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This episode examines how small businesses access capital, understand the leadership approach that drives successful fintech scaling, explore the embedded finance model reshaping SMB financial services, and highlight partnership strategies that deliver sustainable growth for platforms serving underserved business owners.

Tedd Huff, CEO of Voalyre, a fintech advisory firm, and host of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Prashant Fuloria, Chief Executive Officer at Fundbox, to discuss how technology levels the playing field for small businesses seeking working capital. Prashant brings a unique perspective to this conversation, having left senior leadership roles at Google, Facebook, and Yahoo to join Fundbox as Chief Operating Officer in 2016 before becoming CEO in 2020. His decision to walk away from big tech wasn't driven by money or prestige but by a mission he couldn't ignore: helping small businesses access the capital they need to grow.

Small businesses in the United States are owed over one trillion dollars in unpaid invoices. This staggering number represents more than just delayed payments. It represents missed opportunities, skipped paychecks, and business owners forced to choose between paying themselves and covering payroll. These aren't abstract numbers on a balance sheet. They're real obstacles preventing hardworking entrepreneurs from seizing growth opportunities that could transform their businesses.

The challenge facing these business owners goes beyond access to capital. They're managing accounts payable, accounts receivable, bookkeeping, and financial planning with teams of one or two people. Large enterprises have entire departments dedicated to these functions, complete with CFOs and specialized staff. Small business owners are doing it all themselves while trying to focus on what they built their businesses to do in the first place. They need solutions that simplify their lives, not add another layer of complexity.

Prashant recognized this problem early. Having spent years building advertising products at Google, he saw firsthand how technology could level the playing field for small businesses competing against larger competitors. Google AdWords gave small advertisers access to the same platforms and tools that big brands used. He wondered why the same approach couldn't work for financial services. That question led him to Fundbox, where technology bridges the gap between small businesses and the working capital they desperately need.

What makes Fundbox different isn't just the capital they provide. It's how they provide it. The company doesn't spend money on direct marketing campaigns or Google ads. Instead, they embed their financing solutions directly into the tools small businesses already use every day. QuickBooks for accounting, Stripe for payments, vertical software platforms tailored to specific industries. By integrating into these existing ecosystems, Fundbox meets business owners where they already are, eliminating the need to juggle yet another platform or application.

This embedded approach transforms how small businesses discover and access financing. Instead of forcing business owners to fill out lengthy applications and wait weeks for approval, Fundbox uses data from the platforms they're already integrated with to underwrite in real time. A restaurant owner using QuickBooks can receive a pre-approved offer without leaving their accounting software. A contractor managing invoices through a specialized platform can access a line of credit based on their actual business performance, not a credit score that doesn't reflect their true financial health.

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Trust plays a critical role in this model. Small business owners trust the platforms they use to run their operations. When Fundbox integrates into those trusted environments, it inherits that trust. This isn't a minor detail. It's the foundation of the entire strategy. Business owners are more likely to accept financing offers from a partner embedded in their existing workflow than from a standalone lender asking them to start from scratch.

The use cases for this capital are as diverse as the businesses themselves. Payroll is one of the most common needs. Business owners take paying their employees seriously. It's a matter of pride and honor. Many would rather skip their own paychecks than miss payroll. But when invoices go unpaid and cash flow dries up, meeting payroll becomes a crisis. Fundbox steps in to bridge that gap, ensuring employees get paid on time even when clients are late.

Other needs are equally urgent. A trucking company might need fifteen thousand dollars to repair a vehicle that broke down unexpectedly. A coffee shop might need to replace a broken espresso machine that's essential to daily operations. These aren't luxuries. They're critical investments that keep businesses running. There are also growth opportunities: buying inventory from a new supplier who requires an upfront deposit, attending a trade show in another city, or hiring an additional employee to handle increased demand. All of these opportunities have positive returns on investment, but they require capital that many small businesses don't have sitting in the bank.

One unexpected use case stands out. Many small businesses use Fundbox capital to extend credit to their own customers. A B2B business might have clients asking for net 30 or net 60 payment terms. The business owner wants to close the deal but can't afford to wait two months for payment. By drawing funds from Fundbox, they can extend credit to their customer, mark up the invoice to cover the financing cost, and pay Fundbox back when their customer pays them. This flexibility turns Fundbox into a tool that helps small businesses compete more effectively for larger contracts.

The company has served more than 150,000 small businesses and facilitated over five billion dollars in working capital. These businesses typically have between one and 50 employees, with annual revenues ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to five or ten million. They're not massive enterprises with sophisticated finance teams. They're the backbone of the economy, employing millions of people and driving local growth in every community across the country.

Prashant's leadership philosophy reflects the mission he's building toward. He leads a team of about 200 people, each one motivated by the company's purpose. Leadership at Fundbox isn't about isolation or top-down decision making. It's about openness, transparency, and collaboration. The executive team meets every morning for a huddle that lasts anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. They discuss what's on their minds, what's critical to the business, and what needs attention. These aren't scripted meetings. They're real conversations about people, projects, partners, competitors, and market conditions.

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This daily rhythm prevents the isolation that often plagues executives. It ensures alignment across the leadership team and creates psychological safety. People feel comfortable bringing forward ideas and opinions because they know they'll be heard. Listening isn't passive at Fundbox. It's active, and it leads to action. When team members see their ideas taken seriously and implemented, they walk away knowing their contributions matter. This culture cascades through the organization, creating a sense of joint ownership and responsibility that extends to every employee.

Fundbox partners with platforms that serve small businesses well. The ideal partner has deep engagement with their customers, access to meaningful data about their business health, and a relationship built on trust. These aren't requirements pulled from a playbook. They're the natural outcomes of working with platforms that genuinely care about their users. When Fundbox embeds into these environments, they can offer more relevant financing, better terms, and faster access because they understand the customer through the data the platform provides.

The partnership model allows Fundbox to scale efficiently. Customer acquisition costs stay low because they're not running expensive ad campaigns. Underwriting becomes faster and more accurate because they're using real-time data from trusted sources. And retention improves because repeat customers use Fundbox six or seven times a year, often for many years. Some customers have been with the company since it launched its relationship with QuickBooks a decade ago. These long-term relationships prove that alignment of incentives works. When the lender succeeds only if the business succeeds, everyone wins.

Looking ahead, Prashant sees embedded finance becoming a global standard. The number of small businesses using digital tools will continue to grow. Five years from now, the vast majority of SMBs will be using one or more platforms to run and grow their operations. As technology matures, a smaller number of highly successful platforms will emerge as dominant players. These won't be thousands of fragmented options. They'll be a double-digit number of enduring platforms that serve small businesses at scale. Fundbox intends to be one of them, growing from 150,000 businesses served today to more than 1.5 million in the next five to ten years.

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Responsible lending remains non-negotiable as the company scales. Prashant's approach is simple: align incentives. If a lender does just as well economically whether the business succeeds or fails, the incentives aren't aligned. Some predatory lenders actually profit more when businesses fail because of guarantees or liens. Fundbox takes the opposite approach. Their best customers are repeat customers who use the service multiple times a year for many years. That only happens if the business thrives. By keeping incentives aligned with the success of the customer and the partner, Fundbox ensures they make decisions that drive joint success.

Transparency ties directly to trust. Small business owners today expect the same convenience, speed, and access in their business tools that they experience as consumers. If they can swipe a card and convert a purchase into an installment plan, they want similar flexibility when managing payroll or procuring equipment. Transparency builds the trust necessary to deliver that experience. In a highly competitive space, trust, transparency, speed, convenience, and value keep Fundbox honest and focused on continuous improvement.

For founders considering starting their own companies, Prashant offers one piece of advice: only start a company if you value the impact you can make and the lessons you can learn. Never start a company because you think it will be a highly positive financial return on investment decision. This isn't a romanticized view of entrepreneurship. It's a practical acknowledgment that building a company is hard, often unrewarding financially, and filled with challenges that test every assumption. The founders who succeed are the ones driven by mission, not money.

Prashant's story is a testament to that philosophy. He could have stayed comfortable in big tech, optimizing algorithms and managing massive teams. Instead, he chose to solve a problem that affects millions of business owners who keep the economy running. That choice led to a company that helps restaurant owners cover payroll, contractors buy supplies, and coffee shop owners replace broken equipment. It's not glamorous work, but it's meaningful work. And for the 150,000 businesses Fundbox has served, it's made all the difference.

TLDR:

Tedd Huff, CEO of Voalyre, a fintech advisory firm, and host of Fintech Confidential, sits down with Prashant Fuloria, Chief Executive Officer at Fundbox, to unpack how small businesses overcome cash flow challenges. Small businesses are owed over one trillion dollars in unpaid invoices, forcing owners to choose between payroll and personal paychecks. Prashant explains how embedded finance solves this by integrating working capital directly into tools like QuickBooks and Stripe, eliminating lengthy applications and delivering instant access to funds. The conversation covers leadership principles built on transparency and daily team huddles, partnership strategies that prioritize trust and data flexibility, and why repeat customers who use financing six to seven times annually prove alignment works. Prashant also shares advice for founders: only start a company if you value impact and lessons learned, never for expected financial returns. This episode reveals how technology levels the playing field for small businesses competing against larger enterprises.

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Key Highlights:

Trillion Dollar Problem Solved

Small businesses across America are owed more than one trillion dollars in unpaid invoices right now. This massive cash flow gap forces business owners to choose between covering payroll and paying themselves, often delaying growth opportunities that could change everything for their companies. Technology is leveling the playing field by giving these entrepreneurs real-time access to working capital without the traditional banking headaches that have kept them stuck for decades.

Payroll Is Sacred Territory

Business owners treat employee payroll as a matter of pride and honor, refusing to miss a payment even when their own clients are months behind. Many would rather skip their own paychecks than leave their team waiting for money they earned. This dedication drives one of the most common use cases for embedded financing, bridging the gap between when invoices go out and when cash actually hits the bank account, ensuring employees never feel the pain of delayed client payments.

Embedding Beats Direct Marketing

Companies that embed financing solutions directly into the tools small businesses already use every day see better results than those spending huge budgets on Google ads and social media campaigns. By integrating into platforms like QuickBooks, Stripe, and vertical software packages, lenders can underwrite applications using real-time data without forcing business owners to fill out lengthy forms or wait weeks for approval decisions that should take minutes.

Trust Transfers Through Platforms

When financing gets embedded into trusted business tools, that trust automatically extends to the lender offering the capital. Small business owners don't want to juggle ten different systems or learn new software just to access working capital. They want solutions that fit seamlessly into their existing workflows, and when a platform they already rely on offers financing, they're far more likely to accept it than hunt for standalone options.

Morning Huddles Prevent Isolation

Leadership teams that meet every single morning for open conversations about people, projects, partners, and competitors stay aligned and avoid the isolation that kills executive effectiveness. These daily huddles last anywhere from ten minutes to an hour, covering whatever topics are critical that day without scripts or rigid agendas. This rhythm creates psychological safety where team members feel comfortable bringing forward ideas and opinions, knowing they'll be heard and acted upon.

Repeat Customers Drive Success

The average small business using embedded financing comes back six or seven times per year, often continuing the relationship for a full decade. This repeat behavior proves that aligning incentives works better than chasing one-time transactions. When lenders only succeed if their customers thrive, everyone wins, and predatory practices that profit from business failures get eliminated from the equation entirely.

Data Flexibility Enables Partnerships

Lenders that can underwrite using ledger data, payment transactions, invoicing records, or bank account information can partner with a wider range of platforms and serve more diverse customer segments. Building machine learning models for multiple data types takes effort but opens doors to partnerships that wouldn't work otherwise. This flexibility means financing can reach business owners wherever they manage their operations, not just those using one specific accounting package.

Credit Becomes Competitive Advantage

Small businesses often use embedded financing to extend net 30 or net 60 payment terms to their own customers, closing deals they'd otherwise lose to competitors with deeper cash reserves. By drawing capital to cover the gap, marking up invoices to include financing costs, and repaying when their customers pay them, these entrepreneurs turn working capital access into a tool for winning larger contracts and growing faster.

Curiosity Fuels Small Companies

People who work at smaller companies have unique opportunities to learn across functions when they stay intellectually curious. A CFO can explain forward flow agreements to the CTO, while the CTO teaches the COO about Kubernetes. These cross-functional conversations happen naturally in environments where collaboration matters more than silos, giving team members knowledge and perspective they'd never gain working in isolated departments at massive enterprises.

Global Adoption Accelerates Growth

The number of small businesses using digital tools will multiply dramatically over the next five to ten years, moving from niche adoption to standard practice across nearly all SMBs worldwide. As this shift happens, a smaller number of highly successful platforms will emerge as dominant players, serving millions of businesses at scale rather than thousands of fragmented options competing for attention in crowded markets.

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Takeaways:

1️⃣ Leverage Always-On Data Connections

Use continuous platform integrations that monitor business health in real time, automatically adjusting credit offers as revenue grows or expenses shift. This eliminates manual reapplications and lets financing scale naturally with the business, providing better terms exactly when financial performance improves without requiring owners to prove themselves repeatedly.

2️⃣ Eliminate Application Paperwork Completely

Remove lengthy forms and document uploads by using existing platform data from accounting software, payment processors, or invoicing tools to complete underwriting instantly. Business owners never leave their current workflow to access capital, saving hours of administrative time that could be spent running their actual operations instead of chasing financing approvals.

3️⃣ Cover Unexpected Critical Expenses

Access immediate capital when trucks break down, equipment fails, or essential machinery needs emergency replacement without derailing operations. These unexpected costs often can't wait for traditional loan approval timelines, and having instant working capital available prevents businesses from losing revenue while critical repairs sit incomplete.

4️⃣ Match Repayment to Revenue Cycles

Structure financing to align with actual cash flow patterns rather than rigid monthly schedules that ignore how money actually moves through small businesses. Flexible repayment without penalties lets owners pay faster when customers settle invoices early or extend slightly when seasonal slowdowns hit, keeping costs predictable and manageable throughout the year.

5️⃣ Integrate Into Vertical SaaS Ecosystems

Embed financing directly into industry-specific software platforms that contractors, restaurants, or service businesses already use daily for scheduling, invoicing, and operations management. This creates a one-stop shop experience where owners never juggle multiple logins or duplicate data entry across systems, simplifying their entire financial management process.

Links:

Prashant Fuloria

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prashant-fuloria/

Fundbox

Website: https://fundbox.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fundbox/

X: https://x.com/Fundbox

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Fundboxcom

Fintech Confidential

YouTube: https://fintechconfidential.com/watch

Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen

Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential

X: https://X.com/FTconfidential

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential

Time Stamps:

Transform Your Merchant Applications with Under. The Under platform revolutionizes how you handle merchant applications, offering a seamless transition to digital forms. Say goodbye to outdated processes and hello to efficiency. Discover the future of financial applications at https://under.io/ftc 

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About The Guest:

Prashant Fuloria

Prashant Fuloria is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fundbox and a product and technology leader with more than 25 years of experience building and scaling platforms at global companies. Before joining Fundbox, he held senior roles at Google, Facebook, and Yahoo, where he led large product, monetization, and growth initiatives. At Fundbox he has led efforts that supported more than 500,000 SMBs and unlocked over $5 billion in working capital by using connected data, embedded experiences, and responsible underwriting to serve business owners that traditional lenders overlook.

Fundbox

Fundbox is an embedded working capital platform built for SMBs that run on accounting, payments, and vertical SaaS tools. By integrating directly with solutions like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and other business platforms, Fundbox provides fast, flexible access to credit using AI-powered underwriting and real-time business data. The company has partnered with more than 500,000 businesses and has unlocked over $5 billion in working capital for owners who face payment delays, seasonality, or unexpected expenses, giving them a simpler, transparent way to manage cash flow and grow.

About the Host:

Tedd Huff: 

Tedd Huff is the Founder of Voalyre a Fintech professional services and Advisory firm focused on global money movement, payments and banking. He is also the founder host and executive producer of the Fintech Confidential network.

Over the past 25+ years, he has contributed to FinTech startups as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Founder, and Chief Experience Officer, providing strategic and tactical direction for Global Payments OpenEdge, Heartland Payments, Nuvei, and TSYS, among others, focusing on growth while delivering innovation, process improvements and user experience-driven value to simplify the complexity of payments.

DD3, Media: 

DD3 Media is a media creation, management, and production company delivering engaging content globally

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