If you’ve read anything I’ve written before, you already know how I feel about brokers: they’re middlemen living on borrowed time.
So let’s say you take the advice, skip the broker, and go straight to a lender like OnDeck, Kapitus, or Mulligan Funding. Smart move. You just saved yourself 8–12% in hidden commissions.
But once you start comparison-shopping, you’ll notice something strange: there isn’t much to compare.
Fintech “Transparency” Is Mostly a Marketing Word
For an industry that calls itself tech-driven and data-obsessed, small-business lending is shockingly opaque.
Visit ten lender websites and you’ll see the same formula:
- A big range: “$5,000 to $500,000.”
- Some soft-focus talk about “speed” and “simplicity.”
- A checklist of minimums — 1 year in business, 600 FICO, $100K annual revenue.
And that’s it.
No word on typical approval odds by credit tier.
No clue what percentage of revenue they’ll actually approve.
No average repayment factors, term lengths, or true costs.
Nothing about renewal behavior or default rates.
All the information a rational borrower would want before applying is conveniently missing.
You’ll Learn More from a Sales Rep—Which Should Worry You
If you call one of these lenders, a rep will usually tell you more: what terms they usually offer, what “most businesses like yours” qualify for, maybe even a ballpark payment estimate.
But ask yourself—why isn’t any of that public?
It’s 2025. You can compare mortgages, auto loans, and even pet insurance online. Yet small-business lenders still act like their pricing data is classified.
Why Lenders Hide the Details
This isn’t an oversight. It’s a strategy.
If lenders published real average approval amounts, repayment factors, and effective costs, borrowers could actually compare them side-by-side. Competition would tighten, margins would shrink, and the truth about pricing spreads would be harder to disguise.
So fintech lenders took a page from their old broker partners: keep the borrower guessing until they’re already deep in the funnel. Once you’ve uploaded your bank statements and synced your data, you’re less likely to walk away.
The result? A “direct” experience that still runs on information asymmetry—just without the middleman.
The New Myth: Speed Beats Comparison
Brokers sold the myth that they “get lenders to compete for your business.”
Fintech lenders replaced it with a new one: that speed is all that matters. “Apply in minutes. Get funded in hours.”
But speed isn’t transparency. It’s just a different way of controlling the narrative. When you can’t easily compare pricing or structure, fast starts to look like fair.
We’re Still Firm Believers in Going Direct — But With Eyes Open
At BrokerFreeCapital, we’re still firmly in the go-direct camp.
Cutting out the broker saves you money and keeps you in control.
Big caveat: that only makes sense if borrowing makes sense to begin with. If your business is losing money, or you already have stacked debt, borrowing again is just rearranging deck chairs.
But if funding does make sense, you deserve to know what you’re walking into before you hit “Apply.”
That’s exactly why we built Diogenes — a no-nonsense, honest-to-a-fault funding advisor that tells you what brokers and lenders won’t. No sugarcoating, no hidden fees, no fast-talking.
Diogenes helps you figure out:
- Whether borrowing is even the right move.
- Which types of funding you actually qualify for.
- What the real tradeoffs are — warts and all.
Because the truth is, an honest advisor will save you more time and money than any “instant approval” button ever will.
Final Thought
Brokers used to sell you the illusion of choice.
Fintech lenders now sell you the illusion of speed.
What you actually need is clarity — and that’s what Diogenes exists to deliver.