Business Ownership and Leadership Is a Balancing Act: Interview with Ryan Rosett, Founder and Co-CEO of Credibly
I recently went one-on-one with Ryan Rosett, founder and co-CEO of Credibly.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Ryan: Hi Adam, thanks for having me on today. Happy to be here and share how I got to where I am.
I started my career as an associate and then partnered at a Midwest regional real estate development firm and really got my introduction into lending from there—specifically commercial finance. I got a lot of good experience at that firm. It taught me patience and persistence, and I was not either of those when I started my career in land development. After six years there, I realized I wanted something more. What I really wanted was to set out and start my own venture. I think I’ve always been very keen on building and creating things. I like the idea of making something from nothing and also—and probably a little more telling—I like the idea of trying to do good and stick to a code of ethics.
I then co-founded this company called Diversified Property Group, a real estate finance, home building, and development firm. After that, I founded IDEA Real Estate Group, which was a joint venture with Fortress Investment Group.
In both these ventures, I saw an opportunity to improve the way things were currently being done. I don’t abide by the “things have always been done this way” mentality—I’ve always been an ideator, thinking about different/new ways to do things.
I’ve also always thought that building relationships was important—not only with the people you work with—but with your peers in the industry as well. These relationships help me keep a pulse on what others are thinking about and what is around the corner. In the fintech lending industry where everybody is fairly interconnected, this relationship-building helps you understand your competition too.
From a challenges perspective, I’d say—like all leaders—that finding, motivating, and keeping good talent is always a continuous process. Creating a company is only one step. If you want to scale it, you need great people to help you get there.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea for Credibly? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Ryan: Credibly was created after the 2008 financial crisis. It impacted everyone, but because of the actions by the biggest financial entities, it was the average person who was the most severely struck. There was a big need for financing assistance and there was only so much to go around. I saw small businesses in particular being impacted by the fallout from this and with my background in commercial finance, I knew I could bring something to the table that would help. Thus, I co-founded Credibly with my partner Edan King in 2010.
As for coming up with great ideas, my advice is to pursue something you find interesting that solves a real pain point for a customer and walk in their shoes to gain deep experience. Then, have the conviction to pursue the idea but also the awareness to pivot quickly if it doesn’t have legs. A quick failure where you learn something can very much be viewed as a positive.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Ryan: Here’s a funny story from back when we started Credibly. My partner and I did not have experience in SMB lending. That being said, we still launched this company and I started developing referral relationships to kick off the business. The first application that we deemed qualified to fund just so happened to be an Italian restaurant approximately 10 miles away from our office. I remember calling the owner, requesting a meeting at their establishment, and questioning the owner for 45 minutes. Keep in mind, this was a $15,000 loan request—it was a bit extreme. The owner also thought so and said that they would go to the bank if this was our financing process. Long story short, we funded this customer and provided several renewals over the course of our relationship.
Today, we process tens of thousands of applications per month with help from automation. Like any business, it starts with one customer.
Having shared this, the takeaway is that I didn’t know that pursuing the idea to create Credibly would work out. But what I did know was that there was an underserved market with a real need for help. Small businesses make up over 50% of the American workforce and approximately 43% of the GDP. They bring life to their local economies; they provide job opportunities—and they were not being served by the big banks who had played a big role in creating an environment that made it very difficult for them to thrive.
During the time we launched Credibly, non-bank SMB lending really took off in popularity because of the fact that traditional banks were wary of lending money. I saw businesses being left behind by these traditional financing sources and believed I had the experience to create another option for them to access working capital.
In terms of advice, I’d say you should get comfortable with being uncomfortable and have the ability to pivot quickly and know when it’s time to let go. I’d also recommend getting experience in the various departments of your company to really understand first-hand how things operate. Remember—in the beginning, I was doing everything from originations to underwriting to onboarding to funding the businesses to servicing, and collections. It was quite the learning curve.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Ryan: The biggest investments I’ve made were to improve the core systems that our company relies on. You can imagine that there’s a big emphasis on “tech” within a fintech lending company. Larger financing providers like us have their own risk scoring model and loan origination systems (LOS) vs. purchasing from external vendors. We made the investment to build our own LOS and model so that we have the control and flexibility to improve upon it versus being beholden to an external party’s technology limitations. Without these investments—which also involved creating an in-house data science team to build and maintain it—we would certainly not be where we are now.
Here’s how I would summarize our investments (which I think are applicable in any industry):
Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to investing in good talent. Surround yourself with the brightest and best talent available.
Take the time to ensure your technology systems and internal processes can scale to handle your next stage of growth. You may feel the need to, or have no choice but to, move fast and do some piecemealing of your systems and processes in order to be agile. That’s fine, but make sure you’re doing so in a way that doesn’t significantly handicap your ability to scale at a later date.
In terms of taking your business to the next level, you need to keep a pulse on where your industry is going so that you can take a proactive stance on where you want your business to head. It’s about being aware enough so that you give yourself the chance to be strategic and forward-thinking. This is why I mentioned earlier about building relationships with others in your industry, going to events, industry conferences, keeping up with industry news, things like that—it’s helpful to have as many inputs as possible to help inform your decision (although sometimes you will just have to trust your gut and go with what you believe to be the best choice).
Adam: What are the most important trends in technology that leaders should be aware of and understand? What should they understand about them?
Ryan: Well right now, Credibly is focused on making use of generative AI—much like everyone else. But unlike others in our industry, we have the skills to make use of it in a meaningful way. What people should understand is that to get true, significant value from GenAI you’ll need to put a lot of work into preparing the data for GenAI purposes. It’s half the battle. The other half is identifying and testing that you have the right use cases to use GenAI for.
I’d also say that when you invest in new technology trends, lead with the business use case first. For example, at Credibly we had our business users start to learn about LLMs and more advanced ChatGPT functionalities to scout potential use cases first before looping our Data Science and Tech teams in for further refinement.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Ryan: An effective leader has to first and foremost care about their people. Be empathetic. In order to continually attract and retain the best people, you need to create an environment that shows people your company is worth investing their time and energy into.
To take your leadership skills to the next level, you have to be open to feedback. Sometimes it can be harsh, but you’ll need to take it in stride. At the end of the day, you’re there to lead a company to success, so why wouldn’t you take all the opportunities you could to improve?
Joining peer groups, networking, and getting an executive coach are all good ways to improve your skills. For me personally, I love being surrounded by smarter individuals that make me better at my job. I love being challenged on why my point of view may be different or incorrect. I believe showing respect and deference to other team members' domains of expertise is a key recipe for success.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams?
Ryan: You have to be able to give timely feedback. When you have a coachable opportunity, but don’t give feedback until the moment is too far passed, you lose a valuable chance to let someone improve. If you continually let this happen, your company performance suffers, you create resentment, and you spend even more time trying to course-correct because now instead of feedback, it can turn into a performance discussion.
It’s also important to be aware of your weaknesses and be humble enough to hire for talent that can fill those gaps. If you’re a great ideator, but not so great on execution, hiring for someone who gets things done is a great counterbalance.
I have certain areas where I am stronger, have more expertise, and am well versed in. In areas where I have less experience, I rely on key talent for the company to be successful. At this point in my career, I usually know enough to be dangerous, but having the self-awareness to know when something is too technical or not in my area of expertise is a must.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?
Ryan: My first tip is to connect your work to a greater purpose that will help you to push past moments that challenge your conviction to keep going.
My second tip is that while you can get all the perspectives you want to make an educated decision, at the end of the day, it is your job to make the call. It can be a tough decision because you might be asked to decide on a matter that you don’t have a good answer to, but that’s the job you signed up for.
My third tip is to do right by your employees and customers. By acting with a code of ethics, by seeing them as individuals and not anonymous entities, you can get the best outcomes across the board.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Ryan: Business ownership and leadership is a balancing act. It requires a combination of drive, focus, resilience, persistence, and most importantly, humility. You must be willing to take on any challenge, project, or task, no matter how mundane or how it may affect your pride or status.
Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one-on-one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.
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