Challenges of SMB lending historically

Zaid explains why SMB lending failed for many startups and how underwriting middle‑market firms is complex.

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Episode notes

Zaid Rahman is the Co-founder and CEO of Flex.

Flex is the AI native private bank for high net worth middle market business owners, headlined by it’s 60-day interest free credit card for businesses.

Flex just announced their $60 million Series B, as well as their new consumer product, Flex Elite, which pits it head-to-head against Amex for the consumer spending of some of the wealthiest people in America. It's products now spans from when a business owner first generates revenue, all the way to when they spend that cash personally.

This conversation goes inside how the company scaled from zero to a $70 million revenue run rate in two years, and everything Zaid learned along the way.

Thank you to Eric Bahn at Hustle Fund, Jeff Morris Jr. at Chapter One, Andrew Ziperski at General Catalyst, and Jared Thomas and Ewan Steel at Flex for helping brainstorming topics for the conversation.

Timestamps:

(1:44) Raising $60m to fix business finance

(3:23) Flex Elite: Personal + Business banking

(4:48) Jumbo shrimps: powering 40% of US payroll

(9:16) The forgotten mid market business

(14:01) “Flex fuels ambition”

(16:08) How to serve entrepreneurs in middle America

(22:58) Flex’s 5-pillar product suite

(27:12) Starting Flex to help construction companies

(31:51) Using AI to lend to mid-market customers

(40:22) Power of multi-product in fintech

(43:53) Zero to $3B in volume in 18 months