Starting something in a city with a long habit of making things
Glendale has been incorporated since 1906 and carries the nickname Jewel City. Over its history it has been home to an airport that was the first official terminal for the Los Angeles area and the departure point for the first commercial west-to-east transcontinental flight flown by Charles Lindbergh. It later turned into an industrial park, and it is now a production center for film and animation alongside Burbank. Making things, whether aircraft, animation or something smaller, is part of the local pattern.
New businesses in the city tend to be small and specific: a boutique animation or editing studio, a catering kitchen, a design shop, a repair outfit, a dental or tutoring practice. They start with one or two people and an owner who has not yet built a financial history.
What we can read from a business a few months old
We ask for about three months of business bank statements. We consider FICO scores of 500 and up. We do not require tax returns. The application takes five minutes and uses a soft credit pull. Sole proprietors can apply, so you do not need an LLC first.
That means a business with a real account, real deposits and a few months of operation can be reviewed. A business that has not yet taken its first payment cannot, because there is nothing to read. If you are at that stage, the most useful thing is to open the account, route sales through it, and wait until the pattern shows.
Typical first-year spending, in order of when it hits
| Phase | Typical spend | Why it hurts |
|---|---|---|
| Before opening | Deposit, permits, fit-out, first equipment | Money goes out with no sales yet |
| Months 1 to 3 | Inventory, one or two employees, software | Payroll arrives before revenue stabilizes |
| Months 4 to 6 | Repairs, a vehicle, marketing | You need working cash and a few purchases at once |
For illustration only: a two-person editing studio buys $25,000 of workstations and storage, then waits 45 days for its first client payments while paying a freelancer weekly. The equipment and the wait are different problems, so be clear which one you are funding.
Mistakes new Glendale owners make with their first funding
- Asking for one large amount to cover three different needs. Equipment, inventory and payroll cover behave differently, so size them separately.
- Mixing personal and business money in one account, which muddies the bank statements a funder reads.
- Applying before there are three months of deposits, then being surprised there is nothing to review.
- Forgetting the ramp: the first few months after opening usually sell less than the plan assumed.
None of these is fatal, but each is easy to avoid. A clean business account and a clear description of the use of funds make the file easier to read.
Apply
We fund $25,000 to $5,000,000, with funding in as little as 24 hours after approval. Apply and describe what the money is for. For a single purchase, see equipment financing; for operating cash, see working capital. Regional context is on the LA Metro page.