Quick Bridge, Broad Span
By: Dale Laszig
Building a bridge takes experience, technical aptitude, and passion – qualities found in abundance at Quick Bridge Funding.
Ben Gold and Jason Osiecki were among four co-founders in 2011 motivated to create a timely, efficient, and personalized lending experience. Ranked #1 Fastest Growing Private Midsized Company by the Orange County Business Journal, Quick Bridge has grown exponentially from 1.5 million to 34.7 million in revenue between June 2011 and 2014.
“All of our business is sourced through broker partners,” Gold said. “Prior to starting Quick Bridge, Jason had I had both worked in the equipment leasing/financing vertical since 2003.”
As former loan originators, the business partners understood the pain points and keys to building relationships that bridge the broker-lender credibility gap.
“We care most about developing lasting sales partnerships, not simply getting an application,” Osiecki said. “Consistency and transparency are the building blocks of trust.
“Our partners bring the same level of passion and intensity toward providing fast and efficient products to their customers. As an originator, nothing is worse than feeling that a lender doesn’t care. Who wants to receive an automated response that says a deal ‘didn’t fit the model?’ Hearing from an analyst will at least let them know that a human was involved in the decision-making process.”
Gold described the Quick Bridge technology platform as purpose-built with the broker in mind. “We’re data driven,” Gold said, “from our credit decisions to the KPI measurements that drive our teams, to the effectiveness of the programs we continually enhance, to evaluating our IT projects. Our goal is to use data to make decisions that will enhance the user experience for both sales partners and borrowers.”
Osiecki added that the work flow system reflects the company’s values and says ‘we’ve been in your shoes,’ taking the message to a granular level.
“There are no wasted clicks on our in-house workflow system,” Osiecki said, “from data entry all the way to funding and servicing. And those same data elements can be built out through our APIs and integrated into our systems to manage the entire business cycle without ever having to leave our site.” Quick Bridge has near-term plans to fill at least 35 staff positions.
“We’re currently at 65 employees,” Gold said. “And need to add staff to maintain our service levels. We don’t have a retail presence; we’re strictly a lender and constantly asking how to improve the broker experience. We continue to add people so we can continue to provide the same high quality of service to our partners.”
When asked if alternative lending would benefit from a trade association, Gold and Osiecki suggested that it would need everyone’s buy-in, “from large to small,” in the industry value chain.
Both remained bullish on the industry’s future.
“So many exciting new developments,” Gold said, “including OnDeck Capital’s IPO, and how their core values, technology, and leadership are redefining our space.
“It’s great to see product enhancements as the industry matures, evolving from cash advance to daily funding to lines of credit; we’re clearly in a culture of innovation. Will our customer universe continue to grow at the same rate that it has over the past few years? It will be interesting to see the next big trends on the horizon.”
