When a company helps other companies close deals through software, it may find itself compiling data no one else has and that people really want.
That’s the case for Gumption, a Chattanooga start-up with an artificial intelligence-driven platform that connects commercial real estate developers with the right lenders to close loans faster.
As Gumption expanded this year into Ohio, Florida, California and New York, it decided to publish a first-of-its-kind report that’s now been cited by leading commercial real estate publications like GlobeSt.com and CRE Daily.
Unlike other industry reports, which can come a quarter late with ambiguous sourcing, Gumption’s second-quarter report is based on data pulled from term sheets of loans closed on its platform in almost real time.
“We found that our data has like become tremendously valuable for a lot of different people,” Gumption cofounder and CEO Jon Dickerson said in an interview. “Gumption data has taken off as a benchmark for all these different property types, for all these different areas. We have a heavy footprint here in the Southeast, although we’re expanding pretty rapidly.”
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The start-up has 12 employees after bringing on market professionals in cities like Cincinnati, Los Angeles and New York. Before 2026, Gumption had focused mainly in the region around Chattanooga and Birmingham. Gumption’s goal now is to add five new markets in 2027.
Gumption has tripled its volume of closed loans each year since ramping up in 2024, Dickerson said. The company has served around 400 commercial real estate clients, and more than 700 lenders are registered on its platform.
Its data has given banks and borrowers insight into terms of loans closed by competitors in the market, setting a benchmark that was previously hidden in private deals. Gumption aggregated the data and made it anonymous, so the report does not disclose borrowers or lenders, even as it cites case studies.
The report found some developers are paying higher rates to borrow from private debt funds over institutional lenders like banks and credit unions, which avoid riskier deals. The report ranks different types of commercial real estate by the average interest rate on loans.
“These are investment deals that other very seasoned commercial real estate operators are looking to do,” Dickerson said. “Our data is becoming really valuable to help borrowers know how to size up the debt for their future deals.”
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Gumption has not begun charging lenders or borrowers for access to its data, though it hasn’t ruled out that possibility.
“What we want to do is continue to refine these quarterly reports for a few more quarters,” Dickerson said.
WINNING MODEL
California-based venture capital firm Team Ignite Ventures, one of Gumption’s backers, hailed the report as a valuable addition.
“This is the larger opportunity we saw in Gumption: not simply helping commercial real estate owners find financing, but building an intelligent capital marketplace that can show borrowers what lenders are actually offering in real time,” the firm said in a post.
Gumption makes the process of securing a commercial real estate loan around 40% faster while getting lenders the best terms possible, Dickerson said. Its data is unique partly because it compares multiple offers a borrower got from lenders and which loan the borrower ultimately chose.
The platform has been described as a matchmaking site for borrowers and lenders in commercial real estate, a space where developers have traditionally had to approach banks and other lenders one by one to find the right fit.
One nickname for the company is “Tinder for lenders,” Dickerson said, though he noted that’s a rudimentary take on the company’s service.
Gumption’s recent deals include a Starbucks, a senior living facility, a PetSmart and many industrial warehouses and self-storage facilities. The start-up specializes in loan amounts between $2 million and $40 million, Dickerson said. It collects a success-based fee when loans close.
“We built Gumption around this belief that Main Street commercial real estate makes up the fabric of most communities,” Dickerson said.
Gumption’s team in Chattanooga works out of Brickyard, a local venture capital firm. Brickyard says it writes 10 checks between $500,000 and $800,000 a year to help start-ups bridge the “trough of sorrow,” an insider term for an early stage in start-ups where founders often run out of money and call it quits. Brickyard runs a coworking space for founders, who typically stay 18 months.
“We’re committed to growing and staying here in town,” Dickerson said. “Even after the Brickyard kicks us out, we’ll be in a new office.”
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at ddassow@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.
Daniel Dassow is a business reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He earned degrees in English and religious studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2023, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Beacon. He previously worked as a tech and energy reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel. He is the youngest of six siblings. Contact him at 423-757-6318 or ddassow@timesfreepress.com.