May 22, 2023

It's been a long road to get here and I recognize that the path itself has been difficult. We were forced to make hard decisions, rein in our spending, and oftentimes that has led to us having to change our culture to adapt to the new normal. While we've been able to hit the ground running this year with an incredibly strong start, we've also ended up losing some of what makes our team tick.

May 15, 2023

Today marks an important milestone in our company’s life. Five years ago to the day, we officially incorporated ourselves in our small office in Tribeca that we shared with a few other companies. Five years later and I could have never imagined we’d be what we are today.

The traditional startup playbook—raise big, spend fast, swing for the fences—is fading. In this episode, I unpack why the VC model is under pressure, how AI is fueling a new era of smaller, faster, more profitable startups, and why debt might beat equity for founders who want to scale on their own terms. If you’re still raising like it’s 2013, this one’s for you.

May 8, 2023

As we've been wrapping up the last remaining items for the Series B, we've seen palpable demand from so many investors who were forced to be left out. In market conditions that are more favorable, it's normal to just leave the demand as is and prime them for the next round of financing. In times like this though, it's never a bad idea to pad the war chest and prepare for the what ifs that could happen in the coming quarters ahead.

May 1, 2023

Companies are defined by key milestones in their history where their business evolved and took the next step towards their future. We've had many in our past, the most recent of which was our shift towards taking a step back away from underwriting our own deals and pushing for every new borrower to be paired with an underwriter starting in January of this year.

The startup playbook that built Uber, Airbnb, and DoorDash is becoming obsolete in real-time. As AI compresses jobs that once required hundreds of employees into algorithms, we’re witnessing the birth of a new company archetype—capital-efficient, immediately profitable, and surprisingly small. With a variety of software to use for all aspects of building a business—from Shopify for e-commerce to Stripe for payments—and low operating costs, innovation just keeps making everything that much more efficient.

April 24, 2023

And that's that. We're done. We've successfully closed on our Series B. There's of course still a few administrative items to get to the finish line but all the commitments are in and ready to be signed for and wired. Amazingly enough, we were actually oversubscribed, with several groups this past week trying to figure out how to squeeze into the round with checks as large as up to $[ ]M beyond this $[ ]M we already have committed.

Nelson Chu is founder and CEO of Percent—a capital markets platform bringing transparency, liquidity, and standardisation to private credit.

Nelson’s path started with a $1,000 “experiment fund” from his dad and early side hustles in design. After stints at Merrill Lynch and BlackRock, he left corporate life behind, built a consulting firm that helped raise over $1B, and used that momentum to launch Percent.

April 17, 2023

It was a good week. Starting things off on Monday with a $[ ]M commitment from [ ] was a huge win. Following that up with another full day of diligence with [ ] on Wednesday just kept that momentum going. [ ] has done a tremendous amount of diligence work on us already, with many of you involved in that process.

When you’re building a company from the ground up, you will make many mistakes. Learning from them and building core mantras from the lessons you glean will define how you think and operate during your journey. Mantras are born out of your experiences when scaling your company and from surrounding yourself with people who have been down this path before, imparting wisdom from their experience onto you.

This week, I sat down with Sean Smith, co-founder of SMB Investor Network, to talk about a very different slice of the private markets—entrepreneurship through acquisition. We cover everything from his leveraged finance days at CIBC to why he's now focused on buying HVAC companies and plumbing businesses. Plus, we discuss how private credit and SMB equity are surprisingly complementary when it comes to building a resilient, income-generating portfolio.

April 10, 2023

As Q1 numbers start to roll in as well for the rest of the industry, it paints a sobering picture of the tech and startup ecosystem as a whole. Just 21 Series Bs were done in fintech in all of Q1, averaging $25M. It’s important to note that these are just reported fundraises, meaning most of these probably closed in Q4.

April 3, 2023

With that, we've officially closed the books on Q1. For the first time ever in the company's history, we've managed to post three consecutive beats on revenue and also the highest quarter ever for technology revenues. This is no small feat, especially in as volatile and unpredictable a year as this.

With new tariffs already taking effect—and more on the way—I wanted to unpack how this shift is affecting small businesses, capital flows, and ultimately, how we're adapting our lending strategy at Percent to navigate these changes. From forced supply chain changes to increased capital needs, these policy moves are reshaping the economic landscape. I also share listener questions on team dynamics, hard deals, and leadership under pressure.

March 27, 2023

Some stats came out recently about just how difficult it is to fundraise in this environment, particularly for Series Bs. Historically, Series Bs have always been the most challenging as companies at this stage are moving beyond product market fit and for the first time are using the new growth capital to scale the business.