SFNet will be hosting part two of its Independent Finance Roundtable 2021 August 17 - 19, 2021 in-person at the Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel in Chicago, IL. For 2021, we created a unique, invitation-only experience for senior executives from SFNet member entrepreneurial finance and factoring companies. IFR 2021 is a two-part event. The first part on April 27 was a free, live online roundtable discussion and an overview of our August in-person agenda. Panelists and attendees will come together next week to discuss the state of M&A, legal issues impacting our industry, and other timely topics that may affect your business.

In addition to the roundtable meetings and discussions, IFR will offer optional activities to take full advantage of your time in Chicago.

On Tuesday, August 17, an optional Chicago Architecture River Cruise will be available from 1:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. Offering enclosed and open-air seating, the cruise will glide down all three branches of the Chicago River to see the city's famous architecture, including more than 40 notable buildings like Navy Pier, the Wrigley Building, the John Hancock Building, East Bank Club, the old Post Office Building and the Willis Tower.

There will also be an opening reception and optional group dinners, with reservation blocks at local restaurants.

On Wednesday, August 18, the conference will begin with breakfast and networking, followed by Strategy and Competitive Advantage—Part 1, with Keynote Speaker: Michael J. Mazzeo, associate professor of Strategy, Kellogg School of Management.  Mazzeo teaches Kellogg's Business Strategy classes in Kellogg's MBA and EMBA programs and is co-author of the book Roadside MBA: Backroad Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners.

Mazzeo will provide a framework to understand the connection between a company’s resources and capabilities; its value proposition and how it achieves competitive advantage. He will illustrate these ideas using examples from small and middle-market firms encountered in the Roadside MBA book. A Q&A will follow.

“The participants will gain an understanding of the key elements in a company’s competitive advantage and how successful companies can leverage critical resources and capabilities for growth,” Mazzeo explained. “The illustrative examples that I will show come from my Roadside MBA book.  Examples will include a company that produces firehose and a manufacturer of customized manual wheelchairs.  I am sure the participants will want to read the book after the session – there are stories of over three dozen additional businesses with corresponding strategic insights – but reading it ahead of time is not necessary.”

Strategy and Competitive Advantage—Part 2 Round Table Discussions will take place after a coffee break from 10:00 a.m. – 10:20 a.m. Robyn Barrett, managing member, FSW Funding and Rob Meyers, president, CCO and managing member of Republic Business Credit, will be the facilitators.  In this follow-up roundtable session, attendees will discuss the framework presented in Part 1 and how to apply it to their business.

A DEI Initiatives Roundtable Session will follow from 11:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. with Betty Hernandez, executive vice president-chief credit officer, SLR Business Credit, and Terry Keating, Donald J. Keating & Sons, as facilitators.  The session will be an open conversation on what independent businesses are doing to address diversity, equity and inclusiveness in their workplace.

“DEI is a challenging and critical issue facing our industry,” explained Keating.  “Addressing this is particularly challenging for smaller organizations with limited resources and other constraints.  We’ll be exploring these challenges and discussing how resources can be shared and delivered within the SFNet community. In addition to sharing what SFNet is doing to address  DEI within the Association and within member companies, we’ll be facilitating a ‘safe place’ for candid conversation about the specific challenges faced by smaller organizations. We hope that participants in this session will leave with a better understanding of the support that SFNet can provide and some practical ideas to take back to their organizations to apply in addressing DEI over the short, medium and long term.”

The Human Capital Roundtable Session will follow from 12:20 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. with Ryan Jaskiewicz, CEO, 12five Capital, LLC and Stacey Schacter, CEO, Vion Investments, as facilitators. This roundtable will be a wide-ranging discussion on several topics related to human capital, spending about 15 minutes on each of the following:

• You’re back to the office (maybe?) …how’s it going?
• Onboarding new hires remotely – tips and strategies
• Deal flow, diligence and onboarding new clients

The Legal Update Session will be held from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. and will feature facilitator Jeff Wurst, partner, Armstrong Teasdale LLP.  The legal program will feature a timely and meaningful discussion of legal topics of interest to independent lenders, including Subchapter V; Evolution and status of licensing statutes; PPP & EIDL – case law on firms that filed for bankruptcy that took the loans and Intercreditor Agreements updates.

“One of the most significant issues facing independent finance companies is the growing requirement to make certain disclosures of the proposed financing,” Wurst said.  “California and New York have adopted such laws and other states are following suit.  New York will be requiring disclosures on financings of $2.5 million and less.  It is imperative that lenders making such smaller loans be cognizant of these laws and be prepared to abide by them.

“Since the IFR last met, quite a bit has occurred that impacts our members,” Wurst continued.  “Small businesses (total debt under $7.5 million) may now reorganize under the new Subchapter V provisions of the Bankruptcy Code.  We will discuss how Subchapter V works and how it impacts our members.

“Lastly, a collateral effect of the pandemic has been the resultant impact on funds employment as a result of EIDL and PPP loans.  But not all of these government guaranteed loans will be forgiven.  There has been considerable litigation over whether companies in bankruptcy were entitled to receive these financial support loans.  We will discuss what has been going on in the Courts with respect to bankruptcy companies and PPP/EIDL loans.”

On Thursday, August 19, 2021, following breakfast, the War Stories discussion will be held from 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Terry Keating and Stacey Schacter will facilitate this roundtable, which will be a candid discussion on transactions that didn’t go as planned, the underlying root causes and how to deal with a bad deal or at least bad decisions. The presenters will freely admit where they went wrong, what they would have done different and what they learned from the experience. Participants are also asked to consider sharing their bad deals with the audience as misery loves company.

“Today’s hindsight can be tomorrow’s foresight,” added Keating.  “War Stories will be a conversation led by lending veterans who will share insights from deals they wish they’d done differently or not at all, or times when we broke our ownunderwriting discipline. Times when we were too soft with management or tried to save money on turnaround professionals.  We’ll share times when trouble signs appeared and how we choose to be optimistic and not pessimistic. This will be an open forum to learn.”

Following a coffee break will be the Recent(ish) M&A Real Life Case Study—Behind the Scenes from Both the Buyer and the Seller roundtablewith Bryan Ballowe, co-founder and managing partner, TradeCap Partners, and Rob Meyers, Republic Business Credit, as facilitators and Wade Hladky, president and CEO, Gulf Coast Business Credit, and Steve Lowenthal, co-CEO, SPECTRUM Commercial Services, as presenters.

Hladky and Lowenthal will dive into their experience completing a successful M&A transaction in the commercial finance industry. This will be a great opportunity to hear the details of the transaction from not only the buyer (Gulf Coast), but also gain insight into the seller’s (SPECTRUM) perspective of the transaction as well. Ballowe and Meyers will be leading the discussion and taking attendees through the phases that both Gulf Coast and SPECTRUM experienced—from the upfront work of prepping for sale and purchase, to the letter of intent process, valuation metrics discussion, and the due diligence/closing process. There will also be a live update into how the integration went— always an interesting time and even moreso given the events of the past year.

Following the days of roundtables, attendees can stay for an optional Friday Tag-Along event and catch the Chicago Cubs vs. Kansas City Royals at 2:20 p.m. on Friday, August 20 (additional fees apply).

Attending the event? Be sure to use #SFNetIFR21 and share your photos and experiences with us on social media! If you are interested in attending, please click here for more information.