In this episode of Burning the Ships, I sit down with my business partner and longtime friend, Bill Phillips, for a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what the last year has really been like inside 608B Capital Funding. Bill has been buried deep in the operational trenches—underwriting loans, managing the chaos of fast growth, and keeping the machine running while we’ve scaled from “hoping for one good loan a month” to consistently funding fifteen at a time.
We recorded this at the end of 2025, which gave us the perfect chance to reflect on everything: our transition from corporate life, the mindset required to survive those quiet early months, the hockey-stick moments of growth, the pressure of supporting our families through uncertainty, and the honest realities of partnership. If you’ve ever wondered what it actually looks like to leave a stable career, build a business from scratch, raise capital, build systems, hire a team, and keep your sanity—this episode is for you.
Key Talking Points of the Episode
00:00 Introduction
01:13 Welcoming Bill back on the podcast after months behind the scenes
01:33 Why Bill has been buried in loan processing for most of 2025
06:03 Managing the deceiving quiet of the early operational days
07:07 What our revenue graph would really look like from day one
09:29 Hiring Ted through a military transition program & scaling operations
11:33 The realization that inefficiencies were costing time and growth
12:16 Brandon joining the team & why it changes everything
12:33 The “800 steps a day” problem: grinding so hard you don’t move
17:28 Explaining our business model for new listeners: how 608B works
18:08 The simple structure: we raise money from investors & lend to flippers
20:32 The unseen complexity: legal work, protection, servicing, and underwriting
24:40 The difference between having runway and becoming complacent
25:21 How family responsibility created healthy pressure to succeed
26:22 The fear of giving your kids a better life…and then losing it
31:36 Why afternoons/evenings are Jason’s highest-energy work time
35:32 Hitting the pause button at $20M in capital to strengthen operations
36:31 Making the company more efficient before raising another dollar
39:47 Creating a foundation strong enough to scale vertically
42:31 Shutting down capital raising even when ego wanted to keep going
47:24 Why renewals aren’t part of our growth metric
47:52 Dividing the company into two teams: Operations vs. Sales/Marketing
48:43 Breaking down KPIs for daily and weekly action
52:13 Understanding growth through efficiency, not just more capital
53:21 Increasing profitability without raising a single extra dollar
54:15 Transitioning into partnerships & why most fail before they begin
1:01:00 Leaving corporate life & losing the social environment of coworkers
Quotables
“Growth is easy—you just keep pouring gas on the fire. But responsible growth? That’s where real business discipline shows up.”
“We never once let the thought cross our minds that we might have to go back to work. That belief is what kept us moving.”
“Raising capital is great, but raising too much capital too fast will put you out of business.”
“Our kids are proud of 608B, and that alone keeps the fire lit every single day.”
“Partnerships work when adversity shows you who the other person really is.”
Links
608B Capital
