S3,E22 - John Peter, Kelly Fumarola

This is Talk CNY, a semi-monthly podcast by CenterState, CEO. We're an independent nonprofit committed to creating inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economic growth in Central New York. Join us as we meet the people and explore the projects driving the regional economy forward. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. We are coming upon the giving season and CenterState CEO is lucky to receive support from so many in the business community. This generosity enables programs and strategies that help all businesses thrive and help all people prosper. On this episode of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, we're joined by one of the founding contributors to our Growth + Equity Fund, John Peter, and the Executive Director of the CenterState CEO Foundation, Kelly Fumarola, to discuss how giving can impact our community.

John, Kelly, thank you both so much for being here today.

Pleasure to be here.

Thank you, Katie. So, John, you are a founding contributor to the Growth + Equity Fund. You've been helping entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs realize their dreams and work towards success since 2021 now. So what initially attracted you to the Growth + Equity Fund? Why did this mission speak to you?

Well, for me, I've always been interested in philanthropy. Ever since I was younger, somebody was running a fund. There was an opportunity to give back. I was always one of those first people to say, 'Sure, I want to help you out.' Do something like that. Why not? I'd say in my past life, I referred to as my corporate life. When I worked at CVS Pharmacy, I got a good opportunity to be our district captain for Easterseals. So that was really my first chance to really run something like put together events, do different charity raffles, bring people together for a really good cause. So that was my, I guess, real first taste of that.

But what really inspired me to do something bigger was actually one of my best friends back when I lived in Hartford. There's a national organization called Mustache for Kids, and he started the Hartford chapter, and it's just like it sounds. During the holidays we supported was the Connecticut Children's Medical Center. We did different checkpoints to check the progress of our mustache, and then we concluded everything with a mustache bash. So we sound like a bunch of goofs, but we made a lot of money doing it, and we had a really good time. Every year, we would raise somewhere between $17 and $25,000.

Wow, that's great.

Yeah, and lifetime, like $125,000. So my buddy, he was very good about make sure we had fun, but we are here to make money, so let's focus on that. And that's why that went so well. So when I moved back to Syracuse, and I got back into the family business and things like that, my situation changed. I wanted to do something myself and think about something that I could do. I always felt like I can do more. I want to do more. And first I had to think about, okay, what is that? And for me, that was entrepreneurship. You can't just walk into a business and hand somebody money. You need to. I looked at setting up a foundation or different things, and that was very challenging. So I started looking for a partner. I needed help. And that's when I found Kelly and CenterState here. And they were very receptive to my idea, really helped me put everything together. They had a pipeline to entrepreneurs that were really deserving. They've been vetted and really good people that needed the help. And it was really just a perfect match and it really made my dream come true, and it's very fulfilling to be able to do what I'm doing now with CenterState.

That's great. And I know that the Growth + Equity fund is, your support has been so integral to its success, but Kelly, can you tell us a little bit more about what the Growth + Equity Fund is? What does it do? What's its vision and mission?

Yeah, so the Growth + Equity Fund provides mini grants made possible by John's donation to our foundation, and also provides loan funding to inspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners who are looking to launch and grow their businesses. A lot of the entrepreneurs that we work with through our small business development programming here at CenterState have encountered some barriers to launching and growing and most importantly, to accessing capital to help them get to the next stage of their business. So Growth + Equity Fund actually came out of a board of directors retreat, and we had our members work with our staff on developing a program that would help make sure that we could provide that access to capital for the entrepreneurs that we were working with, and not just us, but also our other clients, our other partner organizations around the community, including Wise Women's Business Center and the SBDC at On Community College.

So when the board of directors worked with our staff on pulling that together, it became the Growth + Equity fund, and the fund provides patient capital, so that means that the terms are more flexible than what you'd find in a traditional financial institution. And also that the rates, the interest rates are below market. The interesting thing is that this is solving a gap in the market and our financial institution partners recognize that gap. So they actually worked with us to help develop it, and they also help capitalize some of those loan funds that we have. So the program has been really great. The people have been able to access the grant funding and the loan funding have really been able to move their businesses to the next level. There have been no issues with anybody being very late on payments or anything like that. These are really hardworking people in the community who have fantastic ideas, who are just raring to go on a daily basis and know how it's difficult.

And John knows how difficult it is to run a business, but they're all doing great, and it's been really wonderful to be a part of this program. There's a lot of support that the beneficiaries are given before they receive the grant or the loan funding and after. So they all have business plans, they get one-on-one technical assistance. It's pretty, I guess, labor intensive on our part and the part of our partners, but that's the secret sauce that de-risks these businesses so that we are able to provide the loan funding. We have an underwriting committee that is comprised of folks from our financial institution partners, as well as people from the community who vet each of these loans that we provide, and they make recommendations to CenterState's investment committee. So it's a really well thought out process, but it's a great way to really have gotten to know the entrepreneurs that are in this community that haven't always had access to this kind of funding.

That's why I always say I just write the checks. She's making it happen. There's so much that goes, but...

It's teamwork. It's truly, it's everyone together that's able to...

Oh, absolutely.

And it's definitely not me. It's our team of small business developers at development experts at CenterState who work with them.

I heard some stories that most of these guys or some of them are actually paying the loans back early, right?

Oh yeah. I mean, I think there's this thought out there that if somebody is not positioned, you are not bankable. That there's some reason they have low, their credit history isn't great, or they have no credit history. But in our experience, that's not been the case. Everyone's been really on top of what they've had to be on top of. They let our team know if there are any challenges so that people can deal with it right away and rather than it snowballing into a bigger issue. So yeah, it's really been a great experience.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, John, I know you've gotten to meet many of the entrepreneurs that you've supported over the years. I'm wondering if there are stories that really stick with you or one in particular that stands out, something that you tell to others when you're saying, Hey, here's what I'm doing. Here's emblematic of what I'm supporting right now.

There are for sure.

Yeah,

They're all very good. We've done four today, all are very unique. But like Kelly said, they're all very driven and just determined and just put everything they have into the business. If I, was to say which one stood out to me, it's Tanika Jones from It Takes a Village daycare for a lot of reasons. I have young kids. So daycare definitely hit home with me and well, I'll start with when I got to meet Tanika, she already owns one daycare center. The idea is, which she would build a second one, and after meeting her, she would have 15 if she could. She just wants to do as much as she can. So I got to see the building just kind of gutted out. She's showing us everything about what her vision is and why she's doing it and what she's doing and just all that stuff. Just her drive and energy and just real selflessness towards everything was just mind blowing for me.

All she ever really talked about was the community. I never really felt anything about her talking about herself or complaining about the amount of hours she worked. She wanted to help her community and help the people and do something that she thought she needed. This is a 24-hour childcare service. That's unheard of. She mentioned that reason because a lot of the people she's trying to serve work odd jobs, they work overnights, they work night shifts. So 24-hour care just isn't available. So that's something she wanted to provide. A lot of them don't have cars. She drove around, picked kids up, and another thing she said, which I thought was very unique, was she didn't really have contracts experiencing daycare. You sign up and whether you show up or not, you're paying for it. She was a day-to-day, if you can come in and pay, but you're not into some kind of binding contract with them.

And that's because their situations changed so much. So if she was solely thinking as a business person, you probably wouldn't make those same decisions. So yeah, so she was really doing this I think to, like I said, just impact her community, be helpful, but also run a business at the same time. So she was also really aware of her strengths, what she needed to work on, and was always trying to improve in that way. She admitted she has trouble delegating. She's kind of a self-doer, and it was very interesting that we were able to talk about that. She...

I'm sure you related to a degree as someone in the business yourself.

Yeah, it's always challenging, but understanding it takes a village of people to do stuff. You can't do everything yourself and be successful. One thing I always looked at when I met all the entrepreneurs, and many of them because they're ready with CenterState, is that they're willing to accept help and mentorship. Sometimes there's a pride thing where you say, I don't need any help. I can do this myself. And that's not necessarily the case always. So they were very receptive to the mentorship they're getting from Erik and the other people from CenterState. She was receptive to me and stuff, and I always liked that because someone who can admit that they haven't done this before, they could use support. It means a lot, and that they're willing to listen and that they're always learning every day, myself included, learn every day, that's how you get better. So she showed all those qualities when I met her and after that meeting with her, I was just grinning ear to ear for a week, this is why I do this. This is so good. And I was so happy that she got that grant.

And I just want to say, I know John will be very humble here, is that the way that he interacts with each of the beneficiaries of the grant funding that he makes possible is you can tell he really cares. He's so curious. Being a small business owner himself, he just wants to know what's tripping you up? What are your challenges? And I think that makes it easy for them to lean into that. Yes, obviously they've come to us because they're willing to get that help, but the interaction between John and our aspiring entrepreneurs or small business owners has just been amazing because he just makes them feel comfortable and that provides them that confidence and the encouragement that, yes, this is hard, but you're doing a great job and keep going. So yeah, that's been great to see.

Thank you, Kelly. It's great.

I mean, you guys really are, it seems a great team. You guys have worked together now for years. Can you talk a little bit more about the collaboration between you two about how you've been able to progress the Growth + Equity Fund through mutual support of each other, and what it's been like maximizing the impact of this support?

Yeah. I mean, again, as I said, John has, this is not transactional is what I'll say, right? This is not John writing us a check and we're like, great. We're just going to grant it to another small business. And that's the end of the day. Everything we do here at CenterState is about those collaborative relationships. And John, without us even making this a part of it, has already shown up as a mentor when he is met with each of the beneficiaries. So that's always how we look at things here at CenterState is nothing is just a transaction. Obviously, the funding is incredibly important because it's helping move these businesses forward, but it's that one-on-one, they're getting help from a seasoned entrepreneur in John and someone who just clearly cares about the community and cares about the small business sector and cares about people who are trying to merge those two things together. So it's been really great to work with John.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

It's great to work with you, John.

And you had mentioned that it was nice to find a partner so you wouldn't have to do everything yourself. Has it been a good relationship? I mean, Kelly seems says it's good. I'm assuming you think the same then.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

What I'll say is when I first reached out to CenterState, I wasn't really aware of what CenterState was, and now I realize how big you guys are and just stay everywhere. So I was really surprised that you guys want anything to do with me, to be honest. I'm John Peter and like, 'Hi, I would like to do this charity thing. What do you think?' I wouldn't think anybody would pick up the phone, but they were, like I said, just very open and receptive to what I wanted to do and could help make all those things happen for me and tied it into some stuff that they were already doing. So I mean, it was just so rewarding. And like I said, it's not transactional at all. That was really important for me was like I said, I've been doing philanthropy for a long time.

There's definitely a big difference between I sent in a check and I don't know if this ever goes anywhere or if it helped or something. And there's a big difference to being able to do it this way and to see the person it goes to. And we have things in place where they'll tell us what the money's being used for and stuff like that, and it's not going to win every time. You don't know what the future will hold, but you really focus on the big things. And when I look back at everything like this is going to be one of the best things I could have ever done with the money. It is money well spent to be able to provide something like that to somebody when they're getting started and where that can lead for 'em. So just to be able to do a little part of that really means a lot to me, and I think it'll just pay it forward throughout the community. At least two of the recipients of the grant have mentioned that they want to do what I'm doing someday.

Yeah, I was going to say, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the importance of philanthropy. I mean, I know both of you, it's very important parts of your lives and your jobs, but just to kind of expand upon it a little bit more, why is it so important to be philanthropic in your community?

Like I said before, there's nothing like it. I don't think there's anything that I could buy that would give you the feeling that you can get doing something like this. As Kelly mentioned before, she really enjoys my interactions with the grantees and things like that, and I really appreciate them doing it. And one thing I often say is that when I look back at my life and I'm old and gray and I think about my professional career, even with the business we have and things like that, like this, without a doubt will be one of the best things that I've ever done. Hopefully 20, 30 years from now, there's 20 or 30 grantees, I can look back and see what they've done and know that I had something to do with that. I mean, they're the one grinding and doing all that kind of stuff, but I played a little piece of it. They probably would've gotten there regardless, but at least there was something there, and I could feel good.

Always good to have support.

Yeah. Yeah. So like I said, it's time. Money well spent wouldn't have it in any other way. It's a beautiful thing to be part of.

Yeah, I can't say it any better than John just said it. He is the epitome of philanthropy, and I mean that seriously. He's in this for the right reasons, and he is in this because he cares about the community and it shows by what he continues to do after year, and that he continually shows up when we have kooky ideas like come be on our podcast, always willing to do it because he knows it's going to help talk. It's going to shine a light on this kind of philanthropy. So we always appreciate it.

And it's easy to do it here. This is our neighborhood. We could do this thing maybe somewhere else in New York or something like that, but this community I'm in, doing it in your own backyard and being close to it just makes it that much sweeter. Same with I have a real estate business too. Everything I've invested is always in Syracuse. I liked everything being where we are. Even if there's a better opportunity elsewhere, let's keep it in Syracuse.

Yeah, that's great. Well, we will have more with Kelly and John in just a moment, but we are going to take a quick break for our word from our presenting sponsor, NBT Bank.

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Welcome back. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState, CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. On this episode, we are speaking with John Peter and Kelly Fumarola about the importance of philanthropy and the community. Thank you both for being here today.

Thanks, Katie. You're welcome. Thank you.

So the gifts and the support that you provide through the CenterState CEO Foundation and the programs that the CenterState CEO Foundation support is about building a vibrant, small business community, supporting entrepreneurship, and those people in the community who are trying to start businesses. Why is that mission so important, not only to you as individuals, but also to the entire community's health and resilience?

There is a lot of untapped talent in this community, in our neighborhoods, people who have really wonderful ideas, who have great products and services that need to be out in the community because they're really great ideas. So the beauty of something like this is that it helps people realize those dreams, but more importantly on a macro scale, when we tap into that talent, we are attracting additional revenue that helps this community grow. So our research and planning team has a bunch of data around this, and hopefully I will get this data point, but for example, if the black-owned businesses in our community in terms of number and performance were on par with white owned businesses, this community would see an additional $3 billion in revenue. That's billion with a B. That is staggering.

So leaving that on the table doesn't make any sense. So when we have a program like Growth + Equity Fund, or we work with folks in our small business development programming through Upstart Accelerator, which is now at our new INSPYRE Innovation Hub, those programs are not only helping people live their entrepreneurial dream, but they are really adding to the economic trajectory of this community. And in a huge way. Now is our little Growth + Equity fund going to tackle all that, attract all that $3 billion, one day. We're going to try, but even if we capture a small percentage of that, it's game changing for the region. So it's really important to have programs like this so that we find those people that have that talent that can build those businesses, that can hire employees, that are contributing to the growth here in Central New York. Yeah, absolutely.

I guess I would say to go along with that, being a small business owner, if you look at from the other side, where would we be without small businesses?

Absolutely.

What if people didn't have the opportunity to really do things themselves and feel what that's like and have that experience? I just think you just lose out on so much talent and things like Kelly said.

Like I said, being an entrepreneur, it's a life-changing experience. I would say probably it's a lot having kids in the sense of you can prepare yourself. You can say to yourself, I bet I know what that's like, but you just don't know until you know. It's a good way to put it. So good or bad, a lot of good things will happen to that, just like having kids.

And I just want to say quickly, the leadership piece is important. I know you said, oh, this is little old John Peter coming into some big old CenterState,

But it just shows that leadership really exists everywhere, and certainly in the small business community, that's an opportunity for people to lead. So not only lead in their business, but you're doing leading in philanthropy and having an impact on the community. So the leadership piece of it is huge.

Yeah, I mean, it creates a more vibrant system overall when we have a strong small business community. And speaking of strong, small businesses, I would be remiss to not mention that it is Peter's Liquors' 50th anniversary this year. You guys are celebrating a big one in the community. Can you reflect on that a little bit? What's it like being a part of a small business that's been here for decades?

Well, there's a lot to that. So it's generations of my family. It started with my grandfather and actually. So Peter's Liquors opened in 1975. We actually started with Peter's Groceries though in 1950. So my grandfather started with one small store. He was one of eight kids. He was the oldest, dropped out of high school to support the family and just kind of started his own business, just like a movie. He went to the market every day. He would get fresh produce for his store. It was just him and his wife working there, and they lived in the apartment behind the store, and they just did that every day. And then it grew into five stores and 500 employees, and people still remember us. They closed in 2004, but I'll still get people that'll come up to me and tell me stories about my dad and my grandfather, or how they used to work at Peter's, or just the experiences that they had there as a customer or as a vendor or things like that.

So it's amazing, like 20 years later, people still remember us in that sense. And the liquor store has actually started to tie in with the grocery stores to make it like a one shopping experience. I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I do every day. It all came from the sacrifice that my family made. Like I said, it took generations to be here. So it's very important for me to continue our success, to pay it forward to my family, and then also to other entrepreneurs who didn't get this kind of a start to pay forward and help them start their own dream in their own small business.

Which circles us back to your support of Growth + Equity, which is all, it's a really great story overall. Well, Kelly, John, thank you both so much for your time. It was great talking with you.

Thank you. Pleasure being here. Thanks, Katie.

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