Every startup-loan guide lists the same seven options. What none of them explains is the question underneath the list: with no track record, what is the lender underwriting instead? Every product that genuinely exists in year one replaces your missing history with a substitute — an asset, your personal credit, your plan and projections, your own cash in the deal, or a customer’s signed order. Map the products by their substitute and the field stops looking like folklore. This page is that map, including the honest negative space: the mainstream products that effectively do not exist yet, and the door each one opens later.
General information, not financial advice. Program rules are from SBA sources and SOP 50 10 8.1 as of October 2026; lender requirement ranges from commercial guides are labelled as reported consensus, not guarantees.
“Startup” is a defined term, not a vibe: SBA lending treats a business as a start-up while it has been in operation two years or less (SOP 50 10) — the same ≤2-year line banks apply informally. Everything below is organized for that window.
| What you can get | What the lender underwrites instead of history |
|---|---|
| SBA microloan (up to $50,000) | The owner, the plan, and projections |
| CDFI loan | Character, community ties, the plan — with technical assistance attached |
| SBA 7(a) loan | Equity injection + projections + owner experience + personal credit |
| Equipment financing | The equipment itself (it secures the loan) |
| Business credit cards | Your personal credit, full stop |
| Personal loan used for business | Your personal credit and income; full personal liability |
| Purchase order financing | A creditworthy customer’s signed order |
| Crowdfunding / 0% nonprofit microlending | The crowd’s commitment, campaign by campaign |
Microloans are the year-one SBA workhorse. Loans up to $50,000 (the average is about $13,000) are made by nonprofit intermediaries that underwrite the owner, the plan and the projections instead of revenue history. Program mechanics — rates, terms, how intermediaries work — live on our SBA microloans page; on this map, microloans are the row a first-time borrower with a real plan and a thin file should read first.
CDFI loans sit beside microloans on the same logic: mission lenders underwriting character and plan, often with coaching attached. The channel itself — what a CDFI is and how to find one — is taught on our business loans for minorities page, whose CDFI section applies to any underserved borrower.
SBA 7(a) is not closed to startups — but a startup file is built from substitutes. SOP 50 10 8.1 requires documented equity injection for start-ups and changes of ownership (the familiar floor is 10% of total project cost on change-of-ownership deals): your cash in the deal is the lender’s evidence of commitment. Around it go financial projections with stated assumptions, the owners’ relevant industry experience, and the guarantors’ personal credit. The universal qualification screen is in business loan requirements — a startup passes it with substitutes, not exemptions.
Equipment financing underwrites the asset. Because the equipment secures the loan, lenders will commonly finance up to 100% of equipment cost even for a startup (Experian and Business.org both report this consensus). If your capital need is a machine or a vehicle, the asset is your track record — see the equipment financing cluster and its calculators.
Cards and personal loans underwrite the person. Business credit card approval rests on personal credit — reported consensus is that scores around 680+ open limits in the $5,000–$25,000 class — and the card builds business credit history when the issuer reports it. A personal loan used for business is the same trade without the business-credit building: cheaper than denial, but your liability is total and the loan never becomes the business’s file.
Purchase order financing underwrites the order. One of the few products whose time-in-business requirement can be effectively zero: a creditworthy customer’s signed purchase order substitutes for your history, and the funder pays your supplier so you can deliver. Costs and margin rules are on our purchase order financing page.
Non-debt rows, honestly labelled: crowdfunding and grants (small and competitive — see the grants layers on our audience guides), friends-and-family money, and 0%-interest nonprofit microlending of the Kiva type, where a loan is crowdfunded through a platform and underwritten by your network’s endorsements rather than a credit file.
If your credit is also the problem, that is a different screen from being new — and it has its own pages. What to do in the 60 days after a refusal is the denied-loan recovery playbook; why lenders refuse, reason by reason, is why business loans get denied. Read this map for what exists at your stage; read those for the file itself.
Can I get a business loan with no revenue? Yes, but only through products that underwrite a substitute for revenue: microloans and CDFI loans (owner and plan), equipment financing (the asset), cards and personal loans (your personal credit), purchase order financing (a customer’s signed order), and crowdfunding. What you cannot get with no revenue is a product priced on revenue — bank term loans and revenue-based financing are closed until trailing revenue exists.
Can a startup get an SBA loan? Yes. The SBA defines a start-up as a business in operation two years or less, and 7(a) lending is open to startups — underwritten on documented equity injection, projections with stated assumptions, owner experience and personal credit. Microloans, delivered by nonprofit intermediaries, are the more common year-one route: up to $50,000, averaging about $13,000.
What credit score do I need for a startup business loan? There is no single startup threshold because the score that matters is usually yours, personally. Microloan and CDFI intermediaries weigh the plan and character alongside the file; business credit cards rest on personal credit, with scores around 680+ opening $5,000–$25,000-class limits per lender-guide consensus; and 7(a) guarantors’ personal credit is part of every startup file. The universal screen is laid out in our business loan requirements page.
How do I get a startup business loan with no money? Honestly: with difficulty, and mostly by shrinking the ask. 7(a) requires your own equity injection, so zero-cash routes are the non-debt and person-underwritten rows of the map — crowdfunding, 0%-interest nonprofit microlending, business credit cards on your personal credit, and purchase order financing where a customer’s order does the underwriting. Any lender promising a real startup loan with no money down, no credit and no plan is describing a product that does not exist.
General information, not financial advice. Sources: SBA.gov small business funding and microloan program pages; SOP 50 10 8.1 (start-up definition and equity-injection requirements); NerdWallet, LendingTree and Experian startup loan guides (requirement consensus, labelled as such). Currency verified 2026-10-23.