To leave a review you need to be logged in
Reviews 338
Spongelle Beyond Cleansing
Feb 20,2020Clearbanc has been a great partner to help us scale our D2C business! Clearbanc came along when we were in a period of strong growth and required more capital for advertising, particularly on Facebook and Google. They've been able to provide funding as needed as we've continued to scale. Our account manager Nan has been proactive and extremely helpful along the way. I would definitely reccomend Clearbanc!
Eric
Feb 20,2020Honestly I was skeptical. Like really really skeptical. I was wrong. We ended up pulling the trigger on a trial basis and could not be happier with that decision. The deal is exactly what they say it is, and we’ve scaled our spend profitably with them. Our account manager is very responsive and I consider him a partner in the same way I do my attorney. They were absolutely crucial during BFCM for us to spend.
Nadine Marie
Feb 20,2020It's been great and knowing Clearbanc is a quick and easy option should I need the funds has given me so much peace of mind and extra time to really focus on my business.
Borja
Feb 20,2020I have been funded by Clearbanc for over a year and couldn't be happier. The platform is very user-friendly and the repayment model works great for an ecommerce and subscription based business like mine.
David Amselem
Feb 20,2020Excellent service. Great to finance growth for a startup
Greg Bauchat
Feb 20,2020Easy to use program very helpful staff just wish the dashboard was a little more transparent on what payments were for what. Also wish there was more options on amount of money taken out. Especially when you do a refund to a customer but you already have been charged a % on that sale so you lose even more money which doesn't seem fair. However my rep is outstanding and is always there to answer my questions and help me out.
Thread Society
Feb 20,2020We had a wonderful experience working with Clearbanc. They took the time to understand my business, Thread Society, and provide us funding options and repayment options that made sense for us. We look forward to a continued partnership with them.
Jared Graybeal
Feb 20,2020Getting funded has never been easier, quicker and more affordable than using Clearbanc. Robby makes it super convenient to communicate when I have any questions, and it's been a great experience!
Richard Garand
Feb 06,2020** UPDATE: it got worse ** I tried Clearbanc again when other lenders were not available. They did what they said, with the usual limitations (see below). Then when I got a better offer, I paid off the Clearbanc balance but they still kept withdrawing thousands of dollars from my account and I had to contact them repeatedly to explain that they had already been paid. The first few times they just said nothing had changed and they were going to keep making withdrawals. Add another downside... there are still (much) better options. ** Original review ** Clearbanc does what it says for the most part. It can be a good option for paying marketing costs when you have profitable campaigns. However it has some downsides. Even a regular credit card can be a cheaper alternative to Clearbanc. I switched to Thinking Capital after talking with OnDeck and LendingLoop as well. The first major caution is that Clearbanc does not give you a loan or a direct deposit, even though most of their ads and their website imply this. Instead you get a credit card number you can use to make payments up to the limit you are approved for. This means you will most likely start repaying this before you have even used it. Repayments start on the first day but you probably won't have any charges going through that same day. Using this for Google and Facebook ads is simple enough. It's like any other credit card. For other vendors it may be harder, and for anything outside of their short list of "approved" vendors you pay double the cost (through a complicated rebate system). Another thing to watch out for is the repayments based on your daily sales. If your sales are increasing quickly this means you will repay the total much faster. On the other hand if your sales are going down, or their algorithm predicts that will happen soon (it was very wrong in my case), they will cut off further funding. The one benefit is that if your sales go down, you don't have to repay it as fast. But if you're investing more in marketing and your sales are going down you're probably doing something wrong and you should fix that before considering Clearbanc or any other alternatives. If you're going to have the advance repaid in just 2 months you are much better off putting the expenses on a credit card. Even if you wait a couple of months before paying off the balance, you'll only pay 2 - 4% compared to 6 - 12% with Clearbanc. Clearbanc looks more reasonable if you take 4 - 6 months to repay the advance. But if your sales increase a lot that is unlikely. And it means you need to wait a while before you can get another advance from them. These things were not clear up front. When I contacted them they made me sit through a weird one hour presentation on the phone and then rushed me through the actual details (which is the first time I learned that it was not quite what the website made it sound like), offers, and contract. If I had understood this properly and chosen something that's repaid with 5 - 10% of daily sales it might have worked out a little better. If you go with Clearbanc I would start with the smallest offer available, and then talk to them about increasing that once it's used up. Stick to the lower repayment rates, never 15 - 20%. That will limit what you can get but it works out better. In the end I switched to Thinking Capital. They provide a direct deposit for the full amount so you have the cash on hand on the first day. The daily repayments are fixed so I know the cost is worth it based on the length of time (it actually is cheaper than carrying a credit card balance for the same amount of time). They have a set schedule to add more to the loan before it's fully paid off. They approved a far higher amount than anyone else, so I only took a part of that. Thinking Capital was the most willing to work with my business, although OnDeck and Clearbanc had decent offers as well. They were all better than LendingLoop, the BDC, and traditional banks. You can use the first 3 to grow a business when you have profitable marketing campaigns, and once it's more stabilized look at the others for long-term options.
Aprille Franks
Feb 04,2020I wasn't even looking for funding and was approved someones annual salary within 36 hours! I run a professional development group for female speakers, authors, and coaches - and we do pretty well so I wasn't really "looking" for funding. I saw an ad on FB with Gary Vee on and it sparked my interest so I applied and I have to admit, I was skeptical the whole time... UNTIL the funds were available. The process was quick and like any other funding source. Providing some proof and signing an agreement. Because I work with entrepreneurs I think this is a great option for people looking to diversify their marketing. I saw a review where someone was upset can only use it for marketing and adverts - well, that's what they tell you when you sign the contract. We are using these funds as intended - to grow our subscription and drive people to our live event. I haven't had any issues paying contracts we use for marketing, ads or other marketing costs. If you want to boost your marketing to get for paying customers - I say go for it! Thanks Clearbanc!
Mastin Kipp
Jan 17,2020To say that Clearbanc is a game changer is an understatement. Our business has taken almost $1MM from Clearbanc in the last year, and they have helped us grow, scale, pivot and navigate the tough financial stress of scaling our business. Their customer success team is second to none (shout out Nan) and Michelle and Andrew are relatable founders who care deeply about entrepreneurs. Clearbanc does not participate in predatory practices that you hear about in the traditional MCA space (COJ's, Judgements, Personal Guarantees, etc)... so Clearbanc is making a better product that I hope reaches many, many more people. Finally, as a trauma-informed coaching company, we value Clearbanc's funding based on data, not gender or privilege bias. Clearbanc funds more women and minorities than anyone else. This, along with Clearbanc's ethical center, makes Clearbanc in a league of it's own. Honored to be a client for life.
Ryan
Jan 10,2020At first, Clearbanc seems like a simple solution to fund business operations but it is anything but. Common misleading marketing of easy to access capital. They tie you to a card that is a true pain in the a** to use unless you are ONLY looking to spend it on advertising. Anytime you do business with a non-preferred vendor, which is 99% of vendors and would like to pull funds from your Clearbanc account it has to be approved which takes time which really isn't how I like to run my business. Will not be using their service again as there are too many better services out there.
Kevin T
Dec 21,2019I've been a Clearbanc client for almost 6 months now and have been receiving top ups every month (each increasing in size too!) As a hardware DTC product, we are usually consistently in a cash flow crunch and have our capital dedicated towards inventory, tooling, R&D and daily operations. Being a bootstrapped company, this leaves VERY little towards marketing and any real efforts to bring exposure and scale our business. Before Clearbanc, we would run very safe marketing campaigns as we cannot afford take risks. Our only way to get more capital is through ongoing sales (slow to scale), raise money through investors (time consuming and lose equity) or take a loan from the bank (personal guarantee required + collateral). Clearbanc nullifies all these pain points so you can spend more time building your business and working on what truly matters! With Clearbanc, we've been given a healthy run way to test new experiments, run high risk/ high reward campaigns and genuinely learn and iterate as we grow. Ever since onboarding with Clearbanc, ours sales have been growing 20% month to month and this is attributed to being able to test so many, many variations of ads to determine what works and what doesn't. Furthermore, if you plan on using the capital towards marketing purposes (ie Facebook ads, Google Search) the fee drops almost by half. Nowadays, our daily challenges are no longer where to find money but rather how to spend it more effectively and efficiently. Hopefully there will be a community system in place soon where Clearbanc funded companies can share lessons learned, what works, what hasn't and other scaling experiences!
April M.
Dec 20,2019Clearbanc is an absolute Godsend. Doing business with big banks just doesn't make sense in 2019 for most small businesses. I see Clearbanc as a trailablazer! Big banking is going to wish they made these changes. It was very easy to get approved for over 100K and even better is the rate they offered. I'm so glad I took a chance with them!
Josh Cauley
Dec 10,2019HORRIBLE!!! Worst company I have ever dealt with in my entire life. They lied and said that we would have a certain rate and that we would not be charged more than that for additional loans we took in the future. They went back on their word and raised the loan interest by 10%. They also charge a lot more than they tell you up front. This company is doing bait and switch and is very unethical. I would highly suggest staying as far away from them as possible. WORST experience I have ever had in my life is dealing with these liars.
John
Nov 27,2019Rude and intrusive 75 minute screen share. Won't take no for an answer after sub-average offers. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.
dylan venables
Nov 15,2019Not quite there yet. Don't get me wrong, Clearbanc is ok but it fails on a few points. Its sold as a way to scale your business with cheap funding, part of that is true, the interest rate is good and the funds arrive quickly, as your business grows it starts to fall down. If your an online seller who only sells via one processor (this is not many) then Clearbanc may be for you however as you scale your business its likely like us that you'll grow significantly on other platforms like eBay and Amazon as well as your website. Its a real shame that Clearbanc does not record these revenue streams as turnover whereas most other funding providers do, what this means is that as you scale and grow your business Clearbanc wont scale with you. From my experience if you're a fast growing business with high turnovers there are better alternatives on the market. Clearbanc may be an option if you struggle to get business credit or are very new but if your established and sell on multiple platforms its just not fit for purpose. Give them a couple of years and they may get there. Also repayments take weeks to show on your account, the software is very slow. Staff are helpful and friendly.
Shelley Tennyson
Feb 20,2020We were interested in Clearbanc because of the focus on business growth and marketing. The "cash back" for payments to certain marketing vendors was attractive. We have definitely used Clearbanc funds for Facebook ads, and we also used #Paid for influencers. But the #Paid wasn't a good fit. I also find that the way funding is charged and the cash back is confusing and maybe somewhat deceptive, so I don't think I'd be inclined to recommend this to other entrepreneurs.