While you might visit Match.com to find a date, visitors who frequent Boefly.com will have something very different in mind. These people are entrepreneurs in need of funding.
Launched in the spring of 2010 with $4 million in funding from private investors, BoeFly has supported just under $2 billion in transactions and is generating close to $150,000 in monthly sales, according to Mr. Nayor. Working closely with the International Franchise Association, BoeFly has partnered with more than 80 franchise brands, enabling clients such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Pearle Vision and Great Clips to connect their franchisees with loans. BoeFly also operates an online loan center for America’s Small Business Development Center Network, which runs approximately 1,000 government-funded small business development centers, or SBDCs, across the country.
BoeFly aims to reduce a hurdle that the founders believe is keeping many banks from lending to small business: the time-consuming and costly legwork it takes to check out small, would-be borrowers. Because banks don’t make much money on smaller loans, “they want to make loans without the heavy burden of the cost of acquisition,†Mr. Nayor said.