Legacy SMBs struggle because their tech stacks haven't adapted since 1995
Sahil Phadnis · TechCrunch called this YC founder a fraud at 18—then he built a $10M ARR fintech. | Sahil Phadnis... · PMF Show · Sep 8, 2025 · at 33:21
Sahil Phadnis, co-founder of Affiniti, explains the market research and core thesis that led them to build B2B fintech tools for legacy small businesses.
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“Old industry Small businesses seem to be hurting the most in today's economy. And why do I emphasize old industry? It's because like, I'm not talking about drop shipping businesses or blank street coffee in Tribeca or sweet greens, the franchise owner. Like I'm talking about Joe Schmo who started an independent pharmacy in the little rock, Arkansas in. And he passed it on to a daughter or son and now they're running it. And now they passed it on to their offspring. And they're running, it's a third generation family ran business that does twelve million dollars of revenue. It's that business. It's the dentist who started in 95. It's that business. Those businesses seemed to hurt the most. Why? Because the stacks they started their businesses with never adapted. So the same payroll they used, the same card, the same bank account, the same software providers, The same POS system. Nothing changed from 95 to twenty-twenty-five.”
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“Look, we straight up collected 25,000 dollars in 24 hours. We returned 12% within a week. Returned all the capital. Look, everyone was made whole and even more than their principal.”
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