See Pitch Deck a Fintech startup used to raise $10 million

• Rodney Williams co-founded SoLo Funds, a marketplace where consumers can borrow from each other.
• Users can borrow up to $1,000 each time, and they have the ability to tip the lender and SoLo funds.
• In their pitch deck, the team emphasizes the relatable problem and how their solution is different.

In 2015, Rodney Williams and Travis Holoway realized after a visit to see family and friends that people living on tight budgets had nowhere to turn for emergency funds. The entrepreneurs decided to launch SoLo Funds, a fintech marketplace that allows consumers to lend and borrow from each other, to solve this problem.

At the time, Williams was CEO and co-founder of Bluetooth alternative LISNR, and Holoway was director of training and development at Northwestern Mutual. Jarrel Carter, who focuses on strategic partnerships, and Taylor Conophy, who oversees design, joined the team. They met in William’s office at 18.00, had dinner together and brainstormed ideas until 11 p.m.

They landed on an app where someone could borrow between 50 and 1,000 dollars from another person in the United States. “The transaction is not between the people and SoLo Funds. It is between Mike from Idaho and Tommy from Texas,” Williams told Insider.

The borrower has up to 35 days to repay the interest-free loan with the option of paying two fees – an administrative donation to SoLo Funds and a tip to the lender – or they can choose to pay no fees and borrow the money for free. SoLo Funds only makes a profit when the administration donation is added to the transaction.

Because the borrowed funds are meant to help cover emergency bills, the entire experience needs to be quick. “A user can submit a request on our platform and get funding in less than 15 minutes,” Williams said. “We don’t approve or deny. Anyone with a bank account can register and make a request.” Each borrower is given a SoLo Score, which is based on their banking history.

SoLo Funds officially launched in 2017, and Holoway quit her job that March to work on it full-time, while Williams remained at LISNR. They signed up for accelerators in Ohio and Kansas so they could grow their plans and make connections. In Ohio, Seth Metcalfe, the former Ohio deputy governor who became one of the company’s advisors, mentored them, and Techstar’s Kansas City accelerator helped them refine their pitch deck.

Mentors at the accelerators told them their slides should address problems, solutions, market opportunities and traction, and show their team. “We used that template to show how people could relate to the problem and see how our solution was different,” Williams said. “My favorite slide is the graphically led ‘Borrower Request’ slide. It shows how simple SoLo Fund’s design is, how borrowers are in control, and how they set their own terms.”

Through word of mouth, SoLo Funds began to catch the attention of the fintech community in California, so with potential new employees in mind, they established a home base in Los Angeles. The team launched its pre-seed round in 2017 and raised $1.2 million.

Williams stepped down from running LISNR in September 2018 and became more involved with SoLo Funds. Holoway and Williams did not take a salary for several months and covered the salaries of others with their own finances. “It was very difficult to continue operating through it, but we pulled through,” Williams said.

In 2019, entrepreneur and investor Richelieu Dennis asked his team to scour the US for worthy brands to invest in. After meeting the SoLo Funds team, he invested $1.6 million.

The raise meant they had to revise the pitch deck they used for their pre-seed round, because the influx of funds gave them the ability to add new features to the app, such as lender protection, which is insurance against non-payment. They also increased the number of employees.

Williams had fundraising experience from his previous company, but he said raising money for a financial startup turned out to be much more difficult, especially when that company wanted to give people the ability to borrow money for free.

Instead of targeting any VC that might be interested, the SoLo Funds team decided to focus on investors like Dennis who wanted to help solve social problems. “This step was instrumental in getting Impact America as an investor,” Williams said. In February 2021, they closed a Series A raise of $10 million from investors such as ACME Capital and Impact America.

SoLo Funds now has more than 100 employees and is a registered B Corp. It has won numerous awards, including the Visa Everywhere Initiative award twice.

Here’s the original pitch deck the team used to raise a $1.2 million pre-seed round, which led to raising $10 million in January 2021.