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jon-fry

34 karma · joined July 28, 2019

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jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
We handle everything (all support and onboarding) until the funds are disbursed by a 3rd party lender/funder. This is to keep the experience consistent across all of our financial institutions.

Our platform partners makes money by earning a % of the loan value from each business that is funded.

If our platform partner decides to fund businesses themselves, then yes they'd need to collect from the small businesses and earn the full margin on each loan they issue.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
Not yet, although the UK is coming up soon for Lendflow. EU will be a bit later but is on the way as well.
jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
The platform would not then pay a % fee on loans it issues. They would only pay the subscription fees and any fees for using services through the API.
jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
that's right!
jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
1. We do vet lenders. We focus on bringing on the lenders with the best service, tech and reputation. We don't bring bad actors in the space, and if they don't service the borrowers well they are removed from the platform.

2. There are both recourse and non-recourse options.

3. Stripe released a product with some similarities recently. On the marketplace side we compete with companies like Lendio and Fundera.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
We can help you serve Canadian customers as well. You are indeed a fit!
jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
You can do that, we have several customers launching a product for this purpose.

You can also build services for a broader set other use cases. Including financing purchases like inventory, equipment, supplies, inventory, real estate, ect. Or just more general purpose funding, it just depends on the user base and their needs.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
Definitely understand where you’re coming from, I think you're looking this through the lens of the way these types of programs have worked in the past.

With us, these are always your customers, we're just allowing you to launch your own capital program for them. We aren't having you "send us prospects." Instead, we're providing you the infrastructure so you can get them funded them on your platform. We keep them in your product and ecosystem, and your users never need to know who Lendflow is (if you wouldn't like them to).

We provide a lot as part of the program, including the technology, customer support and onboarding, dedicated phone lines and email integration, and the go to market sales and marketing collateral.We also provide the data and analytics for your program, so you can better run your service with us over time.

There are a lot of costs associated with these services, so the subscription keeps our incentives aligned with our platform partners and the small businesses we’re serving together.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
Yes, that's right.

We have an endpoint where we can generate prequal offers for a business based on the transactional data. We can also incorporate into the package we send to lenders to get business improved loan pricing.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
Those are companies providing consumer loans placed in a ecommerce checkout workflow.

We're focused on business funding options placed in a broader set of workflows. Think lending services in workflows based around payments, procurement, invoicing, ect.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
Marketplaces are great, but the lending product would be to the businesses on the marketplace. Not the consumer side.
jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
1. I think the main draw depends on the objectives of the customer. For many the priority is going to be improving retention, but for others it may be increasing revenue per user or driving adoption of another product or feature. Ultimately it all leads to higher retention, that just may not be the main draw starting out.

2. We compile data on the business as if we're underwriting them for a loan, although we never actually lend or take balance sheet risk. We use the data to place them with a batch of lenders (typically about 3) that's going to be the best fit for their risk profile and use of funds. We take the best pricing from the batch to present to the borrower. The goal is to send them to as few lenders as possible while acquiring the best pricing available on the market.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
There's definitely some areas of overlap in that we're both offering the ability to add financing to a use workflow. Some differences are that we're focused on small business while Klarna is focused on consumer. Another is that they're focused on a consumer checkout process with a buy now pay later product.

While you could certainly create that type of product on Lendflow, it's not limited to just buy now pay later. There's a much broader set of funding products you can build and user workflows you can integrate them into.

jon-fry··on Launch HN: Lendflow (YC W21) – Infrastructure for embedded lending services
We've been building in the space for a number of years on previous products/companies. It's been a long learning process. All in all, I'd say at least that has gone into it!