Justin Bakes, Co-Founder & CEO, Forward Financing
In an interview with Invest:, Justin Bakes, co-founder and CEO of Forward Financing, highlighted the company’s innovative revenue-based financing model for small businesses. Key achievements included industry awards and impactful partnerships, demonstrating their commitment to supporting small businesses and leveraging local talent in the Greater Boston area.
What is Forward Financing’s focus and strategy for supporting small businesses and driving growth in the fintech sector?
Forward Financing provides working capital financing to small businesses across the United States through revenue-based financing. Unlike banks, we don’t require assets, receivables, inventory, or collateral. Instead, we offer financing based on a business’s revenue, giving a wide variety of small businesses access to capital.
Our focus is on optimizing the people, process, and technology aspects of our business. Integrating these areas has given us significant momentum. Our top priority is to serve more small businesses, as they are the backbone of our economy. We believe every small business deserves financial opportunity.
www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
Scaling and future-proofing our business is essential. We are heavily investing in customer experience and innovation, improving technology and processes to provide a seamless customer experience. Expanding our expertise is also crucial, and we are focused on bringing the right people into the right roles, both in Boston and other areas. We have smart leaders and are continuously looking to grow our team. These are our key focus areas.
What are some key achievements and milestones for Forward Financing this past year, and what led to these recognitions?
This past year, we were named one of the best places to work in the region and one of the largest fintech companies in Massachusetts. We also received customer awards, such as the Stevie Awards, recognizing our excellent customer service experience.
Our success starts with our people. We invest heavily in recruiting, training, and retaining key talent, and we prioritize listening to our employees. This focus on our people is at the core of our success and recognition, significantly contributing to our growth and the awards we’ve received.
What are your clients looking for, and how is your solution fitting those needs? Main Street businesses, such as contractors, restaurants, small manufacturers, and distribution businesses, need access to capital multiple times throughout the year. Traditional long-term loans or mortgages don’t suit their needs because they only provide capital once over multiple years. Our programs offer necessary capital multiple times a year, which has been very well received. This flexibility fulfills a critical need for these businesses.
Are there any specific or common concerns that you have encountered among your clients?
The biggest concern for our clients is accessing the financing they need to grow and thrive. They often ask how to get it, how long it will take, what risks are involved, and how we can help expedite the process. We focus on simplifying the information-gathering process, making quick decisions, and providing capital with certainty, often in less than 24 hours. This reduces friction for them and allows them to focus on growing their businesses.
What are the main technological advancements for Forward Financing? Our main priority is reducing friction for our customers by automating the process from application to approval to funding. We’re also focused on enhancing our customer experience, aiming for seamless transactions in both funding and servicing. By leveraging technology and combining it with our dedicated teams, we strive to modernize and prioritize the customer experience.
Given the ongoing economic challenges, how are you adapting your business strategies to support small businesses effectively?
Many small businesses face uncertainty, with larger banks often saying no and viewing them as higher risk. Our focus is on finding ways to say yes to more businesses. We invest in our data and analytics teams and platforms, using our data and experience to make informed decisions and confidently approve more applicants.
www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
We integrate technology with data to further enhance this process. Our goal is to help small businesses get the financing they need to achieve their full potential, providing essential access to capital for their growth and success.
How are you gathering and utilizing feedback to enhance and improve customer experiences?
Our product team constantly engages with our customers through surveys and collaboration with our sales and account servicing teams. They also work closely with our marketing team. We gather and categorize the feedback, prioritize solutions based on impact, and execute on those priorities. This approach ensures we continuously improve our customer experience by addressing the most critical needs identified by our clients.
What key partnerships or collaborations do you have in place to improve your services? One key partnership we launched and expanded is with ICIC, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. This organization helps entrepreneurs and small-business owners, particularly in low and moderate-income areas, to grow and thrive. We’ve helped over 60,000 small businesses throughout the United States, many in these targeted areas.
With ICIC, we’ve developed a program offering educational resources, like mini-MBA courses, to our customer base. This partnership has been successful and recognized, improving our customers’ well-being by educating and helping them become better business owners.
What does the future hold for the financial industry, and how is Forward Financing preparing for future challenges and opportunities?
With 33 million small businesses in the United States, each unique in terms of industry, geography, business stage, and customer base, our focus is on understanding these businesses quickly and providing them with the capital they need. Our goal is to help a million small businesses in the United States. Since our founding in 2012, we’ve provided almost $3 billion to over 60,000 small businesses. We’re committed to continuous improvement, creating customized approvals and offers to support their growth and success.
Looking at the Greater Boston region, are there particular sectors where you’re seeing the most opportunity, and how do you see the company’s growth trajectory? We’re headquartered in Boston for a reason. Nowhere else has the same access to highly motivated, well-educated talent and a great community of companies and resources. The local government is also very supportive. We’re very optimistic about the opportunities here. Over the last 12 years, being based in Boston has been a differentiator for us because of these factors.
Over the next three years, our plan is to double the size of the business. We’re not necessarily looking to launch all new products but to leverage our existing revenue-based financing product to reach more small businesses. We believe we’ve only scratched the surface and are excited about developing new partnerships and continuing to serve our existing customers. We’re confident and excited to reach this milestone in the coming years.
