A new company founded by Milwaukee native and former commercial lender Michael Adam aims to connect businesses with lenders online.
BankMyBiz.com allows business owners to create profiles by answering 10 questions about their companies—details like years in business, industry and number of employees.
Lenders also create profiles, describing which industries they lend to and how many years they require a business to have been operational.
The site, which functions similarly to social networks like Match.com, suggests matches of lenders and business owners using an algorithm. Users can post on their newsfeeds and explore other profiles.
“We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, so when you’re inside, it looks a lot like a Facebook or LinkedIn,” Adam said.
BankMyBiz.com launched September 16. The business, which was formed seven months ago, is currently operating without an office space, and its developers are split between Milwaukee and Madison.
The site aims to make business owners’ lives easier by providing a central location to learn about lending options on their own time, Adam said.
At the same time, lenders can reduce their cold calling efforts because every business on the site is a warm lead, he said.
There’s no minimum or maximum loan amount, and the site provides both traditional and non-traditional financial assistance to businesses of every age.
While there are competitive sites in the marketplace, BankMyBiz.com is unique in that it is relationship based, not transaction based, Adam said. The site earns money similarly to LinkedIn: basic accounts are free, but more advanced accounts cost money.
BankMyBiz.com has gained about 100 users in the first couple of weeks. Adam is targeting Midwest cities at first, and then hopes to scale the site nationally.
He hopes to complete a series A investment round in about six months—and the company has already garnered some interest.
“We ourselves, on our site, have been approached by venture capitalists,” Adam said.
