Fresno native uses tech to help small businesses find money to survive COVID-19. Here’s how
As the federal government worked this spring to shovel hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to businesses struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, the inability of many small businesses to make it through the application and approval process became a significant problem.
Even before the COVID-19 crisis and the establishment of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Fresno native and economic incentives consultant Gil Gonzales saw the difficulties confronting owners of small businesses in need of financial assistance.
“When you have $100 billion available, and small businesses are only getting $3 billion, the system is out of whack,” said Gonzales, who was raised in the Highway City neighborhood of northwest Fresno. “Big businesses have gamed the system.”
That’s why Gonzales wants to “level the playing field.”
Gonzales is the CEO of Aprise, a new web-based company with a mission to help small businesses cut through the clutter of government programs offering loans, tax credits and grants to businesses. Using a blend of his own expertise in government economic development agencies – including serving as an appointee by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California Office of Business & Economic Development – Gonzales’ company helps small businesses find and apply for such economic incentives with a website that offers a clearinghouse of sorts for the myriad programs that exist nationwide.
While large companies can afford attorneys and consultants to weed through those incentive programs, “small businesses are so consumed with trying to run their business and just survive in the pandemic,” Gonzales told The Bee in an interview. “It shouldn’t take 40 hours to apply for a PPP loan. It shouldn’t cost 20% of what you’re going to receive (to pay a consultant). It shouldn’t be a 20-page application; it should be a two-page application.”
A big part of the problem is that too few businesses know what programs even exist, or where to find them. ”Government agencies just aren’t good at the marketing and promotion of their economic incentive programs,” Gonzales said in a blog post.
“On top of that, governments provide too many access points to these programs,” he added. “In the U.S. alone, 2,000 incentives are available via 160 different websites, and information and access points can change annually” if the legislation that authorizes the programs changes.
As a result, Gonzales wrote, “small businesses make up 97% of U.S. companies but only get 10% of the available incentives.”
“We have to be advocates for making the process simpler and more equitable for small businesses to apply,” he told The Bee. “I’m helping to provide a bandage to a major problem. The fact that Aprise exists is in itself an indicator of a problem. The system is broken.”
Gonzales himself represents a success story. “I came from farmworker roots. I went to five different high schools in Fresno because we moved around so much,” he said. “I had an absent father and my mother was removed from the home. … I had family members who were incarcerated, who were victims of gang violence.”
“I raised myself from the age of 15. My first job was washing dishes” at a local restaurant, Gonzales added. “I was the first one of my family to graduate from college. I wanted to make something better for myself and the community.”
After graduating first from a community college and then Pitzer College in Claremont, Gonzales served in a legislative fellowship in Sacramento and then worked in a range of jobs in and out of government, including rural business outreach.
“I’ve done about 100 workshops for businesses and chambers of commerce, and I’d see eager small business owners, give them a ton of information on these incentives,” he said. “Then I’d see them shuffle away at the end of the day – and none of them would apply” because the process was so cumbersome.
Officially launched within the past two months but in the works for more than a year, Aprise’s establishment was hastened by the coronavirus pandemic. “There was a huge market need,” Gonzales said. “You could feel the desperation from small business owners.” It’s a small team for now: Gonzales, three part-time employees, and a few people working on the technology side of the website.
By “bootstrapping” with his own savings, Gonzales was able to fund Aprise, and is projecting recurring monthly income at between $10,000 and $15,000 per month. He hopes to secure some venture capital for future expansion of the business model.
What Aprise seeks to accomplish is narrowing down the various available programs based on answers provided online by business owners to screening questions, then providing a directory of those incentives. On a subscription basis for $29 per month, business owners can receive updates as new programs become available that matches their industry or business model.
There are other businesses in the incentives-hunting field, Gonzales said, but most operate on an hourly fee basis that can get expensive. What sets Aprise apart, a spokeswoman said, is that it’s effectively a technology vendor that has worked to automate the process, rather than a consultancy, with a primary focus on small business.
“Our technology is somewhat vetting the companies before they apply. Based on our experience and some pretty refined models, we have an understanding of what businesses can qualify for,” Gonzales said. “We want to help companies apply on their own,” but businesses can also receive more tailored help “at a cost factor that’s friendly to small businesses.”
Gonzales added that in the coronavirus pandemic, Aprise is helping businesses to apply, at no charge, for relief through the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs.
While Aprise is based in the Silicon Valley, “I’ve stayed very involved in the Fresno community,” he said, and once he secures some capital plans to open an office in Fresno, perhaps in the next six to 12 months.
Gonzales is a member of the steering committee for the Fresno D.R.I.V.E. (Developing the Region’s Inclusive and Vibrant Economy) Initiative, a 10-year program launched in 2019 to reduce income inequality in the central San Joaquin Valley and seek investment in business opportunities to raise the overall standard of living.
Among the Aprise clients to date is Stephanie Stine, owner of The Downtown Club in Fresno. Like many dine-in restaurants, the restaurant was deemed “non-essential” and shut down as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus. Aprise helped Stine with answers to questions about COVID-19-related federal relief programs for small businesses and was able to connect her with a lender who funded a PPP loan for the business.
Other client businesses are in the Bay Area and Southern California.
So while the ultimate target market for Aprise is statewide and even nationwide, “we are making a concerted effort to spend time penetrating the small business community in the Central Valley,” Gonzalez said.
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 11:15 AM.
