Why Small Businesses Fail: The Cash Flow Problem Nobody Talks About

Small business cash flow solutions: Tedd Huff, CEO of fintech advisory firm Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential, interviews Receives' Founder & CEO Ariel Blum and Lithics' Co-Founder & CEO Bo Jiang on earned revenue access for 34M American businesses. How fintech infrastructure provides instant access to sales revenue without loans, solving payment delays and working capital challenges.

Legacy banking systems force business owners to wait days or weeks for funds from completed sales, creating cash flow crises that lead 82% of small businesses to struggle with basic operations. Modern fintech companies are solving this through real-time access to earned revenue, flexible payment infrastructure, and strategic partnerships that eliminate artificial delays built into outdated financial systems.

This episode of Fintech Confidential, recorded live from the Money Pot at Money 2020 in Las Vegas, breaks down how small businesses can access working capital faster, why traditional lending models fail Main Street America, and what partnerships between fintech innovators actually look like when building compliant, scalable solutions.

TAKEAWAYS

1️⃣ Pick partners, not vendors.

Look for teams that treat your success as their own.

2️⃣ Build in parallel, not sequence.

Run development and compliance at the same time to cut launch timelines.

3️⃣ Get the full customer picture.

Visibility into earnings, accounts, and spending drives smarter decisions.

4️⃣ Test options before you scale.

Come to partners with presets already tested to speed approvals.

5️⃣ Prepare for what you cannot see.

Stay flexible enough to respond when something unexpected hits.

LINKS

Ariel Blum | Founder and CEO of Receive

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielblum/

Bo Jiang | Co-founder and CEO of Lithic

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boling

Receive

Website: https://www.nowreceive.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nowreceive

Lithic

Website: https://www.lithic.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lithic

Fintech Confidential

Podcast: https://fintechconfidential.com/listen

Notifications: https://fintechconfidential.com/access

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fintechconfidential

X: https://x.com/FTconfidential

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fintechconfidential

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fintechconfidential

SUPPORTERS

Under.io – Digitize your PDFs for applications and underwriting. Get started free: https://under.io/ftc

Defense (Dfns) - Provides wallets as a service that's API first, multi-chain by design, and secured with MPC fintechconfidential.com/dfs

Hawk AI – Real-time payment screening, ML transaction monitoring, and dynamic risk rating for fraud prevention: https://gethawkai.com

ABOUT

Ariel Blum is the Founder and CEO of Receive. He previously held leadership roles at American Express, Green Dot, and Melio. He built Receive as the first earned revenue access platform for small businesses, helping them unlock cash they have already earned without borrowing.

Bo Jiang is the Co-founder and CEO of Lithic. He and his co-founders started building together at age 14 and later founded Privacy.com before launching Lithic. He studied at MIT and leads the company from New York.

Receive is a fintech platform that gives small businesses instant access to their earned revenue with no interest, no credit checks, and no traditional underwriting.

Lithic is a card issuing infrastructure platform that empowers fintechs to build compliant, scalable payment products through developer-friendly APIs and direct network connections.

Tedd Huff is the CEO of Voalyre and host of Fintech Confidential, bringing you the people, tech, and companies that change how you pay and get paid.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Highlights

01:07 Welcome to Fintech Confidential

01:16 Under.io: Streamline Applications & Underwriting (sponsor)

02:06 Challenges Facing Small Businesses

02:39 Meet Ariel Blum and Bo Jiang

03:26 Breaking Down Barriers for SMBs

04:19 Why the Financial System Is Broken

05:39 Modern Infrastructure for Modern Businesses

07:03 Adapting Fintech to Business Needs

09:46 The Receive and Lithic Partnership

11:40 Modern Businesses Need Modern Infrastructure

14:19 The Democratization of Liquidity

15:26 Compliance and Moving Fast

16:37 DFNS: Wallets as a Service (sponsor)

18:02 Balancing Speed with Regulation

21:08 Lightning Round: Quick Takes

24:27 Stablecoins and Real-Time Money Movement

30:00 Advice for Fintech Founders

30:36 Conclusion: Key Takeaways

31:10 Closing Remarks and Call to Action

32:02 Hawk AI: Fighting Fraud and Financial Crime (sponsor)

32:47 Disclaimer