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Dennis Cail
![The 2025 Southwest winners and stakeholders gather on stage at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards last weekend. [Photo via Dennis Cail]](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/EY-southest-award-2025-Dennis-Cail-share.jpg)
The 2025 Southwest winners and stakeholders gather on stage at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards last weekend. [Photo via Dennis Cail]
The Last Word: EOY Judge On What It Really Takes to Build Something Extraordinary
by Quincy Preston | Jun 25, 2025
The 2025 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Southwest Awards were judged by a powerhouse panel of past winners—including Zirtue's Dennis Cail. What he saw in the 18 standout founders and executives? The grit and vision it takes to make it.
by Glenn Hunter |
Nov 7, 2024
Behind the scenes at an exclusive VIP event at the Perot family's Circle T Ranch in Westlake, where Ross Perot Jr. and Anurag Jain held forth in an annual highlight of the Venture Dallas summit.
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by Quincy Preston |
Nov 6, 2023
The winning companies were selected from 100+ nominees and eight semifinalists. They reflect "strong themes" in the Dallas-Fort Worth ecosystem: FinTech, DefenseTech, and PropTech, says steering committee member David Evans.
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by Lance Murray |
Aug 8, 2023
Zirtue, the Dallas-based relationship lending platform known for its tech-driven innovation, is teaming up with TruStage to introduce the financial services group’s new Payment Guard Insurance.
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Dennis Cail and Mandy Price
Afrotech Future List Honors Two Dallas Entrepreneurs as National ‘Founders of the Year’
by Lance Murray | May 19, 2023
Two Dallas entrepreneurs have been recognized by Afrotech’s Future List as founders of the year.
Dennis Cail is co-founder and CEO of the fintech startup Zirtue and Mandy Price is co-founder and CEO of the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging startup Kanarys.
The list honors the achievements and performances of people of color in technology and innovation, and also recognizes individuals or groups that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through their career endeavors....
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by Lance Murray |
Apr 28, 2023
Suzanne Cruz-Sewell and Dennis Cail bring extensive business and civic experience to their roles on the bank's board "that’s focused on making our communities stronger by making businesses stronger.”
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by Lance Murray |
Apr 11, 2023
Five finalists. One mission. United Way's Social Innovation Competition brings together innovative North Texas minds in social entrepreneurship for a chance to change the future. In a Shark Tank-style showdown, they'll pitch their solutions to improve education, income, and health in the community.
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by Glenn Hunter |
Mar 2, 2023
The startup aimed at formalizing lending among family and friends adds a feature to ensure “paper-napkin IOUs” are less likely to damage relationships. “There are a lot of lenders out there that have multiple people that they’ve loaned money to,” says CEO and co-founder Dennis Cail. “And they’re like, ‘Look, if I have a chance of getting one of those loans paid back, it’s worth it.’"
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Dennis Cail, CEO and co-founder of Zirtue [Photo: Zirtue]
Dallas Fintech Zirtue Opens Its Platform to Businesses as a New Alternative Payment Solution
by Alex Edwards | Dec 7, 2021
Zirtue's Alternative Payment Solution—operating in stealth mode to Fortune 500 corporate partners since early 2021—is now open to all businesses for consumers to pay their bills. It's a "new level of convenience," CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Cail says: The product gives those who are struggling a way to lean on friends, family, and loved ones to make payments, while providing accountability and trust to the lender.
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![Patrick Brandt (left) and Aakash Kumar (right), who co-founded labor management platform Shiftsmart in 2015, are among the finalists for the 2021 Entrepreneur Of The Year Southwest Region Award. [Photo: Courtesy Shiftsmart]](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Shiftsmart_entrepreneur-of-the-year-finalist_courtesy-2021-360x203.jpg)
by Quincy Preston |
Jun 5, 2021
These "audacious business leaders" from 38 companies were picked by a panel of judges. Here are the finalists.
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by Quincy Preston and Sandra Engelland |
Feb 10, 2021
Dennis Cail launched Zirtue to reimagine lending. Its patent-pending app has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. Ongoing access to Google engineers will help the fintech scale faster.
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by Alex Edwards |
Oct 6, 2020
CourMed, Kanarys, ShearShare, and Zirtue are among the 76 nationwide recipients of the $5 million Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. Each startup will receive non-dilutive cash awards—meaning that the founders aren't giving up any company ownership in exchange for the funding.
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[Image: YouTube/Zirtue]
Peer-to-Peer Lending: Dallas Fintech Adds Corporate Partners, Offers Alternative to Borrowing During COVID-19 Crisis
by Lance Murray | Mar 30, 2020
AT&T and UT Southwestern Medical are among Zirtue's corporate partners. The startup wants to help businesses collect more and write off less with its relationship-lending app.
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![Erica Kosemund, Chief Brand Officer, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Gillian Breidenbach, Chief Partnership Officer, North Texas FWC Organizing Committee; Chief Gary Batton, Chief of Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Monica Paul, Executive Director of Dallas Sports Commission and President of North Texas FWC Organizing Committee; John Hobbs, Senior Executive Officer of Communications, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; and Heidi Grant, Senior Executive Officer of Commerce Administration, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, celebrate Choctaw Casinos & Resorts becoming an Official Dallas World Cup 2026 Host City Supporter. [Photo: North Texas FWC Organizing Committee/Choctaw Casinos & Resorts]](https://s24806.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/FIFA-Choctaw-dec-2025.jpg)
