Podcast Summary: The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex

Episode: From 300 Cold Calls to Fintech Exec: Noor Faith on Fan Basis & Scale

Date: September 7, 2025
Host: Paul Alex Espinoza
Guest: Noor Faith, Executive at Fan Basis

Episode Overview

In this dynamic episode, Paul Alex welcomes Noor Faith, a seasoned fintech executive and startup specialist, to explore the journey from relentless cold calling to leading growth at Fan Basis—a cutting-edge payment processing platform designed for digital entrepreneurs, coaches, and online businesses. Their conversation dives deep into startup battle scars, building high-impact cultures, solving critical payment pain points, and Noor’s philosophy on risk-taking, team development, and industry disruption.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Noor’s Background & Grit-Driven Rise

• Humble beginnings: Dropped out senior year of college after a tough period (“I could barely make rent. I was starving at that time.” – 02:18)
• Early sales hustle: Started in tech sales at $300/week, making 200–300 cold calls daily (05:35). Persevered to become top salesperson, then partner, and opened new branches.
• Battle scars: Experienced failure when his own agency couldn’t make payroll—“one of the hardest, darkest days of my life” (04:10). Emphasizes how adversity forged resilience for future success.

Quote:
"Battle scars are important. You learn so much from it." — Noor (04:10)

The Power of Mindset, Support Systems, & Risk

• Mindset roots: Noor attributes his drive to a work ethic built from sports and motivating parents, but underscores having a support network—especially his wife and mother-in-law (02:39).
• Burn the boats: Both agree real transformation comes from going all-in and not looking back (08:25).
• Risk tolerance: Noor’s main advice—be willing to risk and fail early in life when responsibilities are lower (41:25).

Quote:
"You have to be willing to risk it all. You have to be willing to lose it all… Battle scars are attractive." — Noor (41:25)

Defining Your “Why” & Chasing Fulfillment

• Noor’s “why” evolved from pure financial gains (“I just wanted to make money… that’s all I cared about.” — 10:14) to a focus on helping others realize their potential and scaling impact.
• Paul and Noor discuss the perpetual journey of chasing your best self, referencing Ed Mylett’s philosophy and the importance of fulfillment over just achievement (11:00).

Building and Sustaining a Winning Startup Culture

• Culture is everything: Noor credits culture as a startup’s true lifeblood—core values must be lived, not just put on a wall (12:07–13:44).
• Hatch Hiring Framework: Fan Basis prioritizes honesty, ambition, teachability (coachability), creativity, and hard work (“The most important one for me there is teachable, coachable.” — 14:01).
• Looks for people running toward the mission, not just a paycheck.
• Character over pure talent: "You could be an A player, but if you don't have character, it's not gonna work." (16:15)

Fan Basis: Disrupting Online Payment Processing (18:04–24:28)

• Noor joined six months ago, post-market-fit phase, and commends the founding team for “the pain of going from 0 to 1” (18:04).
• Key differentiators:
  • No fund holds or reserves: Unlike Stripe or legacy processors, Fan Basis never puts holds on funds for reputable digital businesses (20:17).
  • Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) for digital offers: Unique access for online coaches, course creators, and info product sellers, boosting client revenue by ≈38% in the first 90 days (22:46).
  • Tech and hands-on partnership: Deep consultative support—helping clients optimize marketing funnels, sales, and operations, not just process money (24:51).

Quote:
"When we bring on a seller, we're not just processing; we're actually looking at their funnel, their marketing, their operations… People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." — Noor (25:05)

Qualifier: Leveraging Data for Sales Precision (28:12–34:02)

• Lead Qualifier Tool: Enriches leads with detailed personal and financial data—income, credit, home ownership, political/religious view, etc.—to help businesses prioritize and match the right team member to the right customer.
• Reduces wasted ad spend, lost sales time, improves team morale (“feeding your team qualified leads”—32:39).
• Empowers better retention: “You're not going to be spending time, money, energy… on salespeople wondering why they're not closing, when reality is it's your responsibility” (33:14).

Growth, Vision & What’s Next for Fan Basis (34:12–37:02)

• Next frontiers: Expanding BNPL to mainstream B2B payment processing, not just digital businesses.
• Market pull, not push: Fan Basis has grown through demand and lucrative affiliate partnerships rather than outbound sales—“I can’t hire fast enough” (34:48).
• Continual feature development: Plans for innovative payment orchestration and new service rollouts.

Passive Income & Affiliate Program (37:04–39:27)

• Affiliate program: True passive income—referral partners earn a percentage of Fan Basis's net margin on referred client processing for life.
• Real-world results: “There are people… just referring people to sign up… doing six figures a month” (38:20).

Audience Q&A – Motivational Advice for Entrepreneurs (41:25–43:10)

Noor’s end-of-episode message:

• Cultivate risk tolerance and take action early.
• “Battle scars are attractive.” Failure is inevitable and invaluable for growth.
• Fail fast, fail forward—perfectionism and fear only hold you back.
• The earlier you accept and learn from failures, the more magnetic and credible you become in life and business.

Quote:
"The faster you can fail in life, the better… I want you guys to fail as fast as possible." — Noor (42:31)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Noor’s background & early struggles: 01:56–05:10
• Mindset, support, and burning the boats: 06:01–09:40
• Evolution of Noor’s “Why” and talk on fulfillment: 10:09–11:56
• Culture & hiring for early-stage startups: 12:07–16:15
• Fan Basis mission, differentiation, and impact: 17:58–24:28
• Buy Now, Pay Later and client growth results: 22:46–23:59
• Qualifying leads and leveraging data: 28:12–34:02
• Vision for Fan Basis/future plans: 34:12–37:02
• Affiliate program & passive income: 37:04–39:27
• Noor’s motivational message: 41:25–43:10

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Battle scars are important. You learn so much from it.” — Noor (04:10)
• “It’s not the leads, it’s you. But there comes a point in time where you want to make sure that you’re targeting qualified leads. It is important.” — Noor (33:14)
• “You have to be willing to risk it all. You have to be willing to lose it all… Battle scars are attractive.” — Noor (41:25)
• "When we bring on a seller, we're not just processing; we're actually looking at their funnel, their marketing, their operations… People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." — Noor (25:05)
• “There are people… just referring people to sign up… doing six figures a month” — Noor (38:20)
• "All money is not good money." — Paul Alex (23:37)

Final Motivation & How to Connect

Noor’s closing advice: Get comfortable with risk, embrace and learn from your failures, and act early before responsibility makes risk-taking harder. The entrepreneurs who win are those willing to “burn the boats,” get up after every punch, and never stop chasing growth.

Connect with Noor:

• Instagram: @alldayfateh
• Fan Basis: fanbasis.com (Mention the podcast for special attention)
• Fan Basis on Instagram/Twitter: @fanbasis

Perfect for:

• Digital entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, course creators, startup operators, and anyone looking to learn from real-world underdog stories and actionable scaling strategies.