“Captain Dave” is a licensed river guide and environmental scientist who’s sailed across the Atlantic and picked bananas on a kibbutz in Israel. But his alter ego, Dave Glaser, is the president and CEO of MoFi, a Missoula-headquartered non-bank lender that has provided more than $500 million to entrepreneurs and organizations across the Northern Rockies region.
Today on “Can Do: Lessons From Savvy Montana Entrepreneurs,” host Arnie Sherman and Glaser talk about how the experiences from “Captain Dave’s” adventures have helped shape the MoFi CEO’s leadership style.
In addition to Glaser, many MoFi employees have been outdoor guides. To Glaser, this means, “You have a team of people who, on any given day, are willing to do whatever it takes. And no matter how the environment changes, they’re up for it.”
Glaser joined MoFi in 2007, but the company is 32 years old with a history of helping small business owners in Montana. Today, MoFi is a community development financial institution (CDFI) that provides financing and consulting to entrepreneurs and small business owners, as well as affordable housing solutions in Montana and Idaho. Over Dave’s 11 years at the helm of MoFi, the composition of who seeks their help has remained consistent: people typically not eligible for bank loans – women, minorities, low-income people, people from low-income places and rural communities. Over 50 percent of their clients are women.
Listen and learn about the alternative-lending industry, why roughly 90 percent of their clients are referrals from banks, and the best way you can prepare for a monetary loan.