IN THE NEWS: Newhouse School instrumental in expansion of billion dollar economic and entrepreneurial development initiative

Syracuse University’s #1 ranked S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications featured SourceFunding.org in its latest article, which highlights the platform’s recent surge in growth.

“Newhouse School instrumental in expansion of multibillion-dollar economic development initiative”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (September 19, 2018) - Multi-billion dollar economic development initiatives launched in 2014 and 2015 at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and with the support of the Public Diplomacy Program in 2016 continue to grow and are now supporting the expansion of over 50,000 startups, small businesses, nonprofits, and community development organizations nationwide by matching them with the best sources of funding for their particular circumstances and stage of growth.

The national economic development initiatives, first recognized in 2014 by Huffington Post (“A New Platform for Social Enterprise Startups in the U.S.”), have evolved into a cloud-based financial and database technology venture known as SourceFunding.org thanks to the early support of over 100 Newhouse students and faculty, both the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs and Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Le Moyne College’s Madden School of Business, and numerous other university, foundation, and banking partners nationally.

Founded by technology entrepreneur and Newhouse alumnus W. Michael Short, and with a growing leadership team that includes SU grads Sara Brainard and Brian Cronin, SourceFunding.org was featured as a Forbes Editors’ Pick for leveling the playing field for small businesses, highlighted for economic and community impact at the White House, compared with Amazon as a marketplace for business finance on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and noted for socially responsible “FinTech Innovation” in the Business & Management Review.

SourceFunding.org is the only online platform providing a software as a service (SaaS) matching entrepreneurs, startups, businesses, nonprofits and community development organizations with the Responsible Finance Network™, which includes all of the 14,323 community banks, credit unions, non-profit lenders and community development financial institutions in the United States.

Using advanced matchmaking algorithms and artificial intelligence, the platform speeds up the business financing search and application process and provides a trusted and transparent alternative to the growing number of predatory online lenders and brokers that are plaguing the nation's businesses with hidden fees, astronomical rates, misleading information, and hindering broader economic growth, job creation, and business development nationally.

“SourceFunding.org makes economics and finance interesting, fun, and understandable as it offers entrepreneurs an array of funding options so they can avoid online predatory lenders,” said Joe Connolly, host of News Radio WCBS 880 Small Business Spotlight. He then described the platform as “a dating service for entrepreneurs looking for funding” and compared it with popular dating application Tinder, which is operated along with Match.com by $12 billion dollar Match Group, Inc.

One of the many entrepreneurs benefiting from the SourceFunding.org matchmaking platform is Ashley Warmington of Brooklyn, NY, founder of award-winning tech company Cozy Oasis and recent graduate of Medgar Evers College School of Business where SourceFunding.org currently operates a field office.

Using the funding secured with the help of SourceFunding.org, Ashley expanded her company and created jobs in her local community. Ashley’s tech company is now the top ranked AirBnB property management company in New York City.

“Searching for financing to grow my company took a lot of time away from my business and each lender handed me a big stack of application forms,” said Ms. Warmington. “SourceFunding.org matched me with the right funding from the most trusted source on the first attempt, which saved significant time and money.”

This challenge of finding the right lender is experienced by nearly all entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofits in the United States - especially in historically underserved communities. On average, businesses spend over 100 hours completing loan applications without ever knowing if they are applying to a lender that actually matches their particular circumstances. As a result, roughly 8,000 business loan applications are declined in the U.S. every single day, which economists describe as a “massive market failure.”

“Entrepreneurs and small businesses face significant barriers in accessing the financing needed to grow and create jobs especially in underserved communities,” said Dr. Jo-Ann Rolle, dean of the School of Business at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. “This is a reality we contend with on a daily basis while supporting entrepreneurs both on campus and in the community, and our work with SourceFunding.org is designed to streamline that process in order to level the playing field for all entrepreneurs."

To address this challenge, SourceFunding.org is providing platform access to several thousand chambers of commerce, small business development centers (SBDCs), economic development organizations, and community colleges so that they will be able to help entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits identify funding options on an ongoing basis, with immediate results, through a complimentary account provided by SourceFunding.org.

“The Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York, was so crucial in helping me launch and grow several ventures, including SourceFunding.org, and I’m thankful for the support provided over the years by the center and its incredible director Joan Powers,” explained W. Michael Short. “Now we are able to return the favor by providing access to our platform to entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits in order to support communities nationwide.”

This motivation, to support communities and hard-working entrepreneurs throughout the country, is what inspired founder W. Michael Short to build SourceFunding.org.

Founder Interviewed at New York Stock Exchange

NEW YORK CITY (February 23, 2018) - Excerpt from NYSE Interview:

“Roughly three thousand small businesses are declined for credit every single day, not because they're not credit worthy, but because they applied to the wrong source of financing and that's what we're working to fix,” explained W. Michael Short, SourceFunding.org Founder, who also serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, and as President of the Global Social Enterprise Institute. “For the first time in our nation's history, small businesses are able to apply to the continuum of 14,000 community banks in this country with a single application process.”

Great having you on #CheddarLIVE! https://t.co/XMzCku0C7y

— Brad Smith (@thebradsmith) February 23, 2018

“On average [small businesses] apply to three financial institutions for financing, which amounts to nearly 100 hours of application paperwork” said Mr. Short. “What we're able to do for the first time is connect them with the best source of capital so they're able to apply, get matched, and get their capital on the first attempt.”

SourceFunding.org is a university and foundation-backed online platform matching entrepreneurs and small businesses, for the first time in U.S. history, with the complete national network of over 14,000 trusted, transparent, and low-cost community banks, credit unions, and community development financial institutions. Recognized in the Business & Management Review for socially responsible financial technology, the platform was launched to provide a low-cost alternative to the rapidly expanding number of predatory online lenders, provides the first ever universal application system and a personal Funding Advocate to assist clients throughout the entire application process.

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Full Transcript - NYSE Interview: 

Tim Stenovec: Michael, Amazon Lending is an invitation-only program and it makes loans for companies that may have difficulty landing traditional business loans - when you saw this news last week, this expansion of Amazon's program, what was your first reaction?

W. Michael Short: My first reaction was excitement. Any opportunity to provide capital to small businesses is a positive in my book. 3,000 small businesses are declined for credit every single day, not because they're not creditworthy but because they applied to the wrong source of financing, and that's what we're working to fix.

Tim: Let’s talk about how your approach is different than Amazon’s.

WMS: Absolutely. For the first time in the nation's history, small businesses are able to apply to the continuum of 14,000 community banks in this country. So, for context: how does it work right now? Small business needs to identify where they’re going to apply for this financing. They go to one, they go to the next, they go to the next. In terms of banks, on average they apply to three financial institutions for financing, or in most cases, they give up. So for us right now, what we're able to do for the first time is connect them with the best source of capital so they're able to apply, get matched, and get their capital on the first attempt.

Brad Smith: What’s the reason that they are denied and they’re not getting that transparency that they need - once you’re able to work with them and kind of figure out exactly why they weren’t given the loan that they needed, what’s the most common reason?

WMS: Absolutely, so it’s pretty simple: each of these community banks have different requirements and types of businesses that they support. You're trying to do your food truck in Brooklyn; how would you ever know that the small community bank in southern Wisconsin is the best match for you? You’d never know that. That's what we help them with.

Tim: Let’s talk about the tech behind the platform. What kind of tech are you using to help businesses with funders?

WMS: Absolutely, so inherent to this entire situation is relationships, between the community bank and the small business. A lot of times it becomes impersonal, and that's where this disconnect occurs. Karen Mills at Harvard published some great research, she used to lead the SBA; there is this giant disconnect between the small businesses and the community banks, and what we're able to do is use the algorithms of this matching technology, and we've built on that over the last few years, to be able to connect them with the right source on the first attempt.

Brad: And so, two part question: First part of it, there’s a certain credit score that comes into play with this as well: how much does that weigh on the initial decision, and how can some of these small businesses still find the bank to work with using your system as well? How much does that play a role?

WMS: Each of these community banks has different requirements, different types of business they're looking to support, so whether their credit score is lower or whether it’s higher, there is usually a bank that's willing to support them. The problem is identifying that match. The application process - each of these applications take 33 hours to fill out all the paperwork, and like I said, three applications per business, that's almost 100 hours wasted - not building their business, but on paperwork. A lot of times this paperwork is the same paperwork, but just in different forms, over and over and over.

Brad: One of the big things that we look at within the Fintech space is how so many different businesses are trying to incorporate blockchain and figure out a way that that can create the right ledger system so that these banks or these small businesses are that much more credible or reputable, based on the past transactions that they’ve done. Do you see that as something that’s weaving into your technology, into the fold, very rapidly - is that on the horizon?

WMS: Absolutely, on the horizon. One of our major investors made his fortune in Bitcoin and sees the future in engaging these community banks and using this type of technology to expedite this process, whether it's contracting or connecting or what have you, and that's exactly what we're working on.

Brad: Are you allowed to tell us who the investor is?

WMS: Not yet, no.

Tim: What are the rates that you’re seeing, Michael - I mean Amazon we know reportedly has rates between 6% and 14%, are yours competitive?

WMS: Absolutely, that’s very competitive. I’d say that you’ll get the most competitive rates from the responsible, transparent and trusted nonprofit lenders, the community banks, and it is in that ballpark - as opposed to so many small businesses, one in five, that are applying to predatory online lenders.

Tim: What is Amazon getting out of this - why is Amazon doing this?

WMS: I think it’s a great way for them to be supporting their merchants. It’s a great way for them to help their merchants grow their businesses and in turn, help Amazon grow - it’s mutually beneficial, and that’s what we’re all about at SourceFunding.org.

Brad: In terms of the small business partnerships that Amazon has created over the course of history, what is the biggest problem area for why they need to get more funding that you’ve found, at least in terms of why they need these small business loans or the additional capital?

WMS: Well, in many instances it's an issue of capacity - many of the small businesses that we work with need to bring on additional staff to be able to grow. I'd say that that's a large majority - they want to be able to bring on new staff, they want to create jobs, and they have that challenge of identifying where they can get that capital - the low-cost capital, not the predatory online lenders that are just doing a horrible disservice to the American small business owner with misleading information, it truly is a disaster.

Using dating technology to hook up entrepreneurs with funding

Tech entrepreneur Ashley Warmington, the first and only female entrepreneur to win the City University of New York’s annual SmartPitch business plan competition, says she wouldn’t have been able to secure her financing from 87 funders at a 0% interest rate without the assistance of SourceFunding.org.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK (February 8, 2018) - The nation's first and only universal business funding application, SourceFunding.org, announced the successful completion of its national expansion thanks to the support of university and foundation partners.

For the first time, entrepreneurs and small businesses in the U.S. can match with, and apply to, every single low-cost community bank and non-profit lender in the country using a single university and foundation backed platform.

Building on the matching algorithms of a dating software, the proprietary platform provides a unique way to access 14,000 community lending institutions while simplifying the small business loan application process. SourceFunding.org is successfully assisting entrepreneurs in all 50 states by providing a free Funding Profile that helps them match with low-cost financing thanks to the generous support of university and foundation partners.

Brooklyn-based tech entrepreneur Ashley Warmington, founder of MWBE certified AirBnB property management company Cozy Oasis and a recent graduate of the Medgar Evers College (MEC) School of Business, successfully secured funding to grow her business with the help of SourceFunding.org, which she is using to create several jobs in her local community and to expand her business internationally.

“When I lost my home during a difficult time in my life, I was blessed with the opportunity to provide cleaning services in exchange for a place to live,” Ms. Warmington explained. “I humbled myself and gave my all to starting my company focused on property management, which has grown to serve 25 clients, and is now expanding further with the help of SourceFunding.org.”

Although Ms. Warmington is no longer a student, as a Brooklyn resident she receives support from MEC and W. Michael Short, who founded SourceFunding.org, and serves as MEC's Entrepreneur in Residence assisting student-run businesses and managing the International Innovators Initiative (IN2NYC) with the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

“Searching for financing to grow my company took a lot of time away from running my business and each lender handed me a big stack of application forms,” explained Ms. Warmington. “SourceFunding.org on the other hand was able to match me with the right funding from the most trusted source and on the first attempt — saving significant time and money — all with the assistance of a personal Funding Advocate looking out for my best interests and assisting throughout the process and when I ran into issues with the lender.”

Without the assistance of SourceFunding.org, businesses spend 33 hours on average completing each loan application without ever knowing in advance if they are applying to a lender that matches their particular circumstances. As a result, roughly 8,000 business loan applications are declined in the U.S. every single day, which experts view as a “massive market failure.”

“Our mission is to provide a private sector solution for this market failure,” said Sara Brainard, VP at SourceFunding.org formerly of the Weinstein Company. “Although women operate over 40% of U.S. businesses, they only received 4% of the business financing last year, and it’s rewarding to build a company that’s not only working to support women in business but leveling the playing field for ALL entrepreneurs.”

Ms. Warmington, the first and only female entrepreneur to win the City University of New York’s annual SmartPitch business plan competition, says she wouldn’t have been able to secure her financing at a 0% interest rate without the assistance of SourceFunding.org.

The national expansion of SourceFunding.org builds on a successful pilot by founder W. Michael Short’s award-winning consultancy and was planned by the Global Social Enterprise Institute (GSEI) in the Ashoka U Commons accelerator as part of an economic development initiative supporting socially responsible businesses, highlighted in “What’s Working: Small Business” by Huffington Post.

Selected as a 2016 Clinton Foundation sponsored initiative known as a “Commitment to Action,” the platform was featured for socially responsible “FinTech Innovation,” and highlighted at the Obama White House.

First housed by Le Moyne College, with the platform’s founder serving as the College’s inaugural social entrepreneur in residence, SourceFunding.org opened its national headquarters in NYC in 2017 with a field office at MEC School of Business.

"Entrepreneurship is an important career pathway for our students but many face significant challenges when seeking financing to grow their companies and create jobs,” said Dr. JoAnn Rolle, dean of MEC’s School of Business. “Our public/private partnership with SourceFunding.org is strengthening our ability to support our entrepreneurs and the communities that we serve.”

The prestigious Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University is also among the institutions involved in the development and implementation of the platform’s social enterprise business model. SU’s #1 ranked S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is also playing an “instrumental” role along with the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

“SourceFunding.org is proving that a low-cost, inclusive, sustainable, transparent, and socially responsible approach to business is more profitable in the long-run and in the best interests of not only our company, but most importantly our business clients, our nation’s community banking system, and our economy as a whole,” said founder W. Michael Short. “This is how you reignite the American Dream.”

SourceFunding.org Partnership with Kiva.org to Provide Alternative to Predatory Lenders

NEW YORK CITY (January 15, 2018) - University and foundation-backed SourceFunding.org recently announced a new partnership with Kiva.org to support small business growth and job creation in the US.

Serving as a Kiva Trustee, SourceFunding.org will be recommending entrepreneurs and small businesses for priority access to 0% interest small business loans.

The new partnership demonstrates growing momentum behind SourceFunding.org’s national campaign for the financial inclusion and empowerment of all entrepreneurs in the US.

The partnership also represents further expansion of SourceFunding.org’s Responsible Finance Network™, which has grown to include several thousand trusted, transparent, and low-cost community lenders within the last year.

“This is yet another exciting step forward in our commitment to level the playing field for all entrepreneurs and small business owners in the US so they can easily find and secure the quality, low-cost, and transparent financing needed to expand & create jobs,” said Sara Brainard, Brooklyn-based entrepreneur and VP of Corporate Operations for SourceFunding.org.

One entrepreneur already benefiting from the new partnership is Ashley Warmington, a student entrepreneur at Medgar Evers College School of Business who is working on her MWBE certification with the support of the College’s nationally recognized Entrepreneurship & Experiential Learning Lab.

Using SourceFunding.org, Ashley’s AirBnB management and concierge company, Cozy Oasis, was matched with Kiva and recommended for funding. The funding will accelerate the company’s growth globally into three new countries, which will create several new jobs in the Brooklyn community.

"Our entrepreneurs and small businesses face significant barriers when seeking financing to grow and create jobs,” said JoAnn Rolle, dean of the Business School at Medgar Evers College. “Entrepreneurship is an an important self directed career pathway for many of our students after they graduate and access to funding is crucial.”

To learn more about the positive impact SourceFunding.org is having, click here.

SourceFunding.org Founder Speaks at Brooklyn Navy Yard

Photo Credit: City of New York

NEW YORK CITY (September 3, 2017) - SourceFunding.org founder W. Michael Short spoke today on a panel at the Brooklyn Navy Yard about his work with CUNY Medgar Evers College School of Business (MEC) to support grassroots community-based ventures and entrepreneurs. The panel, part of Brooklyn Music Week, was planned by MEC, the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Council, and community-based organization Forever My City.

The panel was held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center BLDG 92, a recently renovated facility "designed to engage with the community and inspire future generations to become industrial innovators and entrepreneurs."

Mr. Short spoke about financial inclusion and the launch of SourceFunding.org. He also discussed the International Innovators Initiative (IN2NYC) on MEC's campus.

IN2NYC, an initiative of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) in partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY), is the first municipal program in the nation helping international entrepreneurs access visas so they can create jobs in the U.S. IN2NYC is helping selected entrepreneurs gain access to the visas they need to grow their businesses in New York City, and will create more than 700 jobs for New Yorkers in the first three years alone.

"Dr. Jo-Ann Rolle's strategy of creating an experiential and inclusive entrepreneurship program at MEC's School of Business is proving incredibly effective with a number of compelling success stories," said Mr. Short. "By engaging with communities locally and globally, Dean Rolle creates truly unique opportunities for her entrepreneurship students."

To learn more about about entrepreneurship programming at MEC, click here.

Recognized for "FinTech Innovation"

NEW YORK CITY (August 1, 2016) - SourceFunding.org was featured for socially responsible "FinTech Innovation" in the August 2016 Business & Management Review. The paper, titled "Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility with the Global Community," was presented at the International Conference on Business & Economic Development in Paris.

Excerpt from the Business & Management Review:

"W. Michael Short, founder of Short Enterprises and the Global Social Enterprise Institute, spoke on the importance of building dynamic and cross-sector public-private-nonprofit-foundation partnerships in advancing economic development, inclusive entrepreneurship, and innovation. In order to demonstrate this, Mr. Short highlighted the national financial technology (FinTech) initiative that he is spearheading in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation, Ashoka U Commons Accelerator, the White House, various universities, a national network of small business technical assistance providers and financial institutions, among others. The initiative, a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) sponsored “Commitment to Action” developed in the Ashoka U Commons, is focused on addressing a major barrier to growth cited by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs): access to low-cost financing. This will be accomplished with the launch of the nation's first FinTech platform focused on community businesses, organizations, and entrepreneurs with a social-impact, mission-driven, or workforce development focus."