Simple terms. No fine print.
Secured business loans of $250K–$5M, explained plainly — nothing buried, no surprises at closing. If you qualify, you’ll know quickly. If you don’t, we’ll help you understand where to go next. We’re here to help small businesses get the right capital, and that only works when the deal works for everyone — the borrower, the investors who fund it, and us.
What we lend on
Business-purpose loans secured by real estate. No guesswork — here are the actual parameters.
1 Start here
We work with two kinds of people.
You own real estate and need capital
Small businesses
If you own real estate — or invoice large, creditworthy customers — and need capital quickly, we can usually tell you where you stand within a day. A few common situations:
- “The bank declined me, or the process is taking too long.”
- “I’m buying a business and need to close on a deadline.”
- “I need capital to grow or reposition, and I own the property.”
- “My financials are solid but complicated.”
- “I invoice large or government customers and need working capital while I wait to get paid.”
You want monthly cash flow
Investors
If you’re looking for a low-maintenance investment that pays you monthly — secured by real estate — this may be a fit. A few common goals:
- “I want steady monthly income, not something I have to manage.”
- “I want returns backed by hard collateral, not market swings.”
- “I’m building income beyond a single paycheck.”
- “I have capital sitting idle and want to understand my options.”
Advising or representing someone else — broker, banker, CPA, attorney? Here’s how referrals work →
About BuildUp
Who we are, plainly
We lend our own money alongside our investors’ — at least 10% of every loan — so we only do deals we’d be comfortable holding ourselves. Our team has built, bought, run, and sold businesses, and our co-founder and chief investment officer, Donna Cangelosi, spent years as a federal trustee handling complex real estate workouts. That background is why we read a deal as a business, not just a credit file. The two-minute introduction covers who we are and how this works.
What “BuildUp” means
The whole idea is to keep moving up.
Build up your company. Build up your knowledge. Build up your wealth. Three different people, one direction — and one rule underneath all of it.
Build up your company
For borrowers: capital to grow, acquire, or reposition — structured to strengthen the business, not strain it.
Build up your knowledge
For everyone: plain explanations of how secured lending actually works, so you decide from understanding — not pressure.
Build up your wealth
For investors: secured, disciplined returns from real-estate-backed loans, with our own money in alongside yours.
Why we exist
Why good businesses get turned down
The banks retreated
Since 2008 — and again after COVID — bank credit standards have shut out healthy, growing small businesses. “Not yet” became the default answer for good borrowers.
Predatory capital moved in
Merchant cash advances, daily debits, effective rates north of 50% — products designed around the borrower’s failure, from lenders hoping for the keys.
Disciplined private capital
Private-capital speed. Bank-grade underwriting. Operator judgment. Real collateral, honest terms, and our own money invested alongside yours in every deal.
Loan programs
What we lend on, and what we don’t
Bridge, fix-and-flip, acquisition, cross-collateralized, second-lien, and asset-based loans — secured by real estate, structured around your exit. Plus receivables-backed lines of credit — payroll funding, government receivables, and factoring — available nationwide.
Our rates reflect short-term bridge capital. Most of our borrowers refinance into long-term debt within 18 months — often back at their bank. We plan that exit with you from day one.
We do the deals banks won’t touch.
Banks decline complexity, not just credit. Our team has spent decades inside operating businesses, so the situations that stop a bank’s checklist are the ones we know how to underwrite.
Complex isn’t the same as weak. We decline weak deals. We underwrite complex ones.
Where we fit
Where in a company’s life this kind of capital fits
Capital needs change across a company’s life. We lend in the window where a business has real operating history, real estate to secure the loan, and a clear plan — growth, acquisition, or repositioning for sale.
We’re not startup capital and we’re not a last resort. We fund established, real-estate-owning businesses in their highest-leverage moments — when the right capital turns a good company into a more valuable one.
Education
Understand it before you decide
Most people never get a straight explanation of how this kind of capital actually works. We’re changing that — on the page and on our podcast. Start with the track that fits you.
For Borrowers
Understand your capital before you take it on
How secured lending works, where your business is in its life cycle, and how to structure a deal that strengthens your company instead of sinking it.
- 1Secured Asset Lending 101What it is, how it works, and how it compares to other instruments.
- 2The Business Life Cycle & When You Need CapitalFind the moment the right capital creates the most value.
- 3Declined by the Bank or SBA? What It Really MeansWhy a “no” is usually about complexity or timing — not your business.
- 4How to Buy a Business (and structure the deal right)Owner overlap, protective covenants, and the traps to avoid.
For Capital Partners
Understand the opportunity before you invest
How real-estate-secured lending generates risk-adjusted return, how it compares to equity, and the vehicles sophisticated investors use to hold it.
- 1Why Invest in Secured Asset LendingRisk vs. reward, and where this fits in a portfolio.
- 2Equity vs. Debt InvestingLiquidity, lockups, and how returns actually behave.
- 3Building Multiple Sources of IncomeWhy a single paycheck is the riskiest position of all.
- 4Investment Vehicles & StructuresSelf-directed IRAs and how investors hold this asset class.
Educational content only. Nothing here is investment, legal, or tax advice — but it’s the honest groundwork most lenders never give you.
Why BuildUp
We’re not bankers who discovered lending. We’re operators who became lenders.
Our entire investment team has built, run, bought, and sold businesses. We read your deal the way you do — as a business plan, not just a collateral file. We structure every loan around your exit, we only fund deals we believe will succeed — and if this is your first time taking on debt, we’ll make sure you understand exactly what you’re signing and why.
We succeed only when you do
Some private lenders profit when borrowers fail. Our model is the opposite — we invest our own capital in every deal, so your success is our return.
We’ve sat in your seat
Decades of combined experience building, running, buying, and selling businesses across our markets. We underwrite like owners, because we’ve been owners.
Deep experience for hard moments
Our co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, Donna Cangelosi, is a former federal trustee and one of the nation’s specialists in complex real estate workouts. We underwrite so your deal never needs that expertise — but if the unforeseeable happens, you’ll want a partner who has it.
How we operate
How we work, in seven plain commitments
Verified, not assumed
Every deal is independently diligenced. No shortcuts.
Skin in the game
We invest our own capital — at least 10% — in every loan we make.
We lend where we have expertise
Markets we know. Business models we understand. Assets with real demand.
Real collateral, conservatively valued
We only lend against assets we’d be comfortable owning.
Every deal has a plan B
We structure multiple exit paths before we fund a single dollar.
24-hour response, guaranteed
Brokers, borrowers, and partners always know where they stand.
Technology-enabled, human-reviewed
Automation makes us fast. People make us right.
Declined by your bank or SBA lender?
A decline usually means complexity or timing — not the quality of your business. Read our guide to what a bank “no” really means, and what experienced operators do next.
Our commitment
We invest our own capital in every loan we make. That’s why you can trust the “yes.”
When we underwrite your deal, we’re underwriting our own money. That’s why we’re selective — and why a term sheet from BuildUp means the deal is getting done.
Common questions
Questions people ask us
Is BuildUp Capital a hard money lender?
What loan sizes and terms do you offer?
What types of loans does BuildUp offer?
Can I use multiple properties as collateral for one loan?
What if my bank or SBA lender declined me?
Do you take second lien positions?
What credit profile do you look for?
What if my financials aren’t perfectly clean?
Do you lend outside the states you serve?
How fast can you actually close?
Capital partners
For people who want to put capital to work
Our capital partners come to us for different reasons — dependable cash flow in retirement, a second source of income beyond a single paycheck, or risk-adjusted returns for a family office. What they share is a conviction: that disciplined, real-estate-secured lending — underwritten by people who have actually built and run businesses — is how serious capital should be deployed.
Our money moves first
We invest at least 10% of our own capital in every loan we make. We never ask our partners to take a risk we haven’t already taken ourselves.
Selectivity over volume
We verify everything, lend only in markets we know firsthand, only against assets we’d be comfortable owning, and structure multiple exit paths before a dollar moves. We’d rather pass on a hundred deals than force one.
Downside managed by specialists
Our co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, Donna Cangelosi, is a former federal trustee and one of the nation’s specialists in complex real estate workouts. The judgment that unwinds hard situations is the same judgment that keeps our portfolio out of them.
We discuss partnership details only in direct conversation, not online.
Get started
If you’re not sure whether you’re a fit, that’s fine. Ask us.
A real person reads every inquiry and responds within 24 hours. No call center, no automated maybe.