Sorodo’s Co-Founder: Alternative Financing Options ‘Unknown’ Amongst the U.K.’s Small Business Community
January 25, 2018Are small businesses across the pond aware of their alternative financing options? Manchester’s Sorodo Limited, a merchant cash advance company, feels that the word has far from spread.
“We still have some way to go, as the product is still fairly unknown to the wider business community,” co-founder Rich Wilcock said via release earlier this month while discussing merchant cash advance alongside other non-traditional avenues. “We spoke to a lot of business owners in 2012 and 2013, and they were understandably frustrated by their situation. Many who were declined for traditional forms of finance by their banks didn’t look any further, which is why it’s so important we get the message out about alternative funding options, such as peer-to-peer lending, cash advances, crowdfunding, unsecured borrowing and so on.”
Wilcock labeled awareness of the merchant cash advance option and other alternatives at the dawn of 2018 as “disappointingly low.”
Typical Sorodo Limited customers include owners of hotels, restaurants, cafes, pubs, clubs, bars, independent shops (including e-commerce stores), convenience stores, beauty salons and garages.
“In 2014, the average independent retailer was struggling to stay open, let alone turn a profit,” said Wilcock. “Many shops, hotels, restaurants and leisure outlets closed down, but we knew this product had the ability to not only keep businesses trading but also to help them grow.”
After promoting the lending alternative and seeing growth in Sorodo’s business, Wilcock believes that there is still significant amount of campaigning left to do. Thus, Sorodo Limited is expanding it’s offerings with a new platform called Capalona.
The newcomer is designed to help U.K. business owners find alternative solutions besides merchant cash advance that may serve their individual needs better.
“The term ‘alternative business finance’ covers a variety of new funding models that allow businesses to access funds that are not readily offered by traditional lenders,” said Wilcock. “These include products such as asset-based lending, invoice finance, venture capital, pension-led funding and many more.”
Capalona, which is currently up and running, is also based in Manchester.
AltFinanceDaily Connects With Miami on Thursday, January 25th
January 23, 2018
We’re really looking forward to seeing you at deBanked Connect this week on Thursday at the Gale Hotel in Miami. Our 3-hour networking open bar cocktail party from 5:30pm – 8:30pm is sure to be a great opportunity for funders and ISOs. This event booked up to capacity really far in advance and I apologize to everyone who waited too long and missed out.
Thanks to our incredible sponsors, specifically Everest Business Funding who is the headliner, but also National Funding, Knight Capital Funding, NISO, Grand Capital Funding, and Venture Credit Solutions.
Our next event will undoubtedly sell out as well. SO DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE TO SIGN UP! Broker Fair 2018 on May 14 at the William Vale in Brooklyn is our signature event!! With so many big names in the industry sponsoring it, it’s a must-attend event for sales reps and ISOs. You’ll be hearing tons more about Broker Fair in the coming weeks and months and I can’t wait to have you be a part of it.
There will be 4 of us from AltFinanceDaily at The Gale on Thursday, including myself. If you are interested in being cited in a future AltFinanceDaily Magazine story, be sure to connect with reporter Paul Sweeney who will be there with us.
Stacking Lawsuit Trial Date Set
January 16, 2018The lawsuit between RapidAdvance and Pearl Capital has a trial date, June 25, 2018. RapidAdvance, who filed the complaint in 2015 in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County in Maryland, has sought to recover damages for tortious interference.
Considering that RapidAdvance’s loan to the merchant at hand was only for $31,000, this litigation, which is now more than 2 years-old and scheduled for trial, is likely more about the parties attempting to set a precedent.
The case is Small Business Financial Solutions, LLC v. Pearl Beta Funding, LLC Case No. 411478-V.
Finn & Co, Inc. To Manage Two New Equity/Debt Funds
December 14, 2017Below is a letter that was circulated by Finn & Co, Inc.
Finn & Co, Inc. is pleased to report the formation of two new equity/debt private equity funds to be managed by our firm. The first of these two funds is a US$100M equity fund which will seek investments in the MLM Industry (multi-level-marketing). This fund will be seeking and entertaining opportunities in North and South America as well as Europe. It is the intention of the fund to have heavy concentrations of ownership in relatively few investments and in addition to the contribution of the invest cash, it is the intention of the fund to offer geographical business partnerships with Asian ‘like-type’ MLM entities. The second fund is a US$200M debt/equity fund engaged in lending to the MCA Industry (merchant cash advance). This fund will offer senior debt, sub-debt and equity investments to the MCA industry here in America and in specific areas of Asia. The management of these funds will embrace additional industry experienced individuals and hopes to ‘fill a void’ of available capital for these traditionally difficult ‘to bank’ business endeavors.
Finn & Co. Merchant Banking Activities at this time.
Please review the following activities of our firm in the areas of consulting, merger and acquisition assignments and current capital fundraising activities. Finn & Co. has recently completed valuations for operating companies engaged within the Direct Sales/MLM industries and that of aerospace and defense. In addition, we are currently engaged with multiple capital raising assignments for companies within the following industries: Nutrition Products, Merchant Credit Advance (MCA), Medical services, Tobacco, Fish Farming, Oil Refinery, Lodging, Technology, Consumer Water Bottlers and the financing of Credit Card Receivables. Finn & Co., Inc. has active M&A assignments detailed later in this communication. We welcome your inquiries for valuation assignments, merger and acquisition advisory services, and capital fundraising needs.
Merger and Acquisition Assignments:
(1) Binocular Manufacturers: The Purchaser is a manufacturer of ‘high end’ binoculars, ground, airborne and maritime Electro-Optic/Infrared cameras sold primarily to the military and law enforcement communities. This acquirer is engaged in the design, development and sale of advanced optical devices to expand its domestic and international sales and is seeking manufacturers of related devices targeting the commercial, law enforcement and military markets. Asian and European-based manufacturers of binoculars and vehicle cameras are of a particular interest to this acquirer. In addition, the buyer is interested in the purchase of optics companies with strong R&D personnel — specializing in the development of binoculars, rifle scopes, and any and all related advanced EO/IR technology. This acquirer will entertain joint-ventures in place or in lieu of outright purchase or merger.
(2) Fish Processing Companies: The acquirer is an international integrated fishing enterprise engaged in catching, processing, and value-added functions in the worldwide fishing industry. This company desires to acquire a value-added fish processing company located in the USA. The desired company will be profitable at the time of purchase, selling into the retail market, restaurants, and the cruise ship sector of the marketplace.
(3) Health Care:
- (A) Seeking Acquisition Targets operating in business process outsourcing, employment, staffing, billing, surgery centers, and ancillary services to health care industry. The target platform company should have an EBITDA of between US$5M and US$20M.
- (B) Home Health & Hospice: Seeking a home health and hospice platform acquisition in any Geographical area, if the acquisition target enjoys US$3.0M in EBITDA or more AND Management team is willing to remain with the company post the acquisition is completed.
- (C) Large, publicly traded NYSE ‘for profit’ hospital ownership and management company seeking additional ‘hospital’ acquisitions and/or management contracts. While any ‘locale’ will be entertained, the States west of the Mississippi River are preferred.
(4) Multi-Level-Marketing Industry/Direct Sales: We continue to seek North American, Latin American and Asian-based operating MLM/direct selling companies for various buyers and investors. We have multiple buyers of nutritional products, cosmetics, personal and health care companies, lingerie sellers, fashion jewelry and other consumable products. The targeted acquisition or investment opportunity can range in annual sales size from US$25M to as large as multi-hundred million dollar sales companies located in the USA. We have interest in direct sales/MLM companies with annual revenues of US$10M or greater located outside the continental boundaries of the USA. These American and non-American buyers are either currently operating MLM entities or are the investment arm of non-USA based MLM operating companies, all of which have a long and “in-depth” operating knowledge of the industry and are anxious to expand their businesses into the USA, Canada, Latin America and/or Asia. The buyers or investors are prepared to purchase 100% of any entity or are prepared to partner with a seller that wishes to maintain some equity ownership and a management role. Our buyers will require at least 51% equity ownership.
(5) Nutritional Products
- (A) Manufacturers (third party): We are seeking third party nutritional products manufacturers of tablets, capsules, powders, gels, and liquids. There is a particular interest to acquire a liquids manufacturer at this time. The targeted companies should possess the appropriate industry certifications and conform to recent government-imposed manufacturing processing requirements. The targeted companies will have annual sales of US$15M or larger.
- (B) Branded Nutritional Products: Sold via retail chains, direct through mail order or online. The more ‘direct’ the sale method of delivery, the stronger the interest from our buyer.
(6) Food
- (A) Hispanic Food Suppliers: Our client is an acquirer of North American-based manufacturing and distribution companies offering Hispanic foods and related items to the wholesale or retail marketplace. The candidate will have a known brand name and an obvious presence in the Hispanic community and a recognized name or product to the Hispanic food buyer.
- (B) Restaurant Chains: A currently operating restaurant team is seeking restaurant chains with annual sales of US$50M or more and EBITDA of US$5M or more. The target chain could be an independent restaurant concept, a franchisor, or a franchisee. Minority Recaps/and or Growth Equity will also be considered.
- (C) Branded Food companies: We represent a financial buyer of ‘branded’ food companies. The targeted candidate will have annual sales sufficient to generate an EBIT of US$10M or greater. The food offering can be across a wide spectrum of food offerings and will be considered a national brand.
(7) Aerospace/Defense:
- (A) We have multiple buyers seeking aerospace and defense operating companies that will range in annual sales size from US$20M to US$250M. The ideal candidate will currently be a supplier of materials and/or parts to the aerospace after-market, manufacturer of such parts and supplies, a provider to the aerospace/defense industry and/or engaged in a business relationship within the industry that allows it to participate in any of the ongoing support and/or replacement vendor positions in this after-market sector.
- (B) In addition to our above targets, we represent a US$200M sales company, privately-owned, seeking an aerospace manufacturer. Tight tolerance machining and/ or the manufacturing of aerospace/defense parts are the two areas of interest. Turnarounds and under-performing companies will be considered. The preferred size target is an entity generating revenue of US$25M to US$250M.
- (C) We represent a buyer of “Type Certificates” of established aircraft. These airplane types are currently in operation but not in production and range from piston propeller, turbo propeller and/or jet engine type aircraft.
- (D) Security Companies: We are seeking businesses that offer services to the military or law enforcement markets associated with intelligence gathering, manufacturers of security equipment, service companies that are engaged in the guarding and maintaining of premises, sea-going security in the area of anti-piracy and other related services.
- (E) Hand Gun, Rifle and Shotgun Manufacturers: We are seeking USA and/or Western European hand-held weapons manufacturers. There is a particular interest on the part of the buyer in a manufacturer that is currently supplying its weapons to the military and/or law enforcement communities.
The financing of ‘gun’ or related companies in today’s banking marketplace is most challenging. Finn & Co. is in a position to offer short and long term credits as well as growth capital to gun industry-related operating, profitable companies. If you or your clients are in need of working capital or acquisition capital, we would be most pleased to work with you.
- (F) A&D, Medical Products or Photonics Industries: Our Client is seeking a USA-based manufacturing operation in the highly regulated aforementioned industries. Acquisition opportunities with annual sales/revenues of up to US$100M and EBIT of US$10M are the size range of our client’s investment interest.
(8) Oil and Gas
- (A) Service and Support Companies: We are seeking North American-based oil and gas industry service and support companies. The targeted prospect might offer a service for ‘on-shore’ or ‘off-shore’ drillers, maintenance of wells, work-over and stimulation of wells, transportation and security management. The targeted company could be solely domestic or international in its operations. Our clients have a decided interest in targeted acquisitions that represent what would be defined as the larger participants in the industry, in short ‘the bigger the better’.
- (B) Large Oil and Gas proven properties seeking a sale or requiring large capital investment. These properties will be domestic locales with proven oil and/or gas reserves that can be currently producing or not. The buyer/investor will entertain the outright purchase of the property or a joint venture with the current owners.
(9) Trailer Manufacturers and Distributors: We are seeking manufacturers and/or distributors of ‘open and closed’ commercial trailers that would traditionally be pulled by a pickup or SUV and used in a wide variety of activities, both for commercial and private family purposes. Our client has a present interest in acquiring additional closed box trailer manufacturers or large distributors.
(10) Water Treatment Companies: Manufacturers of water treatment equipment, new technologies for the purification of water, and companies offering deliveries of commercial water supplies. All water related opportunities entertained.
(11) Consumer Products, Consumer Durables, Retail or Retail Services: We have a buyer of companies in the aforementioned sectors (logistics, e-commerce, etc.). The minimum required EBITDA is US$3M.
(12) Risk-based Consulting Services: Our client is a platform entity engaged as a provider of risk-based consulting services including – Internal Audit, IT Audit, Information Security, Corporate Governance and Regulatory Compliance. Our client would like to grow their business with the acquisition of similar type functioning companies both domestic and international.
Family Related Operating Companies:
Tethys Corporation: a holding company that has as its investment criteria the acquisition and/or investment in the aerospace/defense/medical or medical service industries. Tethys will also entertain ‘control’ investments in security companies and/or service companies servicing the military, diplomatic or international work-place.
Blue Steel Ventures, www.bluesteelventures.com. This ‘alternative’ wholesale funder of the Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) industry is a provider of senior debt, sub-debt and equity investments to established operators of merchant cash advance providers. Blue Steel Ventures will entertain loans and investments of US$2M to US$30M or more subject to the specifics of the MCA applicant.
Board Assignments:
Members of the Finn & Co organization currently sit on Boards of Directors or finance committees of various commercial and non-profit companies and/or organizations. We particularly wish to expand our assignments of Directors and Members of the Board of commercial companies here in the USA. We are prepared to entertain appointments to private or public corporations, located anywhere in the USA. Any inquiries or suggestions that you might wish to offer would be warmly received.
We would be most pleased to hear from you concerning your interest and needs for any of our consulting services, capital raising or M&A activities listed in this communication. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
Kenneth R. Finn
Chairman
Finn & Company, Inc.
Kenneth R. Finn
Finn & Co., Inc.
Merchant Bankers
5776-D Lindero Canyon Road, #382
Westlake Village, CA 91362
(818) 219-3097(818) 219-3097
krfinn2001@yahoo.com
Wyoming Location
4350 Fallen Leaf Lane
Jackson, WY 83001
(307) 203-2556(307) 203-2556
krfinn2001@yahoo.com
Closing Loans and MCAs — From the Bedroom to the Office
December 8, 2017
The merchant cash advance industry has gone mainstream so quickly that it has become more difficult to identify potential customers.
Market saturation and industry consolidation have caused the cost of sales leads to increase sharply. Yet a New York business loan broker is finding success by applying lead generation and online marketing strategies to merchant cash advance, or MCA, while expanding the number of services he offers prospects. Funding is just the foot in the door.
Philip Smith, founder and CEO of PJP Marketing Inc., told AltFinanceDaily the MCA industry’s acceptance has made it more difficult for sales lead generators to produce profits. But expanding the number of services that independent sales organizations (ISOs) offer can offset the contraction. Smith’s life as a stay-at-home-dad, was recently featured in Innovate Long Island, a regional newspaper.
An ISO can’t just be a broker anymore. It needs to change, identify new revenue streams to excel. In doing so, a lead generator transforms itself into a business consultant that prospective customers turn to for additional services they often didn’t even know existed, Smith said.
For example, business loans and MCA is Smith’s largest business generator. But his most popular add-on services with such sales leads are credit repair and credit monitoring.
“The market is relatively easy,” Smith said. “The hard part is monetizing. The ISOs are going out of business because they refuse to monetize the other, non-cash advance leads.”
Smith, armed with a degree in business/e-business from the University of Phoenix, is also an advocate for entrepreneurs who want to work from home. It’s a viable model for lead generators because low overhead costs provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to capitalize on aggressive business strategies.
As such, Smith markets his pajama-centric business model with IWorkInMyJams.com. But he acknowledges that working from home presents its own challenges. Entrepreneurs need to be extra focused and tough to distract. No watching Dr. Phil during work hours.
Since they don’t work with more experienced managers, work-from-home entrepreneurs also need to seek their own sources of business advice and strategies. They deal with the reality that some lenders may deem them too small to do business. “Not everyone will work with you,” he said.
Working from home also requires a entrepreneur to set office hour limits and parameters to prevent burnout, Smith said.
“Do you know when to turn it off?” he asked. “That’s my problem. I’m up until 1 o’clock in the morning because I can.”
Smith now brokers sales leads in several verticals such as credit repair, tax relief, mortgage and solar energy. He claims revenue of $1.6 million last year and plans to reach $2 million this year.
When he was just 23, Smith launched his first company, We Link You Internet Services, a business that evolved into a web hosting concern.
He later worked for New York-based Canrock Ventures to launch a search-engine optimization platform called SEOPledge that was acquired in 2013. The following year, he founded what is now called PJP Marketing to broker leads amid the rapidly rising MCA space using the digital marketing skills he’d learned from the previous positions.
In October, AltFinanceDaily reported that several factors have contributed to several changes in the MCA industry, including consolidation, making it more difficult for alternative-funding business lead generators.
ISOs and brokers have gotten pickier about the types of leads they’ll accept as MCA evolves from a niche business to one that’s more commonplace. Also, a stricter application of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has chilled soliciting and hamstrung the ability to connect with business owners who are prospective clients.
Last year’s LendingClub Corp. scandal ousted several senior managers, including the company’s then-CEO. Last summer, Bizfi laid off workers and sold the servicing rights to its $250 million loan portfolio to rival Credibly.
The result has been a consolidation of the alternative funding business.
“There are still roughly 75,000 business owners every week who meet the criteria for an [MCA],” California-based Lenders Marketing partner Justin Benton told AltFinanceDaily. “Now instead of there being 5,000 options in the space, there are 2,000, so those 2,000 are gobbling it all up.”
David Ross, a 12-year veteran of the MCA industry and owner of Pro Leads NYC, said MCAs higher profile has been a game changer for lead generators.
“MCA is beyond saturation,” he said. “All of the merchants know about it and understand it. Now, [funders] want exclusive leads.”
Working from home is a possible option for ISOs that are wizards at online marketing. But it’s less attractive for the conventional lead generator who relies on backing from a marketing team, Ross said.
“Realistically, if you’re a broker and want to make money you have to be on someone’s floor,” he said. “You need marketing.”
Last year, a Bryant Park Capital report estimated the MCA market to be worth about $12.8 billion. It’s projected to top $15 billion this year. Smith expects the continued strong demand for MCAs regardless of all the industry consolidation and costlier lead generation.
“I think they will always be fine because they can live through the storm,” he said. “It’s now a mainstream service so more people know about it.”
Smith told Donna Drake during an appearance on the Live It Up television program that going it alone as entrepreneur takes a “do-not-quit attitude” that has served him well so far.
“Any business is pretty much a numbers game,” he said. “I live and breathe it every single day.”
Law Firm or Law Fail? Debt Settlement Company’s Legal Footing Called into Question
December 6, 2017The first major volley in the lawsuit filed by plaintiffs Yellowstone Capital and EBF Partners (“Everest Business Funding”) against a debt settlement company and their alleged ISO partners has been exchanged. And it’s a doozy.
Three of the eight defendants, Mark D. Guidubaldi & Associates, LLC (d/b/a Protection Legal Group) aka PLG, Corporate Bailout, LLC, and PLG Servicing, LLC have sought to collectively dismiss the complaint on the grounds that they are attorneys “engaged in the practice of law with the Merchants as their clients.”
PLG, a self-described “multi-jurisdictional law firm that practices law in various jurisdictions nationwide,” argues in their motion papers that those employed by Corporate Bailout and PLG Servicing carry out certain administrative and support tasks for PLG. And it’s okay that no one at either of those companies are attorneys, they claim, because PLG supervises it all. That enables them to be covered as attorneys in an attorney-client relationship, they assert.
If true, they might want to try harder at supervising. As you might remember, Corporate Bailout, a telemarketing debt settlement firm, was featured on the cover of the New York Post earlier this year after being sued for running an operation “so sexually aggressive, morally repulsive, and unlawfully hostile that it is rivaled only by the businesses portrayed in the films ‘Boiler Room’ and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’”
Corporate Bailout’s principal office is in New Jersey. PLG, the law firm, is based in Illinois. Can it really be that the former is considered a law firm through a relationship with the latter?
Whoa, not so fast, says an amended complaint filed by the plaintiffs on Tuesday, which argues that not even PLG is a legitimate law firm. “In fact, none of the Debt Relief Defendants is a law firm engaged in the provision of legitimate legal service,” they contend. “PLG is not even registered as a law firm in Illinois, as required by the rules of the Illinois courts,” they add.
If true, then this case could potentially have far-reaching consequences beyond simple tortious interference.
Some excerpts from this bombshell allegation:
PLG has one employee who is a lawyer, but does not as a rule advise or represent its customers. The advice those merchant customers receive is given by non-lawyers at Corporate Bailout and PLG Servicing, who approach and recruit merchants in ways no lawyer subject to the Rule of Professional Conduct 7.3 would ever be permitted to solicit clients. The non-lawyer personnel at Corporate Bailout and PLG Servicing are not supervised by the solitary lawyer at PLG, but by [Mark] Mancino and [Michael] Hamill, who are not lawyers – an arrangement that, if PLG were a law firm engaged in the provision of legitimate legal services, would violate Rule of Professional Conduct 5.3. To the extent that any of the advice the non-lawyers at Corporate Bailout and PLG Servicing give to merchants in furtherance of the Debt Relief Defendants’ tortious activity is legal advice at all, giving it violates the prohibition on the unauthorized practice of law. PLG orchestrates this activity, which damages the merchants as well as their Merchant Cash Advance Providers, in flagrant and deliberate disregard of the law.
[…]
Although the merchants are told that they are paying the funds into an “escrow account,” in reality PLG does not treat the funds like client escrow funds; it pays itself from them from the beginning, regardless of whether it is providing any services, and with no differentiation between client funds and funds payable to PLG. If PLG really were a law firm engaged in the provision of legitimate legal services, its practices with respect to client funds would be barred by the Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15.
– plaintiffs in the Amended Complaint (<-- click to download a copy)
Plaintiffs have also added Michael Hamill as an individual defendant. Fellow co-defendants Mark Mancino, American Funding Group, Coast to Coast Funding, LLC, ROC Funding Group, LLC, and ROC South, LLC did not file a response to the original complaint.
Institutions Like American Express Are Mainstreaming Daily ACH Payments
November 30, 2017A takeover-style ad on CNN’s website rang very familiar earlier today. The ad, paid for by American Express, preached merchant financing with a fixed fee.
The ad brought me to a page that offered a fixed fee business loan between $5,000 and $2 million with daily ACH repayment and no interest rate. Terms were 6 months, 12 months, or 24 months.
While this is more similar to an OnDeck loan, than say perhaps, a merchant cash advance, the concept of fixed fee business financing is becoming a standard even among institutional finance providers.
Square, as I experienced firsthand, is another company mainstreaming the fixed fee model. The difference there is that the payments are monthly rather than daily.
The good news for many online lenders and MCA companies of course, is that merchants that may not qualify with some major financial companies, are at least being introduced to the concept of fixed-fee short-term capital and even daily payments.
Former MCA Co-founder Meir Hurwitz Kicks Off New Venture With Kim Kardashian West
November 9, 2017I love how @screenshopit lets you find the exact designer looks you see people wearing online, plus suggests similar items at all price points! #ScreenShop_Ambassador https://t.co/TXZ23agVoT pic.twitter.com/nA8JBDVbU5
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) November 7, 2017
An early innovator of the merchant cash advance industry has re-emerged on the business scene in a very different new venture focused on mobile shopping.
Meir Hurwitz, co-founder of Pearl Capital, the MCA company acquired in 2015 by Capital Z Partners Management LLC for as much as an estimated $60 million, is now the chief visionary officer of ScreenShop. The New York startup markets an app designed to enable users to shop for a specific item by uploading a screenshot of the item to the app.
Working on a mobile app is a longer shot than MCA and it doesn’t always pay off, but Hurwitz said Thursday he’s enjoyed learning the business after two years off and visiting 62 countries since selling Pearl Capital.
“It’s new and exciting for me, but I don’t get paid right away,” he said. “It’s something I haven’t done before — it’s kind of exciting for me.”
The app is the first developed by New York-based Craze Ltd. and publicly launched on Nov. 7 with celebrity Kim Kardashian West cited as an advisor. Craze employs 12 technical workers in Israel and five in New York, Hurwitz said.
Hurwitz started in MCA in 2006 and then launched Pearl Capital with partner Abe Zeines in 2010.
Pearl launched with $1 million and generated an $8 million profit in 2012. The following year, the company doubled its profit and reached origination volume of $100 million, Bloomberg reported in 2015. Hurwitz’s ScreenShop profile indicates that he’s a “three-time successful entrepreneur” and cites “over $500 million in funding capital.”
In addition to a real estate business in Puerto Rico, Hurwitz said he’s managing partner of New York-based GS Capital, a convertible debt company lending to small businesses. Zeines lists himself as the CIO of GS Capital, according to his online profile.
At ScreenShop, Molly Hurwitz (Meir’s sister) is listed as the co-creator and co-founder. CEO Mark Fishman was previously a risk manager for Pearl Capital.
The startup’s app, which is free, scans screenshots taken from any app or website on a mobile phone, converting them to similar items that can be bought for various prices. It plans to generate revenue by collecting a commission at the point of sale, Forbes reported.
“The results have been — we’re No. 5 on the app store category of fashion,” Meir Hurwitz said. “We’re just getting started.”
