This month, we’re proud to celebrate 10 years of Stride Capital. To commemorate the milestone, we sat down with Randy Mannix and Andrew Del Bucchia, two dedicated team members who have been with Stride Capital since its inception. They take us through the past decade, reflecting on challenges, wins, and what’s on the horizon. 

The two of you have been a part of Stride Capital since its inception. What has the journey looked like as you’ve grown alongside the organization? 

Well, first of all, it has been an incredible journey. It’s hard to believe that we have hit the 10-year mark.

The roots of the journey started back in the early 2000’s when the 5 founding partners all worked together for a small independent equipment finance company with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. That business was sold and eventually we all moved on to work with other companies within the industry. The five founding partners gained experience with bank owned companies and a large public company, which opened our eyes to the possibilities in this industry. 

In 2015, we started talking about “getting the band back together.” We began building a business plan on what a new company would look like, and the general goal was to take our lessons from our varied experience and build the company we always wanted to work for.  That became our ultimate goal.

The next step was to take that idea and make an investment in ourselves. We then started reaching out to the companies that provide financing to companies like ours and had some early believers that stepped up and committed to our plan. 

We all left our jobs and on April 1, 2016, we officially launched Stride Capital. 

For the first seven years, we put our heads down and worked tirelessly to build a strong, consistent portfolio of clients that have  been the key to our success. As time went on, an important opportunity developed to join Alberta-based Servus Credit Union, now the largest Credit Union in Canada. On June 1^st, 2023, we proudly became a wholly owned subsidiary of Servus.

Stride is coming up on 3 years of being owned by Servus, and we have spent the last 3 years shifting gears and moving from being a small independent equipment finance company to having the ability and financial strength to expand our market share.  In the 34 months since we sold the business to Servus, we have more than tripled the size of our portfolio, while only adding about 20% to our staff. Efficiency has always been a key part of what we do, and we believe that our dedicated staff allows us to provide the fast turnaround times that we are known for.

What are some of the biggest challenges that Stride has faced this past decade and how have you overcome them? 

Leading up to the sale of Stride Capital to Servus CU, raising additional capital was always a very time-consuming process. We had to continually show discipline in following our business model and keep our portfolio running smoothly. We were very fortunate to have great lending partners that believed in our entrepreneurial spirit and continued to support us.

The biggest challenge we faced was when Covid-19 shut down the world. At that point, we were 4 years into growth mode, had a book of business that was performing very well, and just like that, the bottom fell out on both growth and portfolio performance. It was a very difficult time, not knowing when the market was going to recover. At times, it felt like it never would. We managed to put together a payment relief program for customers who required it and within less than a year we had our book performing at normal levels. 

Most recently, our industry has seen a large increase in fraud and delinquencies, specifically in the transportation sector in certain areas of the country. We have been fortunate that our portfolio is diverse, so it hasn’t affected us as much as some of our competitors.  We are still working through some issues from the early post-Covid-19 days, but because we weren’t reliant on transportation, like many of our competitors, we have managed to escape major problems and continue to make changes to our policies to protect us moving forward.   

When reflecting on Stride Capital’s journey since the start, what are some of the wins or achievements that stand out? 

Our biggest win is the type of culture we provide for our staff and how that leads to the level of service we can provide our customers, vendors, and brokers. We are proud of the leadership of our executives and how hands-on they are with any challenges that pop up. I like to use the term “no passengers,” and I believe we have created a culture where that rings true and is recognized, both internally and externally. 

We also believe we have built a very strong and seasoned Sales Team, both in outside sales and with our broker desk. We have coverage across Canada, except for Quebec, and all our outside Account Managers are well seasoned and bring unique qualities to the team. We have Account Managers that are always on the road, digging in the corners for that next end customer or vendor relationship. 

Finally, it would be hard not to include the sale of Stride to Servus Credit Union in June 2023. After 7 years operating as an independent equipment finance company, we put ourselves in a position to be attractive enough that the now largest CU in Canada wanted to purchase us. The dedication and discipline of our staff, management, and executives over those 7 years leading up to the sale is what made Stride an attractive opportunity for Servus and we couldn’t be prouder of everyone who helped contribute to our success.  

How have Stride’s dedicated team members contributed to the success of the organization over the past 10 years? 

We wouldn’t have a business without the Stride family who come in every day, put their heads down, and go to work. We are fortunate to have a very strong team and have a leadership group that is willing to get their hands dirty too. We lend money to hard working Canadians who use their equipment to make a living, and we expect our team to put in the same level of work as the clients who have supported us over the first decade in business. 

How has the equipment finance industry in Canada evolved since 2016? What has Stride done to keep up with and get ahead of that change? 

We have seen a lot of changes over the last ten years, and even in the ten years before that, since the mid-2000’s. One of the biggest changes we have seen is the amount of competitors who are willing to “chase the market”; whether that be on pricing, structure or lack of due diligence. An example would be the application only programs, which have expanded over the last 4-5 years to what we believe is not sustainable long term.  We have already witnessed several companies who got aggressive with these programs either cut back, leave certain industries, or go out of business completely. 

In our 10 years in business, we have remained consistent in our approach to lending, rather than chasing the latest short term market changes. We want to be known as a consistent lender, not an organization that chases the market for 2-3 years and then exits because we got too aggressive. We want to be the same lender today that we have been in the past and will be in the future. That consistency has allowed us to create good loyalty, specifically with our long-term customers. We are a creative lender that looks outside of ticking a few boxes to get a deal approved. We continue to offer various creative structures for clients and are very good at completing working capital and sale leaseback transactions, as well as processing private sales. Our Account Managers are trained in looking for additional areas where we can offer guidance to our clients to help them with their long-term growth projections.   

What do you see on the horizon for Stride? What are you envisioning for the next 10 years? 

Growth is going to be the name of the game moving forward. In just under 3 years of being owned by Servus CU, we have more than tripled our portfolio size, while maintaining profitability and keeping our delinquencies well below the industry average. 

That growth is going to come organically for a portion of it, but we are also in a situation where we are looking for opportunities to make some potential purchases of portfolios and or companies that fit with our culture and vision. 

We are also in the process of doing a complete overhaul on our systems, a longer-term project that will allow us to stay lean as we continue to grow. With updated IT systems, we will be looking to make our customer interactions more modern and user friendly for both our staff and our customers.   

---

To our hardworking, dedicated clients across Canada, thank you. Thank you for continuing to choose Stride and for trusting us to help grow your business. We couldn’t do what we do without you, and we don’t take your support for granted. Here’s to the next decade!