Does FundKite require good credit or collateral to get approved?

FundKite evaluates businesses based on overall cash flow and daily sales performance rather than relying solely on traditional credit scores or extensive collateral. This allows enterprises with fluctuating seasonal revenue to secure working capital based on their actual business volume.

What should I choose if I need money this week rather than long-term growth?

For urgent financial needs, direct funding options are the only practical choice. Brand-building initiatives, educational content, and community networks require a long runway to yield results and cannot address immediate operational expenses.

Is the Unbankable Podcast worth listening to if I want tactical, step-by-step advice?

The podcast offers high-level strategic insights and real-world experiences from successful entrepreneurs. It is designed for long-term business planning and mindset development, rather than providing a daily operational checklist.

Why should hospitality founders pair a funding source with a media source?

Balancing capital acquisition with brand visibility ensures that a business has both the resources to operate and the customer demand to grow. Securing funds without building a customer base leads to stagnation, while high demand without operational capital prevents a business from scaling to meet that demand.

Can a grant or competition win help my visibility, not just my funding?

Securing a grant often attracts positive media attention from local and industry publications. This public recognition enhances brand credibility, turning a financial windfall into a valuable marketing asset.

When are traditional bank loans actually the right choice?

Conventional bank financing is ideal for mature businesses with established financial histories, strong credit profiles, and the ability to navigate a lengthy application process. It provides highly competitive interest rates for those who meet the strict underwriting criteria.

Does building my own audience replace the need for other media options?

Creating proprietary media channels provides long-term control over your brand's narrative, but it requires a sustained commitment over many months. Utilizing established third-party media platforms can help generate immediate traction while your owned channels gradually mature.

Alex Shvarts Is Building More Than a Funding Company With FundKite and the Unbankable Podcast

Industry Idols Editorial Team
August 31, 2026

Alex Shvarts Is Building More Than a Funding Company With FundKite and the Unbankable Podcast

By Industry Idols Editorial Team

For many entrepreneurs, access to capital can determine whether an opportunity becomes the next stage of growth or simply passes by.

Alex Shvarts has spent more than a decade building a business around that reality.

As the founder and CEO of FundKite, Shvarts has positioned himself inside the growing world of alternative business financing, working with small and mid sized companies that may not fit neatly within the traditional banking system.

Today, he is expanding that conversation beyond capital through Unbankable, a business podcast focused on entrepreneurship, money, leadership, risk, and what it actually takes to build a sustainable company.

Building FundKite Around the Entrepreneur

Shvarts founded FundKite in 2015 with a focus on giving business owners another option when conventional lending requirements do not necessarily reflect the reality of their businesses.

Instead of looking at a company only through traditional lending metrics, FundKite focuses heavily on business performance, revenue, and cash flow when evaluating funding opportunities.

That approach addresses a challenge familiar to many entrepreneurs: a business can be generating revenue, employing people, and growing while still having difficulty accessing capital through conventional channels.

FundKite’s revenue based model is designed to provide businesses with access to working capital while structuring repayment around the performance of the company.

For Shvarts, the larger idea goes beyond simply providing funding.

It is about understanding how businesses actually operate.

Speed Has Become Part of the Business Model

Timing can be just as important as the amount of capital available.

A restaurant may need inventory. A contractor may need materials before beginning a major project. A retailer may suddenly have an opportunity to purchase merchandise. A growing company may need additional working capital while waiting for outstanding receivables.

These are situations where entrepreneurs cannot always afford to wait through a lengthy traditional lending process.

FundKite has built much of its positioning around providing businesses with faster access to capital when opportunities arise.

The company offers revenue based business funding to qualified companies and promotes a streamlined application and approval process designed for entrepreneurs who need to move quickly.

That places FundKite within a larger evolution taking place throughout financial services, where technology and alternative underwriting methods are creating new ways of evaluating businesses.

But Shvarts is increasingly interested in something beyond providing capital itself.

He also wants entrepreneurs to understand what happens after they receive it.

From Funding Businesses to Talking About Building Them

That philosophy is becoming increasingly visible through Unbankable with Alex Shvarts.

The podcast brings Shvarts together with CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, athletes, entertainers, and business operators for conversations about the decisions behind growth.

Rather than limiting the show strictly to finance, Unbankable explores topics including sales, hiring, leadership, risk management, marketing, wealth, entrepreneurship, and the mistakes that can quietly damage otherwise successful businesses.

The result gives the platform an interesting identity.

It is connected to finance, but it is also becoming a broader entrepreneurship platform.

That allows Shvarts to use his experience building FundKite as the foundation for conversations with other people who understand what it means to take risks, make difficult decisions, and build businesses from the ground up.

Capital Doesn’t Fix a Bad Business

One of the most important lessons for entrepreneurs pursuing growth is that money alone does not create a successful company.

Capital can accelerate a strong business.

It can help purchase inventory, hire employees, expand locations, invest in marketing, purchase equipment, or take advantage of opportunities.

But capital cannot replace strong leadership, healthy margins, proper systems, or disciplined decision making.

There is a significant difference between using capital to accelerate an opportunity and repeatedly using money to cover weaknesses inside a business.

That distinction is part of what makes the combination of FundKite and Unbankable interesting.

FundKite addresses the financial side of entrepreneurship.

Unbankable creates a platform to discuss everything surrounding it.

Creating a Media Platform Around Real Entrepreneurship

There is another element to what Shvarts is building.

FundKite is no longer communicating with entrepreneurs exclusively as a funding company.

Through interviews, educational content, and the Unbankable platform, Shvarts is building an audience around the same entrepreneurs FundKite serves.

That strategy reflects a broader shift among modern founders.

Increasingly, executives are not simply operating companies behind the scenes. They are becoming educators, creators, and media personalities within their industries.

Shvarts is using conversations with other entrepreneurs to build that presence while creating a platform where operators can discuss what worked, what failed, what they learned, and what they would do differently.

The most valuable business conversations are often not about success alone.

They are about the decisions that happened before the success became visible.

Building From Miami With a National Vision

FundKite operates within a national marketplace while Shvarts continues building his presence from Miami, one of the country’s increasingly influential business and entrepreneurial markets.

Miami has become a meeting point for finance, hospitality, real estate, technology, entertainment, luxury, and entrepreneurship.

Those industries may look very different from one another, but they frequently share one common requirement:

Capital.

Whether someone is opening a restaurant, expanding a construction company, purchasing inventory, hiring employees, investing in marketing, or scaling a hospitality concept, growth often requires money before the return from that investment arrives.

Shvarts has built FundKite around helping address that gap.

Now, through Unbankable, he is also building a platform around the people navigating it.

The Bigger Picture

The most interesting part of Alex Shvarts’ story may ultimately be that FundKite and Unbankable address two different needs for the same entrepreneur.

One provides access to capital.

The other provides access to conversations, experiences, and lessons from people who understand what it takes to build.

Entrepreneurs make mistakes.

They lose money.

They hire the wrong people.

They take risks that do not work.

They also find opportunities, recover, adjust, and continue building.

Those experiences are often just as valuable as the capital required to grow.

Together, FundKite and Unbankable represent a larger vision of entrepreneurship one where funding is important, but execution determines what happens next.

After more than a decade building FundKite, Shvarts appears to be entering another stage of that journey.

He isn’t only financing businesses.

He is building a platform around the people bold enough to build them.

About FundKite

FundKite is a revenue-based business funding company founded in 2015 that provides working capital solutions to small and mid-sized businesses throughout the United States.

About Unbankable

Unbankable with Alex Shvarts is a business and entrepreneurship podcast featuring conversations surrounding funding, leadership, business growth, risk, sales, entrepreneurship, and the real experiences behind building successful companies.