Krista Morgan: co-founder and CEO, P2Binvestor.

• Author: Ryckman, Lisa
• Position: ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR FINALISTS - Cover story

Last spring, Krista Morgan's struggling financial technology company appeared to have hit its final wall.

"We hadn't actually sold any product, we were almost out of money, and we were discussing when to shut down the company," Morgan says. "In that moment, I decided I would succeed no matter what."

Two weeks later, the company closed its first deal; hit its first $1 million in loans by the end of that month. And therein lies what Morgan considers her greatest accomplishment: surviving.

"There have been so many make-or-break moments over the years, and every time I persevered," she says.

Morgan left a lucrative job in London to move to Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood and open P2Binvestor in 2012 with her father, Bruce Morgan. They raised a Series A funding round in late 2013 and started "crowdlending" commercial lines of credit to growing businesses in January 2014. In little more than a year, the company racked up more than $14 million in client contracts, $50 million in invoices funded and 26 served clients.

Morgan gives lots of the credit to her 18 employees.

"I learned that there is a lot I don't know, and the best entrepreneurs are always listening before they make decisions," she says...