[CBB]

After reaching out to a handful of financing companies over the past week and only receiving one solid offer back (ondeck for 160K), I am posting this to see if I can maybe do better:

I own a 20+ year old hosting company. I started as more of a geek doing what I love rather than a business man back in the 90's. I was more interested in writing code then filling out IRS/FTB paperwork that I did not understand. That quickly turned into a personal IRS lean (sole prop at the time) for what they deemed "estimated" (but way off revenue) which has followed me for some years. At the time, I did not have much understanding what a lean was or how it would affect me years later. It has obviously been more difficult to grow the business because I couldn't get enough credit, but that did not matter to me because the company was not really making much money back then, I was still doing what I love and I had enough $$ to do what I was doing at the time. The only limitation I realized would have been if I tried to get a mortgage, which was of no interest to me anyway because I was young and had no family to support at the time.

Despite the leans I have been able to get some personal credit. In fact if it was not for the one IRS lean remaining on my report, I think that I would have excellent credit and not be here looking for financing for my company. (That fact really annoys me, although I have only myself to blame for it). Even with one IRS lean remaining on my report, my personal FICO ranges between 644-672, depending on the bureau (as per the free credit report site).

Fast forward some 10+ years and business started to grow. I knew I was making some money and needed to file taxes. Turned out in order to fill out taxes, you need information from the previous year return. hrmmmmmmmmm So that deadline quickly was blown and forgotten, and later resulted in more leans for more estimated income. (whoever is doing the estimating is not doing a good job at it btw)

Fast forward again a couple more years and business started doing really great. We became a well-respected leader in our primary niche - which most people here may be familiar with - and we went from operating out of an office building to four different datacenters on two continents. So with some money in my pocket (finally), I hired a lawyer to take on the IRS and FTB, which they did and have been successful in knocking down balances due and getting leans released. It was quite expensive though and in hind sight I obviously should have taken everything more serious back in the 90's.

I have taken the company from a single server on a cable modem to a self-contained autonomous network, one of the most connected on the entire Internet (both v4 and v6). our network stretches from the south west USA east into NY and then east again into UK, where it splits in two directions, one going to Frankfurt and another to Amsterdam. All of our equipment is 100% owned, no leases. We have subscribers all over the world now and our niche is expanding again too. I will go into more detail outside the public forum. You might ask what's different today compared to back in the 90's? Married with kids is what's different. The world is completely different to me today then it was back then. I intend to grow this company and then either sell it in about 15 more years when I'm ready to retire, take it public or if I receive a good offer to buy before then, I may entertain it.

This industry is crazy expensive. We must have equipment before we can bring on subscribers and equipment is not cheap. What it comes down to is in order to take advantage of opportunities, I need cash in the corporate account. (incorporated back in 2012)

Back in June, I took out a 150K merchant advance which had a payback of 195K. It is a good paying account and that balance is down to 88K today. All would be fine now if I didn't already need more $$ to grow the business. (I spent more than I planned to expand the network, but on the flip side, our network is one of the best and most connected on the entire Internet today.) And now that the tax lawyers are done, I also want to pay the remaining tax bill and get the IRS out of my life FOREVER (well except every April hah). I am told I can make the leans fall off my report completely after they are paid. I am sooooooooo looking forward to that day because then I can start thinking about buying a house.

anyway...

By contract I am unable to accept another merchant advance until the current one is paid off. I have been told by some companies I talked to recently that "they will never know", but that is not how I do business. I made a promise and I intend to keep it. They are a good company and I like them a lot, but right now they are only offering me an additional 50K. Not enough for me to do what I need to do in order to grow. That means any new merchant advance I accept will need be large enough so I can to take out the first position. Even if it's structured as a loan, I still want to take out this first advance because otherwise the monthly payments will likely be enormous. I am looking for somewhere in the range of 250-300K. With the money I intend to:

Pay the outstanding lean and get it forever out of my life
buy hardware to take on new business
We are expanding our niche some. We have been streaming for quite some time, before there was a youtube. That is finally coming mainstream and we are deploying yet another service to really levredge that as soon as I have secured financing.
market market market market market. It's time to market this company

I would be extatic if I can somehow get this new loan listed on my personal credit report because it will help me strengthen by credit tremendously. I understand if that is not possible. I have no delinquencies on my report, but I figure this may be a good opportunity to make my personal credit that much stronger.

Ondeck has offered me 160K, which really only leaves me 70K to work with after I pay the first balance. While that is some, it's just not enough to do what I want to do. So here I am looking for options and advise.

As an added bonus to the funding company: We host a popular streaming site. About 30K viewers last month. I'll tell you more about it offline. I will give the funding company free advertising space for the duration of the relationship. I say relationship because after this is paid off, I am sure I'll be coming back for more to finance more growth.

Monthly gross right now is about 95K. 2015 gross was about 1.25M. I expect monthly gross to jump pretty quick to 120K and then from there much higher. The new service we are about to launch has very high margins, much higher than our current niche.

Please PM me any questions.

Is there anyone who will work with me or should I accept ondeck and just make do? I'm tired of making do. It is time to GROW

Thank you

[bdshaw]

Sent PM
Bob

[Michael I]

Unless bob can help you with different type of financing. Take the on deck deal

[Zach]

If you have real estate collateral, World Business Lenders can put a larger offer on the table for you.

[CBB]

Thank for your PM's and forum replies. I will review them and reach out today. I wish I came here sooner, where y'all hang out. I think I've wasted a lot of time with other companies on the web. Hindsight = 20/20

[bdshaw]

Thanks for the recommendation Michael
Bob