We're delighted to announce that Lisa Mendez has joined Prime Edge Advisory as Director of SBA & Underwriting. Lisa brings fifteen years of small-business credit experience — five at a SBA Preferred Lender as a senior underwriter, followed by ten years as an independent packager working directly with owner-operators across retail, light manufacturing, healthcare, and food service.
We've been quietly working with Lisa on a referral basis for years. Her file rejection rate is in the single digits across thousands of submissions — a number we don't think is coincidental. Lisa knows which questions a 7(a) underwriter will ask before they ask them, and she packages the file accordingly. It's the closest thing to a superpower in this business.
"I joined Prime Edge because every conversation I had with the team was about the owner first. That's not how this industry usually sounds, and it's not how I want to spend the next ten years of my career."
— Lisa Mendez, Director of SBA & Underwriting
What changes for our clients
Lisa is now leading our SBA pipeline end-to-end. In practice, this means three things for FFSB applicants:
- SBA-eligible files get her review before submission. If a deal can be packaged better, she'll catch it.
- Acquisition financing — particularly internal succession — is now a deeper specialty for the firm. Lisa has closed more than a hundred succession deals.
- Our packaging standards across the firm just leveled up. Lisa is rolling out an internal training program for the advisory bench.
What hasn't changed
The application is still the same short form. Andy still runs the state collaboration desk. Kylie still leads post-funding advisory. Jayden still personally reviews every closing over $1M. Lisa joins a team — she doesn't replace one.
Welcome, Lisa. We're glad you're here.