Lendio CEO Explains How His Company Is Fueling The American Dream

The United States used to be fueled by the American Dream, a patriotic theme that asserted any and every citizen can be successful by their own means of hard work.

But that dream may not look the same for entrepreneurs in a post-financial crisis, digital world. That’s where Lendio comes in. It’s a small-business lending marketplace that connects small-business owners to more than 100 lenders with different criteria and loan products.

Lendio was recently part of the launch of Faces of Main Street, a website dedicated to telling the story of the American small-business owner.

CEO Brock Blake was kind enough to sit down with Benzinga to talk about how Lendio is helping the American Dream and why that draws people to work there.

Highlighting The Small-Business Owner

BZ: Can you tell me about Faces of Main Street?

BB: “This is the website that we are kind of sponsoring that is about telling the story of business owners in the U.S. Twenty million businesses and every single one of them has the business owner, which is the face, and they have a story. These are the business owners that we have worked with, that have got the financing or that [are connected] somehow; they don’t have to be a customer Lendio to be on here.”

“This is the picture of the business owner and their story. Each week, we are going to release a new story of that business owner with how they got started. We want business owners to come upload their picture of their face, tell us their story.”

“ This is an opportunity for them to get exposure and there is no catch. It's just that we believe that the story should be told.”

Bringing Back The American Dream

BZ: How is Lendio helping entrepreneurs fulfill the American Dream?

BB: “That is a great question. We always talk about the fueling the American Dream. On about a weekly basis, we are releasing these customer testimonial videos of business owners to tell their story about who they are, what drives them, how the funding they got helped them expand their business in growth.”

“Business owners, on average, go to three different lenders and spend about 26 hours completing loan applications, loan forms, their business plan and all that kind of stuff. So, three lenders, 26 hours trying to get the loan that they are looking for. We take all that and just simplify and say it's kind of like the Kayak for small business loans: We are going to bring all the options in one place to make it fast, easy and simple for you to find the loan that you are looking for.”

BZ: What is Lendio’s mission?

BB: “There is this sense of mission at Lendio that people are coming here because not only is it a good job, but it is something bigger than itself. They feel like that it is almost patriotic; you are giving back and it is meaningful, and it is not just another widget.

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“The type of talent that we attract is someone who comes because they believe in that. When you believe in it, you are passionate about it, it changes you a little bit. You think about it on your drive home. You wake up in the middle of the night with a new ideas or in the shower or you are driven to be able to drive success.”

“ It all boils down to the people that we have and that we are trying to recruit, and that is what drives our success.”

Creating A Company Culture

BZ: I was intrigued by the core values listed on your website. Tell me how you came up with those.

BB: “I really wanted to have values that drive the type of culture we are and really drive how we hire, how we fire and type of people we are trying to recruit. There are things that are important to us as an executive team as we thought about: When people talk about Lendio, how do we want them to talk about it? Or if they are going to come and work here, how do we want them to describe the culture?&rdquot;

BZ: Moxie is one of your core values. Can you tell me about that?

BB: “Moxie really represents this notion that Moxie is someone who wins, but does it in a way that they are not cocky. It is different than cocky. We like to use the phrase 'humble and hungry.' You are 'hungry' means you are going to give everything you have got. You want to win? You are going to work hard at it.”

“ There is a quiet confidence about you that you will carry yourself well. You are not a jerk about it. Moxie for us is -- we are in it to win it but we are going to do it the right way.”