Episode 101: Credibly

Ryan discusses how Credibly provides small business lending alternatives and how AI and machine learning have helped their business work better for their customers.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Light Up the D, focus on what's happening
in our community from the people who make it happen.
Here's your host, iHeartMedia Detroit Market President Colleen Grant.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to another episode of Light Up
the D. I'm your host, Colleen Grant. Today's Light Up
the D is a CEOs You Should Know edition, and
in CEOs you Should Know, we spotlight the most innovative
leaders in our community who are paving the way in
their industry. Today, I'm joined by Ryan Rossett, founder and
co CEO of Credibly, a US based small business lending

(00:35):
company that provides financing options like working capital loans, merchant
cash advances, and equipment financing with a focus on fast
funding and flexible requirements for small to mid size businesses.
Ryan co founded Credibly in the aftermath of the two
thousand and eight financial crisis after recognizing the opportunity to
make a big difference for small and medium sized business owners.

(00:57):
He spent the last several years developing ground breaking new
ways to make small business financing faster, easier, and more
accessible using machine learning and generative AI. More can be
found at credibly dot com. Please join me in Welcoming
Brian Rosette. Welcome, Ryan Colleen. Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it. Glad to have you here today. Listen,

(01:18):
why don't we start with how did this all come about?
I mean, it sounds like you're doing interesting things in
the world of small business financing. How do you even
come to this place today?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I started this business in twenty ten with my partner
Eden King. Prior to that, I was in a bridge
lending where we were lending money to real estate, like
basically secured by real estate. It was a process that
took probably thirty days. The term was like one to
two years, but it was like acute capital that needed

(01:49):
funding immediately, and it was opportunities that kind of sprung
out of the Great Recession from two thousand and seven,
two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine. That when
we originally thought in Detroit where I'm from, that we
were a single state recession, and then if you looked
at and then the entire country turned into this great
recession that occurred. That was like sort of the impetus

(02:10):
of getting into lending. We saw a need for small
businesses accessing capital. We also saw that banks take ninety
days to get an approval, and we thought there was
a better way to get capital in the hands of
small businesses throughout the United States by leveraging technology, machine learning,

(02:31):
data science, and today we have a number of generative
aid models that run to make it a more customer
centric experience for accessing working capital.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
What was the lending situation during that timeframe when you
decided to expand your lending make it faster, what was
the state of lending.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
We lend to small businesses and medium sized businesses.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
The banks do as well.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Banks are of course going to be less costly than
us because we borrow money from banks.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
We do asset back securitizations.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
But the process of accessing capital from a bank is
a very long process. So it could take sixty it
could take ninety days, could take longer for them even
to decision. So where we come in, we're decisioning within
two hours. Our applications are super simple. Wow, two hours
two hours. We have three months bank statements, one simple application,

(03:27):
which is just basic information about the business, who you are.
We look at cash flow, so we're not necessarily credit focused.
We really focus on the bank statements and looking at
average daily balanced negative days in the bank NSFs and
the cash flow trajectory, so to see like where a
business is, if there's any seasonality, things of that nature.

(03:50):
And with that, we have models that then price it
based on the industry type and what they can afford.
Because what's important to is that we get paid back
and also what's important to us is that we provide
an amount of capital for a small business that doesn't
over leverage them that they can afford to pay. So
that's what we do, and we make a decision, we

(04:12):
make an offer and a customer can accept and we
can find same day.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
So it really is just a very seamless process.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
It's time usually the issue for a business.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Oftentimes it is it's situational, so like there may be
an opportunity that a business has that they can leverage
our cash to buy inventory, to buy something at a discount,
to put an addition on their business, to enter into
a contract.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
It could be to pay to pay taxes.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
It could be you know, certain things and as a
small business owner, things pop up that you don't necessarily anticipate,
and you could have had a leak and the leak
may have damaged some of your inventory. That may not
have been covered by insurance, or if it wasn't covered
by insurance, it will take ninety days to process. I mean,
there's a number of things, and so we provide this

(05:03):
working capital to viable businesses based on their cash flow.
And that's that's really it. We're very banks do a
lot of things. One of them is small business lending.
That's all we're after that. We don't do any you know,
we're not consumer lender, we don't do auto lending.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
We're just lending to small businesses.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
How did you end up getting particularly in small business lending.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I think you know, before this we were talking, you
asked me about my background. I do have a small
business background. I went to law school. My partner and
I are both lawyers by education. When I was in
law school, I opened a coffee shop in downtown Birmingham,
which is, you know, right right side of Detroit, Michigan.
And it was a time when there was no coffee

(05:50):
shops in Birmingham. I came from going to school in
ann Arbor. There were eighteen coffee shops in ann Arbor.
I went to law school and I was saying, and
I was living in Birmingham, I was you know, it's
just saying, like, why aren't their coffee shops, Like what's
going on? So I opened one and that was my
like my first entry into owning a small business, and

(06:10):
I now I gained an appreciation for small businesses. And
then subsequent to that, I opened a number of other businesses.
Some work, some didn't, and you know, I view like
the businesses that didn't work were super helpful to guide me.
And because I always think like small you know, failures
are sort of what make you stronger and you learn

(06:31):
a ton from it. That's sort of how I got
into this space. So it was just recognizing the need
that small businesses have and the shortage of options. You know,
you have friends and family, but like they have limitations
as well. And so we have started this business and
you know, it's grown tremendously over the years.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
With industries and economic uncertainty. Right now, what advice would
you give with all your experience the new small business
owners are anyone looking to start or expand their business
right now.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
So you know, it's it is a little bit choppy
right now with the economic times. I mean, there are
some rate cuts that are scheduled. It's you know, well
we'll find out this week about the rate cuts. But
it's I would say cautious, you know, be cautious. I'm
always I'm always a believer in you know, being prudent taking,
don't take too much money, you know. So there oftentimes

(07:22):
we make offers and these are my favorite customers where
we offer two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, they take fifty.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
That is a prudent small.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Business owner, somebody who you know, knows what they need
and and doesn't take the max. So those are like,
you know, so I would just try to identify, like
where you use this capital, how you will best use it,
will kind of return potentially you'll get on the investment
from borrowing money from us and accept it, you know,

(07:51):
and take it and recognizing that if you can bridge
this to getting an SBA, or if you can bridge
it to getting a loan from a bank, that's fine,
that's you know, if that's the service that we're providing,
we're happy to be a partner on that from that side.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
So you've brought up twice since we started talking about
either getting over leveraged or somebody taking more than they
really should. Does that happen a lot.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
It does small businesses.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
They may get an offer and they think that they
have a good use for it, but they may not
have a great use for it, you know, aside from
just having it in their bank account. So my advice
always is take what you need and you can always
come back.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
You know. We have a product called a bridge product.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
That is, if we offer you know, two hundred fifty
thousand dollars, the customer takes you know, fifty or one
hundred thousand dollars, they can come back in a certain
period of time and draw the rest. It's not a
line of credit, but it would just their approval kind
of stays open.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
So we address that.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
So it's not a it's not like take it all
or lose it, assuming there's not further deterioration in your business,
which is something you know, that's part of the struggle
we have from an underwriting perspective is that we're looking
at a small business that usually is in an LLC
or corporation of some sort, and we then have to

(09:09):
look at that company and we have to make a
determination based on the credit risk of it, looking at
the owner's credit worthiness to some degree, but there's no
really business credit per se that is super predictive.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
So we take a look at.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
That and then we kind of say it's like a
mosaic of some sort, like we piece together a bunch
of data points that we have to paint a picture
and then to profile that business and that business owner
and price it accordingly. So, for example, if you're a
doctor and you come to us and you've been in
business for twenty years, you're going to have far more

(09:46):
favorable pricing from us than somebody who opens up a
plumber who's been in business for six months. The risk
profile is completely different, and so the pricing associated with
the plum versus the doctor not because they're a plumber,
because there's plenty of plumbers. We're going to give that
been in business for twenty years, that will give the

(10:06):
same pricing as a doctor. It's the six months in
business that is like the issue. So we'll still make
an offer, but it may be a little shorter in term,
it may be a little bit more expensive just to
protect us as the lender.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
And you said, there are multiple factors that you look
at and how so, how is generative AI helping you
with those decisions or how are you using it? Yeah, business,
that's a great question.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
We're there's a we've always been used I say always,
like for the last seven eight years, we've used machine learning.
So we're using certain data sets, we're using machine learnings
within our models. What we've done now with generative AI,
which is like an amazing technology. I mentioned industry types
for example, So industries are if you have like an electrician,

(10:55):
an electrician and so it says ABC the electric LLC.
And do you know if that is somebody who's putting
wires in the home, do they sell electrical supplies? Do
they manufacture electricity? All those are different, and so the
pricing and the margins on those are different, So how
we price them. Originally, when we were starting originally being

(11:16):
like a year ago, before we had this new generative
AI model that has a provisional pattern that we've been
awarded congratulations, thank you, we were using humans and the
humans were accurate sixty four to sixty five percent correct
of the time. We now are ninety five percent accurate

(11:37):
using generative AI. And we had twenty five employees that
worked out of India that we were able to eliminate.
So like that's just like one example of how we're
using it, but it's more workflow than anything else. It's
a number of searches and then it waterfalls into like
what's the best pick, and it continues to whittle it

(11:57):
down to making the right decision.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
So going from sixty five to that hive a percentage
is substantial, and many people will fear AI will limitate jobs.
That was interested you said when we use humans. You know,
it's such an interesting point in time with AI, isn't it. Yes,
but you believe it'll actually require you to hire more people.
Tell me why that would be.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
I just think as we continue to grow, having humans
in the loop will always be a part of our business.
There's there's we have a workflow, and then if there's
a what i'll call like a happy path where it
never gets kicked out of the path, there's no red flags,
there's nothing, but those are rare, so oftentimes what happens

(12:43):
is it will get kicked out to an underwriter.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
The underwriter will have.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
To do some verification and then they put it back
into the workflow until it gets through like the full automation.
So like there's always a point where a human is
sort of looking like a stop gap. Yes, and you know,
there's a So that's just that's an example, and as
we continue to get busier and more applications come through

(13:10):
our system, Unfortunately, i'd say fortunately unfortunately, like we we
haven't been able to eliminate employees, but for like over
like offshore, but we've grown the origination such that we
can support it, and people get sort of retooled into
different positions, so we're using them differently than we, you know,

(13:30):
than when they originally started.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
So and from what I understand you you don't believe
AI will replace humans, but will actually make us better
at our jobs. Tell me a little bit more about
your philosophy on that.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
I just think there's a you know, I think AI
is moving really fast, so I don't want to like
project out too far. But like today and what we do,
we think that there's it's just going to be a
part of the process for us, meaning that the humans
will still have a role in making these credit decisions.

(14:02):
And as AI can learn the way a human, there's
still going to be a different post for that human
because it's always there's always going to be sort of
as we make decisions, if we make better decisions as
our data becomes richer. As the AI models become better,
we are going to continue to refer to sort of

(14:23):
iterate with AI. So I just think it's a process
that we don't see changing for the foreseeable future. Like
I said, I don't know what to come in you know,
five years. I just see like all the models that
are being generated by either Gemini or chat GBT or
Anthropic are they just keep getting better and better and better.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
So it's almost like the human side of it will
just evolve into different roles or different different knowledge base that.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
We caught up scilling.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
So just like you know, moving people into roles that
they will that they may be managing agents. Okay, that
will be doing the work for them that that maybe
humans were doing in the past. But there's going to
be mistakes and so there's always sort of quality control,
checking and verification and things of that nature that will
take place.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Do you think it'll actually require hiring more people.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
I think it probably will.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
It's not something that we're we always are hiring more people, so,
like you know, we're in certain roles, whether it be
you know, I don't think it can eliminate sales today.
For example, like there's certain roles that are I don't
want to say, like protected, and there's other roles that
are sort of more mundane that I think that if

(15:39):
the task, if it's all task orientated, I think those
roles will be automated. And you know, whether it be
accredibly or some other business, I just think those are
the first jobs that get automated, and then you ultimately,
I would say, the AI curious employees will continue to
evolve with the business because of the business is going

(16:01):
to continue to evolve. You're never it's never going to
run with no employees, is And I want to say
how that would be.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Very like ideal but unrealistic.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
You said a year ago you started having AI generative.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
So so it was uh, yeah, I want to say
a year ago we probably implemented it. I think it's
been like two two and a half years since, like
chetch GPT kind of like went public, you know, with
their first sort of open source model.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, and how do you feel about how it's influencing
your business or how it's integrated into your business? Obviously
the results are substantially better, right, Yes, I.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Think it's a I mean I personally, I think it's amazing.
I think it's and I think we continue to evolve
with it, So I don't think we have even reached
even close to like critical mass of like what we
are experimenting with right now. So I'm super excited by it.
And you know, I would say anyone who isn't curious

(16:55):
about it should be, you know, because it's it's it's evolving.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
I have we mentioned and I have three children.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
It's something that I continue to push to them to say,
you know, you got to learn about this because if
you put your head in the sand and you think
this is going away, it's not.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, it's far beyond that at this point, right. Yeah,
you are in your second ear of the Credibly Small
Business Awards. Can you talk about that and also explain
how grants and awards like the Credibly Small Business Awards
are overlooked but a powerful strategy for small business owners.
Talk more about that.

Speaker 4 (17:27):
On the Small Business Awards.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
We do we offer grants to small businesses that make
applications to us that it doesn't necessarily have to be
a customer of ours. It's not weighted that way. It's
the story, it's how they use it. We've had great
use cases that have come out of it. Can you
give me some examples. Yeah, there was just a you know,
there was a wine distributor that had like a great experience.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
By using the grant.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
And it's something that we look at the story, we
see how they're potentially going to leverage or use the money.
It goes in front of a committee, there's no there's
no preconceived decisions in terms of like.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
How we look at it.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
It doesn't We don't wait whether or not you've been
a customer or not a customer before.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
We don't care.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
We're really just trying to help the small businesses gain
access to work in capital.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
If they need a grant, like you know, and.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
They have a good story, we're more than happy to
you know, try to help them. And we put it
into you know, the contest, and you know, I hope
they win, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
I mean so I love that you guys do that
for small businesses. So you haven't here or somebody does.
How grants and awards are often overlooked a bit a
powerful strategy?

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Is that for real?

Speaker 4 (18:37):
How grant?

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah? Explain how grants and awards like the ones you
guys do are often overlooked, but a powerful strategy for
small business owners.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
It's you know, what's interesting is like we had, I
want to say last year, we had a winner and
it was there's no strings attached. It was like, if
you win, you get the money. The person either one
they thought we were cold calling them or two for
whatever reason, would never take or call. And all we
were doing was trying to offer them money and we

(19:05):
tried their hats to be a catch yeah yeah, and
they just did not believe us.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Nobody ever just gives away money.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah, So it was just so that was yeah, that
was that was that was. That was a strange occurrence
and so we had to go to the next you know,
candidate that you know, but that was, you know, too
bad for them because really all we were trying to
do is provide them what they deserve, which was they
wont wow. But yeah, no, it's a you know, it's
something we're really excited by. We get a ton of

(19:32):
submissions like that are seeking this the working capital Grant.
So it's it's something that you know, we're we're proud of.
We uh, it's it's helped us a lot in terms
of you know, of course, like when you when you apply,
like what we'll continue to touch base with you so
that we can give you educational tools and things like
that that in the event that you ever need working
capital in the future, you might get an email from us.

(19:54):
But like to that extent, that's it. So beyond that,
there's really no strings attached.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Some I love that. So you had mentioned that you've
had multiple businesses, some some that did well, and that
some that you used as learning platforms. One lessons have
you learned as a leader about embracing those failures because
sometimes they're super fameful, that's for sure. And how can
business owners reframe those setbacks as growth opportunities what have

(20:20):
How have you used that mental ability to make it
work for you as opposed to it being like just
a hardship.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, it's you know, it's a it's it's a tough
thing to do, but it's something that you just got
to get out of bed the next day, you know,
put your pants on, you know, socks on, shoes on it.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
It just goes back up, pull your boots back off.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
And get going because there's you know, there's no time
to feel sorry for yourself.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
You learn what mistakes you made.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
And in business, I would say That's something that I
really have utilized, just as in more of a leadership role,
is that allowing failure is like a very vital part
of our business. So it's letting people fail as long
as they don't as long as it's not too big
of a failure, you know, and they don't do that

(21:12):
failure again. You know, they learn from it, so they
don't make the same mistakes twice. That's something that we
very much encourage as a company culture because like that's
the only way you learn is by you know, if everything,
If you have no failures, you almost think that you're
you're invincible in some ways. And so like having some
setbacks generally, I think can be used as a positive.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, it's funny you said you have three kids. I
have three kids too, And it's funny how much we
want to avoid their failures. And yet here we are
sitting saying all the things. You know, you said, all
the things that you learn from your failures.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yep, no, no, no, I And trust me, I you know
there's like what the helicop parents and things like that
that you know. One thing I know, my wife and
I always my wife and I always say when my
kids were little would be when they fell, you know,
and it looks.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
Like if it would be a fall.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Like if if I felt I feel like I'd be
in the hospital for four weeks, you know. But like
they've all you know, running straight and you know, face
and you just kind of wait for the reaction and
you know, if they get up and pop up and
everything's okay. But if you've run over there and you
know and dust them off and say is everything okay?
You know so and they think that maybe you know
so it's also it's part of the reaction. But I

(22:20):
agree with you as a parent, Like it's it's hard
watching failure, but it's it's it's such an important part
of like growth.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
It's interesting that you in business you're okay with that failure.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Yes, you know, I am, like you know, and I
say it like in like even the things we do,
like in marketing, is so easy to you know, because
you almost have to always test and some things work
and some things don't.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
But never are we fingerpointing saying like.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
Oh my god, you spent X amount of thousands of
dollars or whatever and that didn't work, you know, shame
on you.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
That's that's the nature of learning.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
How do you foster your workplace culture? How do you
balance innovation with accountability, especially when you're testing new AI
tools and approach.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
You know, I would say culture with during COVID was
a challenge, okay, and so, and we just did a
return to office three days a week. We maybe implemented
that four months ago, so we were kind of slow
to that change. But I believe working together and collaborating
is just vital. Anyone can tell me differently that you

(23:22):
can work super hard remote, I can't.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
And I'm not basing it solely on my decision.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
I just my daughter just got her first job and
I watched her work remote for a little bit, and
it just isn't the same as working together, And especially
in light of like what's going on in generative AI.
Having a collaborative work environment where you're going over the shoulder,
you're seeing what people are doing, you're trying to help
one another. I just think it's just just a very

(23:48):
valuable tool. And as much as I get the commute
sometimes isn't super pleasurable, and certain things about coming to
an office may not be the beast I would just
say that it's you know, I think it out what
outweighs it is the business and what the business needs,
and I find it to be like a very valuable part.

(24:09):
So the culture that we create is very transparent, trusting,
Like you know, one of our values is we care.
We do spirited debates, like we debate a lot, but
debating just trying to find the right answer. It's not
to see who can win the debate. It's really just
trying to find what the best course of action is.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
It's hard to debate over teams or zoom.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Oh I think I think it's like, you know, it's
the worst.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
And when somebody says, hey, do you want to just
do a phone call versus like a zoom, I'm like, yeah,
that sounds good.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
I'm like that, I'll take that. I don't need to
be on video.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
So that's hilarious. What advice you'd give other CEOs about
preparing their teams for the AI driven future? You've jumped right.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
In, yes, you know, I just think you need to
jump right in. I just think there's how.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
They even figure it out, Like, how did you figure
that out?

Speaker 3 (24:56):
So we put together we have someone on our team
who is very tech forward, uh, not a technologist, but
just very like you know, i'd say tech curious and
just you know, really pushes the boundaries and she's she
runs her strategy and she put together a skunk works
team which is just you know for short for like

(25:18):
innovation lab or whatever.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
And we've just been generating.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
A lot of great work product out of that and
really kind of I don't want to say trial and air,
but just putting together some amazing work is coming out
of that that we're able to implement into our workflow.
So and and I do think it comes from the
top down, So I think, you know, the the leaders
of the company. It's not something that we just like

(25:42):
have a memo on and say like oh this AI,
this is what this. You know, we are doing it
and we're leveraging it and in ways that it hasn't
been done before. So like there's a lot that we
do and there's so much more in store. I think
we're you know, scratching the surface. But when if some
but he's not evolving to or gravitating to it personally,

(26:05):
I think it's a mistake.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Is everybody in the small business lending sector using machine
learning or generative AI in their decisions?

Speaker 3 (26:15):
I would say you know, some of the more sophisticated
ones are definitely using machine learning, I would say, you know,
I can't speak to whether they're using generative AI yet.
You know, data science has been core to our business
for a long time, probably going in ten years, and
we have a very robust data science team, you know,

(26:37):
so we're analyzing everything from you know, from top of
the funnel when an application comes in, all the way
through the portfolio.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
In portfolio management.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
So it's it's like everything is measured. You know, there's
KPIs on everything we do. There's just really there's the
data is almost there's almost.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
Too much, you know.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
I don't think anyone will be pleased with me saying it,
but it's like the amount of reporting that we get
is just it it's almost hard to keep up with.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
That's interesting. Where do you see small business lending heading
over the next five years and what role will AI
play in shaping that future? Can you speculate a little
bit for me.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah, I think that people are starting to get or
have become comfortable with using online lenders. So again we're
an alternative fintech non bank lender. So the distinction is
being a non bank and I think that generally small
businesses have gravitated to this type of product. So I

(27:39):
think where a business has good cash flow and they
have good credit and they run a sound business, I
think they're going to get really attractive offers from companies
like us that it's going to be very competitive to
what they would see elsewhere, and you know, from potentially
even banks. And so I just think that that evolution

(28:00):
will continue. And America is a very innovative country and
we are the backbone of our economy is always small businesses.
So I just think it will continue to grow. And
with AI, I think there's going to be more innovation.
I think there's gonna be more people that are going
to be, you know, solo entrepreneurs and creating businesses and

(28:21):
you know that may have one employee but generates revenue
and we'll service that customer.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
What do you want the experience to be when people
come to you online and decide that they're going to apply.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
The last two years, you know, every year we kind
of have a year of something, you know, like whether
it's like your of portfolio or whatever, you know, like
where we focus our full energy on something. This the
last two years have been the customer experience, user experience,
just making it very easy for a customer to interface
with us. So the goal is really just to have

(28:56):
a fully automated approval you know, for a certain segment
of the population quickly.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
It sounds like oh very fast.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
You know, and those would be you know, within minutes
if it's fully automated. So that's like, you know, the
two hours would go away. Two hours is like is
average with human in the loop. This is like a
perfect you know, i'll call it application. Not everyone's gonna
have a perfect application. So you know, where they've been
in business for ten years, they have good cash flow,
they have seven hundred fiico, they there's no negative days

(29:27):
in the bank and everything checks out. They're not a
foreign entity or a foreign citizen or what you know, nothing,
no red flags that then the customer would go through
what we call an online checkout where they get a link.
The link then you know, gives them their it asks
a series of questions. It goes through a biometric which
is basically you know, takes a picture of their face,

(29:47):
takes a picture of their driver's license, verifies from a
geotagging perspective that they're like in the location that we
believe they're in and then sign the agreement and get funded.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
So which is like, you know, a seven minute process.
So it's a real a fast process. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
So it's, uh, that's where we are heading. Uh and
we're really excited by it. And it's you know, we
think that's going to be the next, you know, wave
of innovation.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
For small business lending.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Do you love what you do?

Speaker 4 (30:14):
I do? I enjoy it. I have a good time.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
And I always say to everyone who works, you might
as well like everyone that you know, work life balance
is super important and if you don't, I work more
than I see my family generally. You know, I'm at
work and you know, so I always say that you
might as well like what you do.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
And I do. I really enjoy what I do.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
What do you love about it?

Speaker 4 (30:35):
I like?

Speaker 3 (30:35):
I like the people I work with a lot. I
care for them. I like I like the employees. I
like the teams we built. I just I feel good
about what we're doing. I like that we're providing work
and capital to businesses. I like that customers appreciate us.
Not all, but you know, I'd say I'm the vast majority.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
They do.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
Like we make an offer. We don't say you have
to accept it. You know, it's really just it's an
option for them, right.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
I like what I do.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
I really like you know, like would.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
I rather be with on a vacation, yes, okay, you know,
on a beach, but but if you gotta work, if
I gotta work, I like what I do.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
This is where I want to be.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
That's great. So our guest today has been Ryan Rosead
He's founder and co CEO of Credibly. Thanks for joining
us today, Ryan.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
I appreciate Colleen, thank you so much for this has
been light.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Up the d a community a fairs program from iHeartMedia Detroit.
If your organization would like to get on the program,
email Colleen Grant at iHeartMedia dot com. Here are all
episodes on this station's podcast page.