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{{steve-oconnor}}
Wellen is a small business finance platform that provides capital advances to merchants through a distributed broker network. The team manages the full deal lifecycle — from intake and underwriting to funding and servicing — and has built its operations around speed, flexibility, and data-driven decisioning.
Before Heron: Offshoring kept costs low — but slowed everything else down
Before Heron, Wellen relied on a small offshore team of 3–4 analysts to manually process every incoming submission. While cost-effective on paper, the BPO model introduced daily operational friction:
- Processing took 10–12 minutes per submission
- Delays were common due to time zone gaps, outages, and time off
- Inconsistent oversight and accountability
- Scaling meant hiring — again and again
“It was cost-effective, sure. But you get all the headaches that come with real people — missed days, outages, quality drift.”
Even paired with tools like Ocrolous, the workflow remained brittle. More volume meant more people. More people meant more overhead. And with growing broker activity, the limitations of this approach became more visible — and more painful.
“We had a decent team, but there were always little things — Thursday outages, holidays, and no direct oversight.”
Over time, trust and reliability became just as big a concern as speed. As broker volume ramped up, Wellen needed an intake process they could depend on — not one they had to keep managing. Wellen needed a solution it didn’t have to keep managing — one that could grow as the business did.
Outcomes
1. Intake time cut by 60% — from 10+ minutes to under 4
With Heron, Wellen eliminated the manual layer from its intake process. Submissions are now processed directly via email in under 4 minutes, with fully structured, digitized outputs ready for underwriting — no delays, no variability.
“Heron runs in under 4 minutes. The humans were taking 10. It’s not even close.”
This reduction in turnaround time not only freed up bandwidth internally — it also enabled faster decisions for brokers, tighter deal cycles, and a smoother path to funding.
2. Built-in scale — ready to handle 3x more volume with the same team
Under the old BPO model, every increase in submission volume meant hiring more people. With Heron in place, Wellen now has the capacity to double its intake — without hiring, training, or adding operational complexity.
“We used to need another body for every X applications. Now we just run more volume — Heron doesn’t care.”
Heron gives Wellen elastic scale: the ability to grow on-demand, without sacrificing quality, speed, or control.
3. Higher data quality — cleaner inputs, new insights
Heron didn’t just automate Wellen’s intake — it enahnced it. Compared to offshore processing, Heron returned more consistent, normalized, and complete data across all submission types. Moreover, the output was not only cleaner — it was more complete, unlocking visibility Wellen didn’t previously have.
“Heron does clever things we weren’t doing before. We didn’t ask for it, but now we rely on it.”
This was especially true for bank statements, where Heron’s structured extraction revealed key fields the BPO team often missed. That enrichment extended beyond financials: Heron’s industry prediction feature automatically classifies each applicant’s business type, giving Wellen critical underwriting context upfront — without any manual effort.
4. Smarter decisions — and less time chasing missing info
With better data from the outset, Wellen’s team spends less time reviewing, fixing, or second-guessing submissions — and more time actually making decisions.
“The output from Heron isn’t just faster — it’s more usable. Our team’s not second-guessing the data anymore.”
This improved confidence helps Wellen underwrite faster, spot edge cases earlier, and reduce back-and-forth with brokers.
Why Wellen chose Heron
The decision wasn’t just about speed — it was about building a business that could scale without dragging ops behind. Heron made the transition seamless, with usage-based pricing, fast onboarding, and no heavy lift.
“Jim and Nick called me after the first Heron call and said, ‘Why wouldn’t we buy this?’”
Instead of doubling down on offshoring, Wellen chose automation — and built a faster, smarter intake engine as a result.
Stop scaling with headcount. Start scaling with automation.
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