Senior Small Business Loan Originator

Contrarian Thinking • Austin, TX

8d • Onsite

About The Position

Contrarian Capital is a new loan brokerage under the Contrarian Thinking umbrella. We help entrepreneurs and small business buyers secure SBA and commercial financing for acquisitions in the $1-10M range. Our focus is SBA 7(a) and 504 loans, selected conventional term loans, and asset-backed facilities.
We are not a bank. We are a leverage advisory firm backed by one of the largest business acquisition audiences in the country. Our distribution engine includes Contrarian Thinking content, communities, events, and the Contrarian Academy, which coaches thousands of members on buying small businesses.
This is our first hire. You will be the person who builds the origination function from scratch, closes the first deals, and shapes what this becomes. If that sounds like a lot of ownership, good. That is exactly the point.

Requirements

• $50M+ in personal SBA 7(a) and/or 504 volume closed. Not managed. Not supervised. Closed. Your name was on the deals.
• Existing lender relationships. You walk in with a working panel of SBA preferred lenders. You are not starting from scratch.
• Underwriting narrative fluency. You understand that SBA lending is about building a case, not checking boxes. You know how to position management experience, industry transferability, and projected cash flow in a way that gets to yes.
• Small business sales instinct. You have sold to owner-operators and entrepreneurs. You know they are emotional buyers, not institutional. You can build trust fast and move deals forward without hand-holding.
• Entrepreneurial drive. You have either owned something yourself or you have been itching to. You want to build, not maintain.

Nice To Haves

• Existing NMLS license or state-specific mortgage/loan broker licenses, or willingness to obtain them within 90 days.
• Familiarity with NAGGL and the SBA preferred lender ecosystem.
• Experience standing up a brokerage or lending operation from scratch (tech stack, compliance, SOPs).
• Comfort with basic website and marketing tools (landing pages, intake forms, CRM setup). You do not need to be technical. You need to be resourceful.
• Prior experience in franchise lending, acquisition financing, or working with search fund / ETA buyers.

Responsibilities

• Run discovery and qualification calls with borrowers from our community pipeline. These are warm leads, not cold calls.
• Structure deals and build underwriting narratives that get approved. You know SBA lending is as much about the story as the numbers.
• Manage and expand a lender panel. You walk in with existing relationships at SBA preferred lenders and add to them over time.
• Package and submit loan applications. You know what a clean package looks like and you do not send sloppy submissions.
• Close deals. Target is 1 funded deal per month in Year 1 (12 total), ramping to 4/month by Year 2.
• Build SOPs and playbooks as you go. Document what works so we can hire originators behind you.
• Stand up the operational infrastructure: help select and implement the CRM, e-sign, secure document storage, and project management tools.
• Coordinate licensing, compliance, E&O insurance, and any required state registrations. You have done this before or know exactly what it takes.
• Help build a basic web presence (landing page, intake form) for Contrarian Capital. You do not need to be a designer, but you need to be willing to get scrappy and ship it.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed