Rick Rodrigues

Pagaya $PGY Announces $720M POS Funding Agreement With Sound Point. The POS vertical is a huge growth area for $PGY, and this agreement will help them issue billions in loans. Reminder that POS loans have very short durations, so they can be cycled many times in a year.

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Excited to share that Copec WIND Ventures has invested in Remitee, which just raised $20M to revolutionize the $150B+ remittance market through embedded finance. Remitee is helping banks, fintechs, and retailers embed instant, low-cost cross-border payments directly into their platforms, transforming remittances into a seamless part of everyday digital banking. We’re proud to back Sergio Saravia and team alongside Krealo, Soma Capital, Redwood Ventures, Latitud, and Algorand Foundation, as Remitee scales across LatAm, the U.S. and Europe. 💡 Achieved profitability in 2024 📈 Quadrupled transaction volume 🏦 Trusted by Santander, Credicorp, Remitly, and now COPEC S.A. 📰 Read more from Ryan Lawler with Axios here ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/g9YWG-Pc

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Had a great conversation with Adam O'Donnell on The Founder Initiative. We went deep on Baubap, the challenges, the growth, and the values we refuse to compromise on. Especially when it comes to treating people with respect, even if they’re late on a payment. We also talked about how we think about the customer journey on both sides of repayment and why we don’t use harassment, threats, or intimidation. Ever. Thanks for having me, Adam!

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**Looking at sub-$1M EBITDA deals? Don't make this financing mistake** I often hear from buyers chasing $500K EBITDA businesses while simultaneously trying to avoid SBA financing. Let me save you a lot of wasted time & effort. If your target company is doing under $1M in EBITDA, and you're eligible for SBA loans, structure your deal around SBA guidelines from day one. Not as a backup plan. Not as "option B." As your primary strategy. Why? Your alternatives are pretty grim: 💰 Conventional bank debt usually won't touch deals this small (many have $5M+ minimums) 💰 Alternative lenders will charge you 15-18%+ interest rates 💰 Those same expensive lenders? They'll often still want a personal guarantee anyway So you end up with onerous terms to get the same personal exposure you'd have with an SBA loan at 8-9%. That's not financial engineering, that's just expensive. The only real exceptions are buyers who literally can't use SBA financing (non-citizens without green cards, or businesses that don't qualify under SBA rules). If that's you, then yes, explore alternatives. But for everyone else? Stop trying to outsmart the system. The SBA 7(a) program exists precisely for deals this size. It's designed for it. Use it.

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Miami’s startup ecosystem isn’t just growing, it’s compounding. Last week, I attended the Miami Startup Ecosystem Conference hosted by Denis Hiller and his team at 1001 VC. Denis has quietly built something special here: not just an event, but a true collision point for founders, operators, and investors shaping the next phase of Miami’s tech economy. The speaker lineup reflected how far this ecosystem has matured. Conversations spanned Agentic AI, venture capital evolution, GTM strategy, robotics, legal tech, and the increasingly critical Miami ↔ Silicon Valley bridge. These weren’t theoretical panels, they were operator-level discussions grounded in real company-building experience. But as with most great conferences, the real value wasn’t on stage. It was in the reconnections and new introductions. Great catching up with former colleagues Thomas Harrington and Byron Georgiou, people you’ve been in the trenches with who understand the realities behind the highlight reel. I had the opportunity to meet Robert Bruny, Founder and CEO of Schedulesite, who’s building in the event scheduling space, and Jason Cohen, CEO of MyBundle, who’s shaping the streaming and consumer platform space, and Vik Rubenfeld, Founder of BigFishGTM, who’s building real-time market intelligence tools for modern sales teams. It was also great connecting with Robert Loredo, whose deep background in enterprise technology and quantum computing reflects the caliber of operators continuing to anchor Miami’s growth, Adriana Kligman, who’s pioneering cross-border AI-driven growth strategies spanning Sydney, Miami, and Panama, and Jennifer Bramley, whose work in strategic communications and storytelling highlights the increasingly important role narratives play in scaling companies. And to everyone else I connected with throughout the day, the operators grinding through scaling challenges, the investors deploying thoughtful capital, the builders solving problems most people don’t see yet - thank you. These conversations are what make events like this matter. The ecosystem is stronger because of the collective energy and generosity in that room. Miami is no longer an “emerging” tech hub, it’s an active one. The density of talent, capital, and ambition is now undeniable. Big credit to Denis for continuing to convene the right people and accelerating the flywheel. The future here is being built in rooms like this. #MiamiTech #MiamiStartups #StartupEcosystem #VentureCapital #Founders #TechMiami #MiamiVC #StartupLife #FounderJourney #TechHub #AgenticAI #GTMStrategy #1001VC

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