RISING 25: Interactive Financial Marketing Group LLC
By Bob Rayner, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jan. 22–Type in “car loan” on Google, and you’ll find a Richmond company at No. 2 on the search list.
Carloan.com is just one of the ways Interactive Financial Marketing Group LLC spreads its net across the nation, connecting car buyers and dealers.
The company was founded six years ago by Travis Weisleder and his father, Brooke, at a dinner table in Newport, R.I. The family has a long history selling cars, starting with Travis’ grandfather, who opened Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in New Jersey after World War II.
Twenty years ago, Brooke opened “1-800-CAR-LOAN,” a phone business that connects consumers who have credit problems with car dealers willing and able to sell them a vehicle. Creating these leads and routing them to the right dealers was a time-consuming process. Father and son started the new business to make the process more efficient — and more valuable to clients.
Leads generated through the phone service could take 30 minutes to process. “Our vision was to streamline this into a matter of seconds using technology,” said Travis, 31, who is president of the company. His dad is chairman.
The company collects credit applications online, then sends them to dealers and lenders looking for a specific type of customer. It posted $200,000 in revenue in 2001. Last year, it was “mid-eight figures,” Travis said. Fifty million? “Not quite that much.”
The business moved to Richmond from Rhode Island four years ago, with three employees. It headed south, Travis said, because his wife grew up here.
Today, it employs more than 80 people here and is quickly filling up 22,000 square feet in an old tobacco warehouse in Shockoe Slip.
Generating leads, mainly from the Internet, for 2,200 car-dealer clients is the core of the business. But the company also can design and execute direct-mail campaigns or create proprietary customer management software.
The Richmond headquarters crawls with sales people, software engineers, finance experts, advertising designers. Not a quiet place: It processes up to 100,000 consumer credit applications a month and can send out 60,000 pieces of direct mail in a day.
Contact staff writer Bob Rayner at brayner@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6073.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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