Former Civic Financial Services chief launches CV3

Encouraged by the attitude change

Attitudes have shifted in his favor now too, he added: “The other part that has made me enthusiastic about starting now is for the first time in an awfully long time we have the ears of the conventional world,” he said. “Forever, the conventional world was refinancing your and my loan over and over and over again as the rates continued to drop. When our folks would go visit these conventional lenders there wasn’t a lot of attention spent on them. And why would there be? They were doing that easy loan, yours and mine, over and over – not a lot of effort there, and so now there’s a whole lot more receptiveness to take a look at the product offerings that we bring to the table… and I think that’s going to open up an entire new channel of opportunities that didn’t exist for the last three or four years.”

It actually could be the perfect time to launch a lending business, he added: “I’m actually excited,” he said. “I actually think this is the exact right time you’d want to open a business today, which is why we did it.”

Tessar’s confidence is such that he predicts great things for his startup: “We are launching what we believe will quickly become the dominant lender in the industry, with a fresh start and without any legacy issues,” he said in announcing his new company. “This enables CV3 to pursue our mission to be the number one choice for financing by real estate investors.”

Here’s how he sees the growth occurring: “I think we’ll be going from zero to $100 million a month, in about four to five months – and that will be a controlled growth – and then as I think about 2024, it will be a billion and a half to two billion, somewhere around there. We will add two more products at the end of the year. We’re starting with the retail and the wholesale channels, and we’ll add correspondent at the beginning of the year.”

Rounding out the leadership ranks in his fledgling firm are Merced Cohen, executive vice president, operations: Alan Dettelbach, executive vice president, general counsel; Matt Flores, executive vice president, digital innovation; Josh Fuchs, senior vice president, valuations and construction; Jack Helfrich, executive vice president retail lending; Elizabeth Hillestad, chief marketing officer; Sophie Kim, chief of staff; Cameron King, chief information officer; and Ben Shaevitz, executive vice president, wholesale lending.