Asked and answered, plainly.

Tenon is owner-to-owner lending for Utah businesses, members only. Tenon builds and verifies the borrower’s profile, scores it, runs a closed deal room for member lenders, papers the loan, and keeps the books on every payment. The money itself moves directly between lender and borrower.

Tenon, LLC is the Utah limited liability company that signs every agreement, sends every invoice and answers for the platform.

No. Tenon, LLC is a broker and platform. It does not make loans, does not hold anyone’s money, and does not move money between parties. Every loan is made by a member lender to a borrower under a note between those two parties. Tenon is paid its own fees and nothing else.

Yes, to start. Borrowers must be Utah businesses and lenders must complete onboarding under Utah’s rules. Tenon is built around Utah’s commercial-financing framework and will stay Utah-only until that is proven and the next state is deliberately added.

At closing, each lender sends its share directly to the borrower. Each month, the borrower pays each lender directly by ACH under that lender’s note. Tenon generates the payment schedule, sends reminders, reconciles what happened using read-only bank data, and sends statements. There is no Tenon account in the middle and no escrow.

A tenon is the part of a woodworking joint that fits into a matching socket in another piece, so two separate parts hold as one. That is the idea: one business backing another, on paper that holds up. The borrower knows who holds each note; each lender knows who signed it.

A Utah business with at least 2 years of operating history, positive operating cash flow, enough cash flow to cover its existing debt plus the new payment (1.25× coverage, measured on real bank activity), and collateral worth filing on. The loan must be for a business purpose. Owners sign a personal guarantee.

Typically $25,000 to $250,000, repaid monthly over 6 to 36 months at a fixed rate. The credit box lists requests from $25,000 to $500,000 and 6 to 60 months.

1.5 points on the funded amount — $1,500 on every $100,000. After you confirm the loan money has arrived, Tenon, LLC sends you an invoice, and you pay it by ACH or wire. Tenon never debits your account. It is never deducted from the loan: lenders send the full amount. If the loan does not fund, there is no fee. Interest runs 8.5% to 12% a year, fixed for the life of the note, set by your Tenon Score tier. There is no application fee and no prepayment penalty.

A 0-to-100 scorecard a lender can recompute from the worksheet on your profile: debt-service coverage (30), cash-flow stability (15), guarantor credit (15), leverage (10), business credit history (10), time in business and owner tenure (10), collateral (10), plus one stated industry adjustment. It is computed only after a file has passed the credit box and the coverage test. The score sets your rate tier — Tier A at 8.5%, Tier B at 10%, Tier C at 12% — and a file scoring under 50 is declined even if it passed the box. Verification is a badge on the profile, not a point in the score. The full plain-English version is here.

Because the file is outside the credit box: fewer than 2 years operating, negative operating cash flow, coverage under 1.25× after the new payment, a guarantor credit score under 620, too many returned items or overdrafts, open liens or judgments over $10,000, a senior lender who will not consent, or a lien position that could not actually be recovered. The credit box decides yes or no; the score tier sets the rate inside the published band. A decline comes in writing with the reason and what would change it; coverage between 1.00× and 1.25× gets a counteroffer for the amount that passes instead of a decline.

Your loan is funded by up to 5 member lenders. They pledge; no cash moves at pledge. If pledges reach 100% of the amount within 30 days, the loan closes and every lender funds you directly. If not, the pledges release, nothing closes, and you owe nothing. You never end up with half a loan.

Yes. Every note carries a personal guarantee from the owners and a blanket lien on business assets filed with a UCC-1. If you have existing senior debt, that gets looked at before listing, not after.

No. Loans arranged through Tenon are business-purpose only. You sign a written statement of intended purpose, and the proceeds have to go where the statement says.

Members. Lending is open to businesses and individuals who complete onboarding first: identity and business verification, written representations about their experience and the business purpose of their lending, and Utah’s transaction count. No one sees a borrower profile or loan terms before onboarding is complete.

No. There is no public listing of loans, and this website does not describe any specific loan. The deal room is for onboarded members only. That is a deliberate design choice, not a teaser.

A flat administration fee of $100 to $150 per note per year, which covers the schedule, reminders, reconciliation, statements, and year-end interest reporting on that note. Tenon takes no success fee and no share of the interest.

Each loan takes up to 5 lenders, so the minimum share is the loan amount divided by 5, rounded up to the nearest $5,000. On a $100,000 loan that is $20,000; on a $250,000 loan it is $50,000. You can take more than the minimum, up to the whole loan.

No. A pledge is binding once you submit it, so read the loan’s terms in full before you pledge. No cash moves at pledge. Your pledge releases only if the loan does not reach 100% within 30 days, the listing is cancelled, or a closing condition is not met. If the loan reaches 100% and closes, you send your share directly to the borrower.

Your own note. Every lender on a loan holds a separate promissory note from the borrower on the same rate, schedule, and collateral, with its own personal guarantee and UCC-1 authorization, and the lenders sign an intercreditor agreement that treats them equally. You are the lender of record on your note.

Yes. A borrower can stop paying. Collateral can be worth less than the balance. A personal guarantee is only as good as the guarantor. Money you lend through Tenon is not insured by anyone, and Tenon, LLC does not guarantee repayment. The scoring and the credit box are tools for your own judgment, not a promise about outcomes. Lend only what your business can afford to have tied up for the full term, and to lose.

No. Lending through Tenon is not an investment product and is not marketed as one. You make a direct, secured commercial loan to a named Utah business under a note you hold and terms you can see in full before you pledge. No returns are promised. Members sign written representations at onboarding about why they lend and what they understand. Nothing on this website is an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security.

Utah’s Commercial Financing Registration and Disclosure Act treats a person who makes more than five commercial financing transactions in the state in a 12-month period as a “provider” who must register with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Tenon tracks each member’s count on a rolling 12-month basis and tells you where you stand before every pledge. If you want to lend past five, Tenon will walk you through registration; it is a form and a fee, not a wall.

Tenon sees the missed payment in the reconciliation, notifies every lender on the loan, and coordinates the notices the documents require. Decisions about forbearance, enforcement, or calling the personal guarantee belong to the lenders under their intercreditor agreement. Tenon prepares the paperwork and the record; it does not make the call for you, and it is not your lawyer.

Interest you receive is income to you. Tenon prepares a year-end interest statement for every note it administers, and Form 1099-INT where one is required. Who is treated as the payer of record depends on the lender-direct structure and is set out in your lender agreement. Talk to your own tax advisor about your situation.

Tenon, LLC, a Utah limited liability company based in Springville, Utah County, founded and run by Dan Quarnberg. More about Dan and why Tenon exists.

Application documents, bank data, and identity information are used to build and verify profiles and to administer loans. Member lenders see a borrower’s profile only after onboarding. Tenon does not sell personal information. The privacy policy has the specifics, including how to ask what Tenon holds about you.