Insights & Resources

Expert perspectives on SBA lending, business acquisitions, lending technology, and strategies for growth — from the team building the future of small business financing.

Insights

The New $10 Million SBA Ceiling: How the 7(a) + 504 Stacking Rule Actually Works

For fifteen years, small business borrowers who needed more than $5 million in SBA-backed financing hit the same wall. The 7(a) loan cap has sat at $5 million since 2010, and the way the agency counted a borrower’s combined program exposure meant that ceiling applied across the board. Deals that needed $6, $8, or $10 million went […]

Matt Craig July 8, 2026

6 min read

Insights

Buying an Existing Business Is the Safest SBA Loan. The Numbers Prove It.

Ask most SBA lenders which loan type carries the least risk and you’ll get a range of answers — usually built on intuition, experience, or anecdote. The data from 373,981 SBA 7(a) loans funded between FY2020 and FY2025 gives a more definitive answer: change-of-ownership loans, used to buy an existing business, have the lowest charge-off rate of any major […]

Matt Craig May 20, 2026

7 min read

Insights

Size Matters: What 371,156 SBA Loans Tell Us About Credit Risk

There is a persistent assumption in bank lending circles that small SBA loans are the safe ones — approachable deal sizes, familiar borrower profiles, lower dollar exposure if something goes wrong. The data, analyzed across 371,156 SBA 7(a) loans funded between FY2020 and FY2025, tells a more complicated story. Charge-off risk in the 7(a) program […]

Matt Craig May 13, 2026

6 min read

Insights

Half the SBA 7(a) Market Is Controlled by 20 Lenders. The Data Shows Why That Gap Is Growing.

The SBA’s annual lending data tells a clear story to those willing to read it carefully. Strip out the noise from the pandemic-era programs — PPP, COVID EIDL — and what you’re left with in the core 7(a) program is a market that is growing, concentrating rapidly in the hands of a small number of […]

Matt Craig May 5, 2026

10 min read

Insights

SBA 7(a) Loans and ESOPs: Why Employee Ownership Just Got a Lot More Accessible

For decades, employee stock ownership plans have been one of the most powerful — and most underutilized — tools for business succession, employee retention, and tax-advantaged ownership transitions. The concept is straightforward: instead of selling your business to a competitor or a private equity firm, you sell it to your employees through a trust. They […]

Chris Hurn April 24, 2026

9 min read

Insights

Navigating the SBA’s Regulatory Shakeup: What Lenders, Brokers, and Borrowers Need to Know Right Now

If you’re a lender, broker, or borrower involved in SBA lending and you feel like the ground has been shifting under your feet for the past year, you’re not imagining it. Between June 2025 and March 2026, the SBA issued a series of sweeping changes to the SOP 50 10 8 that have fundamentally altered […]

Chris Hurn March 31, 2026

11 min read

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