On a recent day, National Business Capital CEO Joseph Camberato gave a tour of his company’s new offices in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge (formerly the Hauppauge Industrial Park).
If you wondered why the the company ranked as the best small business workplace on Long Island in the Top Workplaces survey, the company culture and office give some reasons.
While many companies have focused on fleeing the office with remote work, National Business Capital has been making the office a more welcoming place, from culture to team building to investment and infrastructure.
“We call this the idea lab,” Camberato said as he stepped into a comfortable, home-like room. “It’s an employee lounge and a collaborative, relaxed meeting space. You can do Zoom on the TV.”
He said some desks were designed to provide comfort as well as health.
“This office is state of the art,” he added. “Everything’s brand new, the furniture. We’ve got standing desks, so you can put your desk up or down.”
As he walked through the office, with interior design by 71 Visuals, also based in Hauppauge, he passed the word “Grow” in green letters adorning one wall not far from the words “driving growth for all,” the company mission.
Camberato explained that this means growing the business, growing clients’ business and employees’ personal growth.
Camberato passed the company’s success coach, who trains new hires in a 90-day training program to prepare them to be business financing advisors. The words “success, mindset, team, action, discipline” and more adorned a wall.
“This is our beautiful new kitchen. We’ve got snacks,” he said of healthy (and not always healthy) foods near a flavored water machine. “This is our awards wall and review wall from our customers.”
Employees obtain recognition in the form of National All Stars awards at the company, which also provides financial incentives. “When you hit certain goals, there are baseballs,” Camberato said. “You get your name on a baseball. At the end of the year, you get to keep your ball.”
Walk a little further and you reach the tree ring wall with rings representing company milestones, including 2007 when Camberato started the business in a spare bedroom, 2015 when it reached 50 employees, and 2019 when it surpassed $200 million in annual funding.
“The world changed a lot since I started the company 15 years ago,” Camberato said. “I’ve been able to move with the times, but also understand what people want in a workplace.”
National Business Capital, a business lending marketplace including more than 75 lenders, connects customers with and helps them obtain a wide range of loans. They typically work with companies that have revenues ranging from $250,000 to $30 million.
“Technology has helped us digitize and streamline the application process and speed along the underwriting process,” Camberato said, noting that the company funds transactions in one to 10 business days. “The larger the transaction, the longer it may take. We fund companies in hours and days, not weeks and months.”
He added that they recently helped obtain $75,000 in funds in 18 hours for a restaurant, obtained a $600,000 loan in three business days for a dental group, and secured a $7 million revolving line of credit and $4 million term loan in 30 to 45 days for an apparel wholesaler.
The company has helped companies obtain about $2 billion in funding through about 20,000 transactions.
“We don’t charge any up-front fees. We only get paid if we complete a transaction,” Camberato said. “We complete a few hundred transactions a month. The volume we do sometimes gives us access to better pricing, better rates.”
Companies can save money, but also something else.
“We’re a timesaving machine,” Camberato said. “We save owners time and frustration from having to shop around from lender to lender.”
The company, which had been based in Bohemia for about a decade, recently settled into a Rechler Equity Partners building with a full-service cafeteria and fitness center.
Friday is dress-down day, while Monday to Thursday are business casual days.
“Every morning each department does a mini-huddle with their team to talk about questions, challenges,” Camberato said, noting that in monthly huddles, with breakfast brought in, each department talks about stats, goals, and what happened.
“We have events scheduled,” Camberato said. “Things to help us grow personally, professionally and fun things, mixer events.”
The company also has its own quarterly newsletter to keep everyone up-to-date on developments in, and sometimes outside of, the office.
“We talk about what happened in the quarter, what’s happening in the next quarter,” Camberato added. “Someone recently had a baby. They’ll be featured. We have a new up-and-comer; they’ll be featured.”
National Business Capital employs about 75 people, all on Long Island, including about 25 hired earlier this year. They can fit about 120 in their space. And true to the walls, and the theme of growth, they are expanding.
“We’re hiring,” Camberato said. “We should have about 15 people starting next month.”
