Daring to Give

For all of us heroes on the journey, the road continues to be rocky and unpredictable. At this point, it’s a wonder how we’re still hanging on, economically speaking and otherwise.

Like others, we’ve got a few things on our radar this month:

• When several leading economic indicators show declines for an extended period, it’s usually a telltale sign of an incoming recession. The LEI has declined for two years straight at this point, and somehow things are still peachy keen (at least on the outside). We had a blip into positive territory in February, which some cheered over, but we went right back into the negative in March and April.
• Higher interest rates continue to slam consumers. Aggregate debt delinquency rates are the highest they’ve been since the pandemic, and the trend is worsening.?
• A big chunk of maturing corporate debt is coming in 2025 and 2026. If interest rates don’t come down by then, it’s going to be an issue for companies with leveraged balance sheets, especially the little guys.

But doom and gloom isn’t the main focus of our chat today. Instead, our focus is on the actual journey itself, and why we at Dare Capital keep it front and center.

To paint the perfect picture, we have to zoom our focus in on my amazingly talented partner, Debra Zukonik.?

The Grit of a Grizzly Bear

At the most recent IFA conference, Debra received a lifetime achievement award for her incredible contributions to the factoring industry. It was very much a full-circle moment for Debra, as the award honors the now deceased Bert Goldberg, founder of the IFA.?

Bert started the IFA as a users group for a software company he headed up. Debra herself recently co-founded our new software venture, NN6.?

Long before the present day, Debra didn’t just step lightly on the hero’s path. She fully embraced it, committed, and never looked back.?

Decades ago, one of Debra’s first factoring clients was a bit of a crazy investment. The startup she ran along with her siblings had little experience and even less money. At the time, they had yet to bill a single invoice.

But as every hero knows, it’s only when you take the next step that the solution appears. That crazy investment was the catalyst for a lifetime of success. Their business ultimately grew from those risks. They now do roughly $1.8M in invoices monthly and still thank Debra to this day for how she helped when nobody else would.

finish reading (link in comments)