About us
Funding people, not files.
1 Business Funding exists because of a pattern we kept seeing: good businesses getting bad capital — wrong product, wrong term, wrong price — simply because nobody on the other side of the table was paid to care. So we built a desk where one advisor owns your file, every program is in play, and the owner never pays a dime for the work.
How we work
One file, one advisor, every option.
When your application lands, it's assigned to a single advisor who reads the business — deposits, seasonality, what the money is actually for. They bring the file to our program desk, which holds relationships across SBA Preferred Lenders, equipment finance companies, state program administrators, and structured credit. Then they pursue the two or three structures that genuinely fit, in parallel, and put the term sheets side by side on one page.
- Paid by lenders at closing — identical economics to us whichever offer you take, which is the point.
- No application fees, ever. If anyone in this industry asks for money up front, walk.
- 90-day post-funding check-in on every file, because the loan is supposed to have worked.
The team
The people on your file.
Advisors, underwriters, and program specialists — most of us came from the lender side, and we like this side better.
Daniel Reyes
Managing DirectorFifteen years in commercial credit, including an SBA Preferred Lender desk. Built 1BF around the advisor model he wished banks used.
Maya Okafor
Head of Funding AdvisoryLeads the advisor team. Former equipment-finance underwriter; she's read more bank statements than anyone should admit to.
James Park
Director, Government ProgramsRuns the partnership desk — tracks state and federal program funds, eligibility windows, and which administrators are actually approving.
Sofia Marchetti
Senior Funding AdvisorSpecializes in SBA acquisitions and partner buy-outs. Known for term-sheet walkthroughs that make attorneys redundant (their words).
Andre Whitfield
Senior Funding AdvisorTransportation and construction specialist. If it has wheels, tracks, or a boom, Andre has financed one this month.
Priya Natarajan
Head of Underwriting & PackagingTurns owner paperwork into lender-ready files. The reason our SBA packages come back with so few document requests.