What is the main difference between Starter Stack and Boom Automations for non-bank lenders?

Boom Automations is a generalist automation consultancy with broad asset management experience but no lending-specific workflow templates, no managed infrastructure, and no ongoing agent operation after the build. Starter Stack is purpose-built for non-bank lenders. It diagnoses your bottlenecks, builds custom AI agents for lending-specific workflows — stips detection, covenant monitoring, bank statement spreading — and runs those agents on its own managed infrastructure.

Why does generalist automation fail in specialty finance?

Lending operations involve domain-specific logic that generic automation tools and consultancies don't carry by default. Stips checklists, covenant ratio thresholds, servicing exception routing, LOS data structures — these require lending-specific context. When a generalist team builds from scratch, your ops staff becomes the subject matter expert for the engagement. That consumes time and produces brittle automations that break when your process changes.

How long does a Starter Stack engagement take to go live?

The first workflow goes live in under 30 days. The engagement starts with one high-friction workflow — diagnosed and deployed — then expands from there. That's possible because diagnosis, agent build, and managed deployment are handled by the same team, with no handoff between strategy and implementation.

Does Starter Stack replace existing systems?

No. Starter Stack does not require rip-and-replace of your existing LOS, LMS, or accounting systems. Agents deploy on Starter Stack's managed infrastructure — or optionally within your own environment — and connect to your existing workflows without requiring a platform migration.

What happens when a workflow changes or breaks?

Because Starter Stack runs the agents on its own managed infrastructure, adapting to workflow changes is Starter Stack's responsibility, not yours. You don't maintain automations or debug integrations. That's the difference between a managed service and a consultancy that delivers a build and exits.

Is Starter Stack appropriate for a lender without an IT or engineering team?

Yes. The typical Starter Stack client has 5–30 people and 1–3 ops staff with no dedicated engineering or data team. The managed service model is specifically designed for operators who are strong on origination and credit but don't have the internal capacity to build or maintain AI infrastructure.

Starter Stack vs. Boom Automations: Why Generalist Automation Fails Non-Bank Lenders

Q: What workflows does Starter Stack cover for non-bank lenders?

Six core areas: underwriting intake and document review, portfolio monitoring, servicing handoff and exception routing, finance ops and reconciliation, custom workflow design encoding the client's credit logic, and private firm-specific deployment where client data does not enter a shared platform or train any shared model.

Mark Dusseau

Co-Founder & CEO

2026-09-298 min read

Vendor SelectionOperationsAI StrategyGetting Started

Boom Automations has a real track record. Eighty-plus clients, documented results in asset management, a consultancy model that works across a range of industries.

Non-bank lending is not one of them.

If you're a direct lender deploying $50M–$200M annually with 1–3 ops staff running your back office, the gap between a generalist automation consultancy and a purpose-built managed service is not a minor detail. It's the difference between a workflow that goes live in 30 days and a project that stalls six months in because nobody on the engagement has ever seen a stips checklist.

What Generalist Automation Actually Means

Generalist automation consultancies build workflows. They map your processes, identify repetitive tasks, and connect systems using tools like Zapier, Make, or custom RPA scripts. That approach works when the underlying process is generic: data entry, file routing, notification triggers.

Lending operations are not generic.

Bank statement spreading requires understanding what you're actually looking for — NSF frequency, average daily balance trends, revenue seasonality. Covenant monitoring requires knowing which ratios matter for your specific credit box, how to flag drift before it becomes a missed trigger, and who needs to see the alert. Servicing handoff exceptions require distinguishing a payment timing issue from a real credit event.

A generalist consultancy doesn't carry templates for any of that. They build what you describe to them. And if you're running a 10-person shop with 2 ops staff, you don't have the bandwidth to spec out every workflow edge case for an outside team that has never touched a lending LOS.

The Three Gaps That Cost You

1. No Lending-Specific Workflow Templates

Boom Automations documents results in asset management. That's a different operational context. Asset management workflows center on portfolio reporting, investor communications, and fund accounting. Lending operations center on file assembly, credit decision support, covenant tracking, and payment reconciliation.

When a generalist consultancy starts your engagement, they start from scratch. Every workflow gets built from a blank canvas using whatever you can articulate in a discovery session. You spend weeks in requirements gathering. Your ops team — already stretched — becomes the subject matter expert for a team that should already know this territory.

Starter Stack builds custom AI agents on top of lending-specific workflow patterns. Underwriting intake, missing stips detection, bank statement spreading, covenant ratio monitoring, servicing exception routing. These are not new problems. The agents encode your specific credit logic, but the underlying workflow architecture already exists.

2. No Managed Infrastructure

A consultancy delivers a build. Then they leave.

You own the automation. Your ops team maintains it. When a file format changes, when a new document type enters your pipeline, when a data source shifts — someone on your team has to fix it. If you don't have an engineering team, that someone is probably your most senior ops person, now debugging automations instead of processing deals.

Boom Automations does not run managed infrastructure. The engagement ends when the build ends.

Starter Stack runs the agents on its own managed infrastructure. When something breaks or needs to adapt, that's Starter Stack's problem, not yours. You don't manage software. You get outcomes.

3. No Path to a Live Workflow in 30 Days

Generalist automation projects at $50M–$200M lenders routinely take 3–6 months to reach production. Discovery, requirements, build, testing, revision, deployment. Each phase pulls your team's time and attention. The engagement drags. Your origination volume keeps growing. Your ops team keeps falling behind.

Starter Stack's first engagement goes live in under 30 days. One high-friction workflow, diagnosed and deployed. You see results before the quarter ends — then expand from there.

That timeline isn't a marketing claim. It's a structural feature of how the service is designed: diagnosis, custom agent build, and managed deployment are all handled by the same team. There's no handoff between a strategy consultant and a separate implementation partner.

What the Gap Costs at $50M–$200M Deployed

At this scale, your back office is probably 1–3 people handling underwriting support, portfolio monitoring, and finance ops. That team isn't underperforming. They're doing the work of 6 people because origination volume has grown faster than headcount.

The cost of a generalist automation engagement that doesn't understand your workflows shows up in three places.

Wasted discovery time — Your ops team spends 20–30 hours in requirements sessions explaining processes a lending specialist would already know. That's time not spent on active deals.

Brittle automations — A workflow built without lending-specific context breaks when your process changes. A new document type, a new borrower profile, a new covenant structure. Each change requires a new engagement or a support ticket that takes weeks to resolve.

Delayed ROI — A 6-month implementation timeline means 6 more months of manual file assembly, reactive covenant monitoring, and a painful month-end close. At $100M deployed with 2 ops staff, that's not a minor inefficiency. That's a structural constraint on how fast you can grow.

What Starter Stack Does Differently

Starter Stack is an AI-Native Service (AINS) partner. That means diagnosing your operational bottlenecks, building custom AI agents to handle the repeatable work, and running those agents on its own infrastructure. You don't manage software. You don't maintain automations. You don't babysit a dashboard.

The six workflow areas covered map directly to where non-bank lenders break at scale: underwriting intake and document review, portfolio monitoring, servicing handoff and exception routing, finance ops and reconciliation, custom workflow design encoding your credit logic, and private firm-specific deployment where your data never enters a shared platform or trains any shared model.

If you want a read on your own operation before talking to anyone, the Lending Operations Grader gives you a self-service assessment of your operational maturity.

For lenders who have already tried to automate underwriting intake manually or with generic tools, the guide on automating underwriting and loan servicing without hiring more staff is worth reading before your next vendor conversation.

The Real Question

Boom Automations is a capable consultancy for the right client. If you're running a fund administration operation or an asset management back office, a generalist automation partner with documented results in that space makes sense.

If you're a direct lender dealing with stips, covenant drift, and a month-end close that runs too long, you need a partner who already knows what those words mean — and has built agents that handle them.

Generalist automation doesn't fail non-bank lenders because the consultancy is bad at what it does. It fails because what it does is not what you need.

The back office breaks when origination scales. The question is whether you fix it with a team that has to learn your workflows from scratch, or one that already knows them.

Generalist automation builds workflows. Starter Stack runs them. If your origination volume is growing faster than your ops team can handle, that distinction matters more than any feature comparison.

Request a workflow assessment at starterstack.ai.