Startup Profile: The Garland Group
October 30, 2008
Based in Dallas, The Garland Group is lead by Brad and Henry Garland. Their company was originally strictly a security/compliance consultancy for financial services. The financial services space is a pretty secretive one and they want to change that. The result was Banktastic.com, a knowledge networking site that allows people in the space to come together, ask questions, and help each other.
Q. Why did you start the company?
A: To change the world of course. ;) Our industry is imploding before our eyes. Mortgage crises, economic downturn, etc. are hurting and not helping one another out at the community level is a large part of the problem. We wanted to find a way to encourage transfer of knowledge.
Q. What blogs do you read regularly?
A: Standard tech blogs (Techcrunch, RWW, BNet) Blogs on psychology, communications, business. Lots of Banks/CU/finance blogs.
Q. What was your least favorite job?
A: TGI Friday’s as a bus boy.
Q. What is unique about your company’s culture?
A: Compared to our competitors we’re entirely remote, we care more about the people than the technology, and we like our weekly game of MSPT (mandatory spontaneous PIG tournament).
Q. What are your goals for the company?
A: I’d lean towards our company as a lifestyle company but if the right opportunity presented itself I would definitely hear what the person would have to say. But, we like what we’re doing right now. We making new friends and connecting with people.
Q: What didn’t I ask?
A: The Garland Group is the company but Banktastic is strictly a product we offer. Also, we are going through a rebranding of the platform to be able to offer these networks in other industries as well. If you need more pictures, check out flickr or http://blog.banktastic.com/
| Where is your startup based? |
Dallas, TX
|
|---|---|
| Name | Brad Garland |
| Title: |
CEO
|
| Phone | (214) 502-9876 |
| brad@thegarlandgroup.net | |
| Blog URL: | http://blog.banktastic.com |
| LinkedIn Profile: | http://www.linkedin.com/pub/bradgarland |
| Twitter Profile: | http://twitter.com/bradgarland |
| Company: |
The Garland Group
|
| Web Site: | http://thegarlandgroup.net |
| Company Founded: | January 1, 1981 |
| Key Executive: |
Brad Garland, CEO
|
| Key Executive: |
Henry Garland, Chairman
|
| Key Executive: | |
| Funding to Date: |
Self funded.
|
| Number of Employees: |
13
|
| Yearly Revenue (2007): |
900000
|
| Estimated Revenue (2008): |
1200000
|
| Estimated Revenue (2009): |
1500000
|
