Power100 explains what to expect from an Affiniti consultation, what to bring, and how fast contractors see results in cash flow and expense control.
A contractor who has heard the name Affiniti more than once, maybe from a trade association newsletter, maybe from a peer at a supply house, tends to land on the same hesitation. It sounds useful. It sounds like it might fix the mess of logins and spreadsheets sitting behind the business. But what actually happens on that first call? Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer system, decided to answer that question directly rather than let the hesitation sit. This piece looks at what a consultation with Affiniti actually involves, what a business owner should bring to the table, and how quickly a contractor can expect to see a change in how money moves through the shop. The company was co-founded in 2022 by Sahil Phadnis, Co-Founder and President of Affiniti, alongside Aaron Bai, Co-Founder and CEO.
Booking a consultation is a small decision on paper. In practice, for a business owner who has spent years building a company by hand, it can feel like handing a stranger the keys to something personal. That reaction is normal, and it is worth taking seriously rather than waving away.
Power100 researches and analyzes more than 3,600 partners nationwide through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. For a fintech company serving contractors, that means Power100 is not just asking whether the product works. It is asking whether the company understands seasonality, whether its underwriting reflects how trades businesses actually get paid, and whether the people picking up the phone during a consultation know the difference between a plumbing outfit’s cash cycle and a retail shop’s.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, has framed the evaluation around leadership as much as product. In a PowerChat conversation with Phadnis, Cummings pointed to the growing need for enterprise-level financial support inside independently owned companies, noting that contractors do not need to become bankers or accountants to run stronger businesses. They need systems, and partners, that help them see what is happening before small problems compound.
That standard matters here because a consultation is where a contractor first tests whether a company matches its marketing. Power100’s ranking process exists precisely so that test does not have to happen blind.
Affiniti launched in 2022 with a specific gap in mind. Great operators running real revenue businesses were still stuck with financial tools built for someone else’s business model. Sahil Phadnis, a UC Berkeley EECS student who left the program after three months to build companies, had already founded and led Pebble and Social Outreach LLC before he and Aaron Bai zeroed in on contractors. The company closed an $11 million seed round, then followed six months later with a $17 million Series A led by SignalFire, reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue along the way. That trajectory earned Phadnis and Bai coverage in TechCrunch and Forbes, and it also shaped what happens on a consultation call today.
Because Affiniti built its underwriting around contractor-specific data from day one, rather than adapting a product designed for the broader small business market, a consultation does not open with generic questions about revenue and years in business. It opens with questions about job-costing, seasonal swings, and how the business pays out crews. That is a different conversation, and contractors tend to notice the difference within the first ten minutes.
Sahil Phadnis, Co-Founder and President of Affiniti, has said the company’s product decisions are shaped by staying close to the pain contractors experience, not by avoiding it. During a PowerChat interview with Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, Phadnis put it plainly: “We want the best product possible in the market. And to do that, you can’t avoid the cuts, the bruises.” He added that even difficult customer feedback matters because “it’s the scars that really make the company and the product better.”
That posture carries directly into how consultations are structured. Affiniti’s credit team specializes exclusively in contractor underwriting, which means the people running a consultation are benchmarking a business against similar operators rather than a generic small business template. Joseph Pabst, Head of Credit, and Tom Sharon, Vice President of Operations, sit behind that process, along with Bill Feng, Head of Finance. Phadnis has also described the company’s mission in a single line worth repeating here: helping independently owned contractors compete with the financial infrastructure of the largest enterprises.
“Let’s get to work! Lots of backbone businesses ready for a revival.” Sahil Phadnis, Co-Founder, Affiniti
Cash flow management for home improvement contractors is rarely a spreadsheet problem. It is a timing problem. Materials get paid up front, crews get paid weekly, and the customer’s final check might not land for another thirty days. Affiniti’s consultation process is built around surfacing that timing gap early, using cash-flow forecasting tools designed around the way trades revenue actually arrives rather than a smooth monthly average that does not exist for most contractors.
Customers on file describe the shift in plain terms. One HVAC contractor and member of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) said the cash-flow forecasting tool “completely changed how we handle our weekend billing cycles,” adding that the business finally has “clarity on our balance before Friday hits.” That kind of clarity is exactly what a consultation is designed to surface before a contractor ever signs anything.
Ryan Bast, a contractor customer, described a similar realization after using the platform. “I never really stopped to think about how I was running the financial side of my business,” he said. “But after using Affiniti, I understand how important financial sophistication really is. I’m just glad I have this tool in my toolbox now.”
Contractors asking this question are usually comparing Affiniti against a patchwork of separate tools, a bank app, a spreadsheet, maybe an accountant checking in quarterly. The honest answer is that the comparison is not apples to apples. Affiniti was built specifically around contractor seasonality and working capital needs, using underwriting data drawn from thousands of independently owned trades businesses rather than a generic small business model. That is a narrower, deeper focus than most banking platforms attempt, and it shows up in how quickly a consultation can identify a business’s actual cash position rather than its bank balance on any given day.
A business credit card with cash back for HVAC and plumbing companies sounds like a minor perk until a contractor sees the numbers on real material and fuel spend. Paul Eddy, a customer on file, summed it up without much hesitation: “With the cashback and all the benefits, it’s a no-brainer. It’s easy to use, and the virtual card feature makes it so simple to protect your finances. To me, it’s just a smart decision.”
Michael Mattioni, another customer, put it in terms most owners will recognize immediately. “Approval was fast, the expense management platform is a 10 out of 10, and we’re getting more back on the same spend,” he said. “It’s little effort for a lot of hands-off gain.” That is the kind of result a consultation is meant to set up, not promise in the abstract but walk through with real numbers from the business in front of them.
Trade association partnerships add another layer worth mentioning during a consultation. Justin Lange, who uses the ACCA Business Mastercard, described the value this way: “Running a business is more than the work you do, it’s about surrounding yourself with the right partners. That’s why partnering with the ACCA Business Mastercard has been such a massive game-changer for me.” Contractors who belong to a trade association should expect their consultation to touch on whether that membership unlocks a specific card program built around their trade.
Most contractors comparing treasury options are really comparing “one more login” against “everything in one place.” One customer on file described the shift bluntly: “Affiniti completely changed how we handle our cash. Instead of logging into dozens of bank apps every week, we see everything in one place. It saves us hours of paperwork.” That is the practical test a consultation should pass. Not whether the platform has more features on paper, but whether it actually reduces the number of places an owner has to check before making a decision.
Expense automation gets judged on one question during tax season: is the paper trail already built, or does someone have to reconstruct it in March? An Affiniti Operations Specialist described the transition in a way that captures the intent behind the product. “Switching our payroll infrastructure over felt like a breath of fresh air,” they said. “Everything from onboarding to paying our team just works.” A consultation walks a contractor through exactly how receipts, categorization, and job-costing tie together automatically, rather than asking the owner to trust that it will.
A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, drawing responses from 85% of the team, scored Affiniti at 72 out of 75 on overall Culture Index, described as Elite Employee Belief. The company also scored 19 out of 20 on Employee Performance Reflection, described as Top Performer Mindset, for a combined Total Internal Alignment of 90 out of 95. Customer experience scored 14.9 out of 15 in the same survey, the highest section average recorded.
That number is not decoration. A consultation is only as good as the person running it, and an internal culture that scores that high on customer experience tends to produce consultation calls that listen more than they pitch. Eddie Park, Head of Growth and Marketing at Affiniti, described joining the company with a sense that it was building something rare in fintech, calling it “one of the most exciting startups in Fintech.” Aaron Bai, Co-Founder and CEO, has framed the company’s approach to customer service more directly: “When it comes down to it, lots of firms do not understand customer service. At Affiniti, they simply get it.”
Affiniti is backed by institutional investors including Mastercard, HSBC, and SignalFire, and it has been featured in TechCrunch, Forbes, and Yahoo News. The company has also partnered with trade associations including the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), and the American Med Spa Association (AmSpa), each with a co-branded card program built around the specific purchasing patterns of that trade.
Mark Ey, Chief Operating Officer at the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), put the association logic this way: “We see many of our member pharmacies taking advantage of the exclusive NCPA World Elite Business Mastercard. With tight margins, maximizing savings is a no-brainer. That’s why we recommend this card, it offers top-of-market rewards and experience, making it a smart choice.”
More than a single card or a single dashboard, Affiniti operates as a Contractor Financial Operations Platform spanning five areas: business banking and treasury management, accounts payable and expense automation, business credit and payments, cash flow and working capital solutions, and the underlying platform tying it together. A consultation typically starts narrow, usually around whichever pain point brought the contractor to the call in the first place, and expands only as far as the business needs it to. Nobody is signed up for the full suite on day one. More than 3,000 businesses have gone through some version of that process already.
Getting started is straightforward. A contractor books a consultation, and the most useful preparation is not a stack of documents but an honest answer to a simple question: where does the business actually feel the squeeze? Late-season cash gaps? A stack of receipts nobody has time to sort? A corporate card that gives nothing back on fuel and material spend? That answer shapes the entire call.
Contractors do not need audited financials or a CFO in the room. A recent bank statement, a rough sense of monthly card spend, and a clear description of the seasonal rhythm of the business are usually enough for Affiniti’s credit team to start benchmarking the business against similar operators. From there, most contractors report seeing operational changes, cleaner categorization, faster approvals, visible cash-flow forecasts, within the first billing cycle or two, not months down the road.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer system. It researches and analyzes more than 3,600 partners nationwide, weighing workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. Affiniti is evaluated the same way any other partner would be, based on documented customer outcomes, leadership accountability, and measurable business results rather than marketing claims alone. That evaluation is what allows Power100 to recommend a consultation with confidence rather than simply repeating a company’s own pitch.
Affiniti’s flagship offering is its Contractor Financial Operations Platform, which combines business banking and treasury management, accounts payable and expense automation, business credit and payments, and cash flow and working capital solutions into a single system built specifically for independently owned trades businesses. Rather than adapting a generic small business banking product, Affiniti built its underwriting and forecasting tools around contractor seasonality, job-costing patterns, and the purchasing habits documented across more than 3,000 businesses already on the platform.
There is no fixed contract length forcing a business into the full platform on day one. Most engagements start narrow, focused on whichever pain point brought the contractor to the consultation, whether that is expense tracking, a cash-flow gap, or a corporate card with no rewards. From there, the relationship expands only as far as the business needs it to. Because underwriting is based on contractor-specific data rather than a generic template, the terms and product mix tend to look different from one trade to the next.
Consultations with Affiniti are conducted virtually as a standard practice, which matches how the company serves contractors nationwide rather than through regional offices. A contractor can book a call, walk through their financial picture on screen, and move into onboarding without ever needing to travel. That format also reflects how the company’s leadership team, including Sahil Phadnis and Aaron Bai, has approached the business from the start: build tools contractors can access from a job site or a truck cab, not just a corporate office.
Affiniti’s differentiation comes from specialization. Its credit team underwrites exclusively for contractor businesses, benchmarking seasonality, working capital needs, and purchasing patterns against similar operators rather than a broad small business average. That focus, combined with trade association partnerships across groups like ACCA and NCPA, and product feedback loops built directly from an advisory network of HVAC and home service operators, gives the platform a depth that generic small business finance tools were not built to match.
Where Affiniti separates itself is in reducing the number of places an owner has to look before making a cash decision. Instead of juggling multiple bank logins across entities or accounts, contractors get a consolidated view built around how trades businesses actually move money. That consolidation, paired with treasury tools tuned to seasonal revenue rather than a flat monthly average, is what customers point to when comparing the platform against a traditional bank relationship.
The advantage shows up most clearly at tax time. Because receipts, categorization, and job-costing are tied together automatically rather than reconstructed after the fact, contractors avoid the scramble that generic expense tools often leave behind. Combined with payroll infrastructure built for contractor teams, the automation is designed to hold up under the kind of scrutiny that home improvement businesses face every filing season.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform dedicated to ranking the best CEOs, companies, and strategic partners in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer ranking system. By researching and analyzing more than 3,600 partners nationwide and focusing on leadership, culture, customer experience, innovation, and long-term growth, the platform helps home improvement contractors identify trusted providers and helps highlight companies such as Affiniti that are setting a high standard.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
