Small Business Boom and New Business Bloom: Keeping the Momentum Into 2024

Announcer: Please join me in welcoming Burton Goldfield, TriNet’s president and CEO to the stage.

Burton Goldfield: Welcome and Happy New Year to all of you who've come out tonight for this event. I am so excited. Thank you for joining us here at TriNet headquarters in Dublin, California. This event is to discuss a really important topic, how entrepreneurs can keep the momentum going in 2024.

It is such a critical issue because this is the backbone of the American economy. And I'm so proud to be here tonight as TriNet's CEO. We support 22,000 small businesses here in America, and every day we strive to do better to help them grow and be successful. For those of you who know me, you know I've said it before.

There has never been a better time to start a business in America than today. I believe that the entrepreneurs are more sophisticated, the goals are more realistic. The technology is better and the opportunity to open up new markets here and abroad is exceptional. But innovative entrepreneurs need access to capital. They need support. They need help. And tonight, we're going to talk about how they get that, where they get that and how all of us can help them be successful as SMEs, as the backbone of America, is a critical part of our economy. And to me, it's a critical part of the world in making the world a better place for all of us. New patents innovation are coming from the small businesses.

Tonight, I'm so proud that this conversation will be guided by our own, TriNet's own, Samantha Wellington, TriNet's executive vice president of Business Affairs, chief legal officer and secretary. Let's welcome to the stage the fabulous Samantha Wellington. Thank you.

Next, I'd like to introduce you to our next guest. He is a MacArthur genius. Possibly the only one in the room here with us tonight, a valued training customer and someone I consider a friend. I got the chance to spend time with him in New York at our PeopleForce event. He addresses the issue around financial wellness. 45 million people in the U.S. live in the financial shadows. They don't have access to credit cards. They struggle to pay rent and they cannot open a bank account. As CEO of Mission Assets Fund, José Quiñonez transforms financial barriers into opportunities. His company, Mission Asset Fund, gives access to people financial stability who have never had that access before. This is a concrete ability to get on the rung of the ladder to build businesses and support families. So please welcome José to the stage. Come on up, José. Thank you so much.

And now one more guest for us tonight. Our next guest we have the honor to introduce Isabella Casillas Guzman, the 27th administrator of the Small Business Administration. She is here with us tonight. She was sworn in on March 17th of 2021, is a leading advocate for 33 million SMBs and she has spent her life supporting SMBs. Now, this passion started at a very young age where she worked beside her father in his veterinary hospitals in southern California. In doing so, she gained a deep appreciation for small business owners in our cities and in our communities and the impact that they have on our society. She is driving our economy with innovative solutions, and as head of the SBA, she serves as a voice for Americans, small businesses and startups. She manages a portfolio of $500 billion that's with a "B" and applies $40 billion directly in funding each year to these small businesses. Please welcome Administrator Guzman to the stage. Thank you so much.

I will leave it in this group's capable hands to take it from here. I hope you enjoy tonight's presentation. I also want to say that the executive team at trying it is in the front row here. Will you stand up quickly? Turn around. They are available at the break. And every day we try to do just a little better in service of the amazing small and medium businesses in the U.S. So thank you very much, Samantha.

Samantha: Thank you, Burton. All right. So Burton said we were going to talk about access to capital, and we are absolutely going to talk about access to capital. But before we get there, I want to talk about passion, because I think that's the thing that drives the small business boom.

No one is starting a small business because they're not passionate about the thing, because small business, it's hard. It's really, really hard to do, so I think passion, the passion for people comes from different places, right? It comes from your own personal life experiences. It might come from your first-grade teacher, it might come from your first job. It can come from anywhere. I come from a family of entrepreneurs like you, and I am incredibly fortunate to get to work in a company who serves small business is what I get to do every day. So I am fortunate to get to do something that I am passionate about every day. And one of the things that I like to ask people is where do you get your passion from? What are you passionate about? How do you get the passion for the thing that you do?

So Administrator Guzman, if we could start with you, please. Where does your passion come from?

Administrator Guzman: Yes. Well, first off, just thank you so much. Thank you for having me. You know, this is a great opportunity to really talk about what matters in this country right now, which is small business from my perspective, right? And that is my passion. And, you know, from a young age, as was said, I started working with my father. But really what drew me in was that, you know, every single person who walked in that door was so valuable to our family. I mean, every single customer we treated with ultimate respect, as my dad always instilled in me. And our employees were like family. And the community knew my dad and my dad knew the community and gave back to the community. And that just interconnectedness was valuable to me as a as a young person growing up and then just seeing how entrepreneurship was the pathway to the American dream for my family.

My father was orphaned from World War II; his father fought in World War II. Of course, his mother survived, but as a war orphan, you know, his mother started a business to keep the family afloat. And, you know, she was helping her family achieve the American dream. And my father's work, you know, paid for my college. So entrepreneurship funded my success as well. And so truly, I value it, you know, deeply. And I know that the American dream is so intertwined with small business and entrepreneurship.

You know, we are startup nation and we have great ideas, were founded on great ideas and that's entrepreneurship. And so really, truly the problem solving is what I have a passion for and why I'm always drawn to small business owners who have so many great ideas and are giving back at the same time.

Samantha: José, where does the passion for Mission Asset Fund come from?

José: I would say my tacos because I can eat tacos and that turns out to be energy. You know, I think I have a similar story. You know, my family, you know, we're small business owners. I actually started working at 13-years-old, 14-years-old, and at some point at the flea market and building businesses like that. And it's very informal businesses, but there were businesses that nonetheless, my brother still has a business at the flea market in San Jose.

In fact, I was in Sacramento and that's how we found our way through the American dream. You know, by working, by showing up, by building something because we had to buy paper. We were good at it, you know. And and I saw the grit, I saw the dignity. I saw the passion that people brought to their small businesses and I thought of that as being the norm.

I was like, well, this is what everybody thinks about immigrants. This is what everybody should think about it. But then I realized that whole society thinks differently. They think of immigrants as, you know, lazy as broken or dumb or something, as I think that's a disconnect from my reality, from my family, from what I've seen personally, then from what society thinks or says about us, I was like, whoa, wait a minute.

And so part of what I've done with, you know, my work, my professional work, was to try to align that, to say like, “No, this is the reality and we need to honor that and uplift that.” And so I consider myself as an entrepreneur, but more of like a social entrepreneur. That's more like what we do in the nonprofit space.

But with Mission Asset Fund it's exactly the same thing. It's like, here's a business that we're trying to uplift, but I'm trying to uplift that idea. That's like actually the realities of the people that we serve are this, and we need to honor that and respect that so that that way we can help them do even more with their lives.

Samantha: Yeah. So we're on immigrant business ownership, so let's stay there for a second. Immigrant employer ownership has increased, according to the SBA is upwards of that because you thank you very much for having an Office of Advocacy. But immigrant employer ownership has increased from 15% in 2012, up to 19% in 2020.

Administrator Guzman: Right.

Samantha: As an immigrant and a successful business owner, José, could you tell the audience just a little bit about the journey of starting a business and maybe specifically the challenges that you think might have been more uniquely yours because of your immigrant status?

José: Well, there's a wonderful question, and I'm so glad that, again, that we're recognizing that there's more and more immigrants starting businesses, building businesses, growing their businesses. I mean, for a lot of people in America, their boss is going to be an immigrant here. So be nice to us, right? Because we might give you a raise or not. But, but you know what? I, this is you know, in all seriousness, what I've learned through my visits is that for the people that we serve to help them build and improve their financial lives, one of the things that we recognize is that that that a critical factor is their proximity to citizenship is critical to their financial security, but also their ability for self-enterprise, which is about building businesses because they feel much more in control of their financial lives.

And so when they do that, they actually give it their all. And then we're there to help support them, guide them, give them the tools and directions, and sometimes just cheering them on, you know, because then sometimes you know, that in and of itself is enough to propel somebody to success because, you know, as a business, small business owner. So it could be a very lonely enterprise.

I mean, I'm sure we've all experienced that. It's like sometimes about the decisions that you had to bear every day. It can be lonely so well by creating a community, by creating or even showing some support. We sound like you're not alone. We're here to support you so that they can continue to move forward.

So that's what we do as an organization, but we do it on from a nonprofit perspective to help them develop it. But that's something that as an immigrant, it's kind of like kind of having like a welcoming mat, if you will, so that they can actually feel free to do more and realize their actual dreams.

Samantha: Yeah, I think the aloneness that it is is something that we consistently hear from our clients and people who are starting a business. It's a very lonely job at times because you're being everything.

Administrator Guzman, we talked about stats that are a little bit old and how are you seeing the trends now? Is the trend continuing upwards or…

Administrator Guzman: Meaning for immigrant? Yeah, well, I mean, I guess one in five of all of our small businesses are owned by immigrant founders. But it's not just that it's more layered. Immigrants are twice as likely to start a business than non-immigrants. You know, over 42% of Fortune 500 companies were started by a first generation or second-generation immigrant family.

You know, we also just since we're in Silicon Valley, over 52% of startups here in Silicon Valley are immigrant founders. And so really, they are core to who we are as America. And, you know, our founding is an immigrant story. And so we really need to celebrate our diversity. And that's something that President Biden always talks about is just that we need to celebrate and use it for our competitive advantage in this country and, you know, focus on making sure that America can, of course, you know, build its infrastructure, you know, build its future, you know, industries from AI to the clean energy economy of the future, and that we can, you know, reshore and rebuild our manufacturing infrastructure in this country as well and focus on that because we need all our great founders from everywhere and anywhere with great ideas to be able to power this economy and maintain our global competitiveness.

And it's about, you know, more than just our economic advantage because small businesses in a way, I'm so passionate about them. It's not just that origin story, but, you know, they create two-thirds of all net new jobs. You know, they employ nearly half the private workforce. You know, my work is 99.7% of all businesses. Small businesses define our economy in so many ways and define who we are. So and it just embracing all of those great immigrant entrepreneurs and the changing face of entrepreneurship that is women and people of color is something that will help us compete globally When we're talking about getting into markets and competing with China and moving forward and advancing.

Samantha: I agree with you 100%. And you took me so nicely to where I was going to go next, which was to expand out the conversation from immigrants to historically under-represented businesses, business owners more generally, and sort of the importance of investing in that that business growth. You've talked about a little bit, but I think it'd be interesting to talk about the specific challenges that any of those groups may face that you're seeing, particularly when they're seeking funding and what those challenges are.

Administrator Guzman: Yeah, when SBA was founded with the intent of trying to ensure entrepreneurship so we can have innovation and competition and filling gaps. So clearly we are squarely focused on underserved communities that have less access to capital, less access to networks that connect them to marketplaces or opportunities.

And so, you know, we focus on the very entrepreneurs that face the historic barriers. It could be, you know, street barriers that are, you know, racism. It's just systemic bias that precludes them from financing, for example. But, you know, there are also just challenges and you don't know what you don't know. And just being able to trust a network. So oftentimes underserved communities don't have that, you know, trusted advisor. And President Biden was the first thing he talked to me about because during COVID laid bare some of the systemic challenges that we have of not really, you know, fueling all our great ideas in this country.

And, you know, if you don't have that lawyer, that accountant on speed dial, then you're disadvantaged to be able to access things quickly. And so it really is networks, trusted networks, connections, who can be culturally competent, language competent and, you know, speak to in terms that are that are real and recognizing that maybe I don't know the rules of the game because I didn't grow up in that world, you know, but I have a great idea and I have the grit and the determination to move forward. So we try to create knowledge networks to connect to capital and connect to revenue.

Samantha: So something that I've had the privilege of hearing President Biden say is you've got to know how to know in the context of small business. And I love that because it's part of what we do here. And it's part of it's kind of what TriNet is is right and helping people know how to know.

One of the things that we do here at TriNet is work with the SBDA, the Small Business Digital Alliance. And I'm going to take a moment just to talk about the fact that there are many free resources available on the SBDA website provided by TriNet and many other wonderful companies who support small business. And I think the point there is that there are resources out there looking in all sorts of different places and they help, you know, how to know.

And that piece is so important because the scale that comes in with size, where you have your own lawyer on speed dial and you've got your own accountant and you've got all your own people, not many small businesses actually have that and the SBA helps people know how to know.

Administrator Guzman: Thank you for that, because that was so critical coming out of the pandemic, where businesses were adopting technology. And so we launched with Business Forward, the Small Business Digital Alliance, so that we could ensure SBA was bringing the resources from great companies to small businesses. So thank you for that.

Samantha: So now all three of us work with four organizations who I think have something in common, which is I think that we work towards meeting people where they are. So we're meeting constituents, the constituents that we have, where they are. And I think, José, one of the things that we talked about this a little earlier, that this idea of what does, what does meeting someone where they are mean at Mission Asset Fund. What is that?

José: Well, I mean, thanks for phrasing it like that, because that has been one of our main value propositions is like, you know, it's not about what you know, it's about meeting people who are there and building on what they have, not you know, not hoping that they would be somewhere else, not expecting them to be something else or even thinking that, you know, they have to be doing things like the way we do it because of, you know, just because we have that, you know, we went to the fancy schools and we have the fancy degrees. But but it's about, you know, being humble enough to say, no worries about them.

So, but it's also about not just meeting people and then leaving them where they are and somehow helping them move along. And so that's a whole point about how do we bring, you know, tools, services, solutions, you know, so that they can, you know, address problems and then help them move along.

So for us, it's about, well, how do you help low income people, particularly immigrants, undocumented people that may not even have the basics of tools, banking tools like checking accounts, savings accounts or even credit cards or credit report. How do you help people navigate the financial system when they don't have, you know, the basics down? So we have to create them. Because we have to help them access them.

You know, I build them so that they can then build their financial lives accordingly. And I mean, for example, we work with, you know, clients that, you know, one one does one client that we have that she came to us when she was basically selling tamales from door to door. I mean, you know, but now, after helping her build her credit, it gave her access to loans, zero interest loans, zero fee loans. You know, now she's built her business to the point where even Nancy Pelosi, you know, highlighted her in one of her videos, you know, because she now has, like, you know, 50 employees working for her, making tamales.

You know, but somebody had to take that, you know, at the risk of acknowledging her as a person, acknowledging as a person that needs some help, you know, to get on the right path and then stay with her along the path. And so so so that's what we do.

This is about meeting people where they are and then building on what is good in their lives and then bringing while we have, which is a resources, technology and tools, but it’s about helping them move along in that path.

Samantha: Yes, I love that. And Administrator Guzman, in the conversation we were just having, you mentioned COVID and how the world changed and digital things changed where people were both literally and figuratively. But I think my question there is how have you seen the landscape change perhaps over the last year and where do you see it going? So we saw that massive shift. Where do you see it going? And has the SBA shifted design of programing or anything to sort of catch up or beat it, I guess?

Administrator Guzman: And it goes back to that. So, you know, I have a boss as well, President Biden, who tells me we need to meet people where they are and everywhere that they are. So making sure we're finding those gaps and helping people to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.

But, you know, as we've as we've seen these historic investments in America with infrastructure, you know, broadband, roads, bridges, to just make commerce easier for our small businesses and give them contracts to build that as we invest in manufacturing innovation, you know, we're seeing some great opportunities out there, but we need to spread out and create access and trusted networks.

So we've funded, we've grown from 1,200 centers to 1,600 centers, and we've tried to, more importantly, you know, be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses that we serve is what I tell my team. And, you know, that means being customer centric, customer first, meeting them where they are and being technology forward because they've adopted technology and equitable because the face of entrepreneurship has changed. But in order to do that, we need to have a simpler system. That's what we learned during COVID.

You know, we normally put out about it's actually about $50 billion a year in total with our various programs across the board. And, you know, but we scaled to $500 billion in the first year of the Biden-Harris administration. But that was because we tried to expand our distribution networks, more lenders than ever before providing PPE, we were able to simplify our products so that they could reach people and leverage technology.

And, you know, restaurant rotation fund we used Square and Aloha and Toast, so that you could have your data naturally already integrated into the application. So I think it's about continuously growing. And the president always challenges us to push forward harder, to make sure that government has ease of use so that we can spur and incentivize the growth that, you know, we're seeing starting to come and pan out in those numbers that you're seeing.

Samantha: Okay. So Burton did promise that we would talk about funding. Yes. So we should because he, he's my boss. So if I'm a business owner and I'm trying to fund my business, I often think of that. Like, I'm not sure that I would I know a lot about this stuff and I'm not sure that even I would know where to go to starve. So if I'm a business owner, I'm trying to fund a business. Where have you, Administrator Guzman, seen the most success? Like, where do people succeed in finding funding and maybe, what are the common pitfalls that you see?

Administrator Guzman: Well, look, even if you just see naturally where most businesses are getting funding because, you know, less than half of businesses are actually successfully accessing capital through banks. You know, black entrepreneurs, for example, are more likely to go online, straight online, than go into a financial institution. And there's variations across all our underserved communities. But so it is, it is about trying to create as many distribution networks as possible.

And that's what we did when the president committed in the State of the Union that he wanted to make sure small businesses could get capital. I was very proud. I got those words in the State of the Union speech. Every word counts in that speech. It's hard to get something in there. But he was committed to it. And so we broadened distribution networks, creating a bigger lending network, using mission lenders who were working with underserved communities so that there's more access points. And we're also recognizing that a lot of people come straight to the SBA to try to find trusted sources.

So we have a great tool Lender Match, SBA.gov/lendermatch. There you can connect to our lenders and we're upgrading our technology so they can pre-qualify, connect to resources. If you're not capital ready and you know, really to meet businesses everywhere that we are. And I know that you know for small businesses, oftentimes it starts with just making sure that you are presentable and you know that you can demonstrate that you have an ability to repay. You know, the capital markets have changed. It's not just about your credit score, but you need to demonstrate that ability to repay. And we've simplified our rules so that lenders can get creative with the data sources they use.

So I would say it is about starting with local trusted advisers and being willing to accept “no” as the answer, because I might, you might have an SBA lender, you know, ten local SBA lenders, you know, five might say “no,” five might say “yes.” So you really got to push the envelope constantly and use the SBA as a resources and at all.

Samantha: So I'm going to use this opportunity. As I mentioned, I think there's a I think it's relatively common misconception about SBA loans is in that they're only very large. They're only big loans, which isn't correct. Right? There's microloans available through the SBA.

Administrator Guzman: And we should be the MSME, you know, administer micro, small, medium and 99.7% of all businesses are small, but clearly 80% of them are sole proprietors, you know, employees. So we we really do the full spectrum. We have micro loans that are available outside of our traditional programs. We have traditional capital loans through lending institutions. We have investment capital, which is both, you know, both the debt and equity for growth-oriented firms. We also have grants, not your grants that you've seen during COVID, but different agencies have different missions and they're trying to seed innovation. And we do non-dilutive grants, we call it America's Seed Fund, where you can get capital to start your innovation. And so, it's all spectrums of types of capital. And that's what that, you know, $50 billion is. We also do disaster loans. We help communities recover.

But it's, you know, the financing options. You know, obviously we've tried to drive more small dollar loans so that those we can replicate successes of the past. It used to be, you know, Jeni's Ice Cream is a great success story you were talking about earlier. She started with the $35,000 SBA loan to open up her first location in Ohio. Brick and mortar. And of course, it's scaled dramatically now, has private equity behind her growing.

You know, Sweet Grains actually started with an SBA micro loan outside of our traditional banking authority and started in D.C. And one of their founders is Latino and Chinese. And he went to local Latino seed fi to try to get a loan and couldn't get an SBA loan, but got a micro loan to start and then followed on with a subsequent SBA loan. And so we have a full spectrum of types of lenders and types of loans. And with the reforms that we've implemented under Biden-Harris, we've unlocked capital.

I have doubled the amount of loans to black entrepreneurs to $1.5 billion, nearly doubled to Latino entrepreneurs to $3 billion. And we've seen growth across the underserved. And that's historic change as a result of our regulatory reform.

Samantha: That's wonderful.

Administrator Guzman: Thank you.

Samantha: José, what is working for you seeking capital? What do you see working with your clients and what do you see? What did you see in yourself?

José: Yeah, I mean, you know, for the Mission Asset Fund, we definitely are doing things just slightly, slightly different because we're focusing a very particular type of people that wouldn't qualify. Because they just, they need help as well. But I sort of talk about them as being providing in like nano loans. Not much or not a small, but a really tiny one where, you know, $1,000 loan might be for them to start. And that's exactly what they might need to even learn the process of getting a loan and repaying it back and, and you know, even figuring out, well, what is this ACH thing, you know, it’s like all those mechanical things or, you know, stuff that we mean, you know, take for granted for that for a new person, new immigrant, new, you know, starting something new. You know, this is more like a training grant, if you will.

And so so we've have focused on that segment of working with low income, again, undocumented population just as well. And and we've demonstrated that they're not that risky as a borrower, you know, actually, like in our Lending Circle program, we still have like a 99% repayment rate on our immigration bill.

Samantha: That's like, wonderful.

José: Yeah, it is wonderful. Yeah. But it kind of goes to show that when you build products and services based on the realities of the people you're trying to serve, more than likely they're going to succeed. You know, for one is because for a lot of immigrants, particularly poor people, you know, they're essentially our secondary users of products and services in a bill for wider, richer communities. And when they're secondary users, there's more likelihood of failure, you know, because it's not built for them.

But we do build products for them, designed for them, then they most likely are going to be successful. So it’s not that there's something wrong with them or they're just risky and they're scary. No, they're not. We just have to like, know them. You have to, you know, be part of that trusted community for them to actually they're responding.

Samantha: It wasn't the right product for you.

José: Exactly. Right. So so we need more of that. And then I think we can use now, you know, we are using it. I mean, we're using technology to do that well. So instead of having this one product for everybody and their mothers across the country, it’s like, “No, you have to, you know, you can do it for just a thousand people and that's okay.” Or in another community and in a different sort of a way. And then you can use technology to draw out, you know, bring down the cost of managing, servicing and so forth.

So I think that map, we definitely have elevated that as a, you know, as a strategy that is not scary to work with, you know, communities like this. But but I think we essentially are preparing people to hand them off, you know, to the, you know, their small dollar loans or bigger than that.

Samantha: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So nano loans, unlimited asset fund microloans, I think that's wonderful. All right. So a lot of what we're talking about today is about advocating for small businesses. Thank you to both of you for doing that. I would like to, I'd like to ask you to share a story.

I think that the way that people connect to the way that people to connect to the mission, the thing that you're talking about is through stories. It's how humans connect. And I think it'd be really wonderful if each of you could share a story about a time when you personally advocated for or mentored a small business and what that meant to them. And, you know, I'll let you decide who goes first.

Administrator Guzman: Well, I think just, you know, to dive into a topic that's SBA is top of mind, but revenue growth opportunities. Yeah, because…

Samantha: We like those two.

Administrator Guzman: Yes, yes, yes. Capital is really critical. But what do you need capital for? It’s to deliver against a contract. It's to, you know, go after marketplace. And so, you know, we really focus at the SBA incentivizing people to work with the federal government. And, you know, it's challenging. I mean, if you think trying to get a loan is hard and trying to get a contract is maybe even more complicated. And, you know, we've really focused on simplifying our certifications and making sure that agencies are offering smaller contracts for small businesses to enter into the marketplace and the president has prioritized equity in procurement, making sure that there are opportunities across our underserved communities.

So starting with, you know, our veterans and simplifying the certification program and just recently increasing the goal from 3% to 5% for our veterans. Small disadvantaged businesses, the president increased the goal to 15%. We're trying to make our progress getting there. But, you know, there's been tons of businesses that have approached me over the years facing challenges in getting through to get certified.

And, you know, there was one incredible, you know, construction company, you know, in the Southwest that just was facing challenges in getting her women on certification. Charity had gotten her hub zone but couldn't get a women, like insisted, you'd be surprised how many times we ask you for duplicate information. And so you know, just trying to connect her to the local district office.

I know I have my district team here on the ground here in San Francisco, but locally, you know, connecting her to someone who can walk her through and call somebody on the other end sometimes that high touch, no matter how much technology I'm trying to implement, that high tech just to keep this area. But to have somebody, you know, be able to get certified and then go after and win a contract award, especially during this time where construction is, you know, is there's opportunities with the infrastructure spend. There's been over $450 billion in projects announced already to date and more to come. So, you know, that's fulfilling to be able to see SBA help business grow their revenues, hire people to do it.

Samantha: Yeah, that's wonderful. I'm not sure that anyone would be surprised by how many times the federal government asks them to provide... Any one surprised? No. Okay, very good.

José.

José: My brain is flooded with different stories, too, that I want to share. I mean, I love food, so I love when our clients, you know, are, you know, food entrepreneurs and, you know, and like Alicia’s Tomales, you know, she went from selling them door-to-door and having like a huge establishment actually in in San Lorenzo. And I love that. I was just, this just warms my heart because her tamales are so delicious that I want to have I want I want her to succeed. And every time I see her, she always gives me one. So that's always a pleasure.

But but there was just one and another story that I want to share, which I thought it was like. So like we didn't do much for this person. He was, he's a construction worker. Yeah, in a big a business, I mean, a big project coming up. But in order to like, rent some equipment that he, he couldn't buy, he had to rent it from a Home Depot. You know, in order to do that, he needed to have a credit score. He needed a credit history. You know, because in order to rent it, they run credit. I don't know why they do that, but they do that.

And so because he didn't have that, you know, he couldn't do that particular project. So in helping him actually develop and establish that credit report, you know, that that was enough to like open the doors of opportunity for him. That was that was it. It wasn't even a big loan he wasn't talking about. It’s more like here you go, you know, through Lending Circle where it would help in that in. And he was so happy about that because now the next step in his career and his business was clear he was able to save through that. He was able to sort of grow and develop.

And as I mean, there's thousands of other stories like that. But it kind of goes to show that is that, you know, when you think about people is that you can have a one-size-fits-all approach. You can say, this is the one product, the one solution for everybody across America, because we have very diverse society, our country is very complex. And even when you get to specific communities, the complexity is even more so. So you need a lot of trusted groups, so you know, a lot of community based organizations to to be able to do that type of work.

But we have to do that with intentionality. We have to be really smart about it. We have to use technology really well, you know, to make it happen in a significant way. So anyway, there's a lot of stories like that. But but I think I think this is the moment where the convergence of technology and finance can allow us to do this even on a nano scale that is meaningful.

Samantha: Yes, I 100% agree with you in terms of not one product for everything. In fact, we at TriNet go to market in verticals. Turns out that's a good idea because there's not one product for everyone, you know.

So we've talked about funding. All right. Good. And what I want to talk about now is just what's ahead. How are you thinking about 2024? Is there things that you're going to be doing different in 2024 than you did in 2023 or 2022? So how are you thinking about the future and what does it look like for you? And José, if I could start with you.

José: Yeah, I'm, you know, for my life, definitely we're moving from our what I call our COVID math, where for four years we stepped in to provide emergency grants, you know, for people that were not able to get support from the federal government. And so so we had a step into that.

And now we're moving out from that work. And we're actually recognizing that in order to help people build their financial lives further, you know, it is about focusing on their immigration status and their small business.

And so we're actually developing a new product related to helping street vendors, helping them with microloans and helping them also to try to get, you know, certification, licenses and so forth, so that they can formalize their operation by really focusing on the street vendors, either food or whatever it is that they're doing. And then do that at scale.

So that's how we're trying to lean in to 2024, because it's going to be it's going to be a hard year, you know, fundraising-wise is going to be hard here. A lot of uncertainty, you know, in the world, you know, but at the end of the day, people still need to carry out their operations. And we want to be there for them in the way that that means something.

Samantha: So not to take us off track. But I love that idea. It's really cool. Yeah, that's that's very cool. All right. So street vendors and then loans and street vendors very good.

Administrator Guzman, how do you think about 2024? Big year for you!

Administrator Guzman: It's been the same ever since I took this role as well, because, you know, President Biden likes to define American one word, possibilities. And I do think that's so true, especially because we are talking about a small business boom right now. There's been more than 15 million new business applications filed since the president took office was the top of the first top year, second top year and going on the third top year for entrepreneurship for as long as we've been tracking that.

And you know that there is high propensity businesses under that, meaning businesses that are going to create jobs as well. A third of those are those high propensity businesses. And now that's across every industry, in every geography. So it's really just such an enormous amount of hope out there. People out there solving problems, great ideas, finally rolling up their sleeves to achieve their American dream. And so with all that energy and activity, I have incredible hope on top of the great investment that our established businesses are have been taking advantage of as well.

And you're going to start to see those dollars turn into shovels and dirt and projects and, you know, real jobs created and, you know, the manufacturing that is already coming back. There's been nearly a trillion dollars in private investment as well, matched to the historic investments that we've made in innovation.

So I'm just incredibly hopeful for what these entrepreneurs are going to deliver for our country and really take America to a whole nother level in terms of our global competitiveness, our global competitiveness. And, you know, I know that at the SBA, we just want to ready and make sure that we're channeling the whole of government to support our small businesses and our entrepreneurs so that they can be successful.

And I do think I just have enormous respect for the entrepreneurs who they do all the hard work. They come up with the hard ideas, they're testing them in the marketplace and living them every single day, wearing multiple hats, being that someone who's responsible financially for their employees, you know, HR hat, marketing hat, trying to understand new technology and adopt, you know, maybe going to new markets abroad, all of those are just enormously challenging feats that you have to accomplish.

And I saw it with my dad every day. I saw it in my own businesses. And you really you know, we want to make sure that we're there in 2024 to support you with resources, with capital. If you need funding, with ideas for revenue growth, ideas to strengthen your business with great tools to the Small Business Digital Alliance. And so I'm very hopeful and glad to see the type of economic data that's coming out to create more certainty. And we even see a shift in confidence across the board. So that is good news for the U.S. and good news for those new entrepreneurs.

Samantha: I agree with you. I'm very positive on the U.S. in particular, I think this year I think it's going to be good year.

Thank you so much to both of you for joining us. Greatly appreciate it. Thank you.