Funny, my first thought was, damn, if you don't have that much in savings, then you can't afford the "thing."
But now I think this might be brilliant. Based on the article, it sounds like this is focused on short-term needs; it's not that they don't have the money to pay cash, it's that their money is wrapped up in other investments. I know there are a lot of people here who believe you should keep as little in cash as possible to maximize overall returns, so this would be consistent with that, just at a much larger scale (I wouldn't be comfortable with that approach, but it's definitely the best way to maximize returns). So you get this massive, fast loan, with the only collateral being some silly object that doesn't matter anyway -- pretty brilliant.
My only real question is what is the effective interest rate if you decide to redeem the collateral? Having no experience with pawn shops, I am assuming that you need to pay back more than you borrowed to redeem it, and so you'd need to weigh that into the overall equation.
And, of course, it's only smart if you are using it to increase your wealth, e.g. using the money to invest in the mentioned business opportunities. Borrowing money to buy an unnecessary depreciating asset is stupid at any wealth level.