Business Lending
Top Industry Execs Attend Small Business Finance Leaders Summit in Washington DC
January 29, 2024Fifty top C-level executives attended the Small Business Finance Leaders Summit in Washington DC last week to discuss the economy, small business finance, policy issues, regulatory impacts, and industry best practices. Co-hosted by two major trade organizations, the Small Business Finance Association (SBFA) and the Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA), it was invite-only and open to members of both.
Speakers included US Senator Roger Marshall, Tom Sullivan from the US Chamber of Commerce, Holly Wade from the National Federation of Independent Business, Aaron Klein from Brookings, Will Tumulty from Rapid Finance, Justin Bakes from Forward Financing, Kirk Chartier from OnDeck, and Steve Allocca from Funding Circle, among others.
“As our industry matures, it’s important to provide industry leaders with an opportunity to connect and engage with high-level thought leaders,” said Steve Denis, Executive Director of the SBFA. “We believe our C-level Summit complements the Broker Fair and other industry conferences like Money 20/20 or Nexus. We hope to expand our Summit in June to bring in some new industry voices and will continue to focus on high-end content that is meaningful and strategic for our members and other top industry leaders.”
The organizations are planning another Summit in early June to build upon the success.
Another Small Business Loan Marketplace is Getting a Massive Venue
January 22, 2024What’s the difference between a typical bank having naming rights to a sporting arena and a fintech lender? The fintech lender will attempt to serve as a one-stop-shop for everything. And that’s important because this October the Intuit Dome will open its doors in Inglewood, California and become the hometown arena for the LA Clippers. Intuit has a lot of brands. According to the NBA, Intuit subsidiaries TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp will all feature prominently in the venue experience. That draws attention to QuickBooks Capital, the company’s small business lending division which is presently generating more than $1 billion a year in loans. Intuit’s got a fallback option for businesses that might not be suitable for them directly, an automated marketplace that connects business owners with other lenders. It’s been so successful that Intuit states they’ve originated more than $2 billion in loans through it.
This seamless integration of referrals to other lenders is what makes the marketing campaign via arena naming rights so potent. And they won’t be the first ones to do it. SoFi, for example, whose football stadium is in walking distance to the Intuit Dome, just announced its own small business loan marketplace. SoFi Stadium was home to the Super Bowl in 2022 and will be again in 2027. It will also be home to the Olympics in 2028. Not a bad way to get one’s name out there.
SoFi Launches Small Business Loan Marketplace
January 18, 2024SoFi small business customers can now get approved for a loan and funded up to $2 million in 24 hours. Structured as a marketplace where SoFi itself is not the lender, the company announced that “With one quick and simple search, business owners will be connected with SoFi’s network of financial providers who can help them get the capital they need.”
SoFi had flirted with the idea of small business loans previously and this appears to be their solution.
Judging by SoFi’s marketplace home page, OnDeck and LendKey are at least two of the lenders on the platform. Although the others were not immediately visible, the company said it “will continue to expand its network to include more providers and financial solutions for small businesses.”
Broker Battle Finds a Champion
January 14, 2024At the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, thousands of viewers packed a hall to witness the first ever Broker Battle™ at deBanked CONNECT. After the rules of the competition were explained, six broker contestants waited eagerly for their turn to face four judges and with that a chance to win a grand prize of $5,000. Their goal? Choose from one of three pre-defined sales scenarios and show off their knowledge and abilities to the judges. Here’s what happened:
The Broker Battle was introduced
Broker Battle judge Daniel Dames (Bitty Advance) held up a Title belt
Irving Betesh (Advance Funds Network) had the distinction of going first. He came prepared!
The contestants continued one by one alphabetically by last name
The conversational role playing on the stage covered the gamut, ranging from explaining APRs and contract terminology to diagnosing customer needs or trying to earn a customer’s business. Below, judges Jared Weitz (United Capital Source) and Cheryl Tibbs (Equipment LeaseCo Inc) listen in to a contestant’s pitch.
Mike Brooks (Best Connect Capital) came in with his own style
Corey Digi (Lexington Capital Group) put up a strong showing
Stanley Mitchell (CLM Financial) goes to work
Danielle Rivelli (United Capital Source) showed off her experience
Anthony Truglia (CapFront) made it known the competition wasn’t over yet
The judges had to add up their scores for each contestant to find out which TWO would make it into the final championship battle
Second from the right is judge Leo Vargas (Triton Recovery Group).
Anthony Truglia and Danielle Rivelli are declared the two finalists after racking up the highest scores
The final sales scenario is revealed!
Both contestants have to compete on stage at the same time! Oh my!
The contestants are sent offstage so the judges can deliberate
And the winner is…
Anthony Truglia!
All photos from the Broker Battle here
All photos from the rest of deBanked CONNECT MIAMI here
deBanked would like to thank all of the amazing broker contestants for participating in something bold and brand new. Thank you to Anthony Truglia, Danielle Rivelli, Corey Digi, Irving Betesh, Stanley Mitchell, and Mike Brooks. Gratitude is also directed towards the judges for their efforts, Cheryl Tibbs, Daniel Dames, Jared Weitz, and Leo Vargas.
deBanked hopes that this competition inspires all brokers to become better, to further master their knowledge of available products, legal compliance, style, and confidence. A video highlight reel of the competition is in post-production.
Interested in more from deBanked? Contact us at info@debanked.com or call 212-220-9084.
The Top Small Business Funders Now Vs. Then
January 11, 2024Top Small Business Funders By Year
2008 | 2014 | 2023 |
AdvanceMe (CAN Capital) | OnDeck | Square |
First Funds | CAN Capital | Enova (OnDeck / Headway) |
Merchant Cash and Capital (BizFi) | Kabbage | Shopify |
BFS | Kapitus | PayPal |
AmeriMerchant | Rapid Finance | Amazon |
GBR Funding | National Funding | Intuit |
Many people look at 2023 vs 2008 and arrive at the conclusion that the fintechs rose to the top, but if one were to narrow down the definition of those players a little further, they’d notice that PayPal and Square are payment companies, Shopify and Amazon are e-commerce companies, and Intuit owns the Quickbooks accounting software. These are actually older companies that took an old idea (split-funding) and made it new again with some key changes. Although in the present moment it may feel like some of them cannot be beat (which is how the industry felt about the top funders in 2008), much can change over the course of this decade.
Keep your eye on:
- AI
- Blockchain (as payment rails, record-keeping)
- Regulation
Intuit’s SMB Loans Relatively Flat Year-over-Year
December 18, 2023Intuit originated $279M worth of term loans to small business for the fiscal quarter ending October 31. This is down from the $314M originated over the same time period last year.
“As of October 31, 2023 and July 31, 2023, the allowances for loan losses on term loans to small businesses were not material,” the company wrote in its earnings report.
Further, Intuit said that “In August 2023, we entered into a forward flow arrangement with an institutional investor. Pursuant to this arrangement, we have a commitment to sell to the institutional investor a minimum of $250 million in participation interests in unsecured term loans purchased or made to small businesses over the next 18 months, subject to certain eligibility criteria.”
Intuit did not raise its term loan program on its earnings call nor did analysts ask about it.
Here’s how Intuit’s flat SMB loan originations stacks up against some of its direct competitors:
Square Loans – Steady
PayPal – Significant pullback
Shopify Capital – Significant increase
deBanked’s Top Five Stories of 2023
December 13, 2023deBanked’s most read stories of 2023 are in. Here’s what the industry read about most this year!
EIDL & ERC Updates
Readers tuned in to learn about EIDL loans going bad and the roller coaster surrounding the ERC program.
See:
As IRS Announces Pause of ERC Payouts, Businesses May Resume Pursuit of Upfront Alternatives
Whoa, That’s a Lot of Bad EIDL Loans
Reliant Funding
There was a lot of talk about Reliant Funding this year, which first made waves in February and then later in September.
See:
Reliant Funding Shifts Gears
The LCF Group Acquires Key Strategic Assets from Reliant Funding and Sets Course for a Record-Breaking Year
GFE
The company is called Global Funding Experts. After they raised a debt facility of $100 million, everyone wanted to know more!
See: Experts: How GFE Went Big
Bluevine Cutting off ISOs
The news just broke, but seeing a big name change their business strategy like this has got many people talking.
See: Bluevine Partner Email Circulates
Florida Commercial Financing Disclosure Rule
Guess what’s about to go into effect? A unique disclosure rule like nowhere else. Brokers, I hope you’ve read this one!
See: Pending Florida Law Draws From DailyFunder’s Rulebook
Top stories of 2022
Top stories of 2021
Top stories of 2020
Top stories of 2019
Top stories of 2018
Top stories of 2016
Nice Asset, Sure Would Love to Lend Against It
December 6, 2023“Sean,” said the moderator, “where do you see domain names in five years?”
At the inaugural Domainer Expo in Las Vegas this week, I was sort of a self-proclaimed emissary from the lending world, there to tell everyone that domain names had a lot more potential utility than what most people probably realize.
“When businesses are looking for capital, there’s sort of a diagnostic checklist,” I said (in substance). “You ask the business how much revenue they have, you ask them if they have equipment, you ask them if they have real estate, etc. and lenders are trying to figure out which of those assets is something they can use as the basis for financing, but nobody asks about their domain name.”
Maybe they should. If a million links on the internet point to a business’s domain name and search engines rank it, then that domain name is integral to the sales generated on the site. And if a business got a loan against a domain name that they’re using to generate tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in sales per month, they probably wouldn’t want to lose it because it’s worth a lot.
Usually in the business loan world the story ends here. Ok, domain names? sounds complicated, too techie, waste of time, dollar amounts are too small, nobody wants to deal with that, etc.
But you’d actually be surprised. The technology is just about there that if a business doing $1 million/year in website-originated sales said that they’d be willing to put up their domain name as collateral for a $100,000 loan today, you could send them a link that automatically transfers their domain name to escrow in seconds without them experiencing any disruption to their site. Then if they default on the loan, the domain name transfers to you, where if you understand anything about e-commerce, you should immediately be able to monetize their domain and capture those sales for yourself.
That means no trying to foreclose on a property, no trying to chase down equipment, no suing them, getting a judgment and then hiring an expert to find if they have assets anywhere. Just click-click yours, a revenue generating asset that you can use as leverage to cure the default or monetize immediately and start making your money back with. If you don’t know anything about websites, then maybe this concept wouldn’t be enticing for you as a lender.
I could go into the technical mechanics of how this domain loan process would work, but for now just imagine talking to a business owner generating a lot of revenue that really doesn’t have many assets to make use of. They need $100k and they can’t get it any other way. You tell them they can use their domain name as collateral with no disruption to their website. It will happen instantly. There’s no tax returns needed, no credit check. It’s based on sales, something we might all already be familiar with. Will some business owners say “yes” to such a proposal or would they tell you they’d rather have nothing instead?