Find Me Funders
Why time in business is a proxy, and what it stands in for
Nobody underwrites the calendar. They underwrite survival odds, verifiable history and the length of the record they can check — and months are the cheapest way to measure all three.
Drafted with AI assistance. Not yet independently checked. Nobody has verified the claims on this page against a source, so treat the figures and legal points as a starting point rather than as settled, and confirm anything you are about to act on. How we check things.
What the requirement is doing
A funder asking for twelve months in business is not interested in the anniversary. It is using a single cheap number as a stand-in for three things it cannot observe directly.
None of those is "months". Months is just the variable that correlates with all three and costs nothing to verify.
Which start date they count from
The same business is routinely a different age to different funders, because the anchor differs.
- Entity formation date on the Secretary of State record. The most common anchor, and the easiest to verify.
- EIN issue date. Close to formation, occasionally much later.
- Business bank account opening date. Some deposit-driven funders use this, on the reasonable ground that it marks the start of the record they can actually read.
- First deposit or first revenue. Used where the account was opened well before trading began.
- DBA registration or licence date, in licensed trades.
The gaps are not academic. An LLC registered in January that opened its account in June and took its first deposit in August is eight months old, three months old, or one month old depending on who is asking. If you are close to a threshold, ask which date the funder uses before you submit, and be ready to evidence the earliest defensible one.
A related trap: reorganising a sole proprietorship into an LLC creates a new entity with a new formation date. The business is the same age; the record is not. Keep the old bank statements, the old tax returns and the old licence, because they are the evidence that the trading history predates the entity.
Why it is a floor rather than a scale
Time in business does not usually improve pricing smoothly. It works in steps, because it is used as a filter at the front of a workflow rather than as a coefficient inside a model.
Below a funder's stated minimum, the file often does not reach a human. At or above it, months stop mattering very much and the deposits, the credit file and the existing debt take over. That is why moving from ten months to thirteen can change everything and moving from four years to seven can change almost nothing.
Some funders publish their minimum. Most do not, and where a figure is published it belongs to that funder's own page — what business lenders actually publish covers how patchy that disclosure is across the market.
What can substitute for months
Where the requirement is a proxy for verifiable history, other history sometimes substitutes:
- A processor's own record. If your card volume runs through a platform, that platform can see a sales history that predates or supplements the bank file.
- Your customers' credit rather than yours. Invoice factoring underwrites the account debtor, so business age matters less than who owes you money.
- Collateral. Equipment financing leans on the asset, which does not care how long you have been trading.
- Predecessor history. The sole-prop returns behind a new LLC, or the prior entity's statements after a restructuring.
- A guarantor with a long personal record, which is why owner tenure in the industry is often asked for separately.
What does not substitute: a business plan, projections, or a signed contract for work not yet performed. Those are inputs to a bank or SBA credit memo, not to a deposit-driven decision.
What to do if you are close to a threshold
The practical advice is narrow, because there are only a few real moves.
What actually changes as the months accumulate
Worth being concrete about the shape of the curve. In the first six months, most of the deposit-driven market is closed and the products that remain are collateral- or receivable-based — see what funding exists for a business under six months old. Between roughly six months and two years, the deposit-driven market opens progressively and the price is set mostly by the statements and the credit file rather than by the age. Past two years, bank and SBA channels become realistic, because they want two full tax years to read.
The threshold that closes the most doors is the first one. After that, the calendar stops being the interesting variable in your file.
Where this applies
Related questions
What does this guide cover?
Nobody underwrites the calendar. They underwrite survival odds, verifiable history and the length of the record they can check — and months are the cheapest way to measure all three.
Which funding products does this apply to?
Merchant Cash Advance, Working Capital, Term Loan, Business Line of Credit, SBA Loan, Equipment Financing, Revenue-Based Financing. Each has its own page listing the funders in this directory that offer it and what each one publishes about its terms.
Are the figures here quotes?
No. Every worked example is labelled illustrative and exists to show the arithmetic. What a particular lender charges is on that lender's page, where it publishes it at all.
Who writes this?
The Find Me Funders research desk. Some drafting is AI-assisted, and every page that is says so at the top, including whether a person has checked its claims yet.
How do I know a figure here is right?
Where a page carries the green notice, its claims were checked against the sources listed at the end and a reviewer is named. Where it carries the amber one, nobody has verified it yet and you should confirm anything you plan to act on.
Are the examples real deals?
No. Every worked example is labelled illustrative and exists to show the arithmetic. What any particular lender charges is on that lender's page, where it publishes it.
Why do you never say what a typical rate is?
Because we cannot source it. A market average assembled from lenders who do not publish prices is a guess with a decimal point on it. Where a lender publishes a figure, we show that figure and say where it came from.
Is this financial or legal advice?
No. It is general information about how these products work. Outcomes depend on your contract and your state, and a lawyer or accountant licensed where you are is the person to ask about your situation.
Can I reuse this content?
Quote a paragraph with a link back. Do not republish whole articles.