When You Have to Decline the Deal,
Stay the Hero
A non-bank financing advisory built around banker referrals. You stay the relationship; we extend your reach. We don't take deposits, we don't compete for the depository, and the client comes back to you cleaner when the trajectory allows.
A family-owned advisory led by co-founders Michael and Sarah Kodinsky.
You stay the relationship.
We extend your reach.
Plenty of sound businesses fall outside a bank's credit box: DSCR that just misses, tax returns that lag current revenue, leverage from a recent acquisition, an industry concentration the bank can't take. The need is real, and your client knows it. Left alone, they're one search away from a broker who'll put them in a merchant cash advance they'll regret.
The better option is an advisor whose business depends on never threatening yours. We work downstream of your decline. Your client gets the capital, you stay the banker who found a way, the operating account stays with you, and when the financials catch up, the client comes back to your credit team ready to qualify.
Get the Banker One-Pager
Keep this on file as a reference or forward internally: what we fund, and a sampling of the programs we place, with real terms.
- •The five kinds of capital we place: working capital and bridge, asset-based lending, subordinated and stretch capital, equipment, and real estate
- •Eight sample programs with amounts, terms, rates, and credit requirements
- •How we position you as the one who got it done
Why Michael built
Serve Funding this way
Before Serve Funding, Michael Kodinsky spent years on the direct-lender side, running asset-based deals. Most of that business came from bankers: a client the bank couldn't approve, and a banker who made the introduction.
“I did a study at one point. I looked back two years and found we were closing one deal out of every fifteen or sixteen we looked at. The problem wasn't the closing ratio. Sales is a numbers game. The problem was that on so many of the others, we thought we had a deal. We spent weeks, the client's time and our own, only to hit a wall.”
Michael Kodinsky, Co-Founder & CEO
A lender with one product has to make every client fit that product, and it can take weeks to find out the fit isn't there. By then the client's window is closing, and the banker who made the introduction wears the result.
So Michael and Sarah built Serve Funding the other way around. We're channel-neutral and product-neutral: we look at every structure available before we recommend one, and if nothing fits, we say so on the first call. That's how we protect your client's time, and your reputation along with it.
What we do,
and what we don't
We do
- •Invoice factoring and asset-based lending
- •Working capital loans and lines of credit
- •Equipment financing and sale-leaseback
- •Purchase-order funding (domestic + international)
- •Government contract financing (federal, state, local)
- •Bridge capital for timing gaps and M&A
- •Non-bank SBA placement (referred to specialty lenders)
- •Real estate cash-out for working capital
- •MCA consolidation refinances
- •Layered capital stacks (multiple products simultaneously)
We don't
- •Take deposits or open operating accounts
- •Compete with your bank for the depository relationship
- •Raise equity or place equity capital (we refer out)
- •Sell your client products that don't fit their situation
- •Cold-pitch your client services they didn't ask for
- •Hold long-term debt on our balance sheet (we're an advisor, not a lender)
- •Push a client into a deal because we want to close them
What kind of clients fit
Our sweet spot is a growing business that should be bankable in 12 to 24 months but isn't today. Specifically:
| Criterion | Range | Sweet spot |
|---|---|---|
| Annual revenue | $500K – $100MM+ | $2MM – $50MM |
| Deal size | $250K – $100MM+ | $500K – $10MM |
| Time in business | 2+ years preferred | 3+ years |
| Why bank declined | Almost any credit-box reason | Thin DSCR, tax-return lag, leverage, industry concentration |
| Customer type | B2B, B2G; some B2C with the right structure | B2B with strong commercial customers |
| Industries | Most | Staffing, manufacturing, healthcare supply, gov contractors, construction, distribution |
We can do meaningfully smaller and meaningfully larger than the sweet spot. We've closed $250K factoring lines and $50MM ABL facilities in the same year. The sweet spot is just the range where the structural fit is cleanest and the timeline to bankability is most predictable.
What happens after the referral
- 1
Discovery call (20 minutes)
We map the situation (collateral position, revenue trajectory, use of funds, timing) and identify which two or three products fit. If nothing fits, we say so on this call.
- 2
Diligence and lender shopping
Serve Funding builds a data room with the client, shops the deal across the relevant subset of our extensive lender network, and returns with two or three real options, not just one quoted rate but actual term sheets the client can compare.
- 3
Delivery: closing the facility
We negotiate terms on the client's behalf, coordinate underwriting, and guide closing. You're kept in the loop on closing timing and any material structural changes. We don't run separately from the banking relationship.
- 4
Ongoing advisory, and graduation back to the bank
Most clients stay engaged with us through one or two refinances as the business matures. The endpoint of a well-built engagement is often a hand-back to the original banker once the financials qualify for a bank line again, typically 12 to 36 months depending on what got them declined in the first place.
- 5
The warm hand-back to your credit team
When a client looks ready for bank credit again, we reach back out to you with where the business stands, so your credit team can pick the conversation up cleanly. You decide whether and when to reopen it. And if we can't place a deal you referred, we'll tell you that too, so you know where your client landed.
“Time is our most valuable resource. It's the only one that's truly finite. Everything else in the world, you can make more of, but not time.”
Michael Kodinsky, Co-Founder & CEO
What to say to your client
when you make the referral
You know your client better than we do. The framing below is just a starting point. Adapt it to how the two of you actually talk.
“Our credit team can't get this done in our box — it's a structural fit issue, not a question of whether your business is sound. I want to introduce you to a financing advisory we've worked with before. They're channel-neutral and they shop deals across a wide network of alternative lenders to find what actually fits. They don't take deposits, so your accounts stay with us. They're straight with people: if they can't help, they'll tell you on the first call. It's about 20 minutes. Here's the link.”
Direct link to share: servefunding.com/discover
Banker FAQ
The questions referring bankers ask before sending the first client.
Useful links to send your clients
The content on this site is built so you can send a client straight to the page that matches their situation. A few starting points:
For clients who want to see the full menu first.
For clients weighing two specific products.
Send a manufacturing or staffing client straight to their industry page.
For clients who need a conceptual frame before our call.
For clients already in stacked MCAs: the consolidation arc.
33 plain-English definitions of terms your client might encounter on a term sheet.
Ready to make the introduction?
Open a pre-drafted intro email in your own client. Edit it however you like. We just wanted to take the blank-page problem off your plate.
Or send your client straight to servefunding.com/discover.
