When he was growing up on a farm near tiny Milan, Minn., Michael A. (Mick) Thorsland aspired to a successful career in the "big city" of Minneapolis-St. Paul. By all appearances, the Founder and President of Venture Mortgage has achieved that goal. But how he got there says a lot about the man and company he built.
Numbers have always come easy for Mick. So, after earning a double major in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Minnesota - Morris, he began his career with the financial services firm IDS (now part of American Express). Promotions quickly followed, and it was during his IDS years that Mick was introduced to the commercial real estate industry, "and I just kind of fell in love with it," he recalls.
After three successful years with IDS, Mick joined First Bank System (FBS, now US Bank) and was one of three producers who launched the firm’s mortgage banking division. By the late 1980s, he had become one of the bank’s top production officers. He also enjoyed the variety of positions that gave him the opportunity to work with clients ranging from a manufacturer of twist ties to the retailer that later became Best Buy Co.
Yet success in commercial real estate mortgage banking demands independence, self-motivation, creativity and flexibility – qualities not generally associated with banks. Mick also preferred "to stay close to the deal" and to have the ability to get creative if that’s what it took to make a transaction viable – again, attitudes that were not always in synch with bank policies. So it was perhaps not surprising that during his banking days Mick found it increasingly difficult to suppress a growing entrepreneurial urge.
Fortunately, fate took a hand in 1989 when FBS decided to exit the commercial real estate mortgage business. Rather than seek employment elsewhere, Mick seized the opportunity to start his own company, Venture Mortgage.
"It was the best thing that ever happened," the firm’s personable founder says now. The fact that eight of the people he supervised when he worked at the bank came with him to join his new company says a lot about Mick’s upbeat management style and his focus on relationships. Likewise, several of his bank clients also followed him to his new firm, enabling the company to begin operations with a mortgage servicing portfolio of about $40 million.
But even with that enviable head start, those early years were no picnic. "Stay alive until ’95," was the mantra at the time, Mick recalls with a chuckle. He can laugh about it now, but he had launched Venture Mortgage just in time for the devastating commercial real estate downturn of the early 1990s.
Thanks to Mick’s leadership and his small-town work ethic, Venture Mortgage not only survived; it thrived. As his father had advised him, "Do your best and everything else will take care of itself."
Dad was right. Mick and his team kept plugging away, the economy eventually improved and the firm’s loan portfolio swelled. Clients and competitors both liked what they saw – so much so that some became employees and remain so today. Venture Mortgage prospered during the commercial real estate booms of the 1990s and 2000s, yet had the strength and experience to ride out the grim recessions of 2000-01 and 2007-09.
Today, the firm remains one of the most successful and highly respected commercial real estate mortgage companies in the Upper Midwest. By combining the creativity and flexibility of an independent firm with the financial resources of major national lenders, Venture Mortgage has originated more than $3.3 billion in commercial real estate loans and has a servicing portfolio in excess of $650 million and growing. The firm has grown to nine employees, including five producers.
"But you can’t just grow for growth’s sake," Mick emphasizes. People want to do business with people – not some big, impersonal corporation, he says. Being a smaller, relationship-driven, boutique firm allows Venture Mortgage to make that happen. The firm still upholds the values and culture that its founder established two decades ago: superior service, creativity, flexibility, reliability, cost-effectiveness and an unwavering focus on relationships.
Married for 40 years and with three adult daughters – and three grandsons, as he proudly points out – Mick is an avowed golf nut who enjoys traveling with his family. Although he says he doesn’t plan to retire any time soon, he recognizes the critical need to ensure his legacy by hiring bright, like-minded young people and giving them the training and tools they need to succeed.
That way, Mick says, Venture Mortgage can continue to be what he has always worked to make it: a good, fair, reputable company that solves problems for its clients.
To find out more about Mick and how Venture Mortgage can assist with your commercial real estate mortgage needs, please contact us at (952) 893-1877 or info@venturemortgage.com.