With uncertainty about the U.S economy growing, businesses across the country remain focused on maintaining a positive cash flow. One way to impact that is to make sure your marketing campaigns perform well. We sat down with Tony Romero from our Marketing Products team to discuss what small businesses can do to make sure their data is in good shape for campaigns, and a special 3-part Sip and Solve webinar series around B2B marketing. Check out our conversation with Tony.
Watch our interview
What follows is a lightly edited transcription of our conversation.
[Gary Stockton]: Well, hello and welcome to another episode of Experian Business Chat. With uncertainty about the U S economy growing, businesses across the country remain focused on maintaining a positive cash flow. And one way to impact that is to make sure that marketing campaigns are performing well. So we’ve put together a series of three short business chats with our experts about B2B marketing. Today, we’re going to be speaking with Experian’s marketing products manager, Tony Romero, about marketing data. Good morning, Tony.
[Tony Romero]: Good morning.
[Gary Stockton]: So let’s dive in, CRM databases can go stale quickly. And when people change jobs or change roles, this can impact campaign performance. So, keeping tabs on your marketing data is highly recommended. How does poorly managed marketing data impact marketing campaigns?
[Tony Romero]: Yeah, it can really impact negatively, you know, for example, the bad data, it means that you’re not reaching your target audience and you’re wasting money, right? As they’re doing any type of direct mail campaign or any other multi-channel campaign, not reaching the right audience is going to be costly for you. But secondly, it also means that you’re going to potentially reach the wrong audience. And that’s also just as detrimental because you want to be as efficient as possible.
[Gary Stockton]: So why is it important to have clean and robust marketing data?
[Tony Romero]: Yeah. When you think about what clean and robust comprehensive marketing data provides is that first of all, you’re able to identify your true market segment. Who are you trying to reach? Secondly, you want to understand what’s the messages that you want to get across to these people, and you want to make sure that again, you’re reaching the right people in order to deliver that message to them. So by having clean data, you’re able to reach the right audience you’re re and you’re able to communicate that message to them properly.
[Gary Stockton]: So what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see businesses make when it comes to data governance?
[Tony Romero]: Yeah, you know, what’s, what I would say is the most important is that data can go stale very quickly as, as you’ve mentioned, Gary. And so it’s very important to make sure that it’s current. Secondly, you could have duplicate data or you could have incorrect data. So data hygiene is seriously critical in order to make sure that you have current data and correct data. And then that way, for sure, you’ll again, get back to deliverability, you’ll be able to reach the right audience. The other thing too, that’s important is that when you’re thinking about segmenting an audience and you want to be able to filter out who’s in the right audience, who’s not in the right audience, again, having proper data, make sure that you’re truly calling the true target audience for, for your campaign.
[Gary Stockton]: So cleaning a marketing database. I mean, it, it doesn’t sound like it’s something that I would, you know, push a button and have a, like a cleanup type of function execute, you know, how can you clean a marketing database that has maybe spotty or missing info?
[Tony Romero]: Yeah. You know, the, the main thing there is to be able to identify if you have a current file of your list of customers, you can actually run it through a process to look at it, compare it to data. That’s actually been human verified to make sure it’s the most current, the most correct data. So going through that process of the data hygiene, data appends, or new creation of lists, it’s important to make sure you do that through a service where people have actually human verified, that the data is correct and current.
[Gary Stockton]: So what are some helpful tools for cleansing a marketing database? Any that you’d recommend?
[Tony Romero]: Well, you know, I think the most important thing is number one is to take a look at what’s called data hygiene in order to be able to make sure it’s correct and current there’s also append, which means that you’re identifying data that’s not a part of the current list and make sure that you add that data in. And then lastly, creating a list of lookalike customers. So an example is you might have a list of customers that you’ve identified as being your true ideal target customer. And now you want to be able to find others that are like that. You can work with companies to do what’s called lookalike analysis, to be able to identify your ideal customers and create an expansive, comprehensive list that you can go prospecting to.
[Gary Stockton]: Very interesting. So what recent changes by tech platforms are having an impact on marketing data? I mean, there’s been a lot in the news recently.
[Tony Romero]: Yeah, definitely. You know, first of all, tech platforms are capable of collecting a lot of information on consumers, both through third party cookies and first party cookies, as well as third party data. Now, the interesting thing is that while they’ve been able to collect a lot of data, there’s been a recent shift in the market space in that Google is no longer supporting third-party cookie data. So it’s more important than ever to focus in on the first party cookies. But secondly, third party data is still available. And so there’s companies where you can provide all of these that I just mentioned, the data hygiene, the data append, the list creation that you can add to your first party data in order to come up with a comprehensive marketing lead data list. So those are the main tools to think about. The other thing I’d mentioned about tech platforms is that they’re able to do a lot.
[Tony Romero]: For example, they can provide truly personalized experiences to their customers because they know a lot about their customers. And secondly, they can provide additional capabilities like prequalified loans. So in that perspective, the platform can offer a customer to find out what the loan offers that they qualify for. And they can go through the pre-qual process where they can go find out what offers they qualify for with a soft inquiry. So they’re not getting impacted with a hard pull and then they can find out if they want to move forward with that. And the ideal thing for lenders is that that pre-qual process means that it’s just a soft pull. It’s a pretty low cost. And for people who do apply, there’s a high likelihood that they will be approved for that loan. Wow.
[Gary Stockton]: Well, this has been really great information, Tony, on data cleansing, if you enjoyed this chat and want to go a level deeper, don’t miss Tony’s Sip and Solve webinar, he goes into greater detail on optimizing marketing campaign data. And in our next business chat, we will be continuing the discussion with Tony and focusing on campaign targeting.
The independent workforce is booming, but traditional financial services have struggled to keep pace. On a recent episode of Experian Business Chat, Michael Zevallos, co-founder of Giggle Finance, shared how his FinTech is bridging this critical gap for gig workers and micro-small businesses. Watch Our Interview The Problem: A Broken System for Independent Workers With over 10 years of experience in online lending and FinTech, Michael witnessed firsthand how the financial system failed anyone outside traditional W2 employment or large commercial businesses. During his time at OnDeck, starting in 2011, he witnessed numerous independent contractors and micro-small businesses being completely shut out of credit markets. "It wasn't just about meeting underwriting guidelines," Michael explains. "Smaller deals just didn't generate enough profitability. There were too many hands in the cookie jar—underwriters, salespeople, loan brokers, loan closers—all trying to interact with these deals." The traditional system relies on predictable W2 paychecks and consistent business histories spanning five-plus years. But gig workers operate differently. An Uber driver might work 10 hours one week, 20 the next, and zero the week after. This variability, while reflecting the freedom of independent work, made them invisible to traditional lenders. A Market Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight What started as a niche problem became impossible to ignore. In 2020, the independent workforce became the fastest-growing segment of the economy. Suddenly, tens of millions of Uber drivers, barbers, content creators, online sellers, and freelancers needed financial services that simply didn't exist for them. That's when Michael and his co-founders launched Giggle Finance. Flipping the Script on Risk Assessment Traditional credit markets look backward, reviewing historical output, past credit scores, and established track records. But as Michael points out, "It captures your past, but it doesn't capture your present or more importantly, your future." Giggle Finance partnered with Experian to develop a more nuanced approach to risk: Experian's Clear Credit Risk and Clear Inquiry go beyond traditional credit files to identify different patterns of behavior and risk signals that matter for independent workers. This allows them to go beyond a traditional credit report, predict risk more accurately, and approve the right customers. NeuralID Technology analyzes how customers interact with the application itself, detecting fraud while building confidence in legitimate applicants. The Experian SMB Marketplace connects Giggle with customers who genuinely care about and value their credit, allowing them to approve more applications with greater confidence. The result? Giggle can assess risk and approve applications in under 10 minutes, requiring just 90 days of cash flow activity to get started. "Consider a freelance marketer who could previously handle two or three clients. With AI tools for content creation and analytics, they can now manage five or six times that workload."Michael Zevallos, Co-Founder The AI Revolution in Independent Work The conversation took an interesting turn when discussing how AI is reshaping the gig economy. While most people think about AI's impact on large enterprises, Michael sees it transforming independent contractors in profound ways. "Gig workers aren't just drivers or delivery couriers anymore," he notes. "They're becoming creators, consultants, designers—more tech-savvy and capable than ever before." Consider a freelance marketer who could previously handle two or three clients. With AI tools for content creation and analytics, they can now manage five or six times that workload. Many solopreneurs are evolving into full-fledged agencies, keeping headcount low while scaling to dozens of customers. From Emergency Funding to Growth Capital This AI-enabled transformation has fundamentally shifted why customers seek financing. Historically, small business owners came to Giggle because of emergencies—they needed to make payroll or cover an unexpected expense. Now, increasingly, they're seeking growth capital. The Uber driver who becomes a limousine company owner. The logo designer who can now produce dozens of designs using AI tools. These entrepreneurs need funding to hire people, invest in equipment, and market their expanding businesses. "That structural shift is very exciting for both the customers and for us at Giggle," Michael says. Building Long-Term Relationships Giggle isn't just there for a one-time transaction. Some customers have been funded over 20 times across four years, with Giggle supporting them through various business evolutions. Uber drivers have become truckers. Others have launched limousine companies. The relationship grows as the business grows. Looking ahead, Giggle plans to expand its offerings, including a potential line of credit product for more mature businesses. The goal is to remain flexible and responsive to changing business needs at every stage. The Path Forward: Collaboration Michael sees tremendous opportunity for banks and FinTechs to work together serving the gig economy. Banks bring trust, established brands, and balance sheets. FinTechs like Giggle bring product innovation, technology, and user experience. "If you put those strengths together, you can build a financial system that truly serves gig workers, independent contractors, and micro-small businesses," he explains. Giggle's technology can underwrite customers in seconds using real-time income data and AI, while bank partnerships could provide credit at scale. A Market That's Only Getting Bigger When Giggle launched in 2020, there were approximately 30 million independent workers in the United States. Today, that number has more than doubled to 70 million. By 2030, Experian and Giggle believe the independent contractor workforce will surpass the traditional W2 economy. "Everybody's a small business. Whether it's a college student with an Etsy store, a professional with a side consulting practice, or a full-time independent contractor, the entrepreneurial spirit is becoming the norm rather than the exception."Ekaterina Gaidouk, VP of Marketing Getting Started For entrepreneurs and small business owners interested in learning more, Giggle Finance operates entirely online at www.gigglefinance.com. The application process takes less than 10 minutes, and approved customers can have funds in their bank account the same day—no human intervention required. In an age where the nature of work is rapidly evolving, Giggle Finance represents a new approach to financial services: one that recognizes independent workers not as risky outliers, but as the future of the American economy. Related Posts
Explore effective marketing strategies for insurance agents and brokers to boost ROI and client engagement.
Small businesses have been opening at record rates during and following the pandemic. With so many new businesses seeking capital, and not all of them borrowing with good intentions, Experian thought it would be a good time to talk about mitigating fraud with one of the leading FinTech lenders. Ryan Rosett is the Founder and Co-CEO of Credibly, and he shares several valuable insights with us in this Business Chat. Watch Our Business Chat Interview What follows is a lightly edited transcript of our interview. Gary Stockton: Hello, and thanks for joining us for this business chat. I'm Gary Stockton from Experian Business Information Services, and I'm here with our Vice President, Dominic DiGiuseppe, and also Ryan Rosett, the founder of Credibly, a fintech dedicated to helping medium and small-size businesses grow via funding decisions that are based on the holistic health and potential of a business.And we're here today to discuss fraud as it relates to FinTech in the small business space. Gentlemen, welcome to Business Chat. So Experian has recently released some interesting new statistics on the impact of fraud across several industries, notably that over 39% of recent FinTech inquiries were rated as high risk by our commercial first-party fraud score.And that's a predictive score that can predict the likelihood of first-party payment default and the credit bust-out scenarios that we see. These inquiries are projected to carry 62% of all first-party fraud risk within the population. And if you would like to see more on that analysis, we'll be including a link in the blog post for this business chat.So Dominic, I wanted to get your reaction to this statistic, given our mission to serve small businesses and considering small businesses make up the greater part of our economy and economic output.Dominic DeGuiseppe: Yeah, Gary, thanks for that. First and foremost, I want to give a shout-out to our data sciences and product teams for being able to continue to innovate in this space.But really, when you look at post-pandemic, the amount of businesses that have been created, it's, we were somewhat surprised by the numbers as well. But the amount of businesses that are being created, the mission that we have an experience making sure that we can help provide capital and we can provide funding and get that into the hands of business owners quickly.So if we take a look at some of the trends here, the amount of businesses that are being formed since the pandemic is pretty surprising. We've continued to see that trend. Rise and stabilize a bit, but it's still much higher than pre-pandemic levels. So when you think about businesses that are looking to understand the type of fraud that's being perpetrated or making sure that these types of businesses are actually legitimate as they're looking to make credit decisions and provide these companies with lending or funding decisions, these are the types of tools that have been that the team has been creating. Rapid new business formation during pandemic To make sure that we're assessing and helping folks determine the levels of risk that are associated with these businesses. I know we've talked about this in the past, a few times in different conversations, but can you tell the folks tuning in here a little bit about the Credibly origin story I find it super unique and interesting.Ryan Rosett: Oh, absolutely. So my partner and I started the business in 2010. If you think about 2010, it was a contrarian time to start a business. It was coming out of, the Great Recession of 2008/2009, and they were always talking about this double-dip recession, but it was actually an opportune time to start just because small businesses were really looking for access to credit.And what we are is that we're a cash flow lender. So, we look at the cash flow and make decisions and determinations in a very quick manner to provide working capital at an affordable rate for the customer. So that means, it's important to us that the business can sustain the payments that we're providing, and we can maximize the amount of money working capital that we can give them.So it's just something that we're focused on, and we've had the wind in our back for a, I would say, eight years. And then there's something called the pandemic hit, which was like, which, I didn't sleep for, I don't know, four months. But it was a period of time that was really like an interesting time for a small business lender, but then recognizing also that the government money really boosted up the small businesses, and it worked well for alternative lenders like ourselves.Gary Stockton: The pandemic did accelerate rapid digitization, and it does seem like an opportunity for FinTechs to address lending for small businesses digitally. This stat that we were talking about, it's really quite astounding that there were that number of businesses that sprung up during the pandemic.It makes a lot of sense, though, when you consider there were quite a lot of people that were transitioning from maybe a different industry into another industry, home businesses springing up. But with so many new businesses coming online and the impact of cybercrime on small businesses, Dominic, how do lenders know whether or not they are dealing with a real business when they onboard new customers digitally?Dominic DeGuiseppe: Yeah, I think that's certainly a challenge. And I think one of the things that we're looking to answer is, really, three things — is the business real? Is the business active? And is the applicant that's applying for the loan or the type of funding are they actually linked to the business?I think we can certainly answer for that, but I think, since we've got one of the top FinTechs in the space out there, Ryan what is Credibly doing to understand different fraud trends and combat what's happening within the space with fraud?Ryan Rosett: What I can say is that fraud is pervasive right now. And, as we're an online lender, we make decisions in under four hours from app to decision and fund same day. The amount of data alternative data that we're pulling in to make decisions is really quick. And so the risk that there's a fraud application coming through is something that we that you know, I'd say that's largely what we work on.I would say the three largest fraud patterns that we're seeing and you addressed earlier, was an application mismatch. Which is against the verified sources that they listed. And then, we also have just altered documentation associated with the bank statements.And again, that would be something that would be illegal historically, but we're a nonbank lender. And we're just trying to make decisions based on the data that we have. And we want to verify that the applicant is the owner of the business. So those are the types of frauds that we're seeing, I'd say, like a high level and then there are certain things that we do to combat that.So we will call it stipulations to fund. So we may offer to make an offer subject to them supplying additional information. Maybe it's the articles of a corporation. Maybe it's a tax return. And oftentimes, it's not to say whether you're profitable or not profitable, we're looking at who's the owner, who's getting K1s on the tax returns?Those are examples of things that we are looking at. And I know Experian has been an excellent partner of ours in terms of matching and using a number of different data sources that you provide.Dominic DeGuiseppe: How have you seen fraud evolve pre-pandemic to post-pandemic and continue to take shape and take a different shape, from what's been happening as to now?Ryan Rosett: Yeah, that's a good question. So on a pre-pandemic basis today, we're back to the same level of losses. Okay. But the fraud is becoming a little bit more advanced. Okay. Whether it's be it through cyber attacks, whether it's online applications, there's a number of different things that we're working on that we're constantly combating. So it's not it's not something that we put a fix in and then we move away. It's something that we're constantly evaluating, whether it's a submitting partner, or whether we have an affiliate that provides a certain number of lead applications.Those are things that we're constantly measuring to see what the loss rates are, where the fraud is coming from, and then making decisions. So from a pre-pandemic to a post-pandemic, I'd also say that with the PPP, small businesses got a taste of working with alternative lenders through the PPP process, and they became a little bit more comfortable with working with lenders similar to Credibly. So you're seeing like a little bit more comfortability with small businesses having the ability to interface with us and then they're layering in fraud and things of that nature. So it's a constant something we're combating on a daily basis, and it's something that we're thinking about, very often.Dominic DeGuiseppe: Yeah, because when you start to look at it and all the new businesses that are being formed that are coming into the market, working with alternative lenders and FinTech's like yourself, and you guys continuing to shorten the cycle around the app to approval and all the data points that are coming into it. You guys are different than a bank and are able to do those types of things and move quickly. So obviously, with that comes some additional risk; with the FinTech community being tight-knit, how have you been able to benchmark what Credibly is doing against some of the peers that you guys work with in the industry?Ryan Rosett: We have and that's really through public data through asset-backed securitizations; there's reporting relating to the losses that each lender is seeing, of our losses, approximately 10% of our losses we attribute to fraud. The other 90% is, it could be a business that legitimately goes out of business, which happens. So, it's not necessarily fraud. We do benchmark it based on some of our competitors that have asset-backed securitizations and we see the performance in their loss rates and charge costs and things of that nature.Gary Stockton: So, what are you seeing in terms of an amplifying effect on fraud rates with generative AI in the mix and allowing for spoofed content and more access to triangulated private information on business entities?Ryan Rosett: You know, that's a great question. One thing, you're seeing fraudulent IDs. You're seeing IDs that are becoming a little bit more difficult to track and see, because they're creating an identity of someone and they're able to do that through gen AI.So that, that's one aspect. You're also seeing bank statements. We use a number of different bank statements, parsing, and machine learning that looks at these bank statements. It's looking at font type size. There are a number of things when somebody is attributing and oftentimes, sometimes the fraudster is making grave errors also. They're putting data in where data wasn't supposed to be. You're able to detect that really quickly and that's on an automated basis. So that doesn't even touch a human. We see fraud, we kick it out. And, it's declined. So it's a, it's, when we see a, when we fund a fraud application and it's noted as a fraud that we've determined fraud, we then report it we have a, there's a data matching system that we report into so that business owner would never be eligible for. Business financing through an alternative lender. Again,Gary Stockton: Dominic, any closing thoughts?Dominic DeGuiseppe: Yeah, Gary, I would say just in terms of, generally speaking, fraud continues to evolve. There's a number of different things that we're looking at from a business perspective to be able to help our partners. But, Ryan's pointed out a number of those things today, but as FinTechs continue to evolve, fraudsters will continue to evolve and Experian is on our journey to continue to help understand how we can benefit our business partners, making sure that they can combat fraud and keep it out of the business.Gary Stockton: That's great. I think that's a great place to leave today's chat. Dominic, and Ryan, thank you so much for taking time out to share your perspectives on fraud in the commercial space on Business Chat. Thanks for watching, everyone. Related Posts
