What we talked about
Ray Smith: Ray grew up on a 3500 acre dairy farm in South Dakota, where hard work, community, and resilience were daily lessons. That early exposure to uncertainty, like storms wiping out crops after months of effort, shaped his drive for a more predictable path and pushed him toward entrepreneurship. He started young, selling long distance phone service at 18, then moved into subprime credit card processing in Las Vegas, building a call center operation that reached about 65 employees.
Show notes
Ray Smith discovered a structural trap sitting at the center of American small business finance: 80 to 90 percent of business creditors do not report to the three business credit bureaus, yet every lender pulls those bureau reports before approving a loan. The result is that most business owners have no credit file, get denied without explanation, and fall back on their personal credit, which is five to ten times weaker than business credit could be.
What we covered
- The core problem Ray built Tricera Financial to solve is that the business credit system is opaque by design, lenders use AI to scan public databases for consistency across a business’s address, phone, email, website, Secretary of State filing, Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, Equifax Business, IRS records, bank account, and merchant account, and an automatic denial fires the moment any of those fields mismatch. Most business owners never find out why they were rejected.
- Ray’s “fundability foundation platform” pre-checks all of those data points in real time against what lenders are actually looking for, fixes what’s missing, and then submits to lenders only when approval is already predictable, turning a guessing game into a known outcome.
- He described an entrepreneur in Chicago whose fiancee had just died three weeks before they spoke. Ray is helping him set up an LLC called ChiTown Polish and Dogs and build business credit so he has $50,000 to $75,000 in working capital by May, using his EIN number rather than a social security number so the business credit profile starts clean.
- Ray told a panel story alongside his mentor Kevin Harrington, the original Shark Tank investor, where he told a room of entrepreneurs and accredited investors that the check made out to their company is really an investment in the founder personally, and that investors are specifically asking themselves whether that founder will come back and tell the truth when the dark days arrive. The entrepreneur who won the investment prize that night was the one who took that message most seriously.
- His advice about investors’ money reframes the stakes: if you earn $100,000 a year and save 10% after taxes, $100,000 in investment capital represents ten years of saving. The investor is not risking $100,000, they are risking a decade of their working life. He uses this framing to hold business owners accountable for how they treat that money.
- Kevin Harrington became Ray’s mentor after they connected in 2015, and Ray credits that relationship with teaching him the value of surrounding yourself with people who are further along than you, not friends and family, who instinctively protect you from the risks that might actually make you successful.
About Ray
Ray Smith is the President and CEO of Tricera Financial, which he has led since 2009. He built the company around helping entrepreneurs establish and grow business credit using their EIN number, separating business funding from personal credit and guiding founders from startup to traditional lending and investor capital.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-smith-95130516
- Website: http://www.trycera.com
Episode 114 of the PreVetted Podcast.
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:00) Welcome back to the pre-vered podcast where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Today we are joined by Ray Smith, his president and CEO of Tricera Financial, where he has led the company since 2009. Ray brings deep experience in new business development, mobile payments and product development. And he has also served as president of
CRS Corporation. Ray, we are honored to have you here today.
Ray Smith - Trycera (00:33) Thank you very much. It’s so great to be here.
Federico Ramallo (00:36) Awesome. I think we’re going to have a very interesting conversation. So what problem made you want to build in financial services?
Ray Smith - Trycera (00:45) Well, I grew up on a dairy farm in South Dakota and it was 3,500 acres and we were taught a couple things. One, how to work and two, how to work together in the community and we all helped each other. But it’s very hard work on the farm and you have a lot of uncertainties with nature and I wanted to have something more financially stable because I saw how hard my mom and dad worked on the farm.
and then we would plant crops in the spring and then a hailstorm would come through in the fall and wipe it all out. And I wanted something more predictable financially so I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
And so I got into the entrepreneur world at a very young age at 18. I started selling long distance phone service. And then from when I turned 26, I actually moved to Las Vegas and we had a call center and we process credit card applications for people with bad credit. And this was before, you know, social media, before cell phones, before do not call laws and all that stuff. And so we would get lists of people that
had bad credit and we would call them up because we had a bank out of Chicago and then we would offer them an unsecured credit card and then we would help them grow into that. And so from 98 to 2004 we had 65 employees on the phone.
boom in business and then overnight it all changed. The bank was owned by two brothers, one passed away and the other one wanted to sell the bank and they closed down the subprime division and so overnight we were out of business and it was December the 13th, Friday the 13th and I had to stand in front of 60 some employees and tell them we don’t have a job and you need to go to a program, you don’t have a job and you need to go
take care of your families. And so it was really rough learning all these hard lessons in life. But because of growing up on the farm and having that grit and tenacity, we were able to muscle through that. So here we had a database of people with bad credit and no credit card offer. And I was introduced to credit repair. And so we started contacting these people.
and marketing our credit repair service.
which was removing the negatives off of their credit report so that they could function in society again and reestablish themselves. And then along this life’s journey in 2007, 2008, I come across a company and not only were we able to remove negatives, but we were also able to add positives because people pay their rent, their utilities, cell phone, gas, water, electric.
and those items don’t get reported to the bureaus, but that’s the majority of people’s payments. And so we came across, I designed a process and then I filed for patent protection on how to get those items reported to the bureaus.
I was introduced to a company, Tricera Financial, that was in the prepaid debit card space and that’s how we were using that prepaid debit card to track the payments and then report it to the bureaus.
And they did some restructuring at Tricera. So in February of 2009, because of what I was bringing to the table in the credit space, they appointed me president and CEO of Tricera. So I have been the president and CEO of Tricera since February of 2009. And that’s how this whole journey started.
And then being in the consumer credit and learning how the credit bureaus work and the banks work and everything in 2020 when COVID hit.
It really shattered everything because people didn’t care about their personal credit and business owners were struggling just to stay alive because they put their heart and soul into their business and it reminded me of growing up on the dairy farm of having that hailstorm come through and wipe it out, no control. And these business owners had to shut their business down for months and try to hold it together. Employees calling, I had employees calling, where do we get
toilet paper. It was the craziest thing. There’s no daycare. I don’t want to lose my job. I’m not an essential worker and I’m like, well, what the heck is an essential worker? And so through all this grit and this journey and stuff, we transitioned to business credit to help these business owners access credit so that they can fund their businesses properly. And that’s what we do today is we take a business
We find out where they’re at and then we start building business credit on using their EIN number. And you can do a Google search and find business credit, but there’s really no concise place to come to learn about business credit and how the lenders, what they require and how they operate with the bureaus.
And then just to continue on that subject, there’s three bureaus. There’s Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Business. And so how, I don’t want to say corrupt, but jacked up this business credit world is 80 to 90 % of business creditors don’t report to the bureaus.
but they all pull the bureau report to see what your credit file is. business owners don’t have a file because they have business creditors that don’t report. And so then they’ll require a personal guarantee. And that’s where the trap is for the entrepreneur. And so what we’ve done is we’ve created this fundability foundation platform.
We have lenders tied into it. We know in real time what their requirements are. And so we take the business owner and plug their business profile into the platform. And then we go through this foundation checklist where we verify their address, their business phone number, their business email, their website. And then we make sure that that’s reported exactly at the same at the Secretary of State at Dun & Bradstreet.
Experian business, Equifax business, the IRS, the bank account and the merchant account. Because what lenders are doing now is they’re using AI to go out to public databases and pull this in and if there’s a mismatch the system automatically denies the business owner. They have no knowledge of why they were denied and then they say screw it I’ll just finance it on my personal credit.
business credit is five to ten times more powerful than their personal credit so they’re really strangling their business by using their personal credit and so that’s why we put together this program and I know that’s a long drawn out answer but I wanted to take your viewers through this journey of how unknown this business credit system is but how finite it is because it’s a computer system
The bureaus and the banks are ones and zeros, and that’s all they’re looking for.
Federico Ramallo (07:35) Wow, amazing. Too much, a lot of things to unpack, but let me start by saying that I think it’s amazing that you were able to reinvent yourself and your company through difficult times, right? You use the word grit and I think that’s a great way to describe it. And it is in the, I mean,
In hindsight, know, all of these, you know, all of decisions kind of make sense, right. But, you know, you know the story about Napoleon, right. He went through, you know, he went to a war and then a lot of the soldiers died in the process, right. He arrived with very few soldiers, right. So in hindsight, his decision was incorrect, right.
But at that time, we make decisions that we make based on the limited information that we have, right? And it requires a lot of courage to make the decision that you made to reinvent yourselves, to find going from, you know, from your farm, your parents’ farm to getting into finance. was at that point an unknown war for you, right? So I wanted to highlight that first. And I think that’s…
important for the people to know, right? Then the other thing I wanted to mention is the, you know, your business acumen to, you know, reinvent your company, right, which is drawn by by your personal journey, right? I think that that’s important. I think that there are two, who is a better captain, right? The one that avoided the storm or the one that went through it, right?
So what happens when you cannot avoid it, right? So you do the best to avoid it, right? But then when you had to go through it, you know, that’s when you prove yourself, right? So I think it’s a very interesting and inspiring personal journey.
Ray Smith - Trycera (09:26) Yeah, and your viewers, they go through personal hard times and business hard times and sometimes it’s just life that happens. Like I talked to this entrepreneur the other day, he’s in Chicago and his fiance passed away three weeks ago.
and he’s devastated right now and he said you know it was our dream and he wants to have this food vendor cart and sell polish dogs and hot dogs and so I’m helping him set up his LLC which is ChiTown polish and dogs and we’re going to start building business credit and he’s going to have 50 to 75 thousand dollars of working capital by May
Federico Ramallo (09:43) ⁓
Ray Smith - Trycera (10:06) And just because he contacted us, we’re making his dream come true, but he’s got to have courage and grit because he just had a life traumatic situation happened with him. And so, you know, I just want to emphasize that people don’t make mistakes. They make decisions based on the information that we have at the moment.
Then we go through a period of time gathering more information and looking at the results of that decision. And then we pause and then we reevaluate and make another decision to keep moving forward. And so if you have business owners watching this, you’re not making mistakes. You’re testing. You got to test. And you’re going to get all this feedback. don’t do that. I wouldn’t do that.
have they done it? Who’s given you that advice? And along this journey, I want to just say in 2015, I was introduced to Kevin Harrington, the original shark from Shark Tank and the inventor of the infomercial. He did the Gintu knife, OxyClean, George Foreman grill.
and we just clicked and he’s been my mentor and one of the biggest things that business owners need is a dream team. You need somebody that’s been through those rough patches, those rough storms to help guide you as you go through it because we don’t have time to make all the mistakes ourselves. We gotta learn from others and that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve…
amassed through this journey is just knowledge and wisdom and the thing always goes back to the farm and having that grit because without that grit people stop and if I would have stopped we wouldn’t be here today and now I’m able to help thousands of entrepreneurs
Federico Ramallo (11:44) Right. Right. think that the, you know, we, we as founders hesitate ourselves or, you know, have tribulations on the decisions. Right. But I think it’s important to share with them that we all go through that. Right. I have a 10 year old and I explained to him, you know, when he’s afraid, you know, I explained to him that courage is not
not being afraid is being afraid and still deciding to move forward. And I think the same thing applies here.
Ray Smith - Trycera (12:16) 100 percent. We’re all scared, right? Because we’re taught, we can’t fail. We go to school, we get quizzes and tests, and if you don’t answer the question right, you fail. And we’re constantly told, you’re a failure. You’ve got to do everything perfect. Well, that’s how school teaches us. And then if we want to be a business owner…
It’s the total opposite. We gotta find success, successful business owners, successful systems, successful marketing, and copy it. But we’re told that copying gives you a failing grade. No, that’s in school. In business, you have to copy. And it’s scary.
And then who do you want to talk to? Well, your friends and family, because that’s who you trust. But that’s the wrong people to tell because they want to protect you. They don’t want to see you get hurt or see you fail. So they’re going to give you all this feedback that holds you back. And so that’s where the confusion is. And that’s where you really need.
group of mentors around you if you’re going to be a business owner that have been through some hard times that are where you want to be not where you’re at now you want people that are more successful than you and the thing that I found is successful people they want to give back
because the entrepreneur that’s up and coming is inspiring to them because they see themselves in that entrepreneur and it ignites this fire. And that’s what I see when I talk to these entrepreneurs also. Man, that was me 20 years ago.
Federico Ramallo (13:46) Right, right. I mean, I, I’ve been doing startups since I was 16. So now I’m 42. It’s been a long journey. And I, I feel that sometimes my level of energy goes down a little bit, right. As it compared to what it was on my twenties, right. And then I see these young entrepreneurs just
you know, eager to take risks, eager to do something right with without a north, right? They don’t know what to do or, you know, so, you know, and and I can see the patterns because I’ve been there. I’ve done that. So I I am having this, you know, intention of giving back as well and sharing my insights.
And I’m being able to help, you know, people with so much energy, right. And willing to do so much. Right. So I agree with you. It’s, it’s an amazing thing to be able to give back and help others.
Ray Smith - Trycera (14:42) Yeah, and that’s what we’ve been put on this planet for. You just talked about having a kid. Well, look what your parents instilled in you, and now you’re instilling that in your kids and you’re passing that on. And we do that in life. You know, our friends from college, our friends from elementary school, if you’re still connected, which I am still a lot, my elementary teacher, you know, all along this journey. it’s just…
It’s what we only get one ride on this rock, right? And it’s one journey. It’s our journey. And we just accumulate a lot of education and wisdom.
Federico Ramallo (15:08) Right.
Right, right. So you mentioned that you are helping younger founders. Are you doing that through Tricera Financial or are you coaching outside of Tricera Financial?
Ray Smith - Trycera (15:25) Nope, it’s all through Tricera. Tricera Financial. Yep. Yep.
Federico Ramallo (15:28) nice.
So it’s more than helping with credit scores. You’re also coaching them how to become better founders, right?
Ray Smith - Trycera (15:38) That’s correct because just listening to them, so every business has five areas. The accounting department, you got to know where your money is at. And then sales because you got to have money in order to have a business. Marketing to generate the sales. Management over every division and then legal and compliance. And so by just listening to the business owner,
and asking questions, you can figure out where they’re deficient in that. And then we want to bring them the three M’s, money, media, and marketing, because those are the three key components that will stabilize any business.
and the money is the hardest part to get and it’s a full-time job chasing money and that’s why we created this fundability foundation and we want to partner with the entrepreneurs and be their funding source not just today for that urgent matter that they have but let’s get you set up so that you can always have access to funding six months down the road 18 months 24 months
And so a startup like this hot dog stand company, they’re just getting their LLC started. But there’s other companies that have revenue, like 10, 20,000, 50,000 a month, which is another gentleman like I spoke to this morning. He’s doing about 40 to 50,000 a month in revenue now. And then during the summer, he’ll do 100 to 150, 200,000 a month in revenue.
And so during the crisis, there was these merchant cash advance loans where they took your monthly deposit for three months and averaged it. And they, it’s very high interest rate. So he stuck in one of those and now we’re going to help him get a traditional loan for 24 to 48 months, pay that off. So he’s not strangled with his revenue. And plus he has more money to operate.
for working capital and everything. And so those are two areas. And then the third area that we have working with Kevin Harrington, we teamed up with a brokerage firm where we contact accredited investors and we’ll raise anywhere from a million to a hundred million dollars for companies that are looking for investments. And so we can take from a startup, if you’re just getting incorporated, like the one example.
or get you funding traditional lenders, the middle, or the third one is to get you investors to invest in your company, your product and services so you can grow and scale it.
Federico Ramallo (18:09) Right, right. And the benefit of working directly with the founders is that you can see them in the eyes, see what they’re made of and being able to guide them, not only on the financials, but also how to become a better founder, right?
Ray Smith - Trycera (18:28) That’s right. And so like this company that we’re helping raise three million dollars for, we’re calling accredited investors. And the accredited investors, it’s called the great wealth transfer. And the silver tsunami or the silver haired…
baby boomers that are retiring are transferring their wealth to the golden age in America here. And there’s 68 trillion dollars of wealth being transferred from one generation to the other. Kind of like I was telling you, your parents passing it on to you and you passing it on to your kids. Well, that’s what’s happening right now. The baby boomers are retiring or selling their business and they’re transferring it to this new generation. And we want to be the funding sources right in that gap there. And so one of the
companies that we’re helping is we’re raising three million dollars and so on average an accredited investor will put in a hundred grand so we’re looking for 30 people to put a hundred grand in to this business and help them grow and scale. Well this round of funding he’s looking for three million dollars in 24 months he’s probably going to look for eight to ten million dollars.
Well, he’ll go back to those same 30 people and say, look, we’ve done this journey the last two years. I’m looking to raise $8 million. And on average, whatever they put in that first time, the second check will be five times bigger. So they’ll put in a half a million dollars. And so,
What we want to do is take a company and build its funding tribe, its financial tribe, its supporters.
And some people won’t want to invest. They’ll want to cash out and move on or retire or life changes or whatever. But that business is now getting stability because it has a group of financial supporters rather than just filling out an application, crossing your fingers and hoping the bank approves you. Right? And that’s what we want to take these people through this journey. And that’s how we function as a business.
Federico Ramallo (20:22) Right, right. you provide the guidance, provide the financial assistance. And if they’re, if they’re successful, you are successful as well.
Ray Smith - Trycera (20:32) Yes, and we’re asking all the questions because we’re representing both. We’re representing the business because we want to get them funding, but we also have an obligation for the accredited investors and to the banks because we don’t want to bring them somebody that’s going to take the hundred grand that just was invested and go to Vegas and gamble it. You know, we want to make sure that they have a management team that’s there. We want to make sure that they’re they have a business plan and a roadmap and
like you asking me where does my credibility come that I can talk with authority because of my life’s journey and being in this industry for 20-some years that gives me the authority well that’s what we want to know is that business owner do you have the authority because you’re looking for three million dollars did you just graduate school or know your 60-some you’ve been in this
industry for 30 years this is what you’ve done with other companies and now you’re doing it for yourself man that I want to be with this guy he’s got some wisdom that he’s amassed
Federico Ramallo (21:31) Right. You’re also de-risking the situation because you, you that that’s what I say before you’re, you’re doing a judge of character. You know, you’re, you’re evaluating the founder and guiding it, right. Advising, right. ⁓ Because at the end of the day, it’s their decisions, but, but you, can evaluate.
Ray Smith - Trycera (21:46) Yes.
Federico Ramallo (21:53) the level of risk of the business, the level of risk of the founder, and you can recommend, is this a good investment or not, right?
Ray Smith - Trycera (22:03) Right, so you mentioned prior that you drove through Santa Monica. So I was on a panel with Kevin Harrington and we did a fireside chat to this group of people and in the front was entrepreneurs and in the back was accredited investors. And the entrepreneurs had to pitch those investors, their company and their services and themselves basically. So it’s like a mini shark tank type of deal, but it was a pitch off.
And then afterwards, Kevin and I sat on these two chairs in front of those people and then the host would ask us questions. And the host said, Ray, you’ve been a client of Kevin and he’s a mentor, you’re a mentee of his. What would you tell the people? And I said, you you think that those people in the back are gonna write your company a check.
I said the check is going to be made out to your company but they’re really investing in you and they want to know what’s going to happen during those dark days because they all know that your business is going to have some pretty dark days and you because every business does and are you going to cut and run and leave them hanging or are you going to struggle through
And then when you run out of money, are you going to have the courage to go back to them and tell them, well, this is what happened. This is what went wrong. And I need another influx of cash in order to save this company and keep going. said, because that’s where courage really comes from, because we don’t as business owners, we never want to discuss our failures. said, but you need to.
And afterwards, one of the guys came up to me and he said, you know, you’re the first person to ever talk real. And I said, I think it’s very important that somebody does talk real to you because you’re going to take money from somebody and they know that it’s going to be rough because all business is rough. And are you going to be honest with them? And that kid was the one that won the prize for the investment. It was really cool.
Federico Ramallo (23:58) Really? Wow. That’s amazing. I think that. The founder lifestyle is is over hyped, right? Where people think, it’s just, you know, it’s a beautiful lifestyle. You’re going to get rich pretty quick. Blah, blah, blah. Right. Which some do. Right. You know, when you have success, then, you know, that could happen. But nobody talks about.
Ray Smith - Trycera (24:00) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (24:23) the level of integrity that you need to have is much higher than I think any other role,
Ray Smith - Trycera (24:30) Yeah, and talk about your failures because you see the rich and famous you see the private jet and the cars But you don’t see the sleepless nights because that’s not on video You don’t see the bounce checks the bounce payroll The I don’t know what to do. You lose your merchant account
You got employees that filed a wage claim. You’re being sued for nonsense. No one talks about that, right?
But that’s real life in business. And everyone goes to the reviews and, this guy was upset. You I was working with this group. They dealt with doctors. And there was a lot of doctors with negative reviews, one star, two star. And you read the reviews and it was, they have bad parking. Well, it wasn’t the service that the doctor gave. It was that it was the parking. And…
Everyone wants to look on the surface, but you gotta look through that. you know, people go through personal struggles and everyone wants to judge. this person got divorced, you know, so and so. Yeah, but what was behind it? How hard was it? What caused it? You know, there’s a whole bunch of factors that go into it. So people really need to keep their criticism to themselves, you know, in my opinion.
Federico Ramallo (25:38) right.
Hahaha
Right, that is a very interesting… I have an advisor now, that says that every time somebody suggests something, somebody should do something about, following your story, somebody should do something about parking. He says, that’s a great idea. You own it. What do you want to do about it? And that way, there’s somebody…
You know, yeah, it becomes real, right? Call them out. then, you know, that that becomes like, you know, the make it or don’t make it kind of thing. Right. Yeah, actually, I am adapting his he wrote a book about creativity and adapting his book to Spanish. Because I did something like that, we were talking about, well, you know, have you considered
Ray Smith - Trycera (26:15) Call them up.
Federico Ramallo (26:39) Have you thought about how you’re going to translate to Spanish? This is why it’s important, right? You have an, it’s the second largest audience after English speaking, right? And he said, that’s a great idea. You should do it. And I was like, okay, I never done it, but happy to do that, right? And we’re launching the book, you know, we’re almost finishing the book, right? So, you know, but I know that in the face of uncertainty,
I’m the guy that I’m going to lean forward, right? But a lot of people would just freeze in the situation and would scare away of it,
Ray Smith - Trycera (27:13) You never see a statue of a good critic. Right?
Federico Ramallo (27:15) Right.
Ray Smith - Trycera (27:17) So there’s a lot of critics, but there’s never been a statue because he was a good critic. It’s always somebody who’s accomplished something.
Federico Ramallo (27:25) Right. And when you accomplish something, it’s easy to critic from outside. Right. You. Yeah, you should have would have, you know.
Ray Smith - Trycera (27:31) Yeah, you get a thousand critics. And going back. Yeah,
exactly. And going back to the entrepreneur, that’s what I’m saying. There’s so many critics and you already get all this negative because you’re trying and trying and you’re failing and you’re failing and that doubt keeps creeping in. And then somebody who doesn’t have the authority gives you an opinion and then you take that as credible.
And it just, it’s this negative force that you have to fight through. And that’s why you really need that dream team around you. Surround yourself with positive people that are, you know, success oriented and the failures, the failures are going to be 10 times more than the successes. And you just got to accept that and you got to be comfortable by quote unquote failing.
But really you’re testing and the results don’t work. So you gotta just keep testing.
Federico Ramallo (28:24) Right, right. And it’s a delicate balance between having being stubborn enough to follow your vision, but sensitive enough to hear what the word is saying. And you have to filter out the constructive feedback versus the non-constructive feedback.
Ray Smith - Trycera (28:43) That’s right and there’s no book. It’s just experience. Just gotta keep slugging it out. Yep.
Federico Ramallo (28:46) Right.
Right. Right. I am.
I, my first startup was when I was 16 years old and we did a backing and it was, we went down because of, the bubble burst internet bubble burst in 1999, right? That kind of show how old I am, right? and the, what happened is that we were building, an eBay competitor, right? Similar to eBay, right?
Ray Smith - Trycera (29:06) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (29:14) when eBay was launching, Which then the bubble burst and you had a company willing to invest into our project. had some traction, had, you know. So the timing was right, but then the bubble burst and then the whole thing went down, right? But then, you know, a few years later then Mercado Libre and Derremate showed up.
And now they are the biggest, similar to eBay where you can buy and sell stuff, but then they moved towards Mercado Pago, which is the finance side. So they manage payments, they manage, instead of using a debit card or credit card, you can use QR codes to buy and sell things, right? You can have a merchant account, right? In particularly,
This comes from Argentina, but it’s all in Latin America where the fees for credit cards is so high and almost nobody has credit cards because of the economy is kind of destroyed that, you know, they became the, you know, they got into that, that they got a lot of the market share that the credit cards would not.
not get unlike in the US where you know debit and credit cards is much more common right so that was a very interesting thing that I saw happening right so you know we had a you know we did everything right but then you know it was of no fault of our own that the project you know was unable to move forward right yeah but then I saw that that one
those two work out, which I’m excited to see those companies. And now MercadoLibre, I believe, went public, did an IPO recently. So, yeah.
Ray Smith - Trycera (30:57) Yeah, and that took tenacity and grit to fight through, you know?
Federico Ramallo (31:00) Right.
So we learned from from a lot of that. And then I work on a company that didn’t pay payroll for four months. Right. I I was I was, you know, young, so I didn’t have any, you know, you know, dependents. So.
It was, it was not a big deal for me, but it was a big deal for the people around me. Right. Uh, so when I started my, company, uh, 10 years ago, um, I, one of the things that I work very hard is never miss payroll. Right. And we never had, you know, since we started the company. Right. Um, and it is because I I’ve seen that happening and I’ve seen how that much affects people. Right. Um, so
You know, when I take an employee, I have my, way that I see it is that person is putting their life and their family’s security in our hands. So it is a big responsibility as a founder to make sure that, you know,
Ray Smith - Trycera (32:08) For every paycheck that’s issued, there’s two and a half mouths that are fed off of that paycheck on average. So a company that has 50 employees really has 150 dependents, 125 dependents on that.
So when I see these business owners being flippant with their company and their cash flow and buying stupid stuff and not they’re just being reckless with their business. It’s it’s maddening because they’re they can do what they want to do. Just like what you said. You were alone and didn’t have dependents. So it wasn’t that bad. That’s your choice. That was you.
The employees, they don’t have that choice, right? They’re depending on you. And so, I’ve seen that more than I wanna talk about. These companies doing really good and then the next thing you know, they’re out of business and all these employees are just left hanging. It’s it’s terrible. And it was only because of the business owner, one, taking their eye off the ball, but two,
I either tell the business owner, look, this is either going to be a hobby or you’re going to run a business. Because a hobby will get you the cash flow so you can party and have your good time. But if you’re going to run a business, then run the business because you have people depending on you in those decisions.
Federico Ramallo (33:25) Right. So what I did because I went too much of the side of protecting the employees, making sure that we have, you know, our goal was to have a year worth of salaries for everybody in cash, right? To kind of make sure that, you know, no matter what happens with our clients, even if they pay or they don’t pay, then we take care of our people, right?
But then I went too much on that side where I wasn’t taking care of myself. So what I did is I set up a salary for myself. Now I’m one more on the team. So I know that I can’t spend my salary money without concern because
my employer, is again, it’s me, but you I try to kind of split my multiple roles, right? And sometimes I talk about myself in third person just for that, but you know, when you are an employee, you don’t have that concern, right? And that concern can be overwhelming, right? That responsibility can be overwhelming. So being able to have your own money as an employee and being able to spend it the way you want it.
And if you don’t have any money, then the next paycheck will give you money, right? So that is a much free, you know, experience. So I, I enjoy that experience as an employee to have, you know, the responsibility of me and my family. And then, you know, and I can spend my, my, my, my salary like that. And then the big responsibility of a company where we, we, know, you, you see a dollar.
It’s not that you have a dollar, have a lot of things that depend on it. So it’s a whole different thing. Right. And that way I could like split myself into, you know, being able to have fun and also take care of the people. Right.
Ray Smith - Trycera (35:16) Yeah.
Yeah, but it’s called respect. You respect money, right? It’s not a flippet thing. You respect money, you respect your business, respect your employees, you respect your family, and that’s what it’s about. And you know, life happens. You get your legs chopped out of you as a business owner, and sometimes it’s no fault of your own you’re not able to make payroll. And that’s just how life happens. But again, if you don’t take care of yourself, it’s like on the plane.
your oxygen mask on first before you try to help somebody else because if you’re not healthy the whole company for sure is going to be lost and so and all of that is wisdom that you accumulate through all of those experiences.
Federico Ramallo (35:57) Right, right. So what advice would you give to your younger self starting a career today?
Ray Smith - Trycera (36:05) Take more chances. Not be so fearful.
When you hesitate, you’re only holding yourself back, but you’re holding your business back and you’re jeopardizing your employees. And a lot of people want to tinker around the edges. Well, let me try this little thing or that little thing. Your business is either going up or it’s going down and it’s never staying steady because the economy’s changing, the seasons are changing, technology is changing.
People’s buying habits are changing, so you have to be aggressive at everything to always stay ahead. And that would be my advice to my younger self, is be more aggressive.
Federico Ramallo (36:41) Amazing, amazing. And what do you think will change most, you know, in finance over the next few years?
Ray Smith - Trycera (36:51) AI is really changing a lot. That’s why, well there’s two things. AI is making stuff more automated, but the bureaus and the bank are so archaic that they’re never going to catch up because of the system. And that’s why there’s such a disconnect. And what we want to do is fix what we can fix.
in the public databases, I tell people it’s like this, you have a calculator and I have a calculator and we hit 4 plus 4, we both know that it’s going to display 8. Why? Because that’s what was programmed in the calculator before we hit 4 plus 4 in the equal sign.
Well, what we’re doing is we’re looking at the Bureau, the database, we’re seeing what’s there, we’re programming what’s missing because we know in real time what the lenders are looking for, and then once it’s there, we submit it to the lender because we know when the loan officer hits the submit button, the approval’s already coming back.
because we’ve done all the upfront work and right now it’s a crap shoot. People apply and they cross their fingers and it’s either a thumbs up or a middle finger, you know? And you’re never told. Yeah, and you never told why. too few trade lines.
Federico Ramallo (37:56) Lack of visibility.
Ray Smith - Trycera (38:01) Well, how many do I need? It doesn’t say that. It just says too few, right? Well, how can I increase that? Where do I go to increase that if 80 to 90 % of the vendors don’t report? How do I know who reports? And that was just, that’s the whole problem with this system. And that’s why we designed this platform where we plug you in to the lenders. We know everything upfront and we know where you’re.
Currently, we know what to fix. Let’s fix it and then we’ll get it submitted. And by the way, we know where to apply for because we know what credit bureaus, which vendor that we work with reports to. And we just take the guesswork out of everything. And so what’s going to change? My thing that I want to change is I want Tricera to be a household name for entrepreneurs and the place to go.
to demystify this business credit and business funding. Because it’s one thing to get the money, but once you get the money, that’s when the real work starts, right? You gotta run your business. It isn’t about, I’m so happy I just got 100 grand. No, you’re responsible for 100 grand. What are you gonna do with it? You your decisions matter.
Federico Ramallo (39:09) Right. mean, investor trusted that money in you to make a good business, ethical business, you know, generate more revenue, right? More wealth, right?
Ray Smith - Trycera (39:20) right. So let’s say you work and you make a hundred grand a year and taxes has got to come out of that 40 % so you really only made 60 % and you put 10 % aside for investment so there’s six grand.
Well, how many years is it going to take you to generate $100,000 of investment money? You’re not really risking $100,000. You’re risking 10 years of saving at $100,000 a year. So $1 million that you’ve had to generate to have $100,000 to invest.
Federico Ramallo (39:58) Right.
Ray Smith - Trycera (39:59) you’re risking. It isn’t the hundred grand that you’re risking. It’s the years that it’s taking you to save that money. So there’s a lot on the line for these investors. They’re not just throwing around money because they won it at the lottery. They’ve worked their tails off to generate that money and now they’re entrusting it with you so that they can make a small return on it or help it entrepreneur or whatever. So people got to look at it. You know, that’s what I saying. You got to look through.
what’s happening and not just on the face because it’s a lot deeper than that.
Federico Ramallo (40:30) It’s having respect for the money being invested and the investors behind it and all their dreams and hopes that they put into that decision.
Ray Smith - Trycera (40:43) correct.
Federico Ramallo (40:43) So we’re running out of time. want to ask you one last question before we wrap it up. And if you have any final remarks, how would founders without a social being able to build a credit history and what role does the IT 18 has into it?
Ray Smith - Trycera (41:02) without a social or with? Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (41:03) without a social. ⁓
I understand the IT team could replace the social.
Ray Smith - Trycera (41:09) So here in America, we set up an LLC, a corporation, or a CRNS corporation, and then we go to IRS.gov and apply for an EIN number, an Employment Identification Number, and then that number is attached to that business name and address.
and then we take that profile with that EIN number and start applying with creditors. And then when those creditors report to the Bureau, they’re building that credit profile for that business. So we want to separate the social security number credit from the business. We don’t want them to have to be intertwined like that.
Federico Ramallo (41:47) Interesting, interesting, because that, I think that’s something that a lot of founders that are trying to do business in the US, they are trying to figure out how to do that.
Ray Smith - Trycera (41:55) There’s no education.
That’s right. There’s no education. And that’s why we put this. We took the computer system and broke it down into a roadmap. And if you start here, then we do this. If you start here, then we got to do all this. But if you’re over here, we do this. So we know exactly what to do no matter where you’re at.
Federico Ramallo (42:16) Amazing, amazing.
Ray Smith - Trycera (42:18) I had a-
guy this morning, he’s been running his business for three years as a sole proprietary, which he just uses a social security number. And I said, you really need to set up an LLC. And he says, well, I can do that. Just go down and I said, you can do it online. And then I sent him IRS.gov how to apply for the EIN number, which they’ll issue you in real time. within 30 seconds of you applying, you’ll get the EIN number.
We put that into the system and we immediately start building that business credit using the LLC entity and that EIN number and not with your personal guarantee and it doesn’t matter about revenue.
Federico Ramallo (42:56) Right, right. That’s an amazing, amazing advice. Ray, we’re running out of time. Any final remarks before we wrap it up?
Ray Smith - Trycera (43:05) No, I would just tell your audience, you know, don’t be fearful, be fearless because that’s the only way Elon Musk is going to get to Mars. There’s going to be a lot of problems along the way. And that’s what we are as professional problem solvers and be comfortable with that. Raising a child, you don’t get a manual. You have to figure it out. And it’s the same with business and build that dream team around you and go for it.
Federico Ramallo (43:29) Thank you very much for joining us today.
Ray Smith - Trycera (43:31) Thank you. Thanks for everybody for watching.