iBank Matches Small Biz Owners, Lenders

If you're looking for an injection of cash, whether you're General Motors (GM Quote) or Joe the Plumber, you're scrambling to find money.

While GM has no problem asking the government for a check, Joe has burned that bridge, or it's safe to say there's no rush to pull his paperwork from the bottom of the pile. Tom Markel, the 53-year-old founder of iBank, has been there.

Markel is a third-generation entrepreneur who made his first chunk of cash selling an invention that turned Adidas shoes into roller skates in the late 1970s. Two decades later, he was hired by Gary Tharaldson, a hotel proprietor with over 200 properties, to consolidate debt into a single loan with one lender. Markel immediately recognized the inefficiencies with the repeated paperwork and processes and also understood the struggles other businesses must be facing.

"I knew several things that were challenges in the marketplace to small businesses," says Markel. "One is the average business goes to four different lenders before getting a loan. Number two: About 60% of the people who apply for a business loan don't get one. It has nothing to do with credit or collateral; it has a lot to do with preparing a professional loan package. And number three, we knew that the small business was coming multiple times each year for money."

Knowing those three facts, Markel set out to build a digital solution. In 2001, he put a team together and began building the technology, eventually launching iBank in 2004. He started by creating a digital secure vault, a virtual filing cabinet.