Finalist
Financial services
Pete Kirtland reminisces about the early days of his business, ASPire Financial Services. When he founded it out of his son’s bedroom in 2002, he remembers being on conference calls while his son played whiffle ball just outside the door. He remembers the financially trying times when he took out second and third mortgages on his house and maxed out multiple credit cards because he believed in his dream. But he also remembers when he landed the company’s first large client in 2005, and that’s when the company gained some fast momentum through word-of-mouth referrals.
Two of the largest principles that have helped him and his team — James Olson, chief marketing officer, Manish Gupta, chief technology officer, and Mike Gottfried, chief operating officer — grow the company are having flat-rate pricing and a full transparency and disclosure policy. While many other Web application service providers don’t disclose their fees, ASPire does. This makes a huge difference for clients and has helped the business do well during the downturn.
The team has also taken initiatives to improve the company by making it more environmentally conscious. ASPire prints about 100,000 statements a quarter, so it has implemented a new initiative to promote paperless statements. They will then use the savings from this initiative to create an award for a teacher in the amount of $5,000 each quarter because they feel it’s important to recognize educators in the community.
How to reach: ASPire Financial Services, (866) 401-5277 or www.aspirefinserv.com
