Notes on Specialty Finance

A merchant cash advance is a purchase of future receivables, not a loan. Here is the order I underwrite in when I participate in a pool: duration, capacity, renewal history, deposit health.

Receivables duration risk compounds with every week outstanding. After twelve years in specialty finance, I favor paper of six months or less: exposure compresses, capital recycles, deterioration surfaces in days.

Merchant cash advance underwriting is mostly exclusion, not pricing. Here's how I read capacity off the tape, and why I say no early to protect the capital I deploy.

Most allocators who say they hold private credit hold direct lending. I work a different corner of the category. Short duration commercial receivables purchased under UCC Article 9 sits inside specialty finance and behaves nothing like a three to seven year corporate loan. Ali Barkhordar writes from Ultimate Business Capital in Sheridan Wyoming.

I break down the automated payment collection process in merchant cash advance. Learn about the direct bank withdrawals and credit card splits I use to secure MCA transactions.

Over $1.25 billion in institutional capital flowed into the space last quarter. Here is my breakdown of the top five MCA capital raises that prove smart money is officially here.

A new data point on private credit caught my attention, and it's worth a closer look.

Most files on funding platforms look fine on paper. The ones that stop me are the renewals. After twenty years in specialty finance underwriting, here is the signal I trust above almost everything else.