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FUNDING STORY

A second studio, financed against the first

Kayla had a fitness studio that ran at 86 percent capacity and a waitlist that wouldn't quit. The second location wasn't a question of demand — it was a question of how to capitalize it without giving up half of either business.

The problem

The first studio had three years of consistent monthly recurring revenue, a clean P&L, and a small SBA balance she had been paying on time for 28 months. The opportunity was a 2,800-square-foot space ten minutes away that had been a yoga studio in a previous life.

Two different investors had offered to come in for 30 percent of the second location for $250K. The math worked for them. The math did not work for her.

Her personal profile was a 754 mid-FICO. Her business profile was solid. She had never built a real funding ask before.

What changed

The platform built the funding ask the way an SBA underwriter would actually read it: existing operation as the cash-flow engine, second location as the growth case, total ask sized to actual buildout cost plus three months of payroll runway. No equity dilution. No 'just-in-case' over-borrow.

The work
  • 01Compiled 3 years of clean tax returns, P&L, and recurring-revenue MRR data into one packet
  • 02Updated the existing SBA-on-file payment history into the new application as a positive signal
  • 03Sourced two contractor bids for the buildout to anchor the use-of-funds memo
  • 04Submitted to an SBA-preferred lender, with a community bank as a backup
  • 05Declined both equity offers in writing once the SBA term sheet came in

The second studio is mine. I was about to sell a third of it for capital I could borrow.

Kayla B., Nashville
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Published March 14, 2026
Results vary. No specific outcomes are guaranteed. Names, cities, and figures in this story are illustrative and used to show the kind of work the platform supports.