Dec 6, 2020 · 26m · top-founders
FundThrough Hits $240m in Invoices Advanced to 2k+ Founders
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this interview, Nathan Latka speaks with FundThrough co-founder and CEO Steven Uster about transforming traditional invoice factoring into a seamless fintech platform, scaling annual advances past $240 million, and optimizing capital structures to drive sustainable growth.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 41.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 6.4 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.3 Nathan pushing back 3.3
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 23:57 Refusing Kabbage acquisition framing
When Latka asks whether FundThrough is currently raising capital or looking to sell to Kabbage, Steven firmly rejects the premise, countering that one day FundThrough will buy Kabbage instead.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 18:50 Pushing for cheaper prime bank debtLatka challenges Steven directly on why he continues paying an 11% debt rate with a $100M loan tape instead of securing prime plus one or two from institutional banks like SVB.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 19:10 Advance rate mechanics vs bank facilitiesSteven breaks down why a seemingly expensive debt facility with a 100% advance rate preserves dilutive equity compared to a cheaper bank facility that requires a 10-20% equity backstop.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 5:21 Deconstructing invoice advance effective APRLatka showcases deep domain knowledge of alternative financing by computing the annualized 6% effective cost of a 60-day invoice advance and positioning it against alternative debt structures.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preview of FundThrough Growth and Volume Projections | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Latka immediately frames the invoice financing business model through cost-of-capital spread and sets up a hypothetical SaaS role-play. Steven politely clarifies that their core target customer base extends well beyond pure SaaS to general product and service vendors. | |
| Mechanics of Invoice Financing and Fee Structure | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Latka performs mental math calculating the effective APR of an invoice advance and compares FundThrough to players like Clearbanc, Espresso, and SaaS Capital. Steven distinguishes FundThrough by explaining that advancing verified receivables carries completely different repayment dynamics than traditional debt. | |
| Origin Story and Early Factoring Experiments | 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Latka probes into the five-year gap between Steven leaving Centerview and founding FundThrough, reframing Steven's early debt structure as an 80/20 GP syndication model. Steven agrees with the sophisticated reframing while candidly admitting he had to learn factoring from scratch. | |
| FundThrough Launch and Rapid Growth Trajectory | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Steven shares the anecdote of their first $300k advance for a Walmart supplier at an annualized 36% rate. Latka quickly pivots from the single transaction narrative to extract aggregate annual origination numbers, calculating $180M in 2018 volume. | |
| Mid-Roll Sponsor Segment for Fiverr Freelance Marketplace | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | After an ad read, Latka explores FundThrough's capitalization history, verifying seed round valuations and tracking how the company compressed debt costs from 15% down to 11% with institutional lenders. | |
| Advance Rates, Warehouse Lines, and Operating Burn | 8 | 6 | 2 | 5 | Latka pushes Steven on why FundThrough does not use prime bank warehouse facilities given their $100M track record. Steven educates Latka on advance rates, showing that a 100% advance rate debt line without an equity haircut is more capital efficient than a lower-rate bank line requiring equity backing. | |
| Team Composition, Inbound Sales, and Unit Economics | 6 | 3 | 2 | 4 | Latka drills into sales efficiency, CAC, LTV multiples, and upcoming fundraise targets while challenging Steven on whether the market will value FundThrough as a SaaS business or a lender. Steven humorously rejects the idea of selling to Kabbage. | |
| Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions with Steven Uster | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Latka runs through the Famous Five rapid-fire questionnaire and closes the interview with a concise, numbers-dense summary of FundThrough's capital trajectory and growth metrics. |
Statements from this episode (14)
FundThrough client invoice volumes range from $500 to $10 million
“We have folks on our platform who have actually ten million dollars outstanding. That wouldn't be one invoice. That would be, you know, a lot of different invoices. On the low end, we actually have folks on our platform who have 500 dollars. And these are just…”
FundThrough charges 1% to 2% monthly on invoice advances
“It's typically somewhere in the range of one to two percent a month or one and a half to two percent a month.”
Uster: Invoice funding is cheaper than early customer payment discounts
“It is cheaper than giving a discount to your customer to getting paid early.”
Uster: Early invoice advances were financed at 15% interest or profit shares
“At the time, the debt, well, with no track record and no history I was paying 15%. And for, at some point it was 15%, and for others, it was just a sort of a profit, it was debt, but it was a profit share of what I made by advancing that.”
Uster: FundThrough's First Advance Was $300,000 for a Walmart Order
“When we launched fund through the very first advance that we made Was a 300,000 dollar advance to a guy who was selling to Walmart and had never sold anything before.”
FundThrough averaged $15 million monthly in invoice advances in 2018
“So now we're last year in 2018, we were doing about fifteen million dollars a month. In advances.”
FundThrough has raised about $15 million in total equity
“So all in, we've raised about fifteen million dollars in equity you know, going from angel seed rounds or seed extension to a seared A and so, and that's been primarily through local Canadian VC firms and high net worth individuals sort of angels call it.”
FundThrough was valued at about $8 million post-money in 2015
“On that first round the post money valuation was about eight million dollars.”
Uster: FundThrough has lowered its cost of debt to single digits
“And now we're, we finally got it into single digits and you know, we have to keep, as you say, keep driving it down.”
Uster: FundThrough operates with a 100% debt advance rate
“The beauty of a model that we have right now is that we have a hundred percent advance rate. So our cost of debt is actually our total cost of capital.”
FundThrough burns a couple hundred thousand dollars per month
“A couple of, a couple 100,000 dollars a month.”
FundThrough claims an LTV to CAC ratio of 7x to 9x
“What we'd say is our ratio of LTV to CAC has been quite strong. You know, somewhere in the range of seven to nine.”
FundThrough evaluates raising $18 million to $50 million in equity capital
“I mean, we're doing some, what if scenarios actually right now about what we would do with the capital. And it could be anywhere from 18 to 50, you know, depending on where we see that use of capital and the dilution that is associated with it.”