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How Alexander Klein Took Home the Gold at B2B Finance Expo

Left: Sean Murray (deBanked), Right: Alexander Klein, 1st Place Winner (Simply Funding)

“I‘ll be honest, I said to one of my co-workers that was there at the conference with us that ‘I’m going to win,'” said Alexander Klein, an ISO Rep at Simply Funding who did in fact win the official B2B Finance Expo 2025 poker tournament. “I said that a little bit facetiously but I think I had a chance.”

Knowing the odds were technically slim and fully cognizant that the annual conference in Las Vegas is really about business in the end, Klein and others made sure to use the opportunity of the poker tournament, at least initially, to socialize with the rest of the table.

“I focused directly on networking with people,” Klein said. “We’re talking sports, talking life, talking business, that was really where it was at the beginning.”

As he started to win some hands and players got knocked out, the tone changed and the table became more quiet and serious. Competitiveness took over. By the end of the night Klein was the last player standing. That made Klein the winner of a 1st place trophy and a B2B gold bracelet. It was his first tournament win and technically the first tournament he’d ever even played in.

Klein learned poker as a teenager and played in a few real games here and there, but that background was apparently enough to beat out some players at the table that played professionally on the side.

“People were immediately coming up to me, saying, ‘wow, I heard you won the poker tournament!’ Guys that were playing, guys that weren’t playing. It definitely got around a little bit and I got some nice connections through it,” Klein said.

And that’s really what it’s all about for someone in his position, the connections made in person.

“Seeing somebody face to face is the most genuine interaction you can possibly have,” Klein said. “You can show somebody that you’re actually serious, that you can actually provide the things that you’re talking about. It’s also just really about building the relationship, and I think you can only do that face to face.”

Klein said that conferences like B2B Finance Expo provide a critical opportunity to meet the right business partners and that it worked well for him and Simply Funding. It was also a good way to get back into the mix considering Klein had taken a hiatus from the industry during Covid and tried a different career path for a few years. Now he’s back. Having worked as a broker previously but working on the funder side these days, he said he appreciates the experience he earned before because he knows what his own ISO clients have to deal with.

One observation he’s made in that regard is that brokers want to see consistency with the funders they work with.

“[Brokers] don’t want to have a deal that is funded in a certain way and then a very similar deal is declined for whatever reason,” Klein said. “They want to see consistency. They want to see consistency in how efficient you are, how fast you respond, and the types of offers they’re getting on certain types of deals, consistency just in all aspects of the job. As long as you stay consistent in this industry, everyone will appreciate what you do, and you’ll also have better relationships and maintain those relationships.”

At Simply Funding, where his job is to bring in new business and work with current partners on deals, he believes they accomplish the consistency element well.

“I just work on helping our ISOs get the best possible deals, best possible offers, make sure everything’s efficient and running smoothly,” Klein said. Speed is also important, he added.

There’s also a mutual respect for the hustle where he says he finds himself and his colleagues working even faster than he had to as a broker to keep up the level of service. And this type of environment is one he wants to stay in for a very long time.

“I have found something that I feel is a great fit for me, that I can do well, and I see myself being able to do this for years to come,” Klein said. “I know there’s a lot of growth opportunity. The industry is only continuously growing, so there’s always more to do. I have that in my mind every single day. There’s always something more I can do. There’s something I can bring to Simply on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, Klein’s B2B poker trophy currently resides on his desk in Simply Funding’s Jersey City office. He’s confident that it’s just the first of many.

“Shelf is going to go up, and we’re going to hopefully stack [the trophies] up,” Klein said. “That’s the goal.”