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Loan FAQ

  • We invest in early-stage businesses based in the US that have been overlooked by traditional investors.  Specifically, we look for companies with over $100K in annual revenue and a clear path to profitability in the next 24 months.

    Our specific eligibility criteria include:

    • $100K+ in annual revenue. This must be customer revenue, not income from grants or investors.

    • Accurate financial documents. Companies must have accurate monthly financials including income statement and balance sheet prepared by an outside accountant.

    • Strong unit economics. While we do not require the company to be profitable, we do need to see strong margins at the unit level, which means each individual sale of a product or service is profitable and, as a result, it is believable that company-level profitability is within reach.

    • At least one of the founders is under-represented. We define this broadly and seek out founders who historically have not had equal access to investment capital because of their gender, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or life circumstances.

    • US-based. We invest in US-based companies and do not, at this time, invest in legal entities located outside the US.

  • Our loans are, by design, structured in a founder-friendly way.  Typical terms are:

    • Repayment period: 12 months

    • Repayment frequency: monthly

    • Cost: Flat 10% fee (no other fees/costs)

    • Collateral: None required

    • Personal guarantee: None required

    • Prepayment penalty: No

    For example, a $50,000 loan would have a $5,000 fee so the total repayment amount would be $55,000.  Payments would be spread across 12 months in equal installments of $4,583.33.

  • We pride ourselves on a streamlined process that only requires information that strong operators would already have on hand.  More specifically, our process has three steps:

    • Intro call: This is where we confirm at a high level your needs are a good fit for our services.

    • Financial due diligence: This is where we review your financial documents to understand the economics of your business and assess the riskiness of the loan.

    • References: Because our loans are unsecured, we ask for several references to get to know the founder(s) better and learn more about the advisors/mentors/investors the founder is surrounded by.

  • We pride ourselves on a streamlined process. From first interaction to funding can take as little as two weeks. When delays happen, it is usually because the applicant didn’t have financial information ready for submission.

  • Because our loans are short-term, our diligence focuses less on long-term market trends or business strategy and more on your company's immediate financial health. We look closely at your cash flows from the past year, your forecast for the coming year, and your unit economics to ensure we agree on the near-term profitability potential of your product or service.

    More specifically, we require four pieces of financial information as part of our due diligence process.  This includes:

    • Income statement (P&L): Last 12 month, broken down by month.  

    • Balance sheet:   Last 3 months.  

    • Bank statements: Last 3 months.  

    • Unit economics analysis. An analysis showing the contribution margin on a per unit (product or service) basis.  

  • Our loans are designed to be founder-friendly in a way most traditional loans are not. For example, our loans are unsecured, meaning we require neither a personal guarantee nor collateral. Additionally, there are no prepayment penalties. In fact, we incentivize early repayment by pro-rating the financing fee, so the fee is reduced if you repay the loan early.  Most importantly, our fee structure is extremely transparent.  There are no hidden fees.  You pay one flat financing fee and that’s it.  

  • We keep it simple because interest rate math can be surprisingly confusing depending on the period over which interest is being calculated. A flat 10% fee is easy to understand so borrowers know exactly what the cost of the loan is without question. If you borrow $50,000, the fee is $5,000. You repay the total ($55,000) over 12 months in equal installments. No confusion.

  • We view our relationship as a partnership. In the event of a default, we do not send loans to collections or pursue legal action. Instead, we convert the unpaid portion of the loan into a SAFE note, with a discount, giving us an ownership stake in your business. This keeps our incentives aligned: we want to help you turn the business around rather than forcing you to make payments you can’t afford.