00:00:00:00 – 00:00:22:12
Scott peper
The problem we’re solving is a real one. And we’re we’re we can add a ton of value by solving that problem. That was the one moment. The second one was watching one of the customers who didn’t have access to capital. They found our loan program, and over the course of that same year, they had grown their business exponentially, like 200% growth.
00:00:22:14 – 00:00:30:02
Scott peper
And they went from a few million dollars a year to almost $10 million per year. And doing work that they otherwise would have just turned down. They said.
00:00:30:04 – 00:00:53:20
Courtney
Hi, my name is Courtney and welcome to how they scale their rescaling and start with both sides of the brain. Today I’m excited to welcome Scott Pieper, founder and CEO of Globalization Funding. Scott’s path to entrepreneurship wasn’t the straight line after early jobs and initial entrepreneurial venture, and long stretch of sales and executive experience in healthcare and medical devices.
00:00:53:22 – 00:01:17:22
Courtney
He found his way into construction finance, which started out as a small investment opportunity. That opportunity eventually became globalization funding. That’s something he built to solve a major cash flow problems of commercial subcontractors and construction supporting factories. Your project based financing. Scott, it is such an honor to have you here today. Welcome to how you scale that.
00:01:18:00 – 00:01:22:02
Scott peper
Thanks, Courtney. I appreciate you having me on and ask for it.
00:01:22:04 – 00:01:40:04
Courtney
Like you said you are, it has been a little bit windy, a little bit all over the place, like most entrepreneurs, and starting out away from construction finance. What was this early years like and what do they teach you about business and work with the rest?
00:01:40:06 – 00:01:59:22
Scott peper
Yeah. Well, I started, working with my dad when he was, and he was in construction, so I had been around construction site when I was doing jobs in high school and in between summers in college and whatnot. So I was kind of around that for my dad growing up and hearing his conversations and my family members, a lot of them were in construction, too.
00:02:00:00 – 00:02:27:02
Scott peper
But those early years, you know, funny enough, I realized I didn’t want to construction by doing that. And so after college, you know, I got into those earlier years of just different jobs and sales and sales is really the background. I ultimately landed on sales and marketing, and I spent more time selling from really, let’s say, 2002 till actually really I mean, even in 90s I was in sales.
00:02:27:02 – 00:02:49:14
Scott peper
So but, you know, I had a quick entrepreneurial experience early and, 2000 and, that was about a year and a half, two years. And I sold some of my
shares to a partner, for very little let a little bit about of money to try to get it into doing something else. Move geographically. My wife and I got married, and I, got into sales at that point.
00:02:49:14 – 00:03:14:07
Scott peper
And that’s where I spent the most of my years from like, really 2002 all the way through to 2000 and, 21, when I was ultimately with Engine and Amex and Stryker and I had some overlap there between Stryker mobilization funding, but that was all sales related sales management leadership. And I just learned over the years that it was a it was a good thing as soon.
00:03:14:11 – 00:03:15:00
Scott peper Yeah.
00:03:15:02 – 00:03:41:23
Courtney
Yeah, I feel like sales and such an important part of being an entrepreneur too, because you’re constantly selling your idea and selling the company. So that really aligns. One thing that I know you say is that you always had kind of an entrepreneurial call, like even from this early, early days, what was something that, like you realized that was that was important to you and that was where you going to end up?
00:03:42:01 – 00:04:01:21
Scott peper
Yeah. I don’t think I knew I would end up there. And I also don’t think I knew it was an entrepreneur and a Paul until probably more recently in the last 4 or 5 years. What I always felt at the time was a feeling of unhappiness or, yeah, settled. And it would be like, you know, I’m doing really well.
00:04:01:21 – 00:04:31:17
Scott peper
I want some words. I got a great job, but I it was like, I never felt like I was in the game. Like I felt like there was a ceiling or cap on it. And so it would be like having to abide by this set of guidelines and rules that were created for this job. And in that job, you can only do so much, and you can only contribute so many things, and you have the limitations of what all these other people for the quote unquote box that you’re in, you have to do or you can’t do it.
00:04:31:17 – 00:04:41:16
Scott peper
I think those things kind of were a burden, and it became very troublesome to me, and it led me to be like more unhappy sometimes for what otherwise, on the surface should be something I should be told.
00:04:41:17 – 00:04:42:08
Courtney Yeah.
00:04:42:10 – 00:04:48:20
Scott peper
Well, job wise, income wise, responsibility title, all those things were there, but I was still.
00:04:48:20 – 00:05:10:23
Courtney
Yeah, you know, that’s really interesting because I also feel like, when you’re working in a job like sales, a lot of times, like the upper management will give you opportunities to think blue sky. And so those are like,
exciting times where you can kind of like go crazy with it. But for the most part, you really don’t have that permission.
00:05:11:01 – 00:05:36:21
Courtney
And it is interesting that you weren’t like you were associating that with like, oh, I need to be an entrepreneur. I need to build it myself. I need to give myself the opportunity to do whatever I want. But you just, like, felt like nothing was missing. And then with mobilization, funding, you had invested in that. But then the company had taken a pretty sharp turn with, like, the original operators leaving.
00:05:36:23 – 00:05:48:01
Courtney
So what? How did you make the decision to jump in as the, as the temporary CEO, permanent CEO?
00:05:48:03 – 00:06:03:07
Scott peper
Yeah. You know it’s funny. So and to your point, when I was called like one of my friends and said, hey, do you want to put some money? And we got this great idea, we’re going to make these loans and this guy’s going to run it. Okay, cool. So I did that. That’s how I got introduced to it that first like six, eight months while he was doing that.
00:06:03:07 – 00:06:12:00
Scott peper
And we would meet, the four of us would meet up and we’d go to we’d meet up in Atlanta and that’s where he was, and we’d go to dinner. I had more like excitement and like.
00:06:12:04 – 00:06:12:16
Courtney Yeah.
00:06:12:16 – 00:06:15:00
Scott peper
Thrive at that little meeting where we weren’t.
00:06:15:00 – 00:06:15:08
Courtney Even.
00:06:15:10 – 00:06:17:12
Scott peper
Paid then I did not.
00:06:17:12 – 00:06:18:20
Courtney
Like interesting.
00:06:19:01 – 00:06:35:10
Scott peper
And so I did notice that, especially as I think back and reflect, I remember those feelings. Like I was excited to get on that plane to go on that trip, and I wasn’t even going to do anything. And then, you know, when all that, when those things transpired with him and he left, he left the business, he resigned.
00:06:35:10 – 00:06:42:12
Scott peper
And me and another gentleman, another one of the owners had to take over what we were really trying to do. Courtney was just.
00:06:42:16 – 00:06:43:08
Courtney Yeah, our.
00:06:43:08 – 00:07:04:01
Scott peper
Money back and like, sure things up and figure out where it was. There wasn’t a goal to like take over the business and think, oh my gosh, it was more take over those loans and figure out how we’re going to get repaid. And so it was then the course of that process over a year that we actually did, we got those loans shored up, we got repaid on some.
00:07:04:01 – 00:07:31:13
Scott peper
We made some new loans to some existing customers. We found a couple new customers, and we basically got it into a very good stable spot. And it was at that point we looked at each other and I was like, dude, this is not a bad business. This was just really poorly executed. And we weren’t even doing necessarily what we thought or said we were going to be doing because we after we watched what got executed, it wasn’t what we did we set out to do.
00:07:31:15 – 00:07:56:06
Scott peper
Now, that might be part of the reason why that gentleman resigned. But we said, let’s go at it, let’s do it the right way and do what we say we’re going to do and open an office. And we opened an office and we took over and the two of us started, started running it. And it was at that point that, it became the business of mobilization, funding and what we do today and how we go about doing that is, in principle, the same thing.
00:07:56:08 – 00:08:01:15
Scott peper
But, taking it to a point where you can actually put it, put the product out there.
00:08:01:17 – 00:08:21:13
Courtney
Yeah. So you kind of, I mean, you started just training your money back, but ultimately it sounds like it’s just over a year. Little things kept happening that indicated that there was a lot more to it, and it was giving you more energy. Was there like one moment or was it just a series of things where eventually you were like, no, this is just what I do now.
00:08:21:15 – 00:08:23:03
Courtney
This is just.
00:08:23:05 – 00:08:49:14
Scott peper
Yeah, there was, there was in that one in that first year, the moment came like every time we met with a customer, they couldn’t they were like one happy and excited to see us. Two they we were you became the solution to a problem they were trying to really solve for so long. And then when they couldn’t get in touch with the partner and they didn’t know what was going on, they were actually truly worried that they had this problem.
00:08:49:15 – 00:09:11:18
Scott peper
They thought they had a solution for it was going to go away. And so that was the one moment was, oh my gosh, you know, these customers, these people, the problem we’re solving is a real one. And we’re we’re we can add a ton of value by solving the problem. That was the one moment. The second one was watching one of the customers who didn’t have access to capital.
00:09:11:18 – 00:09:35:20
Scott peper
They found our loan program, and over the course of that same year, they had grown their business exponentially, like 200% growth. And they went from a few million dollars a year to almost $10 million a year, and doing work that they otherwise would have just turned down, they said. And what that meant for them, their business, their company, how many employees they were able to hire, the people they were able to take care of, the customers.
00:09:35:22 – 00:09:46:18
Scott peper
That was like, okay, I can see how this value, this is so much value now to a customer, this problem and being the solution for it, that we really have something here, we should.
00:09:46:19 – 00:10:15:02
Courtney
I think so amazing that, especially because you’re in the financial world and how often are you excited to talk to anyone in the financial world, especially as, like a construction, like construction company? It’s like it’s a seems like that must have been really exciting to get customers that were happy already. So then when you, when you were digging into it, obviously it wasn’t immediately.
00:10:15:02 – 00:10:33:21
Courtney
Everything went really well. I think every entrepreneur actually, like, looks back on mistakes with a lot of finance. You look back to, like, you first took over in those first couple of years, what were some of the earliest mistakes that really shaped the way they currently operating?
00:10:33:23 – 00:11:04:04
Scott peper
Yeah, well, I would say the first realization I had was the mistakes we thought the original operator made or nothing compared to the mistakes we made. They were like nothing compared to them. I would say one of the biggest mistakes is, you know, of course, you know, lending to the wrong folks in the wrong situations. One of the things I learned quickly about the lending business is if you if someone’s looking for money and you’re willing to say, yes, I’ll take your money.
00:11:04:06 – 00:11:19:01
Scott peper
And it doesn’t necessarily mean you can be a help to them. Matter of fact, it means you can actually hurt them even worse sometimes. So if there are certain scenarios where people just are looking for money to fix a big problem they had, and that problem really isn’t solved, all you’re really doing is pouring gas on a fire.
00:11:19:06 – 00:11:40:23
Scott peper
And so if you’re a lender, you’re not really helping them by saying yes, you’re just postponing what is going to ultimately be inevitable. Problem pain that typically, in this scenario I’m describing, you know, if something’s being used for the wrong reasons. So that’s one thing. You know, learning the lessons of, like, you can’t help every single person, your loan program.
00:11:40:23 – 00:12:11:22
Scott peper
In other words, just because you have money attached to it doesn’t mean that it’s the right brand for everyone. That was another big key lesson. But you know, from a business perspective, the one thing I can say, operator to operator people on a business is just because you lend money out doesn’t mean
it’s coming back. Yeah. And so in a lending business where we make money as we lend money out, it costs us a certain amount of dollars to borrow that money ourselves or, or use our own cash.
00:12:12:00 – 00:12:33:03
Scott peper
And the money we charge customers when it comes back, that spread is what we get to, is how we make money, you know? So if you lose principal dollars that you send out that that is has a dramatic impact on profitability and it can actually hurt your business too. So you got to make sure you’re really helping people use the dollars that they need when they need it.
00:12:33:05 – 00:12:49:06
Scott peper
And we realize that the types of loans that we’re doing for the types of problems we’re solving, you have to be a lot more than just someone that provides money. You got to you got to help them solve the problem, which is usually cashflow related. It’s usually like trying to organize. How much cash do I actually need and how can I pay it back?
00:12:49:11 – 00:13:12:03
Scott peper
So instead of taking a program that you create and stuffing it to them, you want to have a program that you created, but you can have some nuance to it where you’re able to give them the money they need. When they need it, you’re able to help them identify how much they actually need to solve the problem that they’re actually trying to solve, which in this case is executing a contractual work that they were they were given or awarded.
00:13:12:05 – 00:13:30:12
Scott peper
But more importantly, to just because you want to be paid back at a certain time, you may not be able to pay you back at that point in time. And so we build the payments back to when they are paid on the project versus saying, oh, you got to figure out how to pay us monthly when we already know by analysis that they can be right.
00:13:30:12 – 00:13:38:06
Scott peper
So we work it out to when they’re paid. So those are the things that like probably early on that really shaped a lot of what we do and definitely what we yeah.
00:13:38:11 – 00:14:01:03
Courtney
Choosing an industry like construction, obviously there’s a lot of potential benefits there, but that there’s a lot of slow pain going on in the construction, especially for subcontractors. So how did you choose that group of subcontractors, and is it just because you saw that was where the most need was?
00:14:01:05 – 00:14:25:00
Scott peper
Yes. We didn’t set out to be a commercial construction. We didn’t set up a lender. We set out to be a commercial construction lender. And the reason being was the problem we were trying to solve was for commercial construction contractors that were specifically getting work in two bonded jobs. That’s how it started. And, bonded, meaning like they’re working for the federal government and they have to have a payment or performance bond.
00:14:25:01 – 00:14:45:10
Scott peper
And when you have a payment, a performance bond, in order to get bonded by an insurance company, you have to have certain working capital components. So
much like what we do, an insurance company that’s going to give a construction company a bond performance bond, they want to make sure you can do the work, and one of the things they know for sure is a big component for you.
00:14:45:10 – 00:15:06:06
Scott peper
Being able to do the work is that you have enough working capital to execute the work. And so what they realized coming out of the downturn, if you think like 2012, 2013, when we were doing this starting, we were just coming out of the recession and there was a lot of government work, but not a lot of companies had big balance sheets and they were still financially hurt from from the recession.
00:15:06:07 – 00:15:30:03
Scott peper
And so the working capital component that they had available to them wasn’t the same. And so we set out to be a working capital solution for commercial contractors for bonded work, providing that money they needed so they can execute the jobs and then be paid back as they were paying back. And so that’s how we found our niche, what we realized is that’s a huge problem, whether it’s bonded jobs or not.
00:15:30:05 – 00:15:50:08
Scott peper
And in the commercial construction world specifically, because you can really you don’t get any deposits, you can only invoice once a month. You get paid when paid or paid every 30 days. At best. It’s sometimes it takes 60 to 75 days just to get into the payment cycle before you wait another 30 days. And so that problem is very obvious and apparent.
00:15:50:08 – 00:15:52:20
Scott peper
And if we could create a solution for that, that’s what.
00:15:52:20 – 00:16:15:02
Courtney
Yeah, yeah. What I do think that in down in such a broad industry like sentiment or lending is really smart. It’s probably done really well for you because you focus on there are so many unique problems like visa and bonding like that. So while it is, there are all these problems that also come with the industry. You can can’t Easttown.
00:16:15:02 – 00:16:29:08
Courtney
That’s how you start building that trust. Is that how you feel like that trust was starting to be built with this? Because like, all we do is work with contractors like you know your industry well, or are there other things that you guys had to do to build that trust with it?
00:16:29:10 – 00:16:47:13
Scott peper
Yeah, I think too, we did two things. We set out first to be the best in the world at whatever it is we were going to do. And so when we landed on being a lender to commercial construction contractors to help fulfill that working capital component, we wanted to be the best in the world at it, and that meant we have to understand what the customer’s pain points are.
00:16:47:18 – 00:17:06:00
Scott peper
We need to understand exactly what it’s like to do a commercial construction project such that, because this is a problem, working capital, if we’re going to be the solution for that, how do we pour enough value into this program,
this loan program, such that we’re not only giving them the money, but we’re also helping them figure out all of what it is that they actually need.
00:17:06:00 – 00:17:27:18
Scott peper
So they can they can actually do what they set out to do, which is perform at a commercial construction project. And so I think it’s that trust. Not only is this all we do, but it’s it’s what we became experts at. And then we also solve for two other problems that are in commercial construction, which is cash flow and then the payment cycle.
00:17:27:23 – 00:17:46:20
Scott peper
And so if we could help them understand what their actual cash flow is so that they could execute better, work more efficiently, then they’d they’d be able to build that work, and then we could create a repayment cycle to the loan that coincided with when they’re actually paid, which is the other component to it. So we solve those three issues really is the key piece.
00:17:46:20 – 00:17:58:10
Scott peper
And I think that coupled with the content platform that we created, the education platform that we created in the value of our loan program and and experience is what really?
00:17:58:12 – 00:18:23:09
Courtney
Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you’re constantly proving that you’re a thought leader. You’re constantly selling that you’re one of the key members of this, like, construction community. It’s probably been very important for you when you’re hiring for that. Then, like, you’re hiring your own team and you try to look for people who are in construction or are they anyone that you been teach construction to?
00:18:23:11 – 00:18:43:06
Scott peper
Yeah. It’s funny. You know, people think all the time, like, we must be like a bank where we have all the bankers, and it’s not really the case. Actually, most people aren’t. But we also have a lot of people that have ever been in construction either, which I also think is an advantage. And the reason being is if you if you have experience in construction, then you’re sort of very bifurcated to new thoughts.
00:18:43:08 – 00:18:59:16
Scott peper
If you’re in banking, you’re also right, new thoughts. Right. So what I think it allowed us to do is we have a pretty diverse background. We do have people some bank, we do have people from construction, but we have a lot of people that have never been in either one of those industries, and they just love the culture that we have and the opportunity that we create.
00:18:59:16 – 00:19:22:02
Scott peper
And they’re excited to solve a problem for for anyone that actually can perceive this problem and solution as valuable and that makes them feel good. And so a lot of the experience we have is coming from just being a good, solid person who’s aligned to our core values, who’s aligned to the customer’s needs and then wants to deliver value and be important and helpful.
00:19:22:02 – 00:19:26:09
Scott peper
And so that’s really who our core group is. And then I think that show yeah.
00:19:26:11 – 00:19:53:01
Courtney
Is there to teach someone technical skills. Then you know that soft skills and ask your businesses grow. What are the systems or the processes that kind of kept that consistency without leaving the human side, that sound like human side, and like the customer service element of your business is pretty important. How will the scale but also keep that?
00:19:53:03 – 00:20:14:06
Scott peper
Yeah, it’s very high touch. So we scale them. We think of things in like pods or teams. The way it’s scaled is we have a business development team and it might be sales. They’re onboarding. Then we have a servicing team that manages that client relationship when they’re executing on the loan and taking disbursements and making payments and not like servicing like you are servicing a loan portfolio.
00:20:14:06 – 00:20:40:21
Scott peper
Write statements. It’s like when people use our loans, they actually are that we’re we’re working with a customer typically on a weekly basis. They need money each week for payroll and other things. And so they’re work. We’re not very high touch, very human human element. But what we did was we figured out ways to make that seamless using technology, whether it’s on an app that we created, everything is done through our Maximus system, and that is really all electronically.
00:20:40:21 – 00:21:01:12
Scott peper
You can log in and see any information you need. You can put disbursement requests in. You can use the app to put disburse requests in. You can email and and tax directly with your, customer service rep or, or sales or business development person. You can then, see all the records of where things are getting paid comes to you right away inside the system.
00:21:01:15 – 00:21:21:18
Scott peper
So everything from your phone or from your computer can quickly and easily be there. Whether you want to communicate or talk to a live human, all of it can be done right there. And so that’s part then really keys and and then I think the big customer service component is, you know, when you’re when you’re trying to do a construction project, there’s a lot of stress.
00:21:21:18 – 00:21:41:04
Scott peper
There’s lots of things that can go on. There’s lots of things that go wrong. And having someone on your side that you can reach out to multiple people inside of the business, particularly your lender, to help you navigate those scenarios, whether they’re the financial aspects of the job or whether it’s just getting some company that needs to get paid.
00:21:41:06 – 00:22:00:18
Scott peper
It just brings a lot of, calm. And it takes a high stress environment in a high stress scenario coupled with high stress about money. And if you can calm all that down, you can really help someone have a totally different experience in their own company executing their own projects that they.
00:22:00:18 – 00:22:09:05
Courtney
Yeah, I’d love for you to take over my, my mortgage like under and teach them a thing or two.
00:22:09:07 – 00:22:09:13
Courtney Yeah.
00:22:09:19 – 00:22:15:02
Scott peper
You mean, like, just under the system. And then, by the way, you can’t talk to anyone. You got to. Yeah.
00:22:15:04 – 00:22:22:04
Courtney
It’s like going through everyone, selling everybody out so quickly that it’s like, oh, with everything.
00:22:22:06 – 00:22:25:12
Scott peper
As soon as you close on your loan, you get a loan being serviced.
00:22:25:12 – 00:22:51:05
Courtney
Exactly. So, you’ve you’ve kind of talked a little bit about how you really want your, your business to be excellent before you scale and also, I think that you talk a little about where mouth is the main way that you, you have scaled, how has word of mouth, works for you? And like, where does it kind of stop where you have to start investing in market?
00:22:51:11 – 00:22:55:10
Courtney
How do you invest in very much marketing?
00:22:55:12 – 00:23:16:15
Scott peper
So I think that’s the conception that people forget these days is word of mouth still exists just as much as it ever did. No matter how much marketing spend you have, no matter what you spend your dollars on, how big your marketing department is, word of mouth is still happening. Marketing is just nothing more than helping you push your word of mouth at a higher, faster pace.
00:23:16:17 – 00:23:38:09
Scott peper
What I mean by that is, you know, in the old days, people knocked on doors you had to, like, do provide a great product or service and maybe, hopefully someone would bump into there’s no social media unless you bought, radio time or TV time. It was really the only way to get one to many. Well, social media changed all that, but but word of mouth still exists the same way.
00:23:38:11 – 00:24:04:22
Scott peper
And what happens now is, oh, when I say word of mouth one, it starts with you have to be great at what you do. You have to be able to deliver a consistent product or service to to your customer. Whatever it is you do. That has to be great, because what happens is every time someone touches your product or service, if that experience isn’t great, they’re going to tell that story, whether it’s great or whether it’s bad.
00:24:05:03 – 00:24:23:07
Scott peper
And so word of mouth is already starting to work. So with social media, what happens is, is if you don’t have that nailed down, that delivery of your product or service or your performance, and it doesn’t, it’s not a good story. It doesn’t solve their problem. It doesn’t create a good solution.
It’s not something anyone wants to talk about. 00:24:23:09 – 00:24:40:23
Scott peper
Then when you market your product and put more eyes on your product service and everyone tries at least once, you’re going to have an exponentially amount of more people having a bad story to tell about your product or service, and that word of mouth ends up killing you. And this is what happens with a lot of businesses. They advertise too soon.
00:24:41:05 – 00:25:03:20
Scott peper
They don’t have their product figure out figured out. And what happens is you get that leaky bucket theory. You put ten customers in the bucket and ten customers fall out of the bucket. And it’s because that word of mouth isn’t self-sustaining. One of the things I’m most proud of is 75% of our funding on an annualized basis comes from our existing customers, and we’ve grown exponentially.
00:25:03:20 – 00:25:28:14
Scott peper
Not only have we grown with new customers, but we’ve grown with our existing customers who have grown their businesses exponentially. Much like the first gentleman I told you about that when we were solving those problems for a year. So it’s and, you know, I learned that a lot from some of my past experience. You know, having being fortunate enough to start a business in my late 30s helped me understand some things, but I still had the one, and that wasn’t the hard way.
00:25:28:14 – 00:25:44:15
Scott peper
And I got some great advice from mentors too. But you have to nail your product really well. And you got to pay attention to are you winning the story that people are going to tell about you when they either use your product or use your service or and engage with your brand?
00:25:44:15 – 00:25:53:18
Courtney
Yeah. Do you use any kind of marketing? We kind of paid marketing to support that word of mouth and so we do.
00:25:53:18 – 00:26:23:12
Scott peper
Yeah. So like, you know, we have our own podcast, The Mobilization Minds. We have a lot of LinkedIn presence and YouTube presence and we do spend some dollars. If there’s things that people liked a lot or engage more, we make sure they get in front of more people. That’s our version of the more of marketing. But our marketing and the spend that we have, like 90% of our budget, is in content creation for the delivery of what is ultimately free to folks that, yeah.
00:26:23:13 – 00:26:39:18
Courtney
So it’s kind of shifting gears more to like how you run this business and how you approach leadership. You talked about having well, as co-founders over the years, starting with someone who wasn’t necessarily running the company, who that.
00:26:39:20 – 00:26:42:03
Scott peper
Oh, they were founder, too. Yeah.
00:26:42:05 – 00:26:53:05
Courtney
What you learned about using the right person and what have you kind of, like, thrown into an appreciating co-founders, not having one.
00:26:53:07 – 00:27:03:05
Scott peper
Yeah. I mean, if I understand your question correctly, it’s like you have a partner and, and if you’re going to have one, what kind of partner should you have? Yeah, yeah. What’s your.
00:27:03:05 – 00:27:04:09
Courtney
Theory on? Okay.
00:27:04:11 – 00:27:37:10
Scott peper
So yeah, I, you know, I think if you can start a business with someone else, other than yourself, by yourself, and it’s the right person, you guys have different types of skills. You have different you, but you’re aligned in what you want to accomplish. You bringing different things to the table. Skills wise, I think that’s very valuable because entrepreneurship can be really lonely having a partner that’s in the trenches with you that, you know, in the world, like my partner today, him and I talk all the time is like, you know, no one’s trying to save us, man.
00:27:37:10 – 00:28:03:18
Scott peper
Like, you know, no one’s going to save us. You know, it’s good to have somebody like that. Again in the business, you know? And, you know, my wife is an amazing partner to me, you know, never alone. However, in business, you you do. It does help to have a partner if if it’s the right one. Now, on the flip side, if you have a partner that’s just a financial partner, they put some money in and they’re not doing anything else.
00:28:03:18 – 00:28:29:16
Scott peper
And in the business you can have that can be negative sometimes because you feel like you’re doing all the work. They feel like they want a return on the money. So you got to really make sure you’re on the same page inherently. I think if you have a partner, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But I think your partner, you and your partner should be bringing different things to the business, specifically different skills, different experiences that you guys are just to, you know, yeah, salespeople.
00:28:29:18 – 00:28:50:19
Scott peper
Right. One’s great salespeople. Maybe one’s a great finance person. Great. Operator. And then I think that can be had a lot of value. And look, if you need money and you can get a financial partner, that can be valuable to you, like, you need you need money. But hopefully that financial partner is also someone that, has had some experience.
00:28:50:19 – 00:28:55:09
Scott peper
They can they maybe they were a little ahead of the game from you and they can help you along the way. They’re offering something.
00:28:55:12 – 00:29:18:11
Courtney
Yeah. We’re just, having the same expectations for what you’re trying to accomplish. So I think sometimes with financial partners, it’s all about patience from their essence. The thing that always I’ve noticed with the negative is that there’s not quite enough patience to wait for the money to come back, which, it doesn’t always. It’s I mean, that’s like the risk of of starting a business.
00:29:18:11 – 00:29:46:03
Scott peper
Yeah. And look, sometimes operators that are inexperienced, they get money and they don’t they don’t appreciate what that means. You know, they think that because they’ve got that money and whatever that person put the money in for and whatever they decided they needed that money for, like it’s going to automatically happen. And that’s just not the case. And so I think a lot of times operators sometimes don’t respect the money enough and that becomes bothersome to the financial partner.
00:29:46:03 – 00:30:00:21
Scott peper
And so it’s really nuanced. It’s not easy. It’s one of the reasons why you really want to like growing too fast before you know what you have going before you can deliver your product or service. That’s what we talked about a few times. Now, you know, that is the most important thing.
00:30:00:21 – 00:30:02:16
Courtney Yeah.
00:30:02:18 – 00:30:10:01
Scott peper
Because again, money in the same exact context, if you get a lot of money but you don’t have that part now all you’re doing is pouring.
00:30:10:02 – 00:30:34:19
Courtney
Right, right. Yeah. I mean you’re just continuously doubling down on something that’s not working. That’s never, a recipe for success. I do think that you have an interesting take on risk. When we spoke earlier, you said that, the main difference between a founder and everyone else is. First time to expand a little bit on that.
00:30:34:21 – 00:30:57:17
Scott peper
Yeah. If all things go wrong, however, there’s only one place that the the bank or the the business or the the person’s door. There’s only one. Yeah. They’re coming to and that’s, that’s the owner. Right. Everyone else can go get a job. And it’s a miserable day. I lost my job or whatever. But they’re not coming to your house, right?
00:30:57:18 – 00:31:17:07
Scott peper
They’re not coming to take your personal belongings because you didn’t do what you said you were going to do. And that’s that’s a big burden. That’s a that’s a lot of risk. You know, that’s a lot. And it takes a lot. And to operate a business which is also very difficult to do with that in the back of your head is also difficult.
00:31:17:09 – 00:31:36:08
Scott peper
The thought of, am I going to succeed or not? You know, most businesses fail. That’s risky, you know? So those those are the things I think that happen the most. But what I was saying to you, we talked about this before is everybody wants the same things. Whether you’re an employer founder, they want you want to win, you want to contribute value.
00:31:36:10 – 00:31:55:02
Scott peper
You want to solve problems. You want to feel like you’re part of a winning team, that you’re contributing. You want to be excellent at what you do. You want to develop, and you want to be, better and better each day. And you want to like you want to know that you actually contributed, and then you want to be you want to earn a living for your family.
00:31:55:04 – 00:32:08:05
Scott peper
Well, what’s different between a founder and any other employee? In that sense, you want to be part of that, right? I mean, I’ve never heard anyone tell me, oh, yeah, that sounds great. I’m so glad you’re the founder. That’s what you want. But you know what I want to do? I want to suck at my job. I want to never be developed.
00:32:08:11 – 00:32:37:04
Scott peper
I don’t want to solve problems for the customers. I would really like it if I could just come in here and be miserable as all hell stress. No one ever, right? So at the end of the day, the real difference is what risk tolerance do you have? What are you willing to risk to create that environment for yourself and if you can find it as an employee or an entrepreneur, some terms like that, then great, you should, you should.
00:32:37:04 – 00:32:44:22
Scott peper
And it’s awesome. By the way, there is nothing wrong with that because the entrepreneurial spirit is is big. But it’s also not for everybody.
00:32:44:22 – 00:32:45:18
Courtney Right?
00:32:45:20 – 00:33:08:21
Scott peper
It’s not easy and it comes with a whole different level of stress, which is derived from that risk. And so sometimes it’s hard for people to be in that same environment that we just talked about. Yeah. Awesome. When you have the right. Yeah. And so I think the founder or owner is just willing to be in that environment while also enjoying that risk.
00:33:09:00 – 00:33:12:11
Scott peper
But the risk is the part that they were able to get past it.
00:33:12:11 – 00:33:48:08
Courtney
Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I do feel like risk tolerance is is kind of one of those key elements of every entrepreneur. And like there are great employees that can get a lot more risk, you know, and that’s what when you join a startup, that’s what you’re missing a lot, you know, for it, for your job. But, but I’ve never met an entrepreneur who wasn’t like, a little bit more, open to risk that allows, when you look at your leadership style, Steve, you’ve been doing this for for a while now.
00:33:48:10 – 00:33:56:09
Courtney
How has your leadership style change? As the company has grown and the team has expanded?
00:33:56:11 – 00:34:21:05
Scott peper
Yeah. You know, it’s a lot. I would say, again, I started the business later, later in my life, but it’s too early. So I had a leadership style, at least when I started. But, you know, I was, I’m more prone to trying to do everything to too much, do everything, solve every problem. And that really gets in the way of other people being able to flourish as well.
00:34:21:07 – 00:34:43:02
Scott peper
And so I think the biggest thing I learned was people are going to make mistakes. I really want to let them make those mistakes. Look at those as investments in them, not in, problems per se. You want to limit those mistakes. You don’t want people that make the same mistakes over and over again, but you want to share the mistakes everyone makes so everybody can learn from the same mistake without having to make it themselves.
00:34:43:04 – 00:35:06:18
Scott peper
And I think the biggest thing about my leadership style was more empowerment. Let people get out there, teach and train, try to keep as many guardrails, but not trying to micromanage and not care as much. That’s probably a general theme. I would say. My leadership style has always been to lead by example.
Like I’m willing to do anything and do whatever it takes.
00:35:06:23 – 00:35:26:08
Scott peper
I don’t expect everybody to be willing to do anything and do whatever it takes. They’re not the founder, but, leadership through action and commitment to excellence, maintaining high standards. I think all of those things require you to do them, you know? And so if you do those, you can start.
00:35:26:10 – 00:35:53:04
Courtney
Yeah, I totally agree. That’s I think sometimes, Sounders who are struggling is because they don’t really know how every element of their business works and sometimes they lose a little bit of that. And so if you are familiar with that recurring business, you are willing to do everything that’s considered in a much better position. But then learning when to delegate and to actually take, I think it’s actually pretty challenging.
00:35:53:06 – 00:36:13:16
Scott peper
Yeah. And that’s part of growing slower, too. You know, when you, you got to know the business a little bit before you scale it. If you scale business so fast, you don’t know what’s going on and you lose somebody or you and you have no idea what that department does or whatever, you don’t have the right people in place or more importantly, you don’t have the systems or processes in place such that you understand the system and process.
00:36:13:16 – 00:36:20:18
Scott peper
It’s only people scaled. That’s how you can really get stuck as an entrepreneur, or business in general.
00:36:20:20 – 00:36:37:20
Courtney
When you’re thinking about building, which you kind of talked about this a little bit, but, what are the elements of character that you’re looking for in people, or do they align with kind of your leadership style, what you want to be excellent, or are there other things you’re looking for?
00:36:37:22 – 00:36:50:22
Scott peper
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is you’re looking for people that are humble. That’s the biggest trait. You know, people that aren’t going to quit. They look, they self-reflect. And humble means not like, oh, boo hoo.
00:36:51:00 – 00:36:51:07
Courtney Yeah.
00:36:51:12 – 00:37:04:01
Scott peper
Just I mean, humble is like, you know, I mean, I’m capable of doing anything, but I know what I don’t know yet, and I’m willing to do what it takes. And so I have the humility to ask for help. I have the humility to try to teach and learn. But I’m going to show up.
00:37:04:03 – 00:37:04:11
Courtney Yeah.
00:37:04:12 – 00:37:27:00
Scott peper
Trying to win like that’s, you know, I think sometimes that somebody, someone might say, well, that’s an arrogant person. Like, no, I’m someone that’s coming up, someone that’s showing up expecting to win and showing up, ready to go. And, and leaves in the front. That’s not arrogance. If they also at the same time realize I don’t know everything, but I’m willing to do it.
00:37:27:02 – 00:37:46:01
Scott peper
And I’m also humble enough to ask the questions and tell you what I don’t know what I’m not good at. While. Yeah, pursuing a very high standard, that’s a totally different person. And so I think humility is a prerequisite to being, to really being ultimately a great employee or a great team member or a great leader or even a great.
00:37:46:01 – 00:37:59:17
Courtney
Yeah, I love that. It is very, very pure humility. But it is so powerful that really opens you up to actually work. So yeah, it’s really. Yes.
00:37:59:18 – 00:38:00:22
Scott peper
Yeah. I think people, you.
00:38:01:00 – 00:38:25:08
Courtney
Yes. It’s not really offsets. It’s more like. Yeah. Knowing that you don’t know things like I think one of the, the older I get, the more I realize I don’t know. And I feel like that’s like what humility. Humility is. Because if you not like, you May 20th like. Yeah, I know a lot about the world and I don’t, I don’t know a lot of things.
00:38:25:10 – 00:38:35:08
Courtney
So looking to the future, where do you see mobilization funding going in the next five years? If you can think that far ahead.
00:38:35:10 – 00:38:54:15
Scott peper
Yeah. No, I think mobilization, funding, we we are the best in the world at what we do. We there is there is no better business that can lend to the commercial construction world to help them execute projects and in a way that we can. Now there’s other people that can provide money, there’s other people that might be able to do to lend.
00:38:54:17 – 00:39:23:08
Scott peper
But in terms of delivering that service product, that’s what we are. And as we grow more and more, where we’ll be is more of a household name and a real solution. More and more people will know that we exist, just like they know they can go to a bank for an SBA loan. They’ll know that if they’re a commercial contractor and traditional financing doesn’t work for them, or they have traditional financing, but they need something else, they’ll know
that mobilization funding also exists, and that it’s there for a that’s a it’s a it’s an up.
00:39:23:08 – 00:39:39:02
Scott peper
It’s just like, you know, a cup if you need water, you grab a cup. If you need a loan, you can go to a bank. If you need a certain loan, you can go to SBA. If you’re a commercial construction lender, you know you can do all those things, but you can also go to more funding. That’s where it will be at a greater and greater awareness.
00:39:39:04 – 00:39:41:14
Scott peper
And doing okay.
00:39:41:16 – 00:39:51:19
Courtney
When you look at the construction finance industry in general, are there some opportunities that you feel people are still underestimating?
00:39:51:21 – 00:39:54:08
Scott peper
Yeah. Like in what way? Like in terms of just lending you meaning?
00:39:54:10 – 00:40:03:08
Courtney
Yeah. Any kind of finance. Like, is there space for you guys to grow into different ways of lending or. Yeah.
00:40:03:10 – 00:40:25:18
Scott peper
You know. Yeah. The, the, so the one of the terms people use a lot in our world or any business world is total addressable market. Right. Like what is the market for your services or product? The Tam, they call it the Tam. And commercial construction is measured in trillions. And you know what? The portion that we serve today is very, very small in that bucket.
00:40:25:19 – 00:40:45:21
Scott peper
So I think there’s plenty of opportunity and only for mobilization funding to thrive. But there’s probably plenty of room for a lot of different businesses to thrive. If they can figure out the same solutions or a different one that provide to them, give someone options. So I think that the total addressable market is huge, measured in the trillions.
00:40:45:23 – 00:41:09:15
Scott peper
I wouldn’t be surprised if we were lending out over $1 billion a year in, in an five year period. Yeah. So it wouldn’t shock me at all. And so, considering that, you know, and even at that point we would be at a very we’d be like less than 1%, right? You know, and so I think there’s a lot of room I think we’re doing a great job.
00:41:09:15 – 00:41:33:20
Scott peper
I think that’s where we’ll end up being helping more and more businesses like that at different sizes. You know, our the amount of the size of the businesses that we help now today are a little different than they were even three, 4 or 5 years ago. They’re bigger. Those companies that are in that 5 to $80 million a year that are trying to grow, there’s very it’s very difficult for them to get capital, even if they’re 50, 60, 70, $80 million business.
00:41:33:22 – 00:41:46:14
Scott peper
It’s really hard for them to get capital to grow and construction when they’re taking on, performance risk projects, meaning like they’re taking on a project they have to build something. Lenders don’t know how to assess performance risk. They don’t. Yeah.
00:41:46:15 – 00:41:47:11
Courtney Do it.
00:41:47:13 – 00:41:49:10
Scott peper
And that’s where we can say.
00:41:49:12 – 00:42:07:00
Courtney
Well, if you do, you can go back to the early stages of mobilization funding. So probably when you were deciding to take over the company, what would you tell yourself was that advice or just a warning? Maybe.
00:42:07:01 – 00:42:28:19
Scott peper
It’s going to take way longer than you think it’s going to take, measured by, you know, maybe ten years longer than you think it’s going to take. I would tell myself to be really patient. And a lot of the things I would tell myself are one of the things I just told you, which is nail it first, like, get your make sure you can deliver that products consistently to your customer.
00:42:29:01 – 00:42:52:10
Scott peper
Make sure it works. Don’t be so fearful about, how fast or scaling. Just deliver greatness to one customer at a time. I would tell myself that, you’re going to make mistakes. It’s much better for you to learn these mistakes. Now when you’re making loans that are, you know, tens of thousands of dollars, and they are when they’re millions of dollars.
00:42:52:12 – 00:43:00:23
Scott peper
So just be patient. Take your time, be aggressive and urgent with moving through the processes, but be patient that it’s going to take all of these.
00:43:01:00 – 00:43:12:21
Courtney
And so underrated in starting from so very refreshing. Where can people find you and mobilization and finding online.
00:43:12:23 – 00:43:37:14
Scott peper
Mobilization funding.com is a wealth of resources. There’s educational content on there. There’s cash flow tools on there. There’s a project cash flow to build your own cash flow. You can find us on our YouTube channel, which is mobilization funding on YouTube. Our podcast, which is The Mobilization Mindset. It’s on the YouTube channel and anywhere else you find podcasts.
00:43:37:16 – 00:43:44:01
Scott peper
And of course, you can find pretty much our entire team and definitely me on LinkedIn as well, where we focus a lot of time.
00:43:44:04 – 00:44:04:15
Courtney
Can be great. So everywhere. Thank you so much for being on the show, Scott. I really appreciate it. And thank you to everyone at home or on the show for
listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please make sure to subscribe to The Friend and you know if there’s anything you want to hear on an upcoming episode, just let us know.
00:44:04:17 – 00:44:17:04
Courtney
For more insights, follow us on LinkedIn or visit Right Left agency.com and will be back next time with more stories of success, innovation and marketing strategies to help you.
00:44:17:06 – 00:44:18:11
Scott peper
Thanks, I appreciate it. make it simple test
