Fund the company.
Keep 100% of it.
Startup capital doesn't have to cost a piece of your company. The concierge can walk founder-lane products (SBA, revenue-based, and the rest) as education, including when the honest answer is "wait." Live partner names land when programs are approved.
Your personal credit is a company asset. Spend it wisely.
Five rungs, in the order a careful founder climbs them. Example directory profiles, not live partners, each with its cost stated the way it actually works: no dressed-up APRs, no hidden multiples.
SBA loans, the legitimacy anchor
Government-backed and rate-capped, with terms to 10 years, the closest a young company gets to bank pricing. The honest trade: real paperwork and 30–90 days of patience. If your timeline allows it, start here.
A personal loan doing business work
Personal guarantee, you repay this, not the LLCToo young to borrow as a company? You aren't. Good personal credit qualifies on YOUR numbers, and the plain reality is you're personally liable whether the business works or not. Size it so you could survive being wrong.
0% intro business cards
The cliff is real, know your payoff month before you applyA genuine 0% window of 12–15 months is free working capital, for founders who clear the balance before the cliff. After the window: 18.9–28.9% est. APR* on whatever remains. Plan the payoff before you swipe.
Equipment financing & leasing
When the money buys a machine, the machine is the collateral, the decision leans on the asset instead of your two months of history, and pricing follows. Leasing trades a lower monthly outlay for a higher total cost if you always meant to own.
CDFIs, a human on your side
Mission-driven community lenders exist to fund the businesses banks skip: SBA Microloans from $1K, honest pricing, and free help building the application itself. The slowest rung, and for a first-time founder often the wisest.
Advertiser disclosure: AcquireLender may earn a commission when you apply through links on this page. Compensation never changes rung order or match rankings. How this works
Two kinds of money. One honest question.
Debt costs interest, and then it ends. Equity costs a share of everything you ever build, and it doesn't. Neither is wrong, but only one is right for your next twelve months.
Borrowing fits when…
- Revenue exists, even early, to make the payment from
- The money buys something with a knowable payback: equipment, inventory, a proven channel
- You want the cost to end, debt has a last payment, equity doesn't
- Keeping 100% matters more to you than maximum speed
Raising fits when…
- There's no revenue yet, and won't be for a while, nothing to repay from
- You're funding a bet, not a repeatable need, bets are what equity exists to absorb
- The plan needs more capital than any honest lender would extend
- A fixed monthly payment would genuinely hurt the business right now
Answer "not sure" and it walks the decision with you in plain words: your revenue, your need, how you feel about ownership. If the honest answer is equity, it says so right there in the chat. No investor lists, no intros, we don't do that. Just the truth, then the right debt doors if borrowing fits.
Six startup-grade routes, mechanics stated honestly.
Not everything is an APR. Revenue shares, factor fees, and leases are shown here the way they actually charge, with the effective cost kept in the open, never dressed up.
The sharks hunt exactly where you're standing.
Urgent need + young business is the predatory lender's favorite meal: 40–350% effective rates dressed up as "instant approval." Sixty seconds with this checklist is the cheapest protection in finance.
- Daily or weekly auto-debits. Legitimate loans bill monthly. Daily debits are the MCA signature. They strangle cash flow by design.
- A “factor rate” instead of an APR. “1.4 factor” sounds small. On a 6-month payback it can be a 40–350% effective rate. If they won't state it as an annual rate, they're hiding it.
- Confession of judgment in the paperwork. You'd be signing away your right to defend yourself in court before anything goes wrong. No honest lender needs this.
- “Instant approval” + pressure to sign today. Real underwriting takes at least hours. Manufactured urgency exists so you don't read the contract.
- Total repayment nowhere in writing. One number tells the truth: everything you'll pay back. If it isn't printed before you sign, walk.
Read the fine print before it reads you.
Twenty minutes of reading here has saved founders five figures of financing cost. Written the way the concierge talks: plainly.
Fund the company.
Keep the company.
60 seconds. No credit impact. 100% yours when you're done.
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