[mcauser]

Just curious, are there any ISO's out there that generate their own UCC leads for MCA? Its a tedious and time consuming process, but other than that, the information is free to access.

[Regium]

IMO, nobody.
And if you are, you're too small a fish for this industry (at this point)
Again, IMO

[Sean Cash]

I think the industry has turned a corner. You are either a tiny shop grinding it out to keep the lights on in your house or a player at this point. Those starting ISOs now with visions of grandeur calling UCCs or trying to buy leads with a small budget are doomed.

[channin19]

Sean in your opinion at what level is an ISO a player? Is it based on funding amount, portfolio performance, employee size?

Is an ISO with 4-5 employees funding $2-3MM better than an ISO with 20 employees funding $12MM?

Also your article about starting an ISO was great.

[Sean Cash]

Sean in your opinion at what level is an ISO a player? Is it based on funding amount, portfolio performance, employee size?

Is an ISO with 4-5 employees funding $2-3MM better than an ISO with 20 employees funding $12MM?

Also your article about starting an ISO was great.

Thanks!

Funding volume is a nice metric. With volume comes leverage in negotiating a deal with funders and being a potential candidate for being bought out by a funder that is looking to permanently acquire that volume. To those that say "why would a funder want to buy an ISO and is it realistic to think a funder would want to buy you?", I ask, well what is an ISO's ultimate end game then? What's the exit strategy? You get bought out or become a funder yourself. I know some people hope the status quo will last forever but you need to have an end game.

Employee count I don't think matters much. Your margins do though. There's a lot of break-even ISOs and even negative ones because marketing costs are so damn expensive. Employees are just 1 line item in your P&L. A profitable business is much better than a break-even business if you're looking to get bought out. I'd rather fund less and be profitable than fund more and make nothing.

We are still in a period of high investor excitement and you can get away with showing investors how much volume you do, but when there's a little market correction, it will come down to the fundamentals and profit will matter a lot.

[YuliyaG]

Just curious, are there any ISO's out there that generate their own UCC leads for MCA? Its a tedious and time consuming process, but other than that, the information is free to access.

Yes, we never pay for UCC's and we automated some processes that don't make it as time consuming as you may expect. At the end of the day we pay 9 cents a pop including 20% e-mails.

[simple]

Thanks!

Funding volume is a nice metric. With volume comes leverage in negotiating a deal with funders and being a potential candidate for being bought out by a funder that is looking to permanently acquire that volume. To those that say "why would a funder want to buy an ISO and is it realistic to think a funder would want to buy you?", I ask, well what is an ISO's ultimate end game then? What's the exit strategy? You get bought out or become a funder yourself. I know some people hope the status quo will last forever but you need to have an end game.

Employee count I don't think matters much. Your margins do though. There's a lot of break-even ISOs and even negative ones because marketing costs are so damn expensive. Employees are just 1 line item in your P&L. A profitable business is much better than a break-even business if you're looking to get bought out. I'd rather fund less and be profitable than fund more and make nothing.

We are still in a period of high investor excitement and you can get away with showing investors how much volume you do, but when there's a little market correction, it will come down to the fundamentals and profit will matter a lot.

I'm interested in the article that Sean wrote, how do I find it as looking under his profile I only see 2 other articles.