Welcome to Fear and Greed Sunday feature. I'm Michael Thompson. This week we took a deep, deep dive into the Fear and Greed archives and came across this interview from October of twenty twenty one. Canadian Michelle Romano is a serial entrepreneur. You've got to say. She made her fortune through a number of businesses, mostly in e commerce. She's also a TV personality, the equivalent of one of the sharks on Shark Tank. It's dragons Den back in Canada. But Sean Aylmer spoke to her in twenty twenty one when Michelle was bringing another business to Australia, a company called clear coo with a new model for funding startups, and it all sounded really, really exciting. You're fast forward now to twenty twenty five, and it feels like a snapshot of a very optimistic time. Clearco got hammered by a slowdown in the tech startup industry. It shut down its Australian operations, in fact, pretty much all of its international operations to bring its focus back to the US and Canada. Still, this is a fascinating conversation about a different model of funding businesses and what a successful serial entrepreneur looks for in a startup. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Fear and Greed Sunday feature. I'm Michael Thompson. This week we took a deep, deep dive into the Fear and Greed archives and came across this interview from October of twenty twenty one. Canadian Michelle Romano is a serial entrepreneur. You've got to say. She made her fortune through a number of businesses, mostly in e commerce. She's also a TV personality, the equivalent of one of the sharks on Shark Tank. It's dragons Den back in Canada. But Sean Aylmer spoke to her in twenty twenty one when Michelle was bringing another business to Australia, a company called clear coo with a new model for funding startups, and it all sounded really, really exciting. You're fast forward now to twenty twenty five, and it feels like a snapshot of a very optimistic time. Clearco got hammered by a slowdown in the tech startup industry. It shut down its Australian operations, in fact, pretty much all of its international operations to bring its focus back to the US and Canada. Still, this is a fascinating conversation about a different model of funding businesses and what a successful serial entrepreneur looks for in a startup. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. I'm Sean Alma. We're in the middle of a startup boom in Australia and now an innovative international investor is bringing one hundred million dollars onto the scene. Clearco is the world's largest e commerce investor, having put more than two and a half billion US dollars globally into five five hundred startups across three continents. Australia will be the company's first Southern Hemisphere launch market. One of the things that makes clear cod different from conventional venture capital firms is that it operates on a revenue based funding model, which means Clearco doesn't take an equity stake in the startup. Michel Romano is a co founder and president of Clearco. She's also a serial entrepreneur, having started six companies before her thirty fifth birthday, and appeared on Dragon's Den in her home country of Canada. She joins me this morning from New York. Michelle, Welcome to Fear and great Oh.

Welcome to the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. I'm Sean Alma. We're in the middle of a startup boom in Australia and now an innovative international investor is bringing one hundred million dollars onto the scene. Clearco is the world's largest e commerce investor, having put more than two and a half billion US dollars globally into five five hundred startups across three continents. Australia will be the company's first Southern Hemisphere launch market. One of the things that makes clear cod different from conventional venture capital firms is that it operates on a revenue based funding model, which means Clearco doesn't take an equity stake in the startup. Michel Romano is a co founder and president of Clearco. She's also a serial entrepreneur, having started six companies before her thirty fifth birthday, and appeared on Dragon's Den in her home country of Canada. She joins me this morning from New York. Michelle, Welcome to Fear and great Oh.

It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me.

It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me.

Michele, people like you make me exhausted. How can you have six companies before your thirty fifth birthday?

Michele, people like you make me exhausted. How can you have six companies before your thirty fifth birthday?

Oh, I didn't sleep very much. It's pretty simple, No, I mean, I think the biggest thing is I started early, right. I started right out of of engineering school, started my first business, which was, you know, a caviar fishery, and then you know, the ball got rolling and just kind of took it from there.

Oh, I didn't sleep very much. It's pretty simple, No, I mean, I think the biggest thing is I started early, right. I started right out of of engineering school, started my first business, which was, you know, a caviar fishery, and then you know, the ball got rolling and just kind of took it from there.

Okay, so you're an engineer by training, is that right? And what sort of businesses have you been involved in yourself?

Okay, so you're an engineer by training, is that right? And what sort of businesses have you been involved in yourself?

So I go to school for engineering. I figure out that I'm not going to be very good at building bridges and instead much better at building businesses. So I build a little coffee shop on campus as my first business. I graduate and figure out that worldwide supply of sturgeon caviar is down by ninety five percent because the world has overfished the Caspian Sea, and moved myself up to the East coast to build a fishery, which was a great business until the two thousand and eight recession, in which case it was a horrible business. And from there started an early e commerce company in Canada. So I deeply understand our customers. It's now a small publicly traded company in Canada. From there, built another app that was acquired by Groupon in twenty fourteen. And that really leads to the part of the story where I get asked to join the cast of Dragons Den. I think, you guys have the same show in Australia.

So I go to school for engineering. I figure out that I'm not going to be very good at building bridges and instead much better at building businesses. So I build a little coffee shop on campus as my first business. I graduate and figure out that worldwide supply of sturgeon caviar is down by ninety five percent because the world has overfished the Caspian Sea, and moved myself up to the East coast to build a fishery, which was a great business until the two thousand and eight recession, in which case it was a horrible business. And from there started an early e commerce company in Canada. So I deeply understand our customers. It's now a small publicly traded company in Canada. From there, built another app that was acquired by Groupon in twenty fourteen. And that really leads to the part of the story where I get asked to join the cast of Dragons Den. I think, you guys have the same show in Australia.

It's Shark Tank is how we call it.

It's Shark Tank is how we call it.

Yeah, exactly, but the same concept. Entrepreneurs come on the show. And it was a really unique opportunity that I got invited to join the show when I was quite young. I was twenty eight but you know, and everyone's like, wow, congrats, and I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm scared. I'm the youngest person here. I feel like the poorest person here. And I think as a result of that, I just saw these businesses a lot differently and what I saw because we filmed the whole show in three weeks, right, we two hundred and fifty pitches in those three weeks. It's the same way everywhere the show is made. And so you're starting to see these entrepreneurs come on the show and they have, you know, great e commerce products, and they're like, look, I'm looking for one hundred thousand dollars for ten percent of my business. And what's really interesting is you when you ask those founders what they needed the money for, it was always the same two things. It was I need it for user growth, which is Facebook and Google Ads, and I need it for inventory. And so I remember talking to my co founder Andrew and being like, you know, why are founders using the most expensive capital in the world, which is equity, to do something that really has a fixed return. And so we put our heads together and I actually remember I came back on the show and I was like, look, I'm just going to throw it at a different deal tape. I'm going to give you that one hundred thousand dollars you were looking for, but instead of taking ten percent of your company that I will own forever, I just want ten percent of your revenue, just until you pay me back my capital plus six percent. And the founder that day was really confused, like, well, isn't this alone, And I'm like, no, it's not alone. There's no personal guarantee, there's no fixed payment timeline, there's no compounding interest, and if you don't pay me back, I'm not going to take your business or put you into bankruptcy like normal debt does. I said, the only trick to my deal is that I really want to see your Facebook ad data because I'll understand, you know, if you have really good unit economics and so so it was actually on the show that day that the founder was like, yes, I want to take that deal, and you know, the rest is a little bit of history, and that's really become what Clearco is today.

Yeah, exactly, but the same concept. Entrepreneurs come on the show. And it was a really unique opportunity that I got invited to join the show when I was quite young. I was twenty eight but you know, and everyone's like, wow, congrats, and I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm scared. I'm the youngest person here. I feel like the poorest person here. And I think as a result of that, I just saw these businesses a lot differently and what I saw because we filmed the whole show in three weeks, right, we two hundred and fifty pitches in those three weeks. It's the same way everywhere the show is made. And so you're starting to see these entrepreneurs come on the show and they have, you know, great e commerce products, and they're like, look, I'm looking for one hundred thousand dollars for ten percent of my business. And what's really interesting is you when you ask those founders what they needed the money for, it was always the same two things. It was I need it for user growth, which is Facebook and Google Ads, and I need it for inventory. And so I remember talking to my co founder Andrew and being like, you know, why are founders using the most expensive capital in the world, which is equity, to do something that really has a fixed return. And so we put our heads together and I actually remember I came back on the show and I was like, look, I'm just going to throw it at a different deal tape. I'm going to give you that one hundred thousand dollars you were looking for, but instead of taking ten percent of your company that I will own forever, I just want ten percent of your revenue, just until you pay me back my capital plus six percent. And the founder that day was really confused, like, well, isn't this alone, And I'm like, no, it's not alone. There's no personal guarantee, there's no fixed payment timeline, there's no compounding interest, and if you don't pay me back, I'm not going to take your business or put you into bankruptcy like normal debt does. I said, the only trick to my deal is that I really want to see your Facebook ad data because I'll understand, you know, if you have really good unit economics and so so it was actually on the show that day that the founder was like, yes, I want to take that deal, and you know, the rest is a little bit of history, and that's really become what Clearco is today.

Okay, so let me get this. So revenue based funding is all about so it's not a loan because there are no guarantees, but it is about Clearco providing one hundred thousand in this example being paid back on the basis of revenue plus whatever rate that is. Is that over one year, two year, three year? Is there term involved? How is that? And what are the guarantees?

Okay, so let me get this. So revenue based funding is all about so it's not a loan because there are no guarantees, but it is about Clearco providing one hundred thousand in this example being paid back on the basis of revenue plus whatever rate that is. Is that over one year, two year, three year? Is there term involved? How is that? And what are the guarantees?

No, there's no guarantees. So we have no personal guarantees in your business. That's why we really have to understand your data. If we don't pay us back, we don't put you into bankruptcy. And typically we get our money back anywhere from eight to twelve months, I would say is usually typical. And there's some companies that we've funded, you know, twenty five times, and we've scaled them from you know, ten thousand dollars a month businesses all the way to one hundred million dollar businesses because we will give companies between ten thousand up to ten million dollars.

No, there's no guarantees. So we have no personal guarantees in your business. That's why we really have to understand your data. If we don't pay us back, we don't put you into bankruptcy. And typically we get our money back anywhere from eight to twelve months, I would say is usually typical. And there's some companies that we've funded, you know, twenty five times, and we've scaled them from you know, ten thousand dollars a month businesses all the way to one hundred million dollar businesses because we will give companies between ten thousand up to ten million dollars.

And is six per cent a typical interest rate or does that move around a bit?

And is six per cent a typical interest rate or does that move around a bit?

So it's actually not interest rate. It's a flat fee. So if we give you one hundred grand, you ow US one hundred and six thousand dollars. If you take us two years to pay us back, you still owe us one hundred and six thousand dollars. Which is why it's very different than an interest rate because it doesn't compound or grow. You actually always know what it's going to cost you for that capital. And yeah, if you spend your money on inventory or ads, it's always six percent.

So it's actually not interest rate. It's a flat fee. So if we give you one hundred grand, you ow US one hundred and six thousand dollars. If you take us two years to pay us back, you still owe us one hundred and six thousand dollars. Which is why it's very different than an interest rate because it doesn't compound or grow. You actually always know what it's going to cost you for that capital. And yeah, if you spend your money on inventory or ads, it's always six percent.

Wow, you must have very supportive shareholders of your business, Michele.

Wow, you must have very supportive shareholders of your business, Michele.

We really started a new model. And I can tell you it's really funny being back in New York right now, because I mean this is where we went to get our original capital base. And I can tell you there was two hundred and forty nine people on Wall Street that said no to us. They said you know, you guys don't understand credit. You're going to lose all your money. You don't know what you're doing. And what we said is, look, I'd run an e commerce business before. The success of e commerce businesses is correlated to what your unit economics are, which means you know, after you make a sale and you subtract your product cost and your cost of ads, are you making money? And your growth rate and what audience sizes you'd penetrated. And so it took a long time, in many years. I mean, we were schlepping around in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen asking for this money, and we were able to show investors that, in fact, we have way more businesses. I mean, we've put out two and a half billion dollars into founder's hands.

We really started a new model. And I can tell you it's really funny being back in New York right now, because I mean this is where we went to get our original capital base. And I can tell you there was two hundred and forty nine people on Wall Street that said no to us. They said you know, you guys don't understand credit. You're going to lose all your money. You don't know what you're doing. And what we said is, look, I'd run an e commerce business before. The success of e commerce businesses is correlated to what your unit economics are, which means you know, after you make a sale and you subtract your product cost and your cost of ads, are you making money? And your growth rate and what audience sizes you'd penetrated. And so it took a long time, in many years. I mean, we were schlepping around in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen asking for this money, and we were able to show investors that, in fact, we have way more businesses. I mean, we've put out two and a half billion dollars into founder's hands.

It's an incredible amount of money.

It's an incredible amount of money.

It's an incredible amount of money, and I just want to put that as a sense of scale for you. Like a huge venture fund in the US, like one of the big ones is maybe a billion dollar fund, and they deploy that capital over seven years. I mean, we've done two and a half billion and six years. So what we believe is that our market size is so much bigger. We're incredibly excited about the Australian marketplace because we know it's super tech savvy, lots of e commerce companies, and really under served.

It's an incredible amount of money, and I just want to put that as a sense of scale for you. Like a huge venture fund in the US, like one of the big ones is maybe a billion dollar fund, and they deploy that capital over seven years. I mean, we've done two and a half billion and six years. So what we believe is that our market size is so much bigger. We're incredibly excited about the Australian marketplace because we know it's super tech savvy, lots of e commerce companies, and really under served.

So why Australia.

So why Australia.

It's that it's we know there's tons of great ecommerce founders there. We don't think they're being served well by current options and we can see that in terms of like the way that banks have set up and they've charged for their capital and they've had guarantees associated with them, and so we think it's and we think there's just some incredible founders there deserve a better capital option.

It's that it's we know there's tons of great ecommerce founders there. We don't think they're being served well by current options and we can see that in terms of like the way that banks have set up and they've charged for their capital and they've had guarantees associated with them, and so we think it's and we think there's just some incredible founders there deserve a better capital option.

And it's not necessarily what we always think of as a digital company. You've also invested in like Beard Market and Vegan Grocery Store already in Australia, which aren't pure ecommerce players. Are they? Yeah?

And it's not necessarily what we always think of as a digital company. You've also invested in like Beard Market and Vegan Grocery Store already in Australia, which aren't pure ecommerce players. Are they? Yeah?

I mean they have an e commerce component right like Beard Market has an awesome e commerce part of it, so does Australia's Vegan Grocery Store. But a lot of these have offline revenue as well. But we're you know, as long as they have a digital component, we can get very excited about backing them.

I mean they have an e commerce component right like Beard Market has an awesome e commerce part of it, so does Australia's Vegan Grocery Store. But a lot of these have offline revenue as well. But we're you know, as long as they have a digital component, we can get very excited about backing them.

Michelle, stay with me, we'll be back in a minute. I'm speaking to Michele Romanow, the co founder and president of Clearco. Okay, now, the use of artificial intelligence platforms to help make funding decisions, I want to delve into that a little bit. And I have seen you on YouTube and read about you. And the idea that it removes age, gender, race, and religion as factors influencing investments is really, really interesting, particularly in a startup market where a lot of traditional funders aren't meeting traditional companies.

Michelle, stay with me, we'll be back in a minute. I'm speaking to Michele Romanow, the co founder and president of Clearco. Okay, now, the use of artificial intelligence platforms to help make funding decisions, I want to delve into that a little bit. And I have seen you on YouTube and read about you. And the idea that it removes age, gender, race, and religion as factors influencing investments is really, really interesting, particularly in a startup market where a lot of traditional funders aren't meeting traditional companies.

So let me explain to you how it works if you're a founder. So, if you're a founder that's looking to raise capital, you can come to Clearco. You can connect us to the apps that run your business. So these are things like your payment process or where you're spending money on ads and you're accounting data. That all takes you maybe ten minutes if you remember your passwords. If you don't remember your passwords, like me, it's twenty minutes. But in twenty minutes, we can give you a term sheet and we can say, look, based on the data in your business, this is how much capital we can give you. And you know this is the six percent of the terms of that capital. So first of all, that is way faster than any VC process. I mean, I've raised multiple rounds of VC money for this company. I wish we could have raised through Clearco, but we didn't have that option. And the fastest you can ever fundraise is really three to six months, and it is a grueling process that completely takes my eye off the business, and I just basically go fundraise. So we have a way faster option, and then think about the data we're using. We don't need your pitch deck, we don't need to meet you. We don't know who you are, or where you grew up, or which university you went to. In fact, in many cases, we don't even care what product you're selling. We care about the things I talked about earlier, which were unit economics, growth rate and your audience penetration sizes. And in that way, it's been really remarkable. So we when we built this, we just thought about building something that was better for founders, and so this was a faster way to do it, This where I didn't have to do all these pitch meetings and get all these custom spreadsheets and do all this diligence. So that was the original way, but we realized that we basically built an AI that took out a lot of the bias from these decision makings. And so when we look back at our portfolio Sean, we saw very different statistics. I mean, we had backed eight times more women than the venture capital industry average. We had backed founders in all fifty states in America and the UK. Seventy percent of our founders lived outside of the UK, and a much higher proportion of our founders were black, Indigenous and people of color, which to me means that there had just always been these very strong biases. And again I don't blame VC. It was a human to human business, right, So if you went to schools with other vcs and if you knew them, I mean the first litmus test of pitching a VC is that they don't take cold email intros. Sp you have to be in their network. And so we've gotten businesses that look like they're from a certain pedigree, from a certain background. And look, the reality is is, I've always believed that great businesses can come from anywhere. I believe that actually founders that have had probably a tougher card in life are often better founders than ones that had a silver spoon in life. Yeah, and so we just think it's going to be pretty incredible to think about the world we can live in when everyone with a great idea has the ability to get that business funded.

So let me explain to you how it works if you're a founder. So, if you're a founder that's looking to raise capital, you can come to Clearco. You can connect us to the apps that run your business. So these are things like your payment process or where you're spending money on ads and you're accounting data. That all takes you maybe ten minutes if you remember your passwords. If you don't remember your passwords, like me, it's twenty minutes. But in twenty minutes, we can give you a term sheet and we can say, look, based on the data in your business, this is how much capital we can give you. And you know this is the six percent of the terms of that capital. So first of all, that is way faster than any VC process. I mean, I've raised multiple rounds of VC money for this company. I wish we could have raised through Clearco, but we didn't have that option. And the fastest you can ever fundraise is really three to six months, and it is a grueling process that completely takes my eye off the business, and I just basically go fundraise. So we have a way faster option, and then think about the data we're using. We don't need your pitch deck, we don't need to meet you. We don't know who you are, or where you grew up, or which university you went to. In fact, in many cases, we don't even care what product you're selling. We care about the things I talked about earlier, which were unit economics, growth rate and your audience penetration sizes. And in that way, it's been really remarkable. So we when we built this, we just thought about building something that was better for founders, and so this was a faster way to do it, This where I didn't have to do all these pitch meetings and get all these custom spreadsheets and do all this diligence. So that was the original way, but we realized that we basically built an AI that took out a lot of the bias from these decision makings. And so when we look back at our portfolio Sean, we saw very different statistics. I mean, we had backed eight times more women than the venture capital industry average. We had backed founders in all fifty states in America and the UK. Seventy percent of our founders lived outside of the UK, and a much higher proportion of our founders were black, Indigenous and people of color, which to me means that there had just always been these very strong biases. And again I don't blame VC. It was a human to human business, right, So if you went to schools with other vcs and if you knew them, I mean the first litmus test of pitching a VC is that they don't take cold email intros. Sp you have to be in their network. And so we've gotten businesses that look like they're from a certain pedigree, from a certain background. And look, the reality is is, I've always believed that great businesses can come from anywhere. I believe that actually founders that have had probably a tougher card in life are often better founders than ones that had a silver spoon in life. Yeah, and so we just think it's going to be pretty incredible to think about the world we can live in when everyone with a great idea has the ability to get that business funded.

The thing gnawing at me about everything you've just said. It's fantastic. Total agreement. But every time you talk to a big investor, they always talk about how important management is, how important the person running the show is.

The thing gnawing at me about everything you've just said. It's fantastic. Total agreement. But every time you talk to a big investor, they always talk about how important management is, how important the person running the show is.

Totally.

Totally.

And in some ways you're... is it just that if you've got the financial results and the cultural results you gain, have a good manager, so you don't need to worry about that. And I'm just interested in whether you have much to do with the CEO of these companies.

And in some ways you're... is it just that if you've got the financial results and the cultural results you gain, have a good manager, so you don't need to worry about that. And I'm just interested in whether you have much to do with the CEO of these companies.

We have nothing to do with who the CEOs and managements are. I think it's one of the unique parts of our model. And look, of course I would believe that management makes a difference in the team, but I also believe that's reflected in their numbers. And you know, vcs get to play this, you know, kingmaking game where they get to annoint certain companies winners and certain companies losers based on whatever criteria that you know is either intuitive in their minds, and we think that there's probably a better way, and we've seen a lot of people that don't look like traditional founders that have built incredibly successful companies because of that.

We have nothing to do with who the CEOs and managements are. I think it's one of the unique parts of our model. And look, of course I would believe that management makes a difference in the team, but I also believe that's reflected in their numbers. And you know, vcs get to play this, you know, kingmaking game where they get to annoint certain companies winners and certain companies losers based on whatever criteria that you know is either intuitive in their minds, and we think that there's probably a better way, and we've seen a lot of people that don't look like traditional founders that have built incredibly successful companies because of that.

Okay, so the sixty four dollar question, of course is how has Clearco gone in its investments, because if it works, Clearco should be doing reasonably well out of it, as should all the people you've invested in, well some of them.

Okay, so the sixty four dollar question, of course is how has Clearco gone in its investments, because if it works, Clearco should be doing reasonably well out of it, as should all the people you've invested in, well some of them.

Anyway, Yeah, exactly. I mean, we know that companies that take our capital grow at double the rate of the companies that don't take our capital. So I can tell you that our founders are more successful they when they join the Clearco family. We not only give founders capital, we also give them access to an enormous network of other founders and a lot of advice to go along with how to spend that money and how to grow efficiently. And so there's a lot of products. I mean, you can see your own deashboard, you can see you know what your benchmarks are, you can see how your pack is comparing to other people in your category, and so all of those are very useful pieces of software that we built on top. And then I mean it's been one of the reasons that Clearco has been able to expand. I mean we were, you know, the first deal that SoftBank has ever invested in Canada was Clearco and so there's people that are clearly very excited about the model today.

Anyway, Yeah, exactly. I mean, we know that companies that take our capital grow at double the rate of the companies that don't take our capital. So I can tell you that our founders are more successful they when they join the Clearco family. We not only give founders capital, we also give them access to an enormous network of other founders and a lot of advice to go along with how to spend that money and how to grow efficiently. And so there's a lot of products. I mean, you can see your own deashboard, you can see you know what your benchmarks are, you can see how your pack is comparing to other people in your category, and so all of those are very useful pieces of software that we built on top. And then I mean it's been one of the reasons that Clearco has been able to expand. I mean we were, you know, the first deal that SoftBank has ever invested in Canada was Clearco and so there's people that are clearly very excited about the model today.

Michelle, you obviously like entrepreneurs and startups.

Michelle, you obviously like entrepreneurs and startups.

Why because I think they're are best bet to change the future and build the world that we want to live in. I look at all the solutioning we have, and you know, I think about even a big problem like you know, climate change for example, right governments have spent trillions of dollars trying to make a dent on this, and the real people that have made a difference are you know, the entrepreneurs that built electric cars and trucks that people wanted to drive. The nest thermostat made a meaningful difference in the US, and so they're just such a good channel to back and I think that that's what I spent my career doing. I was not only a founder, so I understand that part of the journey and understand how hard this is and how the cards are really stacked against you. But then inevitably, if you want to help founders, when you have to solve the capital problem, because the capital is still unfairly distributed today and so this is our attempt to make a little drop in that bucket and we think we can have a meaningful impact.

Why because I think they're are best bet to change the future and build the world that we want to live in. I look at all the solutioning we have, and you know, I think about even a big problem like you know, climate change for example, right governments have spent trillions of dollars trying to make a dent on this, and the real people that have made a difference are you know, the entrepreneurs that built electric cars and trucks that people wanted to drive. The nest thermostat made a meaningful difference in the US, and so they're just such a good channel to back and I think that that's what I spent my career doing. I was not only a founder, so I understand that part of the journey and understand how hard this is and how the cards are really stacked against you. But then inevitably, if you want to help founders, when you have to solve the capital problem, because the capital is still unfairly distributed today and so this is our attempt to make a little drop in that bucket and we think we can have a meaningful impact.

Well, what I think is exciting for Australian businesses is the cost of capital with Clearco is far less than many other alternates. So good luck. It's launching this week in Australia. Thank you very much for talking to Fear and Greed.

Well, what I think is exciting for Australian businesses is the cost of capital with Clearco is far less than many other alternates. So good luck. It's launching this week in Australia. Thank you very much for talking to Fear and Greed.

Michelle, Oh, it was amazing to be here. Thank you for having me.

Michelle, Oh, it was amazing to be here. Thank you for having me.

That was Michelle Romano, the co founder and president of Clearco. This is the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. Join me every morning for the full Fear and Greed podcast with all the business news you need to know. I'm Sean Aylmer. Enjoy your day.

That was Michelle Romano, the co founder and president of Clearco. This is the Fear and Greed Daily Interview. Join me every morning for the full Fear and Greed podcast with all the business news you need to know. I'm Sean Aylmer. Enjoy your day.