Brock Blake is the CEO of FundingUniverse LLC. His primary role with the company is to lead the strategy and execution of the FundingUniverse team. The company was established in 2005 to help make the angel investing and small business financing industries more efficient by increasing the amount of completed deals across the nation. Blake is also a founder or advisor of several other companies including iFan Media, Portfolio Dashboards, KnowMarketing, and GrowAmerica Ventures.
Blake has received several awards of recognition on behalf of the FundingUniverse team including the #2 Startup to Watch Award from Business Q Magazine and Utah Technology Council’s 2007 Emerging Executive of the Year. At age 24, Blake was recognized by Utah Business Magazine as one of the Top 40 Under 40 business professionals in Utah, and his peers selected him to vSpring Capital’s prestigious v100 list in 2006, 2008 and 2009.
Blake speaks regularly at national entrepreneur conferences and seminars, and he currently serves on several advisory boards including the Utah nonprofit organization LaunchUp, the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, Launch Magazine, Brigham Young University’s Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization and Weber State University’s Entrepreneurial Society. He graduated from Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management in Entrepreneurial Finance and played semi-professional soccer for the BYU Cougars when they won the 1999 Collegiate Club National Championship. Blake is married and has three children.
As President of the Company, Levi is responsible for the day to day management of FundingUniverse, including underwriting, production, operations, funding fulfillment, customer service, and sales. Levi has extensive experience working with small businesses to diagnose risk and in designing paths that lead towards establishing a secure business model. His primary expertise lies in serving as the daily driver of the business with oversight of people, data, processes, and systems. In the course of his career worked with business owners in nearly every state and major city in the nation. His expertise in mitigating risk of failure extends past underwriting conducted pre-funding, as he is also an expert in determining whether the financial and marketing plan that will be followed by the business upon acquisition of financing will truly deliver satisfactory results measured by new profits for the business. Levi earned a BS in Business Management from Western Governors University.
Alex has an proven track record of starting, growing and selling large scale, high growth businesses. Prior to joining FundingUniverse, Mr. Lawrence was the Founder and Managing Partner of LC Management, a multi-industry holding company founded in 1998. LCM was invested in a variety of startup, growing and mature businesses from several industries, including (but not limited to) international franchisor, venture capital firm, consumer technology, internet software, commercial real estate development, franchise restaurant chain, and other minority equity ownership interests in LLP’s and LLC’s. Alexander also has successfully exited three previous ventures (technology, franchise and multi-state chain) and is a current Board Member at his Alma Mater and three privately held companies. Alexander has been included by Utah Business Magazine as one of their “top 40 businesspeople under the age of 40”. Mr. Lawrence teaches a class on Entrepreneurship at his Alma Mater and also writes a column on entrepreneurship for one of the largest newspapers in the State. He maintains a healthy blog following at www.TheEntrepreneursBlog.com and on Twitter @AlexanderLaw. In the past, Alex has served on the board of several local and national entrepreneurial organizations. Alex has a BS in Business Management as well as a Masters Degree (MBA).
Michael Henderson brings a strong background in financial and accounting management to the team. Mike’s educational background includes a BA degree in Accounting and French and a Master of Business Administration degree, both from Utah State University. Mike’s professional experience includes Controller and Chief Financial Officer positions with growing and aggressive companies. Most notably, Mike served as Controller of the largest privately owned mortgage bank in Nevada as monthly funding volumes increased from $30,000,000 to $300,000,000. Mike’s ability to structure internal accounting and financial functions is critical to effectively managing the organization from a profit-driven perspective.
mike.henderson@fundinguniverse.com
Rich Ferguson, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of FundingUniverse, has 10 years experience owning and operating small to medium size businesses. He offers his extensive expertise in consulting with small business owners in all aspects of business development, operations, leadership, marketing, sales, funding, and finance. Rich sold his first company in 2004 after growing it to become the largest service provider in its industry, with over $12,000,000 in annual revenues. Through practical experience gained in running, investing in, or selling a variety of businesses in different industries, Rich brings valuable experience to the leadership team. He volunteers his time with a local SCORE chapter to offer no-cost coaching services to local entrepreneurs.
richard.ferguson@fundinguniverse.com
As a founding member of the FundingUniverse team, Mr. Miskin leads all the product development and technical infrastructure projects at FundingUniverse.
He previously worked at LDS Philanthropies as webmaster and multimedia designer. He has also performed web consulting and design work with several internet startups. Trent studied Computer Science at Brigham Young University.
trent@fundinguniverse.com
David Ahrens, has extensive management processes experience, having worked with small and big businesses, including Neighborhood Gold, Unicity Network, and The Buyer's Fund, Inc. With Neighborhood Gold, David successfully increased revenue from $9,435,000 (Sept. 2002) to $15,359,245 (July 2004), and eventually became President of the company. With expertise in process management, and a great deal of education including a BA, BS, and MS David has developed an eye for detail, is thorough to the extreme, analytical, and is dedicated to making sure FundingUniverse is as efficient as possible when it comes to your business financing needs. He is dedicated to creating value for you, the customer, and meeting both your long and short-term needs as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Brett Child started his first small business in 1985, and has spent 25 years working in a variety of management and sales positions within telecom, retail, manufacturing, and distribution companies. He offers unique insight to business owners from his experience with hyper-growth companies of triple digit annual growth for several years, to the opposite end of the business spectrum working with companies with declining sales volumes and business down-sizing. He has also been brought in as a sales and marketing specialist to help turn around a failing business. Brett's education and diverse work background give him the ability to quickly and accurately assess a company's needs and provide a business owner alternative solutions previously not explored. Brett has a BS in Business Administration and an MBA in International Business.
brett.child@fundinguniverse.com
Jake Hoopes, VP of Marketing for FundingUniverse comes from an educational background in Information Systems and International Business. With five years of industry experience as a web developer and over seven years of experience owning and operating various web-based lead generation portals, Jake has a keen eye for analytic detail. He understands the day-to-day nuances of managing internet campaigns and brings a wealth of data analysis experience, ensuring positive ROI on every marketing dollar spent.
Under the direction of the management team, Skyler is responsible for all efforts to maintain and improve customer satisfaction. He works with each department to coordinate the company's customer service activities and processes.