Owe Fundo? 6 Things to Know Before You Negotiate

Fundo, a funder, is a company that gives business owners lump sums of cash for a cut of their future revenue. The important thing to know is that you are selling a share of your future revenue stream for a payment today. You aren’t borrowing money. You need to make sure you really owe them, and how much. You also need to research the people you are negotiating with, and get crystal clear on your own short-term budget. Call only after you do the following 6 things.

1. Know what you signed

Make sure you have a full contract, and copies of every document you signed. How much are you going to pay for the cash injection? What are the terms of the deal? How and when do you pay your money back? What happens if you can’t meet the terms of the agreement? Fundo advances small amounts of cash ranging from $500 to $10,000. Per their FAQ, they do not take a personal guarantee, but check what you are signing in your paperwork just to make sure. Their website does not offer any of their products in California or New York. You can easily check out the company on the BBB website. As of September 2026, BBB rated Fundo, LLC of North Miami Beach, Florida a B, with 102 complaints in 3 years.

2. Count the payback, not the advance

Not knowing how much you owe is a trap for the unwary. Figure out how much you owe in real dollars. Read all the documents and figure out how much you will pay back, and in what time frame, to get the total you will pay back. Get the “right to receive” or RTR from your contract. That’s how much money they expect to get from you. Subtract what you’ve paid, and that’s how much you owe them right now. There may be discounts if you repay early after a windfall, per Fundo’s FAQ.

3. Measure the daily drain

Make sure you have a good sense of how much revenue you’re making each day and each month on average. It’s probably on your P&L or another document from your accounting system. You need to run the numbers and work out how much this will impact your ability to pay rent, payroll, suppliers and taxes. You may not have the cash to pay them back on a daily basis, and you will lose the money you need to operate. You can use this daily drain to tell you how much urgency you are facing. Any deal you sign will have to meaningfully reduce the amount you pay out each day or each month.

Without the debits, do your finances look better? How much better? If you could magically get rid of these debits, would you have enough to stay in business and fund your growth? If your finances would really be stable without the debits, your business is sound. The problem isn’t that you owe money, but how you owe money. Restructure the debt. If you’ve run the numbers and it’s hopeless, restructuring is only going to postpone the inevitable. You need to talk settlement.

4. Read the fine print for leverage

Read through all the documents you signed very, very closely. Look for the reconciliation clause. This is a common clause that’s often overlooked. Your agreement might have a mechanism to lower your daily debits and repayment if your revenue drops. It’s not a favor: you have a contractual right to use this remedy. Know what triggers your default. Your agreement may have a blanket reference to a default if you don’t make the payments, or it may call out specific events that trigger defaults.

While you’re in there, look for a “confession of judgment” clause. This is an older type of clause that can allow a creditor to skip the time and expense of suing you, and just get a judgment for the money you owe. The FTC banned it in consumer contracts. Several states limit it in commercial contracts. The laws vary by state.

5. Find the lien before you settle

Check the UCC lien filings in your state to see if any have been filed against you. In June 2026, a report from Protect Borrowers found Fundo and Giggle Finance had filed UCC liens against the accounts of thousands of gig workers in their bank accounts, CashApp and payout accounts in Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania alone. Per the report, some had to pay inflated paperwork fees to release the lien that range into the hundreds.

Make lien release a term of the settlement, not a favor you ask for later. You need to write a letter confirming the debt is paid in full, and demand they file a termination under 9-513. If they don’t file a termination within 20 days of getting your letter, they owe you statutory damages of $500 plus actual losses, per section 9-625.

6. Plan for the tax bill

Before you settle, you need to know the tax implications of what you’re doing. The general rule is that the IRS considers the part of the debt you don’t pay as “forgiven.” This means they can tax you on the part of the debt you no longer have to pay back. If you’re insolvent at the time of the settlement, you may be able to exclude up to the amount you were insolvent with Form 982. If your creditor agrees to write off $600 or more of debt, they’ll likely send you a Form 1099-C.

The best defense is to call in, confident you know what you owe and your situation. A negotiation from a position of confusion tends to end up on the other person’s terms.

A free contract review costs nothing and takes a day or two. Call (888) 837-7053, or send the agreements to Delancey Street for a straight read on your options.