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{{chris-forsberg}}
Background on Big Think Capital
Big Think Capital is a credit broker based in New York. They help business owners access capital by packaging a borrower’s file and sending it to funders, then bringing back the strongest approvals and terms.
In this market, speed and responsiveness are a competitive advantage. The faster you can turn a submission into clear, fundable offers, the more deals you win — and the more business comes back.
Pain Points
Big Think Capital’s biggest bottleneck was simple: funder offers weren’t getting into their CRM — and to their sales reps — fast enough.
When Big Think Capital submitted a file to lending partners, approvals and declines came back through emails and messages. A team then had to monitor inbound decisions, copy and paste details into Salesforce, and manually forward updates so reps could move the deal.
On an average day, the team was receiving around 5,000 decision-based emails in a centralized inbox — and while not all of them needed to be logged, it did create a real bottleneck. Even small delays added up quickly and directly impacted how quickly reps could respond to brokers.
And as volume increased, this process broke down:
- Decisions sat in inboxes while deals waited
- Reps sometimes waited on “missed” approvals or declines
- Brokers and business owners waited longer for time-sensitive capital
- Scaling volume meant hiring more people, working more hours, and creating team strain
“As we scaled… it created a backlog for the team that was manually copying and pasting everything into the system.”
Why Big Think Capital Chose Heron
Big Think Capital’s goal was straightforward: automate the flow of approvals and declines into their system, so their team could act immediately.
They didn’t want to rebuild their process or add a bunch of custom development. Salesforce is where the team works — so the solution had to plug in cleanly.
Heron stood out because it fit right into their workflow right away.
“The Heron team was very familiar with the CRM that we use, which is Salesforce… and plugged right into the systems we have in place.”
And moreover, the Heron team was very hands-on Heron was during rollout — not just at go-live, but when things needed to be fixed quickly.
“The best part about working with the Heron team is they felt like a true partner — when we needed a fix, they jumped on it within minutes and got us unstuck.”
Heron’s Solution
Big Think Capital implemented Heron to automate intake of funder decisions end-to-end.
Instead of relying on a team to monitor incoming decisions and manually update Salesforce, Heron now:
- Captures approvals and declines as they come in from lending partners
- Pulls exact terms and dollar amounts from decisions
- Logs decisions directly into Salesforce in the right places
- Reduces human error by eliminating copy/paste
- Makes outcomes instantly visible to the reps who need to act
This automation turned decision intake from an operational bottleneck into a core workflow.
Outcomes
1) Reps can pitch faster — and win more deals
In business lending, the first credible approval often wins. Before Heron, offers would sit in an inbox while the team waited for it to be logged, which meant reps were waiting — and customers were waiting.
By getting funder decisions into Salesforce immediately, Big Think Capital reduced delays that slowed broker updates and stalled deals. Reps no longer wait for someone to manually process inbound approvals/declines.
“Because we’re getting all of the deal decisions into the system right away, the reps don’t have to wait.”
The result: a ~98% cut in the time it takes to log a decision (up to ~30 minutes → seconds) — helping Big Think Capital win on speed. Faster responses translate to higher win rates: brokers place deals with the team that gets back to them first with a real offer.
2) Less manual work — and cleaner data the team can trust
Manual copy/paste isn’t just slow — it’s risky. It creates mistakes, rework, and constant checking.
Heron removed that manual step. Decisions get logged the same way every time, so the team spends less time fixing entries and more time moving deals.
“By using Heron, we were able to… get these decisions into the system fast and efficient, but also with little to no human error involved.”
Now the team spends less time cleaning up data and more time talking to customers, working with partners, and closing deals.
3) Clear visibility on offers and a better view of which funders perform best
Now that approvals are logged consistently, Big Think Capital can see patterns across funders — not just react deal by deal.
Heron pulls the exact terms and dollar amounts from approvals and writes them into Salesforce, which makes reporting simple. The team can compare offers and use that data to focus on the funders bringing the strongest approvals.
“Heron is pulling the exact terms and dollar amounts from the approvals… logging them into our system. This allows us to run reports on the specific offers that we’re receiving from our partners.”
This gives Big Think Capital a clearer view of partner responsiveness and offer competitiveness.
4) Scale without adding overhead — and keeping costs low
For a broker, growing volume usually means growing the ops load behind the scenes. Before Heron, more deals meant more decisions to monitor, copy, paste, and log.
By automating decision intake, Big Think Capital can handle more submissions without needing the same increase in manual work or headcount. That keeps operating costs lower as the business scales.
“Using a company like Heron… saves you not only time but money as well.”
Big Think Capital can grow deal volume without adding more ops headcount — keeping margins healthier while reps stay fast and responsive.
Looking Ahead: The broker world is changing — and ops can’t be manual anymore
Big Think Capital views automation as a long-term advantage — not just a quick efficiency win. As more brokers adopt AI and funders move faster, the winners will be the teams that can respond instantly without adding more people to the process.
Chris Forsberg, VP of Operations, has watched the shift firsthand: brokers need to move in real time, Salesforce has to stay accurate without constant babysitting, and volume keeps climbing. If decisions still require copy + paste, the team falls behind — and the deal goes to the first broker who replies.
“If you're not able to use AI to automate a lot of the manual workflows… you'll end up falling further and further behind your competition.”
With Heron running decision intake in the background, Big Think Capital’s ops team spends less time on cleanup and more time on what moves revenue: getting reps to “pitch-ready” faster, tracking which funders deliver the strongest approvals, and tightening the process as they scale.
Heron helps Big Think Capital deliver what brokers care about most: fast, reliable answers — with less friction behind the scenes.
