Interview with CEO of [re]start About New Start-Up Venture

Hi, everyone, and thank you for joining me for this session of Executive Q and A. I am here today with Chad Verstein, and I am Erin Kerr, the director of content for Collections and Recovery. Chad, thanks so much for joining me today.

Thank you. It's nice to be with you.

Absolutely. So why don't you introduce yourself and explain. Explain what your organization is and what it does. Okay.

So my name is Chad Silverstein. I used to work at a company called Choice Recovery. I sold my agency Last month after 25 years of being in the collection industry. I had a health care collection agency with roughly over 5,000 clients nationwide. And after 25 years, it was time for me to step away. I'm a serial entrepreneur, so I have other businesses that I run, and I felt it was good timing. And so things worked out, and I was able to close on my transaction. And I reached out to Inside ARM because my other company, Restart, is a career development platform that I integrated and collaborated with with my collection agency. And so that was. This is where my focus is right now and where our conversation will lead us down today to talk about what I did and how I used it at my collection agency.

That's wonderful. And I'd love for you to tell us. Why did you start Restart? What was the idea behind it?

Yeah, so back in about 2013, there was obviously, you know, lots of lawsuits happening in the. In the collection industry. And I was starting to get hit with a lot, as every agency does, and we wanted to be different. My vision was to change the perception of collections, and I was challenged by my team. So what were we doing to change the perception? Because being nice to people just wasn't enough. And so we started helping people. We started assisting them, and it kind of led to people in my company wanting to do more. And we have a. We had a big personal, professional development, leadership kind of path in my company, and I love giving people those opportunities. I'm big into the culture piece. And we launched a department. It was a career services department to try to help people get jobs. And I took one of my collectors off her desk in 2013. I said, help as many unemployed people who say they can't pay their bills find a new job. And she got really good at it. And when we started to tell people about this over the phones, it was a little weird for people, you know, like, what do you mean? You're a collection agency helping me get a job. But I think the authenticity, the genuine, genuine conversations that took place and the success of it, really, it just took Off. It took off in a way that I never thought it would and my whole team rallied behind it and the next thing I knew, Restart was born and we've been nonstop ever since. So it's been, it solved the problem. People can't pay their bills, so it makes sense just to help them. Right. So that's kind of the bottom line answer to that question.

Sure. And it's a mutually beneficial arrangement for, for the collection agency and for obviously the consumer on the other end of the line. I think that's excellent. And you mentioned a little bit ago that you started Restart in your collection agency and you used it there since it was created to help your collection agency. What are your plans now after selling your company recently?

Yeah, so I did it and I got some other clients because it's software. We built the software on a platform called Bubble and it's a no code platform. So it was really easy for me, especially when Covid hit, to really kind of scale up the building of it. And my thought was it wasn't about making money as much as it was about really helping people. So I wanted to build something that I couldn't find on the Internet that was really successful, like helping people navigate through that job search process, which is very difficult for people to do. And so I've been focused on just creating an incredible platform and it kind of led into a multi user platform. I have companies that can come in who use collection agencies and collection agencies can use it. I have career advisors on the back end who are helping people get the jobs and then I have all the job seekers. So it's a multi tiered platform that really is designed to help people connect and be able to work together, together so that, you know, they can do what most people don't know how to do, which is try to find a job. And most people are doing it by themselves. So it's a real, real tough situation, you know, for people, especially now because so many people are losing their jobs and unemployed and they don't know how to find a job. The employers have the upper hand 100% of the time and the job seekers are kind of left kind of fighting and spamming their resume out to people. And it's a, it's a tough gig for people. I think, you know, it's lack of resources and the technology on the employer side is really, really stepping up their game. And job seekers really are not. I'm really off the job seeker, helping them as much as I can. And the fact that I get to help companies out who have a big stake in seeing their, their customers and their, their debtors and, you know, their patients, financially successful. It's a win win for everybody.

Yeah, absolutely. And I would love for you to show me how it works, if you don't mind.

Yeah, absolutely. So let me share my screen real quick. When a client of ours, we call them sponsors because they sponsor people. And when they sponsor people, if you tell me if you.

Yep, I sure can.

Okay, great. So this is the sponsor platform. So when someone logs in, they get to sponsor anyone they want. We made it very easy for a sponsor to invite someone to the platform. So my collection agency, everybody had one of our team invitation forms, but they can go ahead and click here and just put the person's name in and invite them to the platform. They get an invitation from us to sign in. It's complimentary for the job seeker, obviously, because the sponsor is the one paying for the service. And then the teams, my collection agency, they all had their own, you know, page and we align it with the brand so that they can, all the collectors had access. If they had remote employees, they could put the person's name in and hit send and send the invitation that way. But we also gave all of our sponsors marketing assets so that they can use their own landing page. So as an example, here's a landing page for one of my other sponsors is a new sponsor that just signed up with us and we basically just gave them their own landing page and we brand it for them so that they're helping people. So we really empower the companies. Especially at my collection agency was the collection agency was helping people. So it was a real big win. So we made it really easy for everybody to go ahead and invite people to the platform. And then the career advisors on the back end, they get to work with people and we can do this for the sponsor if they don't want to. But this sponsor happens to have these people, this is a new one, and these are their employees. So we were just testing it with them so I can share it, not worry too much about the privacy on a call like this. And what we've done was we've given them the ability to text a job seeker right from the platform, manage all the job seekers from one place, and be able to recommend the jobs right from the platform. And we can recommend manual jobs if we're aware of a job, or we can pull automated jobs right from our API and we can scrape from the Internet and then we can review those and then put them in the person's dashboard so that they can determine if they either want to reject the job or accept the job or apply to the job so that we're not filling up their dashboard with just jobs that they're just getting spammed at them, which is pretty much what happens to most job seekers. And so when we refer a job to somebody, this is what it looks like for a job seeker. When they log into our system, they get all their jobs in their dashboard and they can review any job that they want and apply right from the platform, tell us that they're interested or reject the job, speak to the career advisor right from the platform. And we also give everybody their own digital resume so they can fill out their digital resume, their skills, their experience. What's really cool about this is they can share it and it's just a way to level up a paper resume so that they can actually copy it and they can share this with an employer online. And it's their own kind of personal little webpage, right? So I protected this one. So it's not, it's not viewable on publicly yet. And when you make it publicly viewable, they get a nice branded page about that person. It gives the employer one click to schedule an interview with the person. And we get to share this with people that we're trying to help. The person gets to share with their network. And so it's a real big deal to have kind of a digital presence these days. And so we've kept it very simple for a job seeker. They've got their jobs, they've got their resume, and then we've got their resources, which are just basically tons and tons of insights that we feel job seekers, they should just know. You know, I interviewed about over thousands, thousands of people over my 25 years in the collection industry. And it amazes me sometimes, you know, the lack of common sense that people maybe sometimes are not aware of. They'll go to Google, they'll try to get best practices. But we just filled this up with lots of best practices. And, you know, our goal is to try to help people as much as we can, help them land a job. We don't stop until they find a job. And it worked really well. You know, we didn't stop collecting on the accounts at the collection agency. We, we would sometimes put the account on hold, depending on the person's situation. But you would be surprised. We had probably about 66%, I think was the last time we tallied it up. People came back and paid us because they felt so indebted I had love letters sent to my office, wallpaper in my office, people sharing their stories for us. And I think when you think about what is going on in the collection industry today and you think about the stereotype and the negative kind of feel that agencies have, any win that we can get is a really big deal. And so what we've done for the sponsors is we've really leverage the marketing because I think, and I always say that the best marketing is when you can get other people talking about you. And so what we've been able to do is we've been able to give everybody their wins. And when we give you your wins, it's because people got a job, and when they get a job, we get testimonials. And so they get their own page where they'll be able to see all the people that won. I blurred out the names of these people that won right here. And then they can click on the testimonials. Once we gather all the testimonials, and you could use those. And I have to tell you, you know, the clients find out about this stuff and they go crazy because, you know, unfortunately, most people think all collection agencies are the same, but they're not. And I think, you know, for the most part, when you can show a client that you're different, that you're, you're using innovation and that you're, you're taking care. You know, for me, it was health care. So, you know, I never met anyone who said they'd love turning people over to collections. But I think for banks, I think for schools, real estate, apartment rent, people rent. I mean, right now, the amount of people losing their jobs and the amount of people in America who hate where they work, is it over the next 10 years going to be just brutal? And I think they say about 80 million people will lose their jobs over the next 10 years due to technology and automation and 90 million new jobs created through technology. So there's going to be a lot of change and a lot of shifting in the market. So I think for restart, that's just a really good position for us to be in. For collection agencies, for people with customers, it's not so good because these are the people that are paying and that you're holding, you're depending on, you know, for success, that they can pay. So to have a, have someone stay with you for life as a customer or, you know, for, for the purpose of trying to get them to pay their bill, you know, you want to be able to, I guess you could say wow, wow them and make an impact instead of just trying to collect. And I just, for me, I never wanted to be just a collection agency. I just, I didn't want to be wrapped into that stereotype. And you know, Restart really allowed us, that partnership allowed us to say that we were different and we became an outlier for our clients and for the people that we were helping. And we helped almost a thousand people get jobs. We helped, I mean, thousands of people, but we never took credit. You know, a lot of times they'll get a job and the biggest ones came from just the support a lot of the times. But I think, you know, to go back to one of your first questions, after I sold my agency, Restart was not part of the sale. And so now I'm looking for people to collaborate with. I'm looking for partners, I'm looking for people who want to use this technology that we built. And I think it is a real opportunity in the collection industry to have a huge impact on people's lives because people are in debt and they need help and it just makes sense to try to help them versus, you know, trying to chase them, you know.

Absolutely. I think that makes a ton of sense. It's a really innovative concept. And I'll just comment and say that I think my favorite part about this is that it's curated, right? You're not just getting job offers from or job advertisements from anywhere. I'll share that my husband was looking for a new job earlier this year. He has a background in sales and he, you know, created an indeed profile and he was getting advertisements for like a park ranger in our area, which is so just not him. So I think that the fact that the job offers are curated is really important and it's a real resource for some of these consumers that need it the most.

Well, you know, it's interesting, you know, these employers now, the big ones, and a lot of listeners aren't probably use it. The applicant tracking systems, they've taken human beings out of the process so that if your, if your resume doesn't have certain words that the job description has, they won't match up. The hiring managers get hundreds of resumes from, indeed, they don't even see it. So our digital resume kind of cuts through that. We can target hiring managers and then send that resume to say, look, we saw what you're looking for. This person has that. If you think this is someone you want to meet, let us know. And when we highlight just the high level stuff, it allows like the hiring manager to not have to like scan through long resumes that have just a lot of stuff that people don't care about as much. And you know, for me I just wanted to meet people if I felt like they were a great opportunity for me to have on my team, that I wanted to meet them. And I tell job seekers because I'm really into the helping the job seekers. I'm really not big into the employer part of it because they have all the, we have all the tools as the employers, the job seekers don't. And, and when I was able to get the technology to curate and when I was able to then put the human touch on it, to have someone review that so that I wasn't spamming those jobs to people, it just made so much sense. And it's like, oh my gosh, something like this just has to like have big, big wins for people. Because you know, I think again, most people, if they lose their job suddenly and they're let go, they don't know where to start. You know, they have no clue. And if you have not been in the industry and you haven't been consuming all the information and being kept up on like what's happening in recruiting, it's like daunting like it is and it's embarrassing, you know, so I think, you know, when you have someone who can support you, oh my gosh, it's such a win. And you know, people light up. So when we, when we work with someone, we give the sponsor the credit. So if I'm working with a bank for example, or if I'm working with a organization like a school or a nonprofit, it's them who's, who's paying for, so they're the ones getting the credit. And restart just happens to be the, you know, the powered by restart. So we, we offer a couple different tiers of it where a company can just refer people and just pay for the fact that they can send out invitations to help. But a lot of companies that we're working with, they love the marketing aspect, they love the co branded partnership where then all of a sudden you can add the service to your kind of your, to your platform that now you can help people get jobs. And yet we do all the work. So I think it's really cool to be able to like, you know, tear up, you know, different types of ways that you can help people or not be involved. And some people like the marketing of it, some people don't. Some people like the more conscious capitalism, philanthropic, you know, purpose of it. And some people really like, the financial impact of it really making sense, helping people. And I personally don't care. I like, just, you know, I'm excited about, you know, collaborating and partnering with people. And I don't tell people how to use it. I just show people how I. How I used it at Choice Recovery. And it was such a big win for us. I mean, it really put us on the map. And I'm so excited to be able to share it now with people in the collection industry because I've never been able to, because I made it so exclusive for my company because I didn't want anyone else to say they had it. But now it's kind of free reign. And I'm. I'm having a lot of fun, having a lot of interesting conversations with a lot of people.

Yeah, I think that's excellent, Chad. I think that it's a super interesting and like I said, very innovative. I do have a couple of questions, just a little bit more in more detail. What type of reception did your initial offer to assist consumers in finding employment receive? And has it changed at all?

It's really funny. So a lot of that has to do with the delivery, right? Because when the gal that I had started, she. She said to me the first day, she kind of came to me really upset. She's like, no one wants me to help them. And I'm like, just keep going. Just keep getting. You'll find someone. Just, we want to make an impact and be significant. We're not looking for mass numbers here. And she found someone and she helped them. And I remember when we shared the story with my team, literally, like, she read the letter from the woman that we helped, and there were people, like, in tears, like, it was incredible. And this became one of the biggest recruiting things that I, that, I mean, it was such a recruiting win. All my top talent at my collection agency, we were our best place to work twice. Winning number, number one, best place to work in central Ohio. And it was no doubt because Restart, like, helped our culture. It basically brought everybody in a shared common purpose, something bigger than any one individual. And at first, you know, a lot of people weren't that interested, but all of a sudden then, you know, the team started to rally behind it. And then it was how it was delivered. It was, you know, I'm not working, I can't pay my bill. Well, you know, are you looking for a job? You know, can we help you? And they're like, what do you mean? Like, well, my company, we partner with Restart and we can help you get A job and we can have you work with a career advisor. And so, you know, I think it's mixed. I think, you know, it's a little again, I don't want people to get strange. I ended up taking it out of my collection agency, creating a separate company because I didn't want to have there be any confusion. I didn't want any compliance concerns. So that was a big change for us in 2018 when I took it out of as a department and I made it its own company and we created the separation and then it kind of like it just snowballed from there. Like it just depressed took note. You know, when you have people who want to share their story that a collection agency called them and help them land on a job, it becomes an incredible media opportunity for people to really kind of expose their services out to the public versus trying to tell people how good you are and you have a debtor explain on news how incredible my collector was and Bill Bartman did this a long time ago. He used to buy debt and I called his office years ago and worked with the people who created the department in his office and he had something similar. They used to buy debt. So it was a little bit different, but same concept. It was helping people and it works. It really does work. That's why our tagline is Restart works because it does work. So I think now we've made this multi user platform where everybody can collaborate on it and the fact that I'm not beholden to these employers because we can get jobs now from anywhere and we've got all these resources in partnerships with people. It's a really exciting time for us to really start partnering with the right types of partners who really want to help their brand and make a difference in people's lives.

Absolutely. I want to just go back to something you mentioned just now about compliance issues and setting up your own company as opposed to just a department at your agency. Have you come across any compliance issues or concerns from your clients regarding your collection agency at the time helping people find new jobs?

You know, it's interesting, I just had a conversation with the other day. The word early out and pre collect has been a term thrown around in the collection industry for a very long time. And every company has their own way of doing it. And I have a company that wants to use this as they're early out. So like they're not even going to use it. They want to give it to their client to use so they can look like a hero to their client that they've offered this early out system, and so we're working on an arrangement with them where invitations can be sent before it even comes to collections. And so there's a lot of wins here for first party and third party. And it's really not a compliance concern because it's completely separated. And, you know, I had to make sure all of our privacy policies and everything, you know, was kept kosher. And I think for the most part, we've been able to do a really good job making sure that all the information that's provided by the job seeker is kept private. Now, granted, they make it public because they have their digital resume, but we're not collecting any information outside of, you know, a job that they want to get or their resume, which is something that people are sharing on the Internet every day anyways. So outside of that, we haven't had any compliance concerns. I never had one attorney and nine years ever contact me about restart, except the plaintiff attorneys who challenged that. They didn't believe that we were doing it. So, you know, you know, we kind of let things speak for themselves. But, you know, thank God it's been an incredible endeavor and there have been no compliance concerns. I have to tell you, selling my collection agency and now being in an industry where I haven't had one legal concern has been a very refreshing change compared to the collection industry.

Yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna comment that it must be a total change of pace for you coming from owning a collection agency where it's just constant compliance concerns every day.

Yes, it really isn't. You know, it helps. It helps combat that. You know, we never gave reason. We never gave people a reason to sue us. My attorney, Boyd Gentry, he's an amazing, amazing attorney that's. He worked with me for 25 years, and he made a comment to me when we sold, but, you know, that we had, you know, less lawsuits than almost any of his other clients. And he just loved the way we did business. And we just. We never gave people a reason. And, you know, and I. And I didn't even call collectors collectors. I called them consultants because I didn't want to have that stereotype in my. In my culture. But, you know, make no mistake about it, we never hid behind the fact that we were a collection agency. We were proud of it. And I think the fact that we were doing something different, that no one else was doing it, made us, you know, a leader in the industry for us and for our clients that were really proud to kind of stand behind that and choose us. And I Have to tell you, I can't remember being in a meeting where we didn't share Restart and the client said, we'll use you. I mean, everyone wanted to be connected to it. My employees, the best employees, wanted to come work for us because they saw stuff on the Internet about it. You know, media opportunities came, we won awards, the clients loved it. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, the most important thing were the people that we were helping that come back and pay their bills. You know, it doesn't make sense to try to collect from someone who can't pay because they're not working. So, you know, when I say it's a win win for everybody, it really, truly is a cool collaborative effort that that technology can bring together and really help scale all the, all the celebration celebrating, you know, people becoming employed and being able to pay their bills and get out of debt.

Excellent. Well, thank you so much for talking me through all that. We are almost at a time, so I'll just ask you for any closing thoughts that you might have for our audience.

Yeah, no, I think, you know, this is a interesting opportunity for me to be able to talk to people in the collection industry. For 25 years have kept my head down running my company in Columbus, Ohio. And now that I'm not, I think it's an opportunity for me to partner up and collaborate with a lot of leaders that I never got an opportunity to meet and work with. And I think I've got a nice piece of technology that could be a great addition to a lot of bigger brands that are concerned about, you know, where the industry's going and how complaints and the way and feel collection agencies are stereotyped in the public, which ironically, everyone is doing such a good job that, you know, it doesn't matter what happens because one story comes out or, you know, one piece of news comes out that usually kind of tag us all together. So I'm kind of in it to try to help the industry. I've been an advocate for the collection industry for quite some time and I, even though I'm not working in it anymore as a, as an owner, I'm certainly happy to have conversations with people if they're interested in talking about the technology behind how Restart helped trust recovery be successful and ultimately sell our company.

Well, that's excellent, Chad, thank you so much for spending time with me today and talking with me about Restart. It's a super cool mission and I think it could be beneficial to a lot of folks in the market. So again, thank you so much. And to the audience, thank you for joining us for this session of executive Q and A. Chad, it's been wonderful. I hope you have a great rest of your day. And take care, everyone.

Thanks, Aaron. Appreciate it.