events
How Erica Bell of Tax Guard Won Second in The Poker Tournament
October 13, 2024
When the final hand of the B2B Finance Expo’s official poker tournament had concluded, Erica Bell, a Business Development Account Executive for Tax Guard, walked away with 2nd place. Bell has enjoyed poker for a long time and knows the game well. She’s even played in tournaments at the Ameristar Casino in Blackhawk, Colorado and won 1st place in one of them.
“The game’s strategy is what I truly enjoy,” Bell told deBanked. “A couple of individuals came up to me and congratulated me [on coming in 2nd].”
Bell, who at least took home a small prize, has worked for Tax Guard for 5 and a half years. For those not familiar, “Tax Guard is a 3rd party due diligence company who provides real-time insights into hidden tax debt of individuals and businesses by retrieving and analyzing IRS data directly from the source, the IRS,” she says.
The company’s services are primarily used by commercial lenders and financial institutions to assess tax-related risks associated with borrowers. Tax Guard is widely known throughout the industry and has been frequently referenced on deBanked. The company’s co-founder and CEO, Hansen Rada, even did a Zoom interview with deBanked during the early lockdown era of Covid.
The company’s value is pretty straightforward, a lot of tax debt is not easily discoverable, and they’ll get the info you don’t even know you’re missing straight from the source.
“By offering earlier visibility into potential tax issues, liabilities, liens, & levies, we help our customers make more informed lending decisions and mitigate financial risks,” Bell explains.
And if there is a hidden tax issue, Tax Guard can proactively work to resolve it and even negotiate a payment plan. One downside of ignoring tax debt as a lender is having to compete with the IRS when they ultimately move to enforce collection.
Clients can use the Tax Guard portal to run reports or integrate their API right into a CRM. Other critical information can be obtained as well including a wage and income transcript from the IRS. “This includes data from W-2s, 1099s, and other income forms, as well as withholding details,” Bell says. “This data provides a comprehensive view of a taxpayer’s reported income and can be critical when assessing financial risks, resolving discrepancies and verifying financial details.”
Obviously, Bell says that anyone interested in learning more can reach out to her directly.
“My role is highly dynamic, being sales, strategic partnership and relationship focused,” Bell says. “I really enjoy working with extremely talented people at Tax Guard, meeting new folks in the finance industry and learning from their perspectives.”
She’s also apparently planning to host her own upcoming friendly poker tournament so it’s safe to say she has no intention of letting her skills get rusty.
deBanked CONNECT MIAMI 2025
October 9, 2024deBanked CONNECT returns to Miami Beach on February 20, 2025 at the Fontainebleau. Early bird pricing is now available. This will be deBanked’s 7th annual event in Miami since 2018. Last year’s event featured the first ever Broker Battle. Stay tuned for what’s in store for this year. You can check out interviews from the past event HERE.
How Cesar Valero Won The Tournament And Gets Deals Done
October 2, 2024
When Cesar Valero, Business Development Executive at Spartan Capital, sat down at one of the starting poker tables late last month to participate in the kick-off tournament for B2B Finance Expo, it had been almost exactly a year since he last played. His colleague Ryan Capella had finished second that time, which coincidentally had also been for a business event in Las Vegas. But here at B2B in 2024, the Spartan team was competing against a mix of players eager to show off their skills, some of whom play semi-professionally on the side.
According to Valero, they didn’t do any kind of practice ahead of time. “Frank [the CEO] just said ‘make sure you represent,'” he said. And after two and a half hours of impressive play that’s exactly what he did. The dealer and a hired pit boss keeping an eye on all the cards declared Valero the winner where he took home the grand prize gold bracelet and other goodies.
“We were actually really happy because we noticed that–obviously we celebrated a little bit–and then noticed after we’re like, ‘of the top four positions of the last two years, we [Spartan] have two’ that’s pretty good,” Valero said.
But more importantly, at the industry’s largest conference of the year, everyone suddenly knew who Valero was if they didn’t before.
“You can flat out tell them the best marketing at B2B was to win the poker tournament,” Valero said. People came up to him throughout the next two days calling him out by name. “Hey, Cesar!” they shouted, after having heard about his win.
And being the guy everybody wants to talk to is pretty much his job anyway. Spartan Capital provides revenue based financing and works with a large number of referral partners. Valero’s day-to-day is typically spent communicating with ISOs, whether it be phone calls or Zoom calls or in-office meetings, he is catering to what they need and trying to get deals funded. When asked if having a relationship with an ISO is an important part of the job, he said it’s the whole job.
“We’re a fair funder,” he said of Spartan. “We really don’t snub anybody out. Whether you’re the biggest guy in the space or the smallest guy in the space, we’re going to do our best to give you the best customer service we can. Our reps, pretty much nobody is a brand new rep. Everybody’s got experience. They know what they’re talking about.”
“Most deals are pretty straightforward,” he said, “but you always have that 10,15,20% that need a little more love…so it’s a fast paced environment and just try to keep up with it, make sure we’re doing the right service to our customers whether it be an ISO or a [merchant].”
Overall, Valero feels like the industry is on a strong trajectory, especially with tech and e-commerce platforms having rushed in to offer similar funding products to their customers.
“If they’re in it, they see the demand right?” he exclaimed, “and if they’re putting out billions of dollars like I see every quarter in press releases from Amazon or from PayPal or from one of the big players, they’re out there and they’re creating buzz… so better quality borrowers will be flowing in because the need is there across the board.”
Valero isn’t exaggerating about the fast pace. After having gone from the flow of deals to Vegas to even more deals, he couldn’t afford to let our interview about his big win go over the allotted time.
“I got about an hour and 15 minutes to the wire cut-off,” he said emphatically while thanking me for the call. “Let me see if I can do a couple more deals!”
Photos From B2B Finance Expo and More
September 30, 2024
Photos from B2B Finance Expo can be FOUND HERE. The order of them arranges at random. We’re still adding a few to the gallery. If you want a higher res version of a photo or to inquire if there are any of you that may not be here, email events@debanked.com. Video interviews from the red carpet or from the trade show floor will start being added over the next couple days and should take up to 2 weeks to get them all up. There is a ton of video content!
Congratulations to Cesar Valero (pictured at right), Business Development Exec of Spartan Capital on his victory at the event’s official poker tournament! Story on this to follow! Second place went to Erica Bell, Business Development Exec at Tax Guard. The final table of the match was HIGH PRESSURE so if you want to know how they got so good at the game, make sure to give them a buzz.
B2B Finance Expo was a two-day event in Las Vegas that brought folks together from across the fintech and commercial finance industries.
Special thanks goes out to Greg Smith and Steve McLaughlin of FT Partners for their incredible insights on Day 1. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Small Business Finance Association (SBFA). A thank you to all the sponsors and attendees.
B2B Finance Expo Stuns With Inaugural Event
September 24, 2024The inaugural B2B Finance Expo made its presence known in Las Vegas on Monday. In less than 4 months time since ticket sales opened the two-day conference logged approximately 700 registrations, quickly solidifying it as the top destination for commercial finance professionals in the US in 2024.
The conference welcomed folks from: SBA lending, factoring, equipment financing, revenue based financing, unsecured lending, real estate financing, fintech, investment banking, traditional banking, and more. Attendees ranged from CEOs to business development officers to loan brokers to lawyers to tech engineers.
Today is the 2nd and final day of the event.
See You in Las Vegas
September 18, 2024
We’ll be in Las Vegas for the inaugural B2B Finance Expo (a deBanked / SBFA collaboration).
Here’s what you need to know:
Sept 22, Wynn, Las Vegas, 7-10pm: B2B Finance Expo Poker Tournament
- WINNER: Cesar Valero of Spartan Capital
- 2nd place: Erica Bell of Tax Guard
Sept 23-24, Wynn, Las Vegas: B2B Finance Expo
- See agenda
- LOWER CONVENTION PROMENADE – it’s a bit of far walk through the Wynn!!!
- Check-in starts at 8am
- Tickets required for entry
Please be sure to stop by the Small Business Finance Association’s booth (SBFA) to learn more about the non-profit organization.
Other trade associations with representatives in attendance include the National Private Lenders Association (NPLA) and the Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA).
Trade media in attendance will include: deBanked, Coleman Report, and Equipment Finance News.
Please be sure to check out the booths of Kapitus & Rapid Finance (Diamond Sponsors) and Bitty & Lendini (Platinum Sponsors).
For event related questions email events@debanked.com. Event staff will not be able to answer calls after Thursday, 9/19.
B2B Finance Expo Poker Tournament Details
September 17, 2024
Seats for the B2B Finance Expo Poker Tournament are almost full. The non-cash competition is happening on the evening of September 22 from 7pm – 10pm PT at The Wynn Las Vegas. Anyone registered for the conference is eligible to register for the tournament while seats last. The grand prize is a 14k gold B2B championship bracelet, an optional interview for a story about your company on deBanked, and a few other goodies. The tournament is an excellent way to network with potential partners and peers while sizing up the competition!
Location: The Wynn Las Vegas – Pomerol Ballroom + outdoor patio
The entry fee is $100 (select the poker tournament at checkout). 100% of the revenue collected from the entry fees will be donated to GreenLedger, a new non-profit initiative to curtail predatory debt consolidation companies in the small business finance industry.
“GreenLedger’s mission is to work directly with our small business clients to stabilize their revenue-based financing debts and avoid defaulting on their agreements, eliminating the need for potentially predatory middlemen and bad practices of debt consolidation.”
Anyone who wishes to watch but not play can attend FREE. There will be a bar there.
Anticipated Attendance to B2B Finance Expo Surges
September 12, 2024
Registrations for the inaugural B2B Finance Expo taking place Sept 23-24 at Wynn, Las Vegas have already exceeded attendance to deBanked CONNECT MIAMI 2024 and may well surpass Broker Fair 2024’s turnout in New York City. Due to this overwhelming interest the opportunity to buy tickets may end soon. Make sure your ticket is secured here.
Interest in the event, which will encompass commercial finance folks from across across SBA, CRE, MCA, Equipment Financing, term loans, LOCs, factoring, investment banking, and more, is quickly propelling B2B Finance Expo to be the largest commercial finance event of the year. Brokers, lenders, funders, vendors, tech, data, legal, leads, and more are among those registered to attend. The featured guest speaker is Steve McLaughlin, CEO of FT Partners.
Brokers will benefit from the wide array of relationship partners available at the show. The event has the backing of the Small Business Finance Association (SBFA) and deBanked.
