Admittedly, equipment leasing is not very exciting stuff—probably won't be a conversation topic at your Labor Day cookout—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a massive (and disrupt-able) market. So here's a case of one of those “not very sexy but could become huge” sorts of startups that Boston excels at.
Vernon Tirey is the CEO and co-founder of Woburn's LeaseQ, an online marketplace for leasing all varieties of commercial equipment. He spoke with me about the Boston financial giants that his company is looking to emulate. “When trading gave birth to mutual funds, that gave birth to large companies in the Boston area—Fidelity, Putnam, State Street,” he said. “We see equipment financing as a gigantic growth opportunity—a big sleepy business that’s ready to be automated.”
Which is what LeaseQ does, by connecting customers with instant quotes on equipment leasing—quotes typically still take 24-48 hours today, Tirey said—along with sources of financing, which can also be applied for online.
The fintech company has now gotten the attention of some financial industry players. Angel investors in LeaseQ include Todd Bourell (WLJ Capital); John B. Goodrich (Goodrich Capital Management, Maine Angels); Tom Rutledge (Magnetar Capital); Rob Klapper (CEO of Ashworth College); Michael Llodra (Wells Fargo Securities); and Allen Michel (BU professor of finance, Boston Harbor Angels). Overall, since its founding in 2011, LeaseQ has raised $3 million. Other backers include Walnut Venture Associates.
Tirey, a sales and marketing veteran who most recently was CMO at auto insurance marketplace Insurance.com, said he launched LeaseQ after he’d made a rare find of a “business that laggard and that big.”
“It’s nice to find a dinosaur in your backyard,” he said. “No business can really grow without equipment.”
After launching its first equipment market in 2012—commercial fitness equipment—the company has grown to serve 22 types of equipment. Big ones include medical, construction and technology. One challenge in building the company is in lining up lenders—different lenders specialize in different types of equipment and different types of credit. “There are lots of teeny moving pieces,” Tirey said. LeaseQ earns revenue by taking a fee that is charged to the borrower.
"It’s nice to find a dinosaur in your backyard."
Up until this point the company has stayed mostly quiet as it built a foundation for major growth, according to Tirey. Now that’s in place and LeaseQ has been starting to see some big jumps in business this summer, he said.
In conjunction with the growth, LeaseQ expects to double its 15-person staff in the next six to nine months, and will be looking to raise a Series A round toward the end of the year, Tirey said.
“We feel like now all the pieces have come together, and it’s time to start putting some significant volume on the platform,” he said.
