Employees have to be paid and products have to be made. During the good times, expansion can lead to the need for new equipment or offices. During the lean times, expenses don’t go away and bills are still due.
And for every one of these scenarios, the solution is basically the same: money. No, make that fast money.
In theory, this is what most banks are designed to do. They lend businesses money on the short term so companies can meet their immediate needs and achieve success in the long term. But the loan process through a bank often can be tedious and lengthy, especially in the years following the financial crisis of 2008. Waiting weeks or even months to receive funds does nothing to alleviate a current cash-flow crunch.
For the past 35 years, Porter Capital has been a source of fast funding for a wide variety of small and mid-sized businesses. Since its founding in 1991 by brothers Marc and Donald Porter, the Birmingham-based company has provided a total of more than $15 billion in funding, with most of the money being allocated within days of the initial request.
“A lot of companies, either through growth or because they’re having problems, need their cash to turn quicker,” Marc Porter says. “But if they go to a bank, it can be a long process. With us, it’s not that big of a deal.”
The idea for the business came to Porter when he read an article about companies providing this type of financing, which at the time still was a relatively new concept nationwide and practically unheard of in Alabama and much of the Southeast. After doing additional research, Porter says he became “intrigued” by the possibilities. So, he set up some rudimentary 1990s software and started contacting potential customers.
“The hardest thing in trying to sell it was that people didn’t know what it was or how it worked. I’d spend a lot of time just educating people,” Porter says. “I talked with more than 300 people either in-person, over the phone or at trade shows before I got the first customer.
“Then within a few weeks after that, two more fell in behind. My brother (who has since passed away) lived in Manhattan, so we opened a second office there. And then it just started growing.”
At first, the funding came directly from Porter’s pocket. He says he had $60,000 in the bank and $300,000 worth of credit card financing, and he provided the funds through those sources.
“You can’t do something like this and not take some risks. That’s just part of it,” Porter says. “If you’re not willing to accept that, then you shouldn’t do it. But I felt like it would work.”
Has it ever. More than three decades later, Porter Capital has expanded through organic growth and acquisitions to now include approximately 115 employees and offices in such disparate locations as Dallas and South Dakota. The company works with between 2,500 and 3,000 clients on an annual basis throughout the United States and in Canada.
Porter says the company offers credit lines from as small as $50,000 all the way up to $30 million. Funding now comes from a total of five banks, including Truist, with which Porter Capital has a line of credit that it can pull from to send to clients.
“We’re helping companies when they’re undercapitalized and can’t get traditional financing from a regular bank,” says John Cox Miller, who is Porter Capital senior vice president and national sales manager. “They might be growing rapidly and need money right away to expand. Or they’re losing money or have poor credit scores.
“Whatever the case may be, they can’t get traditional financing. Or a bank will give them $1 million when they need $5 million. So, they come to us to help smooth out their cash flow quickly. We can provide a couple of million dollars in less than a week.”
Even for successful companies that are making money, Porter says there can be the need for quick cash. “They’re growing rapidly and want to expand, so they go to the bank for $200,000,” Porter says. “But by the time the bank (approves the loan), they might have grown so much that they need $400,000 and not $200,000.
“They come to us for speed. They want to get something done now.”
In many cases, Miller says, the funding simply is a way for a company to get paid faster. For example, he notes that it can take several months for such major corporations as Walmart and Anheuser-Busch — or any of the state’s major automobile manufacturers — to pay for products received, simply because of the sheer volume of invoices they deal with.
“But during that time, businesses still have to pay their own vendors, and they still have to make payroll,” Miller says. “That’s why they come to Porter. They sell a product to Walmart, send us that invoice, and we pay them immediately. Then Walmart pays us directly.”
It seems like a simple process. So why are most banks reluctant to provide a similar service?
“Because we’re looking at the credit worthiness of Walmart instead of the business needing the funding,” Porter says.
By taking a different approach to financing, Porter Capital is able to help businesses that are well outside of the Fortune 500 find a way to succeed. An example — the oil-field service company that came to Porter Capital for funding during a major downturn in the market.
“They had a line of credit with a bank and some term debt, and they were losing money,” Miller says. “They had a lot of assets we were able to value. So, we refinanced the line of credit and took out the term debt.
“We came in when they needed us the most, when they were in a depressed situation. We gave them more cash than the bank was willing to give them. They were able to rehab their business, then the oil-field space rebounded and the profits came in.”
Porter says those types of success stories are why he enjoys the role his company plays in the financial world.
“It’s knowing that you were able to help somebody during a very difficult time,” Porter says. “I have dealt with some people who were in dire straits. Being able to help them out of those situations — and probably saving a lot of jobs at the same time — is very satisfying.”
Cary Estes and Joe De Sciose are Birmingham-based freelance contributors to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the May 2026 issue of Business Alabama.
