Natasha Sachdeva
VP of Business Development, AlphaFlow
How many years have you been in Private Lending and why did you enter this field?
I’ve been in this field about a year. Prior, I had been in the single-family rental space for ~4 years. During that time, I found an industry starved for capital. I saw how private lending creates accessibility to inventory and knew lending was a growing space I wanted to be a part of.
Where did you get your start?
In private lending? AlphaFlow, a fintech startup where we leverage technology to facilitate liquidity in the real estate (RE) backed credit space.
What do you do for your firm? How do your contributions affect your company at large?
I head our Lender Partnerships team where we act as an internal consultant and a resource to our lenders throughout the loan lifecycle. We are our lenders’ advocate in all aspects. We ensure we are providing the best execution in the most seamless and operationally efficient way possible. Accordingly, we must continuously balance the specific needs and urgency of the client with the associated capital markets’ pricing and liquidity. In doing so, we have significantly increased the number of lenders we purchase from and the average loan volume by lender due to repeat business. Overall, it’s been amazing to build our lender network and play a part of their growth trajectory!
How have you seen your company grow in spite of or because of current market conditions?
COVID exposed the fragility of the secondary market in private lending. Without a GSE backstop, like the traditional owner-occupied mortgage space, the private lending sector experienced a sudden standstill in liquidity capabilities. There was an effort to better understand how to price the intrinsic value of the assets, and the environment has since stabilized. The bridge lending space has recently exploded due to inventory constraints, low interest rates, and soaring home price appreciation. This has resulted in our lender partners originating loans at record volumes and requiring the ability to cycle through capital quicker than ever. As an exchange with deep and consistent liquidity, we have seen exponential growth in the last year just within RE loan products.
What are some of your goals for 2022 and beyond?
Our overall company goal is to continue to build more products and features that further optimize and automate our lenders’ day-to-day tasks. My goal specifically, is to scale our Lender Partnerships team to maintain our personalized relationship-based approach as we continue to onboard new lenders onto our platform.
What does success look like for you?
Turning a vision into a reality (one of the main reasons I love working in the start-up world), having a direct positive impact, and delivering results consistently.
What is something most people don’t know about you or your company?
I double majored in Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and started my career as a Petroleum Engineer. After a lot of discovery, I found a passion in building tech-focused companies, particularly for antiquated industries ripe for disruption such as real estate.
What steps are you or your company taking today to make an impact on the industry?
I see change in our industry coming from two perspectives. There is the capital demand side, which frames a credit box that structured finance professionals, credit agencies, and investors feel comfortable with. On the other end, there is the constantly evolving supply side where lenders and borrowers are modifying products and programs to give real estate entrepreneurs access to decreasing levels of inventory. We focus on both sides while also understanding the constraints of each party.
We empower lenders by providing them access to quick and reliable capital through technology. By using our platform, lenders are scaling their business with minimal increase in resources. This also allows them to substantially increase their productivity and use their time on what matters most, the borrower experience. Alongside, we enable our capital partners to access a unique short-term/high-return asset class.
What piece of advice did you personally receive early in your career that has helped shape decisions you’ve made?
Make the most out of every experience. Take advantage and extract as much value and learnings as you can, whether it be skills or industry expertise.
Tell us about a person or organization you admire. How have they made an important impact on you, the industry, or the world?
By far my parents. They immigrated here and established themselves through perseverance, resilience, and sheer grit. Nothing was impossible and there was always a solution to any problem. Seeing this firsthand influenced how I perceive challenges as opportunities and success as a direct product of work ethic.
Are you involved in any associations, networking groups, or the like that have influenced your career path?
Throughout my career, I have connected with mentors who have offered advice, been a sounding board, and expanded my network. Their perspectives and knowledge have given me the ability to make educated decisions on future opportunities.
If you had a clean slate to start over and do anything you wanted to do, what would that be?
A world traveler.
What is the best advice you could give someone thinking about making a leap into Private Lending?
Find a great mentor. We all need a guide and finding a helpful one can make the difference between knowledge and growth versus simply employment. Talk to industry veterans and gain insights from their experiences. Go to a few Private Lending conferences, attend panels, and network!
