I had never heard of equipment finance before I began my internship at BizFi. I’d never considered the mechanisms by which entrepreneurs acquired the equipment they need to open restaurants, medical practices, or facilities for manufacturing niche intermediate goods in industries that are as critical to my daily life as they are obscure. But over the course of my internship at BizFi, company CEO Jake Cutler showed me the inner workings of the trillion-dollar equipment financing market, and how BizFi’s fintech product helps small businesses access the financing they need to get to work.

BizFi is a fintech company that aims to make it easy for small businesses to use finance options to buy the equipment they need to operate. By providing sellers of equipment with customized online applications they can embed in their website, as well as marketing materials that communicate to their customers the ease with which they can access finance options at an affordable monthly rate, BizFi’s product generates value for the small businesses that need equipment, the manufacturers who sell equipment, and the lenders who finance equipment transactions.

My first responsibility after I began my internship was to populate BizFi’s CRM system with relevant information about completed deals. What I’d imagined would be an exercise in routine data entry turned out to be an invaluable lesson in the anatomy of an equipment finance deal.

An equipment finance deal involves three parties: the buyer, the seller, and the lender. BizFi provides value to each of these parties by offering sellers user-friendly online applications that streamline the process by which the buyer applies for the financing they need from the lender to buy equipment from the seller. To populate the CRM entry for a given deal, I had to parse all the documents exchanged amongst the deal’s counterparties and extract the correct and relevant information. This was not an easy task, but had each buyer not submitted their information using the same simple, straightforward BizFi application, it would have bordered on impossible. Moreover, through the process of examining all of these documents I developed an understanding of how to communicate to potential buyers the ways in which BizFi’s fintech edge can help them get the equipment they need and communicate to sellers and lenders how it can help them sell more equipment and close more deals.

Once I’d populated the CRM, Jake introduced me to what would become my primary responsibility in my role at BizFi: developing the business by generating leads and making first contact with potential clients. The prospect of reaching out to small business owners I’d never met to offer them a service they’d never heard of was a daunting one, but the practical and, frankly, philosophical guidance Jake offered—e.g., they won’t bite, just be friendly—reassured me enough to start making phone calls. Sure enough, I have never been bitten by the person on the other end of a sales call, and most of the conversations I’ve had with potential clients have been entirely pleasant. I still have a lot to learn about business development, client acquisition, and account maintenance, but I can’t imagine a better place to hone those skills than at BizFi.

My experience interning at BizFi provided me with the unique opportunity to learn directly from the CEO of a dynamic startup sitting at the intersection of the finance and technology industries,

and to learn how to apply their fintech product to create real-world efficiencies for small business owners across the country. That’s why I’m so thrilled to be transitioning from an internship role to a full-time position at BizFi with the goal of growing alongside this exciting and innovative Hudson Valley startup. I’m deeply grateful to both the Hudson Valley Venture Hub and to BizFi CEO, Jake Cutler, for providing me with this opportunity, and look forward to continuing to learn the business and help entrepreneurs get the equipment they need.