aarinyu

"We don't have anything to put up as collateral." It's the first objection almost every tech founder raises the moment debt comes up — and it's the reason most of them never bother pricing it out, defaulting straight to another equity round instead. It's also outdated. Lenders have spent the last decade building underwriting frameworks specifically for companies with no factory, no inventory, no equipment — just a product, a customer base, and a revenue line. The real collateral isn't on the...

Non-dilutive financing is not a single product—it is a menu of structures, each priced to a different risk profile and designed to solve a different problem. Asset-based lending monetizes the balance sheet. Cash flow lending leverages EBITDA. Mezzanine stretches total leverage for companies that have outgrown bank capacity. Revenue-based financing ties repayment to revenue performance. Venture debt extends runway for growth-stage companies backed by institutional equity. The mistake most CEOs...

Growth creates a familiar paradox in the mid-market: revenue is rising, the order book is full, and yet cash is tight. The culprit is usually timing—receivables sitting at 60 days, inventory piling up ahead of a large shipment, equipment depreciating on the balance sheet. Traditional lenders underwrite backward, anchoring on EBITDA and historical coverage ratios that often penalize the very companies growing fastest. Asset-based lending (ABL) inverts that logic. It underwrites the balance...