Denise Thomas, CEO of ApplePie Capital

The franchise industry is unique. While the franchisees are often small businesses run by entrepreneurs, the franchisors they work with can be large businesses. It is an unusual space to underwrite when it comes to small business loans, so it requires unique expertise to do well.

Aaron Klein, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution

While America remains the richest economy in the world it is also the one where it is the most expensive to be poor. I have written about overdraft fees before (here and here) and that is one of the real problems with the banking system that is holding people back that live paycheck to paycheck. But it is about more than overdrafts, it is about expensive bank accounts and payments that take too long to clear.