You can get a business loan with no revenue, but the loan will be underwritten against you personally rather than against the company. Most lenders want a personal FICO score of at least 680, a personal guarantee, and usually some form of collateral before they will fund a business that has not yet made a sale. A handful of loan products — SBA microloans, SBA 7(a) loans, equipment financing, CDFI loans, business credit cards, and personal loans directed into the business — are structured to work at this stage. Expect more paperwork, higher rates, and more personal exposure than an established business would face.
What Lenders Look At When the Business Has No Sales
With no revenue history to analyze, underwriters shift almost entirely to you as an individual. Your personal FICO score is the first filter. A score of 680 or higher clears most conventional lenders. Some online platforms and community lenders will work with lower scores, but they price the added risk into the rate.
Nearly every lender will also require a personal guarantee. This is a legally binding commitment that makes you personally responsible for the loan if the business cannot pay. If the business defaults, the lender can pursue your personal bank accounts, vehicles, and other assets. When a business has multiple owners, lenders commonly require guarantees from anyone holding 25% or more, with the guarantors together representing at least a majority stake.
Collateral gives the lender a second recovery path. Real estate, vehicles, equipment, and inventory can all secure a loan. When you pledge an asset, the lender typically files a UCC-1 financing statement with your state, creating a public record of their claim. If you default, they can repossess and sell the asset to recover the balance. For founders without substantial personal assets to pledge, this is often the biggest obstacle.
Cash-Flow Underwriting as an Alternative Path
A growing number of fintech lenders, and some larger banks, now supplement or replace traditional credit scoring with cash-flow analysis. With your permission, they pull your bank transaction records and evaluate deposit consistency, spending patterns, and account balances instead of relying only on your FICO score. This can help founders whose credit history is thin but whose personal finances are stable. When you apply through an online lender, ask directly whether they use cash-flow underwriting.
Loan Products That Work Before You Have Revenue
Not every loan will consider a pre-revenue applicant. The options below either are built for startups or can be secured on personal strength alone.
SBA Microloan
The SBA Microloan Program provides up to $50,000 to startups and small businesses through a national network of nonprofit intermediary lenders. It was established under the Small Business Act to serve women, low-income, veteran, and minority entrepreneurs, and businesses in economically distressed areas. You can use the funds for working capital, supplies, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, but not to pay off existing debts.
The SBA itself does not underwrite individual microloans. The intermediary lender makes the credit decision, so approval standards vary from one intermediary to the next, and some are more flexible than a traditional bank. Interest rates generally fall between 8% and 13%, and every microloan must be repaid within seven years. You can find intermediaries through the SBA’s online lender directory or your local SBA district office.
SBA 7(a) Loan
The SBA’s 7(a) program offers financing up to $5 million for working capital, equipment, real estate, and refinancing existing business debt. To qualify, the business must operate for profit, be located in the United States, meet SBA size standards, and show a reasonable ability to repay. That last piece is the hard part for a pre-revenue company. You will need a strong business plan with credible financial projections, and typically a personal guarantee with collateral to offset the missing income.
Rates on 7(a) loans currently run roughly 9.75% to 14.75%, depending on loan size and whether the rate is fixed or variable. The SBA guarantees a portion of the loan, which is why 7(a) rates stay lower than most conventional business loans.
Equipment Financing
If your startup needs specific machinery, technology, or vehicles, equipment financing ties the loan directly to the item you are buying. The equipment itself acts as collateral, so lenders are more willing to approve borrowers without revenue because the asset has a clear resale value that caps their loss. Expect a down payment of 10% to 30% of the purchase price, depending on your credit and the type of equipment. Rates typically run from about 10% to 24%.
Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Loans
CDFIs are specialized lenders certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to provide credit in low-income communities and to underserved populations. They often weigh a business’s community impact and viability more heavily than its balance sheet. If your startup is located in or serves an economically distressed area, a CDFI may offer terms a conventional lender will not. You can search for certified CDFIs through the CDFI Fund’s website at the Treasury Department.
Business Credit Cards
Business credit cards are available to founders whose companies have earned nothing yet. Issuers evaluate your personal credit score and personal income rather than business revenue, and they will almost always require a personal guarantee. Rates are higher than term loans, often 20% or more, but the revolving credit is flexible and the card can begin building the business’s own credit history immediately.
Personal Loans Directed Into the Business
Some founders take out a personal loan and put the proceeds into the business. The application relies entirely on your individual borrowing capacity, which avoids business loan complications. The tradeoff is that you lose the legal separation between your personal finances and the business, and the loan terms are not tailored to business needs. If the venture fails, the debt follows you personally with no ambiguity.
Documents to Have Ready Before You Apply
Incomplete submissions are the most common reason applications stall during initial screening. Gather these before you start.
Business Formation and Identity
You will need official copies of your formation documents: Articles of Incorporation for a corporation or Articles of Organization for an LLC. You will also need your Employer Identification Number, the nine-digit tax ID issued by the IRS. You can apply for an EIN for free on the IRS website, and it is available immediately for most business types. Many lenders also ask for a Certificate of Good Standing from your state’s Secretary of State. Because these certificates are point-in-time snapshots, request one close to your application date.
Personal Tax Returns
Personal tax returns from the last two to three years — Form 1040 and the accompanying schedules — let underwriters verify your income and calculate your debt-to-income ratio. If you have been operating as a sole proprietor, Schedule C will show that income. Lenders use these returns to judge how much additional debt you can realistically service.
Business Plan and Financial Projections
For a pre-revenue company, the business plan does the work that financial statements would do for an established business. Underwriters want a month-by-month breakdown of expected expenses and anticipated revenue for at least 24 months. Ground the numbers in industry benchmarks, competitor data, and market research. Underwriters can tell the difference between researched projections and optimistic guesses, and unsupported numbers will sink an application faster than a mediocre credit score.
Debt Schedule
If you or the business already carry debt, prepare a schedule listing each creditor, original loan amount, current balance, monthly payment, maturity date, current or delinquent status, and the collateral securing it. This mirrors the format the SBA uses on its own Schedule of Liabilities form. Lenders need the full picture of your existing obligations before they add to them.
What Borrowing Without Revenue Actually Costs
Pre-revenue businesses pay more to borrow. Knowing the cost structure upfront helps you compare offers honestly.
As of early 2026, typical ranges look like this:
- SBA loans: roughly 9.75% to 14.75% APR
- Conventional business term loans: 10% to 27% APR
- Equipment financing: about 10% to 24% APR
- Business lines of credit: 10% to 28% APR
Startups consistently land toward the higher end of these ranges because lenders price in the added risk. If a quote comes in unusually low for a pre-revenue company, check whether fees are loaded elsewhere in the deal.
Most lenders also charge an origination fee, deducted from the loan proceeds at closing. Conventional banks typically charge 0.5% to 1% of the loan amount. Online lenders can charge anywhere from 1% to 10%. On a $50,000 loan, that is the difference between $500 and $5,000 coming off the top before you see a dollar. Additional closing costs may include document preparation and notarization fees.
What Default Looks Like With a Personal Guarantee
Default is the scenario no one plans for, and pre-revenue borrowers need to understand it more carefully than anyone, because they almost always sign a personal guarantee.
If the business cannot make payments, the lender does not simply absorb the loss. First, they can seize any collateral pledged under the loan agreement. If you pledged equipment or a vehicle, expect repossession. If real estate secured the loan, foreclosure follows. Beyond the collateral, the personal guarantee exposes your individual assets: savings, investment accounts, and in some cases wages through garnishment. The path to your personal assets runs through a civil judgment, which means a lawsuit, a court order, and a public record that follows you.
Default also damages both your personal and business credit scores, making future borrowing significantly harder. And if the lender eventually forgives part of the remaining balance, you may owe taxes on the forgiven amount.
Tax Consequences to Keep in Mind
Loan proceeds themselves are not taxable income. You received money, but you also took on an equal obligation to repay it, so there is no net gain. The tax questions show up in two other places.
Interest Is Generally Deductible
Interest you pay on a business loan is generally deductible as a business expense. For most startups, there is no practical cap: the federal limitation on business interest expense under Section 163(j) only applies when a business’s average annual gross receipts exceed $32 million over the prior three years. A pre-revenue company is nowhere close. Report the deduction on the appropriate schedule — Schedule C for sole proprietors, or the business’s own return for partnerships, S-corps, and C-corps.
Forgiven Debt Is Usually Taxable
If a lender forgives or settles your debt for less than the full balance, the canceled portion is generally treated as taxable income. When the forgiven amount reaches $600 or more, the lender must send you Form 1099-C reporting the cancellation, and you include that amount as ordinary income on the appropriate return.
Exceptions exist. If you were insolvent at the time of cancellation, meaning your total liabilities exceeded your total assets, you can exclude the canceled amount up to the extent of your insolvency. Bankruptcy also provides an exclusion. Both require you to file Form 982 with your return, and may force you to reduce certain tax attributes such as net operating losses or the cost basis of your property. These exclusions can save a significant tax bill, but the paperwork is precise, and this is where a tax professional earns the fee.