Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in financial services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alan Beard, Managing Director and CEO of Interlink Capital Strategies, located in Alexandria, VA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are a consulting, financial advisory, and private equity fund management firm focused on emerging markets with expertise in accessing Development Finance Institutions (DFI's) and Export Credit Agencies (ECA's) worldwide to fund transactions using proprietary quantitative and qualitative analysis and underwriting.
Tell us about yourself
During college, I spent a couple of years in Central America working for a nonprofit, and that got me interested in how I might be able to help the private sector develop in emerging markets. And what gets me going—I've financed everything from solar projects in India and satellites for weather prediction, but there's something about standing in an affordable housing project that I helped finance in Mexico and seeing families living comfortably in tidy neighborhoods that is hard to quantify.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Building a young, energetic team that is doing exciting development work around the world in the private sector. The team works on everything from financing toll roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to solar projects in India, to green geothermal projects throughout Latin America as a fund manager of an impact investment fund.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Working with complex transactions with multiple stakeholders across international borders.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Be prepared to work hard.
- Believe in what you're doing. (Which helps with #1)
- Be prepared to be flexible (come what may and love it).
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
In today's current economic turmoil, the ability for frontier and emerging markets to obtain long-term capital from the West has become even more difficult. And that makes our business even more rewarding because that's what we're all about—helping companies in emerging markets obtain long-term capital to build their dreams.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: http://www.interlinkdc.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/InterlinkDC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanjbeard/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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