SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
He'll do $500k in revenue this year with 3 person team helping consumers prepare to get loans
15 Dec 2022
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The easiest way to do that is to go to getlatka.com and use our filtering tool. It's like a big Excel sheet for all of these podcast interviews. Check it out right now at getlatka.com. Guys, he'll do half a million bucks in revenue this year at usecreditconnection.com.
When you go apply for a mortgage and they decline because some Verizon bill hits your record, he'll help you get that cleaned up to make sure you are ready for your next loan. That's why he calls it loan readiness. Re-architected his program this year, totally bootstrapped, hoping to grow a bit more next year as they look to scale. Hey folks, my guest today is Daniel Massimino.
He's a serial entrepreneur with more than 13 years of expertise in the world of startups. He's from Pittsburgh, born founder and CEO today of the Credit Connection, a groundbreaking loan readiness platform.
Chapter 2: What is the purpose of a loan readiness platform?
Also venture capitalist, artist, and thought leader. Daniel, ready to take us to the top?
Let's do it.
All right, man. What does a loan readiness platform mean to you?
So essentially, we work with loan professionals across the United States, like loan officers, realtors, even property managers. So anytime a consumer goes to apply for a loan or apply to be approved for credit for credit in the case of, say, getting a an apartment.
If they get declined, then our partner network sends them to us where then we essentially take a look at their finances and then their credit report and essentially strategize and guide them to get to a position where instead of being declined, they're able to get approved within typically about three to four months.
So can we maybe use an example here just so my audience can follow along? Let's say I'm trying to get a home loan from a big bank, BB&T or Truist now, right? Or let's use Chase, right? I'm trying to get a thing from Chase.
Chase uses, well, they actually use the credit connection as the tool they use to verify people's credit history, or they'll just only, they'll send declines to you to help them improve their credit.
Right. So currently, we don't work with Chase itself. We work with the loan officers. However, yes. So if somebody was to apply for a mortgage, they get declined. There's a reason they got declined. Typically, it's because of some poor history or accounts on their credit report. So they send them to us. We do a free credit clarity call where we go over their entire credit report with them.
And then we're identifying what are the areas that we need to work on. And then on our end, we go to work for the consumer to get Those accounts removed, if possible, to say a collection from Verizon. And if not possible, then we would guide them on the best practice to take care of that account, rebuild their credit so that they can get back to the closing table in three to four months.
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Chapter 3: How does the Credit Connection help consumers improve their loan applications?
I would say the biggest one would probably be Lexington Law. That's probably the biggest, most common one. However, most of our competitors are structured as a credit repair company. And what we're focused on is more so the loan readiness because loan readiness isn't just credit repair. It's also debt to income. So how can we lower debt and how can we raise income along with the credit?
And so now you have a holistic view of the person's finances when it comes to getting approved for loans.
Mm hmm.
And so if I'm a consumer wanting to prepare for a loan or I got declined and I want to improve my credit, what would I pay you? And what's the model monthly, annually, one time to help me fix my credit?
That's a great question. So there's actually three models that we use. There's a monthly model. So the consumer would pay anywhere from $99 to $10. $299 as what's called a first work fee. And then they would pay anywhere from $99 to $199 a month. The second model is a performance-based model. So the consumer would pay a first work fee or an enrollment fee of like $299 to $499.
And then they're only paying for what we are able to successfully get removed from their credit report. And then you have the final model, which is just a flat one-time fee of anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000.
Interesting. And so when you look at your total revenue from last year, caught 100%, what percent came from each of these three buckets, would you say?
It was all the performance-based. However, we realized that in order to do that successfully, we needed a much more robust accounting and billing system, which we didn't have at the time. So now we do, and we're able to do that model. And Just from, I guess, my opinion, I think that the performance-based model is the way to go, and it's also more profitable.
And also, the customer themselves likes it because they know they're only paying for what gets done.
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Chapter 4: What example illustrates the loan readiness process?
500 times 300 is about 150 grand of just base fee sales. And then you guys actually work. It does actually work. You can get people removed from these bureaus. And so you made an additional call at 300 grand, 400 grand on top of the 150 for the performance fees.
Yeah, give or take. And that was only running that model for maybe like five or six months.
What were you running before that model or after that model if you shut it down?
Well, it sort of went into like a stealth mode after that to refine the process and then put together a lot of the integrations and APIs and sort of the other things on the back end that we needed to really make it work flawlessly. And
and I talked to my partners a lot about this and it's like, you know, you could, everyone's like, well, you just want to get a product to market and then, you know, sell, prove that you can sell it. And in my mind, I'm like, I can sell anything to anyone for me. If I take a product to the market, I want it to be a pretty good product. Like, you know, Steve jobs is, you know, unveiling the iPhone.
He's not just unveiling like the, you know, the screen that like is connected and rigged together that, you know, you sort of be plugged in. Like when he comes to the market, it's a perfect product. You know what I mean?
No, no, totally. I mean, maybe some people would argue when the latest release of OS comes out and their whole phone stops working for two days, but they get it fixed quickly. Your point's well taken. Moving forward now, though, into this year, right? So is it fair to say that it's hard for you to have visibility on future recurring revenues because so many are paying one time plus performance?
Um, no, no. I mean, we have a, we have a new system we implemented, um, through, uh, Brex it's called pry and pry is probably the most advanced, like financial modeling software that I've seen. And so we're able to account for pretty much every different scenario and every different sort of target and goals and KPIs. Um, and. plan accordingly.
So no, I mean the average ticket in the industry, just for, if we were using the term credit repair, which by the way, I hate that. I hate the phrase credit repair. That's why I like loan readiness better, but it's about $1,207 per customer.
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Chapter 5: Who pays for the services provided by the Credit Connection?
I honestly don't know. I've been experimenting with software and marketing and pretty much every aspect of the business for the last 10 years. So I've just built up a pretty good Rolodex of experts in their chosen fields.
That makes sense. That makes sense. And have you guys bootstrapped the company or are you raised?
I'll bootstrap.
You probably sunk a bunch of your own money.
Yeah. Yeah. My money and time pretty much.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fair. Okay. So bootstrapped, you know, you'll do call it a half a million bucks in sales. So you're about flat year over year then.
Pretty much.
Yeah. What's the plan? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're re-architected. I mean, what do you think you'll do next year?
Um, It really depends. I used to race motocross and it's a lot like a throttle. It's like, well, how much revenue do we want to generate? It's not a question of
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Chapter 6: What are the different pricing models for credit repair services?
27. Last question. Something you wish you knew when you were 20.
How to ask for help and more importantly, how to accept help and guidance from people that are a lot smarter than me.
Guys, he'll do half a million bucks in revenue this year at usedcreditconnection.com. When you go apply for a mortgage and they decline because some Verizon bill hits your record, he'll help you get that cleaned up to make sure you are ready for your next loan. That's why he calls it loan readiness.
Re-architected his program this year, totally bootstrapped, hoping to grow a bit more next year as they look to scale. Daniel, thanks for taking us to the top.
Appreciate it.
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