When a deal doesn’t go through, most lenders move on.
At Irving Fund, we lean in.
Every decline, every bank deposit we see hit a client’s account from another SBA lender—we treat that as an opportunity. A signal. A breadcrumb worth following.
We don’t just analyze the loss. We reverse-engineer it.
We call the bank. We profile the lender. We ask: Why did this deal get done elsewhere? What was the edge? Then we ask the harder question: Should we be working with this bank, too?
That obsessive approach is exactly why we’ve just added several new SBA lenders to our national network for Q3 2025. Each one was vetted, tested, and invited to fill a specific gap we saw in our ecosystem. And each one plays a critical role in making sure that creditworthy borrowers—even those turned away elsewhere—have a shot at long-term, flexible capital.
Turning Losses Into Leverage
Let’s be real: not every SBA loan submission ends in a win.
There are deals we think should get approved but don’t. There are borrowers we believe in who don’t quite fit the mold for the bank we sent them to. And every so often, a client goes quiet—only to surface later with a deposit from a different lender.
When that happens, we don’t sulk. We investigate.
A surprising number of our best lender relationships started this way. A deal that slipped through our fingers turned into insight. And that insight turned into action. We learned where other lenders were outperforming, and we built new bridges as a result.
One of our senior funding managers, Dylan Gordon, explains it best: “I spend at least an hour a day talking to SBA business development reps across the country. It’s not just about sending files. It’s about understanding how they think, what they like, what makes them different—and using that intel to help our clients win."
That mindset is embedded in our culture. Everyone on the team knows: if we lose a deal, we treat it as a signal to get sharper, not just a reason to move on.
Constant Calibration
There’s no shortage of lenders offering SBA loans. The difference is knowing who’s actually lending right now, and under what conditions.
That’s where most brokers fall flat. They rely on outdated information or mass-email blasts hoping something sticks. We take the opposite approach.
We gather intelligence in real time. We test. We ask questions. We track who’s approving what—and why. Every time we get an approval, we take notes. Every time we get a decline, we take better notes.
Over time, that adds up to a system that learns.
By the time a new lender enters our ecosystem, we know what they want, what they avoid, and how to frame the story in a way that gets our clients across the finish line.
Better Outcomes for Borrowers
Here’s the bottom line: SBA loans are too important to leave to chance.
When you work with Irving Fund, you’re not getting guesswork. You’re getting precision. Whether you’re applying for the first time or you’ve been turned down before, we’re working constantly behind the scenes to increase your odds.
Our expanded lender network means:
- More specialized matches
- Better fit based on credit profile, geography, or industry
- Higher conversion rates
- Faster time to funding
And above all: a smarter, more strategic lending experience.
We’re not here to blast applications across the internet and hope something sticks. We’re here to craft the right story, deliver it to the right partner, and help you secure capital on terms that work.
That’s what we do. And we’re getting better at it every quarter.
