About

Bengaly Kante

Founder · Business Performance Advisor

Fifteen years in business and commercial banking, sitting between the owner and the credit decision. Now I do the same reading for the owner, with no bank behind me and nothing to sell.

The work I actually did

Hundreds of files, and the same pattern in most of them.

Most of my career was spent as a Vice President in business and commercial banking at Wells Fargo and PNC. The job sat in the middle: a business owner would come in wanting to buy a company, add equipment, or open a line of credit, and I was the one who read what they brought, financial statements, tax returns, projections, the acquisition documents, and worked out whether the request was going to hold up.

Then I told them the truth about it. Sometimes that meant explaining exactly what the bank would need to see and helping them get the file into shape. Sometimes it meant telling an owner the request wasn't going to work in its current form, and why. Acquisitions, SBA loans across the programs, equipment financing, working capital lines, hundreds of them.

I wasn't the person who approved the credit. I was often the person who could see, before it went forward, where the request was likely to hold up or break down.

You learn something doing that a few hundred times. Financial statements and tax returns can tell different stories because they serve different purposes. Understanding the difference, and what it meant for the decision in front of the owner, was a regular part of the work.

Finding that answer was the daily work, and one pattern kept repeating: profitable companies under genuine cash pressure. Not because sales were weak, because nobody could see how cash actually moved through the business. Owners were making real decisions with numbers that only showed them what had already happened.

That gap is why Praxis Profit exists. The same reading, done for the owner instead of the institution, early enough to matter.

Bengaly Kante, Founder of Praxis Profit
Bengaly Kante Founder, Praxis Profit
  • 15 years business & commercial banking
  • Hundreds of acquisition, SBA & commercial files reviewed
  • B.S. Business Administration
How I work

Four things that don't change, whatever the engagement.

Independent, always

No loan commissions, no referral fees, no software or vendor kickbacks, no financial products. No transaction-based compensation: no commissions, no listing fees, no lender fees, no success fees, no referral fees, no percentage of any deal. The conclusion doesn't change based on whether you hire me afterward.

You work with me

No junior analyst team, no handoff after the sales call. The person who reads your numbers is the person you talked to.

Alongside your CPA, not instead of

Your bookkeeper and CPA may provide reporting, tax, and advisory support. I focus on interpreting business performance for the decision in front of you. Different lanes, and I'll tell you when something belongs in theirs.

Plain-English judgment

The analysis is only useful if it leads to a decision. I explain what matters, what does not, and what I would address next without burying you in finance language.

Honest scope

What I don't do.

Knowing where the line is protects you more than a longer capability list would.

  • Not a CPA. No audits, reviews, compilations, or certified Quality of Earnings reports. I analyze; a licensed CPA attests.
  • No bookkeeping or tax. No monthly close, no returns, no tax planning. Clean books are the starting point for my work, not the deliverable.
  • No certified valuations. Appraisals for tax, legal, estate, or SBA purposes require a credentialed appraiser.
  • No lending, brokering, or products. I don't originate, place, or broker loans, and I'm not a business broker.

When something belongs with a CPA, an attorney, an appraiser, or a QoE provider, I'll say so and point you to the right person. That's part of what you're paying for.

Where to start

Three moments, one question.

Next step

Bring one question you can't answer from your own reports.

Twenty minutes, confidential, no charge. If I'm not the right person for it, I'll tell you who is, and that's usually worth the call on its own.