Most firms keep this part vague. Here it’s end to end.
What we ask for, who touches your file, how long each step takes, and what slows it down. Including the parts that are inconvenient to us.
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You tell us what the capital is for
Use of funds decides the structure, so it comes first. "A second reefer truck for a contracted route" underwrites better than "whatever we can get", and it isn't close.
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You send three to six months of business bank statements
All pages. Lenders underwrite deposit consistency far more than credit score, which is why a 580 with steady deposits regularly beats a 700 with erratic ones. Missing pages are the most common cause of a lost day.
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We tell you what your numbers support
This is the capital review, and it’s where most of the value is. A file that asks for more than the numbers support gets declined, and a decline follows you. Working out what’s realistic first is why the offers that come back are ones you can actually take.
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We run a soft credit check
Soft means your score is unaffected and no other lender sees an inquiry. A hard pull happens only when you’ve a specific offer and authorize it in writing.
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It goes to two or three partners, in parallel
Not twenty. Lenders specialize by trade, revenue band, credit profile and state, and a decline often just means the file met the wrong underwriter. Routing is the part you’re paying nothing for and getting the most from.
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You compare, and you can walk
Every offer on one page: amount, total cost, schedule, term, fees, and anything unusual flagged in plain English. Declining all of them costs nothing and follows you nowhere.
No credit pull to start. $0 to apply. Minutes, not forms.
How we’re paid, and why it shouldn’t worry you.
The lending partner pays us at closing. You pay nothing, at any stage.
Fair question: doesn’t that bias you toward expensive products? It would, if we were paid materially more on them. Two things work against it. Our published guidance runs cheapest first on every page, and we don’t arrange merchant cash advances at all, which removes the most obvious way an intermediary earns more by serving you worse.
Ask what we’re paid on any specific offer and we’ll tell you. It’s a reasonable question and the answer has never cost us a deal.
What actually slows a file down.
- Missing statement pages. Including the blank ones. Lenders reject partial sets outright.
- An unexplained deposit. A large one-off looks like borrowed money until you say what it was.
- Undisclosed existing debt. They see it in the statements regardless, and finding it themselves ends the file.
- A vague use of funds. "Growth" isn’t a use. "Two operatories and a CBCT" is.
- Seasonality without an explanation. A concrete company showing 70% of revenue between May and October is a normal file with a sentence attached, and a problem file without one.
How long each instrument really takes.
| Instrument | To an offer | To funding | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|
| SBA loans | 5–10 business days | 2–4 weeks | Extensive |
| Business HELOC | 1–3 business days | 1–2 weeks, after valuation | Property and income |
| Equipment financing | 1–3 business days | 1–4 days after signing | Bank statements |
| Term loan | 1–3 business days | 1–4 days after signing | Bank statements |
| Business line of credit | 1–3 business days | 1–4 days after signing | Bank statements |
| Invoice factoring | 1–3 business days | 1–4 days after signing | Bank statements |
No credit pull. No cost. No obligation.
The first step is short, and the rest is our job.