Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream

Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. They are the biggest job creators and offer a path to the American Dream. But for many, it is difficult to get the capital they need to operate and succeed. In the Great Recession, access to capital for small businesses froze, and in the aftermath, many community banks shuttered their doors and other lenders that had weathered the storm turned to more profitable avenues. For years after the financial crisis, the outlook for many small businesses was bleak. But then a new dawn of financial technology, or “fintech,” emerged.

Beginning in 2010, new fintech entrepreneurs recognized the gaps in the small business lending market and revolutionized the customer experience for small business owners. Instead of Xeroxing a pile of paperwork and waiting weeks for an answer, small businesses filled out applications online and heard back within hours, sometimes even minutes. Banks scrambled to catch up. Technology companies like Amazon, PayPal, and Square entered the market, and new possibilities for even more transformative products and services began to appear.

In Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, former U.S. Small Business Administrator and Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, Karen G. Mills, focuses on the needs of small businesses for capital and how technology will transform the small business lending market. This is a market that has been plagued by frictions: it is hard for a lender to figure out which small businesses are creditworthy, and borrowers often don’t know how much money or what kind of loan they need. New streams of data have the power to illuminate the opaque nature of a small business’s finances, making it easier for them to weather bumpy cash flows and providing more transparency to potential lenders.

Mills charts how fintech has changed and will continue to change small business lending, and how financial innovation and wise regulation can restore apath to the American Dream. An ambitious book grappling with the broad significance of small business to the economy, the historical role of credit markets, the dynamics of innovation cycles, and the policy implications for regulation, Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream is relevant to bankers, fintech investors, and regulators; in fact, to anyone who is interested in the future of small business in America.  

“Karen Mill’s outstanding new book: FinTech, Small Business & the American Dream, a smart, savvy, and useful landscape of lending, fintech, and small business. Mills knows how the engine of small business powers the U.S. and her recommendations about how to sustain it through technology are thoughtful and direct. Her observations about how small banks can anchor communities are especially astute and important.” (Lawrence Gennari, Boston Business Journal, August 30, 2019) Karen Mills is one of the foremost experts on our nation’s small businesses and the policies that are central to their growth and vitality. She demonstrates how new technology and smart regulation in Washington can usher in a transformative era for entrepreneurialism and the American dream. A powerful book.” (Olympia Snowe, Former U.S. Senator and Former Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, USA)

“In this important book, Karen Mills shows how financial innovation can empower small businesses to fulfill their owners’ dreams and push the American economy forward. It will change how you think both about financial innovation and small business.” (Lawrence H. Summers, Former Secretary of the Treasury, Former Director of the National Economic Council, and Harvard President Emeritus, USA)

“For America to lead in this new technological era, we need to continue to nurture our entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mills illustrates how technology can get more access to capital flowing—increasing the chance for more small businesses to grow and prosper.” (Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution and Co-Founder of AOL, USA)

“Mills combines sharp analysis with her hands-on experience as a small business advocate to show the dynamic new opportunities that fintech presents. She lays out the promise of technology for small business lending, while providing valuable insights for today’s financial services providers.” (Kenneth I. Chenault, Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst, Former Chairman and CEO of American Express, USA)

“A must-read book for community bankers wondering how to best deliver small business financing in the future.” (Bob Rivers, Chairman and CEO of Eastern Bank, USA)

“At Square, we see technology empower main street businesses with incredible tools for growth every day. In this important book, Mills details the opportunities ahead for entrepreneurs as they gain new access to capital through technology. A must-read for those who believe in small businesses and all they do for our communities and our economy.” (Jaqueline Reses, Head of Square Capital and Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council, USA)

“Karen Mills recognizes that small businesses are vital to America’s development. For anyone interested in understanding the complexities of small business growth and the technologies, systems and companies vying to simplify and strengthen the financial lives of American small businesses, this book is essential.” (Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President of Kabbage, USA) 

“The financial crisis destroyed the traditional small business lending system and left these companies with severely impaired abilities to raise capital and grow. In this book, Karen Mills brings her government and her private sector expertise to bear describing how technologymay reinvent the ways small businesses operate and raise capital going forward. Economists, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of small business will benefit from her insights on how the future of fintech and the small business economy will be inextricably linked.” (Austan D. Goolsbee, Professor of Economics at University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, USA) 

“Small businesses have been the path to economic independence for millions of Americans. Mills shows how fintech can extend that opportunity to even more.” (Deval Patrick, Managing Director, Bain Capital Double Impact and former Governor of Massachusetts, USA) 

“Few people have done more over the last decade to help small business owners than Karen Mills. Now, in Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, Mills describes a brave new world for small businesses where technology has made capital morereadily available and fintech firms use data to break down old barriers. She provides a refreshingly optimistic look at how innovation can bring about small business utopia where the entire financial life of a small business is transformed in a positive way by new technology. But this is not pie in the sky thinking, Mills lays out a detailed plan as to how we can reach this new promised land.” (Peter Renton, Founder of Lend Academy and Chairman of LendIt Fintech, UK) 

“This book should be required reading for all policymakers with an interest in entrepreneurship, small business development and economic growth.” (Keith Morgan, CEO, British Business Bank, UK) 

“As we have documented with data from over a million enterprises, small businesses have low cash buffers and bumpy cash flows. Mills’ outstanding book assesses the cost of these stresses to small businesses and creates a new vision for technology-driven solutions of the future.”(Diana Farrell, President and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Institute, USA) 

“Small businesses are often referred to as the ‘backbone of the economy’ and they need capital to grow and succeed. Mills understands small businesses through her work at the SBA and gives us real insights into how technology will affect, as well as benefit their future.” (Mike Cherry, National Chairman of the U.K. Federation of Small Businesses, UK) 

 

 

 

 

Karen G. Mills was a member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet and served as the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013. She received the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award for her contribution to U.S. competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and innovation. She is the President of MMP Group and has a long history of building companies as a venture capital investor. 

Mills holds an AB in Economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she currently serves as a Senior Fellow and part of the entrepreneurship faculty. She is a Member of the Harvard Corporation and a former Vice Chair of the Harvard Overseers. Mills lives in Boston and Harpswell, Maine with her husband Barry, former president of Bowdoin College. She has three sons, Will, Henry, and George.