Latest / Small Biz Florida / Ep 427 | When Banks Say No: Exploring Startup Funding with Boyd Karren

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Ep 427 | When Banks Say No: Exploring Startup Funding with Boyd Karren · Small Biz Florida

• 0:00
  Welcome to Small Biz Florida, your go-to podcast for all things small business in the Sunshine State.
• 0:08
  This podcast is sponsored by Florida First Capital, your trusted partner for financing and support.
• 0:13
  Here, you'll discover the latest news, trends, and invaluable resources to help you grow and succeed.
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  From startup strategies to scaling your business, we've got you covered.
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  Join us as we explore the vibrant Florida small business ecosystem
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  and connect you with the experts who can make a real difference.
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  And now, please welcome your host, Tom Kindred,
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  Regional Director of the Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College.
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  This is Small Biz Florida, the podcast and broadcast.
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  It's all things business across the state of Florida.
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  We are at the 2026 Small Business Success Summit,
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  all taking place here at the beautiful Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
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  The last two days have been dedicated to networking, presentations, breakouts, trainings, keynote speakers,
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  all to help and assist and bring resources to small business owners and operators and entrepreneurs
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  throughout the state of Florida.
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  The room is packed.
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  The lobby is packed with exhibitors and vendors with all kinds of tools and resources.
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  And we have one of our standout presenters here at the summit with us right now.
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  Our old friend, good friend, Boyd Karen with Otro Financial.
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  Boyd, welcome back to Small Biz Florida.
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  Thank you, Tom.
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  I appreciate it.
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  Hello again.
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  Hey, listen, I always like talking to you because you know what?
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  You give me hope for capital access for small businesses.
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  That's what we're here for.
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  Yes.
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  You're probably the most positive guy in capital access.
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  Thank you.
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  All right.
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  So, Boyd, let's start as we always do.
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  Just a little bit of your background, your pathway to creating Otro Financial.
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  Yeah, thank you.
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  Well, I've been a serial entrepreneur most of my adult life.
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  I've started or purchased now eight different businesses.
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  That's up since last year.
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  I just love the world of small business.
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  I absolutely believe it is the heartbeat or the backbone would be a better metaphor.
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  And I started Otro about four years ago now after I was denied a loan to buy a small business.
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  The banker said, that's too small for me.
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  I'm not going to make enough commission to be worth my time.
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  I didn't know bankers could say that.
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  What?
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  I didn't know you could say that.
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  So, I found an alternative lender.
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  He was horrible and terrible.
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  I couldn't move ahead with him.
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  I went and got the training and the introductions I needed so I could help other people who are in my same situation.
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  Just, you're too small for the banks to care about.
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  Right.
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  We've since grown now and we can help just about anybody anytime.
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  But our heart is with that startup universe, two years old or younger.
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  That's the hardest time for them to get money.
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  And that's where we specialize.
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  Okay.
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  Yeah.
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  I couldn't agree more.
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  And yes, we hear that story a couple of times a day.
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  Yeah.
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  So, talk to us a little bit about your presentation.
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  Love the topic.
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  Always love the topic.
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  When banks say no.
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  Yes.
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  Kind of take me to a high level summary of that presentation.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm presenting later today again.
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  And I walked through my own story of being denied and how I took it personally and became a broker.
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  But the most important part of the presentation is where I explain four specific funding options that are available to a startup.
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  Even when the bank has already said no, which Forbes magazine reported, it happens 87% of the time.
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  And that's just for businesses.
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  I mean, startups have an even tougher road.
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  So, I explain those options and put it in as simple terms as I can to give hope to entrepreneurs that, look, even if the bank said no, it's not the end of the road.
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  So, here are all these other options we can look at.
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  So, hit me.
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  Give me my four options, a high level.
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  Yeah.
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  The four, the one's called the syndicated line of credit, which can aggregate 0% of interest credit cards for at least a year or longer with no interest.
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  There are personal term loans.
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  And I just met with my friends at Brickle who we work with.
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  They have a new startup fund to replace what the SBA took away recently.
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  So, I'm very excited about that.
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  There's something new called a business purpose home equity line of credit.
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  So, and then another one, which I think is occasionally excellent for some people, is using the ROBS Act, which allows you to take personal retirement funds and invest in your own business or buy a business.
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  Yeah.
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  Because what's a retirement fund?
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  You're investing in other people's businesses.
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  So, you may want to do that yourself.
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  Those are the four that we walked through.
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  Very nice.
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  Yes.
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  I had on the podcast a little earlier today, a gentleman to talk about.
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  Kirk.
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  A cellophon.
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  Yeah.
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  About the, I had forgotten that name for it, but it's called the ROBS.
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  ROBS Act.
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  ROBS Act.
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  Rollover for Business Startups.
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  Wow.
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  Okay.
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  I got to remember the ROBS Act.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, that, you know, again, you know, it is a simplistic way to break it down.
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  You, you know, just because you get that initial note, there are some other options, clearly other options.
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  And people just don't know this.
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  So, let's talk just real briefly about this whole, specifically the startup.
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  Uh-huh.
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  You know, that call comes in multiple times a day into our SBDC Center.
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  I'm starting a business.
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  I, I want to come talk about a, a grant.
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  Well, my first reaction to that, my first answer to that is, I don't know of any grants for startups.
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  Yeah.
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  Hard to get.
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  If you, if you know of one, we're happy to help you maybe apply for it, submit the application, fill out the application.
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  But I don't know of any grants.
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  But what is available to a pure startup?
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  Are there, are there micro loans out there that will help a startup?
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  Very, very few and hard to find.
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  Generally, you have to be in business at least six months to 12 months before anybody will loan the money.
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  Ascendus is a great resource, the Black Business Investment Fund.
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  But again, six months and 12 months respectively.
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  Yeah.
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  So for the true startup, unless you have tons of cash or the bank of mom and dad, which is always good terms, people seek bank financing and they go in with a business plan and meet with a bank and they're like, we can't help you.
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  Not knowing these other options are out there.
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  Right.
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  So, you know, it's just, it's nice to know and confirm that we are giving people somewhat accurate information when I tell them that it's just almost virtually impossible.
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  And to your point, you know, Ascendus even requires six months in business.
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  Right.
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  Yeah, exactly.
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  And Ascendus is going to look at three months worth of your bank statements.
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  Yes.
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  They're going to want to see cash flow.
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  They have to see that there's growth.
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  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  Right.
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  And again, I guess once you've been in that space for the six months, the one year, whatever that minimum is, what is that maybe first step?
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  Is it an Ascendus or is there a micro loan under the SBA?
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  What is available to that next stage?
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  Yeah.
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  Good question.
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  Micro loans are usually up to $50,000.
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  But the SBA reported last year that the average disbursement is $13,000.
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  Which doesn't really provide a ton of help, honestly.
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  Right.
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  Ideally.
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  That is a very, very small business.
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  It's a, that's a bootstrap.
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  Right.
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  The goal, our goal is to get people started, get them funded, keep them alive for the first two years.
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  When they hit that two year mark, then suddenly the banks care about you because you have the history that you didn't have before.
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  Right.
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  And the ultimate goal is to get somebody into an SBA loan, refinance your startup costs.
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  Because at the beginning, it's going to be more expensive because this is a lot of risk and unsecured stuff.
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  The goal is to keep them alive, get them to that two year mark, get them into an SBA loan.
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  They're going to get the best, best rate, best terms.
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  I mean, that's, that's the best.
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  And you're, and you're probably primarily talking about a 7A.
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  Is that?
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  Usually a 7A.
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  Okay.
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  Absolutely.
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  How low can we go on a 7A?
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  Ah, I have never asked that question.
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  Typically, typically the people that we'll work with, the bankers who do a 7A, usually won't touch it if it's under a hundred.
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  Because again, it's not worth my time.
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  I won't make commission on it.
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  Right.
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  So, and some banks, this guy, he does the 100 to 250.
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  This guy does three quarter billion and higher.
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  So they all have their specialties.
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  Okay.
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  How does, how does engagement work with Otro Financial?
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  Does, how does it all start?
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  Does a business contact you and say, I need capital.
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  How does all that look?
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  How does the engagement start?
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  The best way to engage us is to email or go to the website and fill out the application.
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  That triggers a response from us.
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  We'll then send you a link to do a free credit report.
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  And if you're above a certain level, we're happy to talk.
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  If we're below a certain level, we have now, we have an in-house credit repair team that we can send them to.
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  Get them prepared and up to speed.
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  And then when they're fundable, then we'll talk again.
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  Okay.
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  And I know since the last time you were a guest on Small Biz Florida, you've, you have crafted and authored a couple of books.
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  Talk about the books.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I took the, the, when banks say no presentation that I'm doing today and really fleshed it out.
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  Give it much more detail than I can in a 45, 50 minute presentation.
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  So when banks say no is now available for anybody.
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  My, I do another one about business credit, teaching businesses what it is, how to get it, how to build it.
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  We've turned that into a book as well.
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  Carol, my partner and I, we wrote the Immigrant's Guide to Building Credit and Qualifying for Small Business Loans in the USA in English and Spanish.
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  Carol was an immigrant from Colombia 20 years ago.
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  So he wrote that.
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  We're almost just giving away free because we want people to learn.
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  And the last one we wrote to help youth and teenagers, it's called Smells Like Teen Credit.
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  And so it teaches kids how to establish, how, how the game works.
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  Right.
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  How to get ready for adulthood.
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  Very nice.
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  And then I know you have created some sort of training program for women.
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  This is the first time I've spoken about it publicly.
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  I'm going to spring it on them at the end of my presentation today, but we're putting together a 12 week training program,
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  combining classic entrepreneurship training with fundability, credit repair, and introduction to alternative funding sources.
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  We're calling it Go Biz Girl, the Startup Academy.
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  And our target really are going to be single mothers who need a side hustle or something to break the cycle and create a legacy and something that will benefit their family, hopefully for generations.
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  That's the goal.
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  And, you know, you touch on a good, you know, topic is the side hustle.
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  This, you know, in the world of borrowing money, accessing capital for this startup, probably one of the most effective ways to do this is create this startup as a side hustle.
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  Yes.
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  And keep your daytime job.
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  Yes.
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  Is that a fair statement?
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  Very fair statement.
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  Yep.
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  Grow it on the side.
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  And when it finally matures and can handle everything you need, that's when you make the switch.
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  Right.
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  Not only that, but it would also let you build up that one year, two year history, right?
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  Get some history.
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  Right.
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  Exactly.
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  And then you can go borrow the money because now you've been in business for two years.
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  Right.
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  It's much easier at that point.
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  Sure.
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  Yeah.
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  Okay.
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  All right.
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  I like it.
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  It is our good friend, Boyd Karen, who is the founder, CEO of Otro Financial, helping all kinds of businesses, all sizes to get access to the capital they need to start, grow and succeed.
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  Boyd, where do people find you and how do they access these books and where do they find Otro?
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  Yeah.
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  Thank you.
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  All the books are on Amazon.
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  A paperback and an e-book, a Kindle.
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  The best way to reach me is, again, email me, boyd at otrofinancial.com.
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  Go to the website.
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  Contact me there.
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  Don't call me.
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  We just, we can't take unexpected calls during the day.
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  We're on the phone all day long.
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  Email and we will, I promise, we'll follow up, set an appointment.
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  Very nice.
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  Okay.
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  Boyd, thank you again for your time.
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  Thank you, Tom.
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  Thank you for being a speaker here at the 2026 Small Business Success Summit.
• 12:58
  My pleasure.
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  Thank you for all you do for Florida's small business community.
• 13:02
  Thank you.
• 13:03
  You too.
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  Love the SBDC.
• 13:04
  Thank you.
• 13:05
  This is Small Biz Florida.
• 13:07
  I am Tom Kindred, your host.
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  It is all about small business here at the 2026 Small Business Success Summit, all taking place here at the Sunseeker Resort in beautiful Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
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  Stay tuned.
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  A whole lot more to come.
• 13:21
  This is Small Biz Florida.
• 13:22
  That's all for this episode of Small Biz Florida.
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  We hope you found valuable insights and inspiration to fuel your entrepreneurial journey.
• 13:30
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• 13:36
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• 13:41
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• 13:45
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• 13:53
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• 13:57
  Until then, keep innovating and keep growing.
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  Thanks for listening.
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  We'll see you next time.