So you 33 00:01:46.580 --> 00:01:50.510 were surprised you were shocked. But to me, it kind of seems that 34 00:01:50.630 --> 00:01:53.420 this is gonna make there's gonna be beneficial for everyone. 35 00:01:55.580 --> 00:01:57.620 Sean Murray: Me like for both company companies? Yeah, you 36 00:01:57.620 --> 00:02:01.520 guys. Oh, God. Do you think I have some thoughts about it? 37 00:02:01.550 --> 00:02:03.590 Yeah. Well, I want to hear your thoughts about it and why it's 38 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:07.700 beneficial. Yeah. So I assume it's beneficial because it's in 39 00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:09.740 each of their interests? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if 40 00:02:09.740 --> 00:02:12.110 there's any particular particular reason why it would 41 00:02:12.110 --> 00:02:16.730 be so significantly, you know, beneficial outside of the 42 00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:20.300 ordinary course of any type of business. But I will tell you 43 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:23.360 this. So I told you, I was shocked and surprised. Because 44 00:02:23.390 --> 00:02:27.920 FundThrough small company in Canada buying a sizable division 45 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:30.140 of a competitor in the United States, it's just that kind of 46 00:02:30.200 --> 00:02:33.680 reverse transaction is so uncommon, you can tell how 47 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:37.910 excited FundThrough was both in their public announcement of the 48 00:02:37.910 --> 00:02:41.360 deal. And in the conversation that we had with them that this 49 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:45.170 was a huge major achievement for them. So why would BlueVine and 50 00:02:45.170 --> 00:02:48.170 do this? Does that mean BlueVine is distressed? You know what I 51 00:02:48.170 --> 00:02:51.920 mean, like, the question is, Why would BlueVine do that? And I 52 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:55.700 think the the answer is obvious. If you go to even just a website 53 00:02:55.700 --> 00:02:59.930 today, they are really focused on more becoming like a bank, 54 00:03:00.230 --> 00:03:05.180 their website highlights checking, lending in BillPay. 55 00:03:05.300 --> 00:03:08.810 And lending when you click on that, it it, it advertises their 56 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:12.380 line of credit products. So they kind of their core business when 57 00:03:12.380 --> 00:03:15.560 they started was factory, that's where they started online 58 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:18.680 business factory, they scale up real quick made a big go of it, 59 00:03:18.710 --> 00:03:22.190 a lot of branding in that space, pivoted towards banking as as 60 00:03:22.190 --> 00:03:26.900 we've seen all the other online lenders do. And now that they've 61 00:03:26.900 --> 00:03:29.960 had success there, it seems like their original core business is 62 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:34.610 more like almost not a good fit fit for what are the other 63 00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:35.270 things they have, 64 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:37.160 Johny Fernandez: What it made it seem like to me was that they 65 00:03:37.190 --> 00:03:42.020 they wanted to pass this division along so they can focus 66 00:03:42.050 --> 00:03:45.260 on their bigger picture, their bigger product, and something 67 00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:48.470 that they said the C, the CEO of BlueVine says our factoring 68 00:03:48.470 --> 00:03:51.890 clients are in great hands with FundThrough so they know that 69 00:03:52.040 --> 00:03:56.300 they just didn't, you know, make a move. And they're just like, 70 00:03:56.300 --> 00:03:58.190 forget about it like it was it seemed like it was very 71 00:03:58.190 --> 00:04:00.650 strategic, but it seemed like you said that overall big 72 00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:04.160 picture. They're now focused on other things that is not 73 00:04:04.160 --> 00:04:07.610 factoring and but they still want to keep their hands on in 74 00:04:07.610 --> 00:04:10.730 the pop, but they rather just give it to someone you know, and 75 00:04:10.730 --> 00:04:13.010 work with someone else to kind of get that goal accomplished. 76 00:04:13.010 --> 00:04:15.340 Sean Murray: It makes sense. And you know, if you out there 77 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:18.340 watching had never heard of FundThrough, they were a 78 00:04:18.340 --> 00:04:21.910 recognized player in the Small Business Finance market in 79 00:04:21.910 --> 00:04:25.090 Canada. I did meet with their executive several times that 80 00:04:25.090 --> 00:04:29.530 Canadian lenders events, I think I even met with one of their top 81 00:04:29.530 --> 00:04:33.100 marketing executives for like a coffee as at some point. So they 82 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:37.570 were a known and big important player in the Canadian market. 83 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.690 And so they didn't just come out of nowhere per se, it's just 84 00:04:40.690 --> 00:04:43.870 that the transaction itself was surprising. It's exciting, 85 00:04:43.870 --> 00:04:46.240 because I guess we'll get to hear more about what FundThrough 86 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.460 is doing now that they're operating in two countries. 87 00:04:48.460 --> 00:04:48.790 Yeah, 88 00:04:48.820 --> 00:04:52.420 Johny Fernandez: No, and I think two things. This goes back to 89 00:04:52.780 --> 00:04:54.880 made, it made me think when I was reading about this, about 90 00:04:54.880 --> 00:04:58.240 the Canadian market itself and how things are just changing 91 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:02.710 over there. You know, it's the they're getting back into the 92 00:05:02.710 --> 00:05:06.700 swing of things. Because they had two years where, you know, 93 00:05:07.450 --> 00:05:11.260 we really didn't know much what was going on. But like we talked 94 00:05:11.260 --> 00:05:14.710 about in our, in our previous show, they definitely have this 95 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:18.190 concept that, you know, it's booming, it's back and they 96 00:05:18.190 --> 00:05:21.700 don't want to like stop at all and just keep growing in that 97 00:05:21.700 --> 00:05:25.210 space. The second thing is FundThrough and Blue Vines 98 00:05:25.210 --> 00:05:26.590 started around the same time. 99 00:05:26.620 --> 00:05:27.460 Sean Murray: Oh, I didn't even know that. 100 00:05:27.460 --> 00:05:29.080 Johny Fernandez: Yeah, he started around the same time and 101 00:05:29.290 --> 00:05:32.830 the CEO and co founder of FundThrough said, we started we 102 00:05:32.830 --> 00:05:36.400 started around the same time. They grew their business nicely. 103 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:39.310 And then they started to branch out into into other products and 104 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:42.850 like we've talked about, and now you know, they're kind of giving 105 00:05:42.850 --> 00:05:45.340 up the factoring aspect of it. But I think it's interesting. 106 00:05:45.340 --> 00:05:48.220 These guys started around the same time, they saw each other's 107 00:05:48.220 --> 00:05:50.920 growth and they're kind of you kind of want to like slightly 108 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:54.910 different directions. So it was interesting. So yeah, I think I 109 00:05:54.910 --> 00:06:01.180 think I'm I'm not surprised that shocked you. But I'm surprised 110 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:04.360 that you know these types of transactions don't happen. 111 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:08.730 Sean Murray: You are not shocked that I was shocked. 112 00:06:08.990 --> 00:06:11.630 Johny Fernandez: I am not surprised that you were shocked 113 00:06:11.635 --> 00:06:13.655 Sean Murray: They say wait you're giving your your analysis 114 00:06:13.655 --> 00:06:27.590 Johny Fernandez: That Sean was shocked because of the simple 115 00:06:27.590 --> 00:06:27.700 my my my reaction. They're not surprised that your shocked. So 116 00:06:27.700 --> 00:06:28.461 when you heard Sean was shocked Johnny, were you shocked that 117 00:06:28.461 --> 00:06:28.580 Sean was shocked 118 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:31.700 fact that surprise, 119 00:06:31.730 --> 00:06:33.170 Sean Murray: Okay, you're not surprised. I am not surprised 120 00:06:33.170 --> 00:06:35.810 that you were shocked We see. You know, this is what we should 121 00:06:35.810 --> 00:06:38.600 do in the future. Let's not comment about the deals anymore. 122 00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:41.450 Let's have me react to the deals and then we want to get your 123 00:06:41.450 --> 00:06:42.980 take on my reaction. 124 00:06:43.050 --> 00:06:45.060 Johny Fernandez: I was surprised that he was not shocked. 125 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:47.550 Sean Murray: You had to do that. You have to do like a double 126 00:06:47.550 --> 00:06:50.280 negative to that. I was not surprised that he was not 127 00:06:50.280 --> 00:06:50.700 shocked.