“You love the idea, but at some point in time, if it’s not working, you’ve got to be able to say, It’s not working. “

Interview by Mike Sullivan

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Mike:
Hey, everyone. It’s Mike Sullivan. Thanks for joining me. This is MO.com, where we feature small business owners and entrepreneurs, and then bring you hints, tips, insights, and perspectives on what it takes to be successful.

Joining us today is Robert Finfer. He’s the CEO of Integrity Capital Partners. Robert, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off here, would you mind telling us a little bit about your background leading up to Integrity Capital?

Robert:
I’ve had a number of different careers. I graduated college with a degree in finance, and my first opportunity out of school was working for Price Waterhouse in their Consulting Division. Absolutely hated it. I absolutely hated working in an environment where I had to wear a suit to work every day and do somebody else’s work for them. Just to give you a little background, I transferred to another job that I thought was going to give me all the freedom in the world. It was called Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. It was the same job, but I didn’t wear a suit. The same exact job.

So, the truth is my background began when I was like in fifth grade. I was selling bubblegum to other kids in school. I’ve always had a sideline business. Even in college I had sideline businesses where I did things, and the real world didn’t coincide with what I wanted to achieve. So, I ended up deciding to do something different, and I became part of a team of professionals that acquired a company in Greenville, Maryland that was in a specialty finance niche space. It was called Franklin Acceptance Corporation, and at the time we were a dark horse of non-prime and sub-prime auto finance receivables, purchasing loans for people who couldn’t easily obtain loans on their loans from car dealerships. That sort of got the entrepreneurial bug going.

Mike:
You were recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing small businesses. Can you tell me a little bit about that rapid growth?

Robert:
Well, what happened was there were a number of iterations prior to me starting Integrity Capital Partners. Initially, I had found a paper. I’m not the most brilliant guy in the world, so I tend to gravitate towards reading other people’s ideas and then seeing if I could make them better. I had read a paper that was written by two guys from Wharton about the insurance industry and how a lot of people were letting their insurance policies lapse. Within that, there was an industry where the only deal they ever had was that they could sell their insurance policy back to the company they bought it from. It would almost be like you buying a house and the only person you could sell it to in the future was the guy that you bought it from, at a set price.

So there was a business in there, and I got really excited about the opportunity. I tapped into it at the right time. Luck and timing have a lot more to do with skill and success, I believe. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and began to ride a wave. My goal, specifically as it related to Franklin Acceptance Corporation, which is also a specialty finance company, was to create a misunderstood product and make it appear and act in a very professional manner. So that’s what I attribute the success of the company to, which was creating a mindset and perception of an industry that was not positively perceived and creating something very nice from it.

So once we began to do that, we started to get recognized, even accolades within our own industry, prior to the Inc. 500 success. That made a lot a hedge funds and a lot of private equity come to us and say, “Hey, we want to be part of this.” That helped to fuel our growth in a very rapid way.

Mike:
Can you tell me what strategies you implemented to manage that very rapid growth?

Robert:
I can only tell you that I’ve made a tremendous amount of mistakes. My experience has been the only thing you can do is make mistakes and learn from them. So, you try to implement software programs that are going to hopefully alleviate workload and do things, and sometimes you make the wrong choices. Sometimes you hire people that you think are going to be wonderful, and they’re not so wonderful. So it’s a lot of trial and error. If you’re lucky, again back to the luck factor, you identify people that are smarter than you are that are specialists within their own area and allow you to do the things you can be successful at.

Mike:
You also teach a class in entrepreneurialism. Is that correct?

Robert:
Yes, it’s the Kogod School of Business at the American University. I’m a graduate of American University. It’s not far from my home, and the truth of the matter is that my life has been somewhat of an up-and-down scale. I’ve had some failure in businesses. I’ve started a few businesses that have failed. In this last iteration, I’ve been very lucky to have been part of Integrity, and help grow that industry. I wanted to give something back to the university beyond just a financial amount of money. The person who was in charge of development said, “Hey, we would love for you to do something at the school.” It started out as a speaking engagement. And for me personally, I got a tremendous amount out of that speaking engagement. Then the school came back and said, “Hey, would you like to help us teach a class on entrepreneurialism?” So I said, “Sounds great.” In fact, the person who helped me put the class together was one of my first professors, that taught me.

So we put together a class that was structured around assisting students that were specifically interested in creating a business once they left school. What I found was pleasing about that is I didn’t have a class like that when I went to school. When I went to school, you just kind of graduated and were left to your own devices to figure out what you were going to do. Here, the class itself, which was such a great deal of fun for me, seeing the interest of the young people. The whole premise behind the class was to identify a product, create a team, and then build the team financial statements, business plan. Then at the end of the class, they would do a pitch-off to a number of investment capital sources who were friends of mine, entrepreneurs who were friends of mine. Their entire presentation was going to be graded by those specific industry professionals.

So it was great to see seven or eight companies, and sort of bring them along during a semester. Also what was a fun part of the class was that I’m a member of YPO. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that organization – Young President’s Organization. Everybody in that organization is a founder or CEO of their company. So, in every class, I’d bring in one of my members from my chapter, and each one of them had a Horatio Algeresque story, of rags to riches, sort of how they got started themselves, which gave these kids an understanding that it doesn’t always happen the first time. There’s a lot of work that goes into it, and there are failures and successes and how to learn from it. So it became a very popular class. In fact, I have five or six kids that would show up just for the speech of these successful entrepreneurs. At the end, it was a great deal of fun. For me, I really enjoyed it.

It’s interesting, when I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to get out of class, go hang out, party, watch TV, or whatever it might be. I had kids show up in class that were saying, “Hey, it’s better than TV.” So there was a tremendous amount of warm, fuzzy feelings, and I still maintain relationships with a handful of students, not through Facebook, but through LinkedIn, a professional site, where they’re coming back to me and asking questions. I met with a few of them, and two of them actually started businesses out of the class.

Mike:
What has been your own greatest lesson as an entrepreneur?

Robert:
I’d have to say that the greatest lesson that you could learn is failure. There is no other magical lesson that I’ve learned, which is when I fail at something, I know it doesn’t work, and to be able to recognize the failure and then from that point forward to be able to take it to the next level and say, “Okay. This didn’t work. Let’s try something else.” Also to be able to walk away from a dream. As an entrepreneur, I’ve started a handful of different companies, and every one of them you’re married to. You love the idea, but at some point in time, if it’s not working, you’ve got to be able to say, “It’s not working.”

Mike:
When you’re facing a tough business decision, do you have anyone to turn to for advice or just to bounce ideas off of?

Robert:
I think if you’re lucky enough you have a father like I have. My father was an entrepreneur, so I’ve always bounced ideas off of him. But I think being a member of an association like E.O., which Entrepreneurs Organization, or being a member of YPO, which is Young Presidents Organization, with each one of those organizations, specifically YPO, you have what they call a forum. A forum is made up of seven to nine individuals who have no conflict in business with you. They can be in completely different businesses. So you can share intimate details of your business with the knowledge that they’re not interested in competing with you. You get some tremendous feedback that you would never expect. Then even when they’re having their business issues, you could learn from their specific issues that they’re going through. That feedback is a tremendous take away, for me, in helping me better understand my business and mistakes that other people have made and/or successes that other people have had. So they’re not official board members. Even the individual who manages my money, I find him to be a tremendous resource. I don’t feel any judgment. I feel like they’re just giving me what they think is in the company’s best interest and my best interest.

Mike:
As a CEO of a company you’re involved in many organizations. You’re on several boards. You’re a teacher. How do you manage your time?

Robert:
It’s very difficult. I have two children. I think for anybody who wants to be an executive, an A-type personality, or run a company, or build something, the life balance issue is going to be a big issue, for anybody who wants to do that. I see many guys who are 35, 40 years old and they have never been married and have no kids. They haven’t had the time. It’s very difficult to do all those things and be great at any one of them. So, it’s a constant balance of when do I have to stop and smell the roses? And it’s difficult. I won’t lie to you. It’s very difficult to say, you know what? I deserve a day off. I’m turning off the BlackBerry today, which is like for many people, any time you’re going to turn off the BlackBerry and not accept an email or a text, especially when it’s a client calling, it’s almost like pulling your hair out of your head, when you want to be responsive. But there are just some times when you just have to say, “You know what? Today’s a day I’m not going to do that.”

Mike:
Robert, I appreciate the interview. Take care.

Robert:
Well, I appreciate your time. Thanks a lot.