- 1Sharpe Capital facilitated nearly $5M in small business funding in 2025 and hopes to double it.
- 2Wendy Rivera now runs operations after co-founder Brendan Lynch died in December 2024.
- 3Word of mouth is the main source of new customers.
In 2025, Sharpe Capital helped place nearly $5 million in funding with small businesses nationwide, and it hopes to double that figure this year. The brokerage is one of very few in the industry run by a mother and daughter: Sonia Alvelo-Lynch and Wendy Rivera.
From two sister firms to one team
Alvelo-Lynch is a known entrepreneur through her own brokerage, Latin Financial. She was also associated with Sharpe Capital, which she co-founded more than a decade ago with her business and life partner, Brendan Lynch. Lynch mainly ran Sharpe while Alvelo-Lynch ran Latin, as sister companies with separate operations. The two celebrated a joint office opening in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 2022, with the Sharpe team in green shirts and the Latin team in blue.
Lynch died of cancer in December 2024 at age 45, after he had married Alvelo-Lynch. Four months earlier, he gave what became his last industry interview, where one of his messages was a reminder to look after your health. Alvelo-Lynch took over Sharpe, and her daughter became central to keeping it successful.
Rivera's path
Rivera, who was born and raised in Connecticut, was working in retail when she grew curious about the business in 2018. Her mother and Lynch made her interview like any other candidate. She started part time, then moved to full time, bringing in deals under Lynch, whom she credits with teaching her the industry over more than seven years of working side by side.
Latin Financial's clients come mostly from the Spanish-speaking community; Alvelo-Lynch says 80% of them live in Puerto Rico. Sharpe's customer base is broader, so Rivera focused there and is now the person primarily responsible for its operations. After a transitional year marked by grief, the two revamped the business for efficiency and are turning back to expansion.
Honestly, what's been working for us is word of mouth.
What is working
Rivera says referrals drive growth: take care of one merchant and they tell others. That depends on having trustworthy funders, and she says meeting funders in person at industry events gives a better read on whether they are in the business for the right reasons than a phone call can.
Rivera says the mother-daughter structure is unusual even among family firms, which tend to be father and son, and that the two talk deals at work, after work and at dinner. She calls the job rewarding if you love numbers and people, but says you have to love it. She credits Lynch with the approach she now uses at Sharpe, and the goal for 2026 is a bigger year.
Source reporting: deBanked.
