A processor's worth of work — roughly $40K a year — handled by Kaaj

The Challenge

A small team wearing every hat, tied to the office

The Funding Booth is a small leasing brokerage where Bob Booth does a bazillion things a day — and processing was the one that ate the hours that should have gone to vendors, marketing, and funded deals.

Every vendor has its own application format, many of them handwritten. Working a deal meant manually pulling credit, looking up Secretary of State records, and scrolling bank statements — work that only happened when someone was physically at a desk. An application that arrived at 9pm waited until morning. And when you're moving fast, things like a missing signature slip through.

“Do I focus on the deals that are funding and making us money, or where do I find the time to implement new systems? There's only so much time in the day.”

The Solution

A junior underwriter that lives in his pocket

Bob's description of Kaaj is the simplest one we've heard: a replacement for a junior underwriter or processing agent. Whatever application comes in — handwritten or electronic, any vendor's format — he forwards it to the Kaaj submissions address. Within a couple of minutes the file is spread: credit pulled, SOS checked, bank statements analyzed, everything in one secure place.

Because it's all phone-accessible, the office stopped being a requirement. Standing in front of a vendor, Bob forwards the app, makes small talk for three minutes, then opens the analyzed deal and tells them on the spot whether he can get it done — and on what terms.

Kaaj also catches what speed misses: unsigned applications get flagged every time, and the lender matching tool confirms where a deal fits across his funding partners.

“I've been in front of vendors, sent the app to submissions, and three minutes later — 'hey, the deal's ready to be looked at.' Right then and there you can say: this is a deal I can get done.”

The Results

Speed as the differentiator, consistency as the moat

In Bob's words, speed is everything in his industry: most brokers use the same lenders, so turning deals around faster is what separates one shop from another. After-hours applications now get triaged the moment they arrive — he knows by 9:05pm whether a 9pm application is worth jumping on.

The economics are blunt. A processor or two would run about $40,000 a year; Kaaj does that work with total consistency — processing multiple applications at once, never busy with something else, never out sick.

It's also a product that grows with him: the payment pricing feature The Funding Booth uses for instant customer quotes was built from Bob's own request — one of several asks that he says were simply delivered, without nagging.

“It's a consistent model that shows up every day to work — and it's never sick. Those things make a difference.”