Client Stories

"We'd been with the same bank for 11 years when they declined our acquisition financing because the deal was 'primarily goodwill.' Three other lenders said the same thing. Martin and his team at Ellsworth Lend actually sat down, analyzed the recurring revenue contracts, and built a structure that worked. They didn't just approve a loan — they understood our business model better than our own bank did after a decade. The facility was structured in two tranches: one secured against the acquired company's receivables, the other against the contracted recurring revenue stream. That's the kind of creative, first-principles thinking you simply don't get from a bank's credit algorithm. We closed the acquisition in 38 days and retained 94% of the acquired clients. TechNord has grown 40% since that acquisition. I don't know where we'd be today without Ellsworth Lend. If you're a tech company trying to grow through acquisition, you need to talk to these people."

"The thing that floored me was the transparency. Nadia walked us through a printed document showing exactly how they assessed our credit, what factors determined our rate, and what we could do to improve it over time. In 20 years of borrowing, no lender had ever shown me how the sausage was made. It was almost unsettling — in the best possible way. She explained the three covenant benchmarks tied to the loan, why each one existed, and what would happen if we tripped one. There was no ambiguity, no fine print, no gotcha clauses buried on page 47. The rate step-down they built into our acquisition loan saved us over $18,000 in Year 2 alone — something no bank had ever proactively offered. We've since used that savings to fund a part-time physiotherapist at our Dorval clinic. If you run a multi-location healthcare practice, I can't recommend Ellsworth Lend enough. Their underwriting process is what every lender should aspire to."

"We were drowning in four separate loan agreements with conflicting covenants and an effective interest rate approaching 10%. I was spending two days a month just managing lender relationships — sending different reports in different formats to different people on different deadlines. It was exhausting and it was pulling me away from actually running the business. Ellsworth Lend consolidated everything into a single facility with one set of covenants, one reporting format, and one quarterly check-in. They cut our blended borrowing cost by almost four points, from 9.7% down to 5.8%, and gave me my time back. The annual savings alone — $109,000 — covered the cost of two new drivers and a route dispatcher. Gabriel checks in quarterly — not to audit us, but to actually ask how the business is doing, what's changing in our market, and whether our facility still fits. I've been borrowing for 15 years and I've never experienced that from a lender. If you're a growing company juggling multiple lenders, seriously, call these people. You'll wish you'd done it sooner."

"Other lenders wanted my house as collateral. My house. For a business loan secured by $1.5 million in commercial equipment and a signed distribution contract with a national grocery chain. Three banks, same story: 'It's standard practice, Mr. Mansouri.' Martin Ellsworth told me — and I'll never forget this — 'If the business case can't support the loan on its own merits, we shouldn't be making it, and your house shouldn't be paying for our underwriting failure.' That's when I knew we were dealing with a different kind of lender. Ellsworth Lend financed our entire expansion — new production line, cold storage build-out, and a delivery fleet upgrade — without touching our personal assets. They structured the facility against the equipment, the distribution contract, and projected cash flow from the new line. Revenue doubled from $6.3M to $10.1M within two years. We came back for a second facility to fund a new product line, and the process was even smoother the second time. If you're in food manufacturing, these are the people who understand your business. Read more about the team behind the lending decisions."

"As a creative business, we always felt like a square peg in a round hole when dealing with banks. They didn't understand project-based cash flow, progress billings, or WIP financing. We'd show them a $400,000 signed contract and they'd say, 'But what's your monthly recurring revenue?' — as if that's the only business model that exists. Gabriel and the Ellsworth Lend team spent a full afternoon in our studio reviewing our actual completed project files — line by line — to understand our economics. They looked at average project duration, billing milestones, collection history, client concentration risk, and seasonal patterns. The revolving facility they designed was the first time a financial product actually matched how our business works instead of forcing us to contort ourselves into someone else's template. The draw-down structure mirrors our project timeline: we draw when we mobilize, repay when we collect. It's elegant. We've taken on three contracts since then that we would have had to decline before — including a $680,000 hospitality project in Old Montréal that became a case study for our portfolio. Revenue grew from $1.3M to $2.1M, and our borrowing cost dropped from over 12% to under 6.5%. If you're a creative or project-based business, you need to talk to Ellsworth Lend."

"Our existing bank offered prime + 4.5% and called it 'fair.' When I pushed back, they said the algorithm had spoken and there was nothing they could do. That's not underwriting — that's abdication. Ellsworth Lend took a fundamentally different approach. Martin and Gabriel spent two full days at our facility in Laval, walking the production floor, meeting our shop foremen, and reviewing our aerospace supply contracts line by line. They understood that a five-year supply agreement with Bombardier isn't the same risk profile as a general-purpose manufacturing loan — and they priced accordingly. They structured financing at prime + 2.75%, saving us tens of thousands annually. But the rate was only part of it. The covenant structure they built actually made sense for a manufacturing business: tied to operational metrics we already tracked, not arbitrary financial ratios designed for a software company. We grew from $4.8M to $7.2M in 18 months and came back for a second facility to add a CNC machining cell. Their underwriting is in a completely different league from anything we've experienced at a chartered bank. If you're in manufacturing with solid contracts, don't settle for what a bank's algorithm offers. Get a free assessment from Ellsworth Lend and see the difference."