In this episode of 4200, Anthony sits down with Bill Tessar, founder of CV3 and a veteran of the lending industry, to unpack his bold entrepreneurial story. Bill shares how he turned a teenage tanning bed hustle into a decades-long career building billion-dollar lending companies. He dives into his early hunger for success, the lessons learned scaling Civic Financial, its unexpected wind-down, and how he rallied the same team to launch CV3 with unstoppable purpose. Bill reveals what truly drives him now, why people always come first, and his simple formula for sustainable scale.
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(00:00:0) Bill's upbringing, early struggles, and first taste of entrepreneurship.
(00:02:23) Launching a tanning business in his parents' garage at 17.
(00:02:50) Buying his first house at 18 and discovering the mortgage industry.
(00:06:01) Out-hustling everyone as a young loan officer.
(00:07:15) Founding his first company and scaling with early technology advantages.
(00:10:20) Transitioning to Civic Financial and spotting opportunity in business purpose lending.
(00:11:51) Scaling Civic to billions in production and navigating acquisitions.
(00:13:31) Civic's shutdown and its impact on hundreds of employees.
(00:17:32) Spinning up CV3 immediately after Civic's closure.
(00:18:53) Why people followed him instead of taking big offers elsewhere.
(00:22:12) CV3's rapid growth and the mission to "get their belt back."
(00:24:04) Bill's biggest advice: invert the org chart and put people first.
(00:25:19) His three-word formula for scaling any business.
(00:26:24) How to connect with Bill and CV3 today.
Links:
Anthony Geraci on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-geraci
Bill Tessar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamtessar
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