Founder's Story - From Wall Street to Homelessness: How He Rebuilt Everything & Deployed $250M | Ep 308 with Frank Scarso Founder of Avanza Capital Holdings

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Frank Scarso shares the deeply personal story behind his fall from Wall Street, his battle with addiction, and the three years he was estranged from his wife and children. He reveals how a single moment of clarity sparked his recovery, leading him to build Avanza Capital, an alternative lending platform that has deployed over $250 million to small businesses across 48 states. The episode explores resilience, leadership, private credit, and what it truly means to rebuild your life from nothing. Key Discussion Points:Frank explains that his motivation to rebuild wasn’t money or status, it was simply wanting to “go home” and fix what he had broken with his family. He discusses why entrepreneurship became his path forward after Wall Street, and how Avanza grew from “little drips and drabs” into a national lender focused on speed, service, and human connection in an industry often criticized for being transactional. The conversation dives into the risks and realities of merchant cash advances, why banks overlook small businesses, and how alternative lending fills that gap in hours instead of months. Frank also reflects on how sobriety transformed his leadership style from aggressive and “guns blazing” to empathetic, hands-on, and grounded in mentorship and service. Takeaways:Family can be the most powerful driver of reinvention. Frank’s story highlights the importance of mentorship, surrounding yourself with smarter people, setting attainable short-term goals, and understanding risk before taking on capital. He emphasizes that funding is a tool, not a crutch, and that discipline, caution, and hard work are critical for small business survival. Above all, resilience, humility, and service define long-term success more than any financial metric. Closing Thoughts:Frank’s journey proves that rock bottom is not the end—it can be the beginning. From living on the street to leading a nine-figure lending platform, his story is a reminder that redemption is possible, leadership evolves through adversity, and sometimes one sentence can change the trajectory of generations. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So Frank, man, I, you know, I read your story and it's pretty incredible and it even reminded me of some of the things that happened to me in my life. And I know that it seems like entrepreneurs who've really gone through the mud are the ones that persevere and become the most successful. And I know you spent two decades on Wall Street and then you lost everything. And that was a rock bottom moment for you. So what made you decide to rebuild and get up? What was that motivation? So for me, the motivation was I just wanted to go home. I have been separated from my wife and children for almost three years.

And, you know, I was estranged from them. I didn't have a chance to see my kids for like 18 months. And I just really, I just wanted to go home, whatever it took. However long it took, you know, I just wanted to fix it. That was my driver in force. if I was a single guy and I didn't have kids, we would be talking about a completely different story here. But given the fact that, you know,

I was responsible for three little children and then plus my wife kind of gave me no choice but to fix what I broke. The motivations, right? Like family, I think it's always a great motivator for you to want to better yourself. What made you say that entrepreneurship, being a founder, was the right path versus you getting a job?

So I've always been sort of like a team leader. And I've always, you know, worked for myself. And I just figured that I'd have to find a new way to make a living. I have to leave in Wall Street after 21 years. This business kind of fell into my lap. And I just didn't want to work for somebody, you know. And I just wanted to move forward and hunt my own company and started out little drips and drabs and then snowballed over, you know, the last nine years. When you look at the industries and the problems that you can solve, I think it's always fascinating to see why somebody said, oh, this is the problem that needs to be solved.

So what was the draw for you that was this whole thing with small businesses and funding? What was the draw where you said, okay, this is the problem and I want to solve this problem? You know, coming from a Wall Street background, it's been always customer service and service oriented. And in the MCA space, customer service is really not something that's out there. So I kind of like brought a little bit of a human touch to this industry and, you know, service the merchants and the brokers and, you know, hold everybody's hand when hands need to be held and giving them that little extra attention. There's work phenomenal for us, you know, just be the human being and listen to people.

You know, when a merchant's having problems, they can payments. you know, you have to understand life happens and, you know, walking them through situations rather than, you know, pushing them through is a lot easier to deal with. I imagine that most businesses, the funding side is the maker break, right? Like if they're not selling and making revenue or they don't have the money to buy equipment or invest in something, then the business just goes out. And I think it's like 90% of businesses don't even last past five years or something similar to that stat. So how do you, what does every business owner do you think needs to know?

Like, what could you teach them right now around this whole funding? Because I think most people I know they have no clue about funding. And it's very a complex situation. It's a challenge for them to the point where I think they just say, I don't even want to do it. I'm not going to do it. but then their business is, you know, hugely at risk. So the piece of advice that I can get to the merchants is, you know, try to pinch your pennies where you can because it all adds up at the end of the day.

And, you know, the MCA space, it's expensive money. So I tried to, believe it or not, I try to talk merchants out of it unless they really need the money. Then you take it and you use it. Unfortunately, a lot of people abuse the merchant cash advance space and just take multiple, multiple advances, one on top of another, and they had stuck in that gerbil wheel, which is kind of what you want to avoid. So I tried to bring that out and make them understand about the risks, you know,

of, you know, dealing in the merchant cash in the space. It's important that they understand the risks as well as the benefits. There have been, you know, numerous merchants that we've over the years that have benefited tremendously from borrowing and have grown the business exponentially. But, you know, caution is a word of advice. Where in their business journey are people normally looking for funding? You know, all aspects of where they're at, we don't really deal with startup companies. We like to see at least, you know, a year or two under their belt. But we have companies that have been around for 30 years.

We have doctors offices. We have businesses that have been around for 18 months. So we service all different aspects. it's not just one niche market. You know, we credit services at as many people as possible. And I know you deployed over $250 million to businesses, and many times I'm guessing

traditional banks just are not able, they're not touching these companies, which is sad because I think, you know, it's like half of the jobs that exist in the U.S. are for what they would consider to be a small business, which I'm guessing most of these banks are not servicing these people, but they need it probably more than these other larger corporations.

So what do you see in these businesses that banks miss? And why are you betting on them? Well, we see the opportunity to help a niche market. Unfortunately, like you were saying, banks are really not looking to bet on small businesses. They'd rather bet on the bigger corporations and do big servicing a bet versus servicing small businesses, which are the backbolt of this country. Like you said, the statistic is pretty high out there. I think it's like 40% of the workforce

isn't the small business somehow one way or another. And if they don't get the capital when the capital is needed, it's just inevitable that they're all going to fail. And unfortunately, no one's out there to help them. I mean, you go to a bank, it takes, you know, three months just to get declined where we can get your funding done within a couple of hours, having the money in your account. But, you know, we pride ourselves in speed.

And that's what differentiates us from some of the other members out there. Hey, there's always different spaces and niches and markets for people. And I'm glad that you're you're helping to solve a problem for these businesses. Just because I know how it is, like you put your heart and soul into something. And many times you're making less than you could just go work at a basic job with the hopes that it grows into something. It's like when you say it out loud, it almost sounds crazy to be. be an entrepreneur. Like you almost are better off getting a job somewhere and you'll make more take home way. So I'm glad that you're you're helping those people. Let's talk about, I know your father has

instilled some things in you. And he told you somebody, if you're going to go do something, do it right and treat it like it's your own. And I think that's so fascinating how you've taken what you've done with that. Tell me about these lessons that you've learned from others. Well, you know, so like lessons I learned from my father, he always taught me to have pride and everything that we do. You know, whether you're working in a bagel store as a kid or whether you're working on Wall Street as a young adult or whether you shine shoes, whatever you do, just be proud. Just be proud. Do it correct or don't do it at all. And that's something that stuck with me, you know, throughout my lifetime. And, you know, my father was a big influence in my life.

And still to this day, you know, I think about him every day. And, you know, what he thought me was a good heart in person. And he's missed. But, you know, his legacy is his children and his grandchildren. And I still listen to those words he said to me a long time ago. When you think about mentorship, do you find that for yourself, have you used people as mentors,

or do people come to you for any sort of mentorship? Or do you find that business is kind of like a lonely place where you just got to figure it out as you go? You know, I think I'm a big believer, mentorship. I always over the years have taken on sort of like a pet project, the younger guys where I've directed them and have had like sidekicks or propegages, whichever one you want to call it. I think that's important. I was always taught on Wall Street as we growing up in the financial aspect is you want to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you

so that you can learn from them. And that's a true fact. And, you know, I mentor and I help people for free. I don't know what anything for it. It just helps me give back a little bit something to the world. I'm very grateful for the position I'm in especially after everything I've been through. And I'm a very big believer in giving back and helping out those that

need to help. You know, it's wild when I talk to people and they say I notice they hire people and they're almost afraid to have people around them that are smarter than them. Because they might become a competitor. But I'm thinking the same way like you. You only grow and learn if you have people that are around you that are smarter,

knowing that the people that you lead specifically will go on to do great things. So let's talk about leadership for you. Thinking back to when you were in like Wall Street, more a corporate environment, what type of leader were you then compared to the leader that you are now having over eight years of sobriety, the ups and downs and downs and ups that you've gone through? What's changed in your leadership style? Well, I used to be a lot rougher, a lot, you know, guns blazing, always pushing the envelope. You know, that's what, you know, we were caught in Wall Street.

It's a young man's game. But my style has changed. I'm a little bit more of embracing as a boss and understanding that employees do have issues. And, you know, not having fear of anything because going through what I went through was probably the worst thing that someone it can endure. And if I can get through that and I can get through addiction, there's nothing that I can't get through. Everything else will fall into place as long as you just push forward and work hard.

But hard work is something that I believe for my employees. And I do it firsthand. I'm a full hands-on owner. I don't just sit here and delegate. I work all aspects of this business, wherever health is needed. I will always jump in and help my employees. Yeah, and thank you for sharing that, being vulnerable. It's amazing how not only time changes us, but the experiences that we have completely changed.

And thinking about how I am today might have been the complete opposite as I was 20 years ago. When you're looking at the industry itself, because I know the private credit is just insane, it's projected to hit over $2 trillion in the near future, what do you think is driving this shift? in your industry away from traditional banking and do you think there's still going to be or maybe a new opportunity will arise? Well, I think what's what's driving to shift is the actual banks themselves. You know, considering small businesses unbankable and leaving no choice but for them to go to alternative financing and that's why, you know, the growth is just going to be, you know, tremendous. And it's growing at a faster pace, I think, than the $2.48 trillion that's expected over the next

a couple of years or so, I think that that market grows. And you've seen a lot of institutional money starting to pour into this side of the business because, you know, there's money in lending. And institutions know that. Banks know that. Unfortunately, they don't want to take shots on these smaller businesses, so they'll let, like, the hedge funds that manage risk a lot better than a bank would. Take that roll and run with it.

And that's what we've been seeing. you know pretty much the banks of cannibalized themselves sort of speed a lot of there's been a lot of interesting things with banks i was just looking at bitcoins like plummeting right now going up and i mean the finance world is fascinating and i don't understand most of it but i'm always interested to hear what's happening when you look at growing and scaling your company what has been something that has been critical for you as you've grown and scaled past um certain milestones. One of the most important things I think for me has been talent. You know, the talent pool up here in New York is a little bit more competitive than it is in some of the other smaller

markets like down south. And I think having the office in North Carolina and Florida where we really got lucky we were able to hire some really good talent. I think that changed the game a little that you know up here you have five people chasing that one job where you know down south or you're out in the Midwest and some of the smallest cities you find talent that is still looking for a job and there's still some good talent up at the higher we're going to look into the south and into the Midwest hopefully in the next couple of years how about when it comes to technology AI is obviously in every single thing it seems like that we're doing are you finding that there's any technology, software, anything that you either see that's going to be helping your industry

or it's already helping you? So the AI aspect of it is all fine and dandy when it comes to, you know, looking at bank statements and basically, you know, data mining the, you know, the data that's on there. But I think that when it comes to underwriting, you're always going to need that, you know, final human touch to bring you across the goal line because, you know, sometimes you have to, you know, look beyond the numbers. You know, you have to look beyond the company. You have to, you know, give a quick, you know, mental analysis of what you're, you know, what you see and make decisions and pivot when necessary. And unfortunately, some of these softwares aren't there yet. They might get

there one day. So we just use AI just to help break down some of the bank statements. But most of the rest of the underwriting process is done manual. When you're thinking about future goals, and you know, you've already achieved things I'm sure you never thought you would achieve, especially going back to certain moments in your life. It seems like you're very grateful and you work very hard. And, you really put the systems and processes and people in place, which is amazing. So when you look at goals and milestones forward thinking, how do you structure them and how far out do you normally,

how far out do you have to look in terms of like, okay, I want to hit these milestones at this time because this is success to me. Well, what's important about setting goals and milestones is really setting goals and milestones that are attainable, right? Anybody can say, I want to make a billion dollars, right? That's just not going to happen. But if you set attainable goals, stuff that is reachable. And, you know, I try to set short-term goals and I also have longer-term goals, right?

but it's the short-term goals. It's, you know, those are the ones that get you to the longer-term goals that help you, you know, push forward from there. So it's important that you're realistic in your numbers and then your goals. And, you know, hard work, pretty much remedy anything. And, I mean, you need a little bit of luck as well in business. Hard work and a little bit of luck and you'll have a good recipe for success. Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Frank.

So I know you have something really special out, by the way, I just launched a book, and then you just launched a book the hard way home. And like the amount of time and energy and effort that went into my book was insane. And I can imagine it's the same for you. But it feels so good when the book comes out. But I'm like having a hard time even thinking about people reading a book. I don't know. I feel like I'm going to get judged.

But how was the process of writing this the hard way home? And what was the inspiration behind this book? So the inspiration was trying to get someone to benefit, even if it's just one person to benefit from my story, and bring that hope across that, you know, you're never really truly alone, even when you feel like you are alone. When I was living on the street and I was alone, you know, at that point I really thought I was alone, but I wasn't. I had my whole family behind me, even though I was estranged for everybody, they were still behind me, supporting me. So if my story can help one person overcome, you know, some troubles in their lives, whether it's addiction or whether it's just employment or whatever the case may be or some sort of mental health disorders, my story can help just one person. It was well worth it for me.

And writing the book was hopefully was more so for myself than for anybody else to give me a little bit of closure because I do carry a lot of regrets. some of the things that, you know, like they didn't say it over the years. So hopefully it'll put to rest some of those demons. Sounds like it was almost therapeutic for you. If you would tell my story and to say it out loud, you know, to myself and putting it down in words and paper was absolutely amazing. And I didn't realize for a while. what I went through until I wrote the book, sort of in a kind of weird way, kind of like inspired myself again, if that makes sense.

You know, we forget, you know, when we take things for granted. And then you jog down memory lane, it opens up some good memories. Some hard words also, but a lot of good memories. But thinking back, what's a moment for you that was like a great memory when you're like, oh my gosh when I wrote that in this book and it's in the book this was something that you know made me really smile compared to like you're saying all the memories that were obviously very tough for me it was the one pivotal moment that happened in my life

where it was almost like I had a moment of enlightenment and it happened to be on the phone with my brother and he said to me he said don't you want your children to have good memories of their childhood like we did and that just blew me away like it was just something that's so profound to me and I can't explain it but like it changed me as a person and then from that moment on it was just all you know it was all downhill from there you know every day that went by

that I you know was sober and that I you know pushed forward just a little bit more was closer to home than I got even though I didn't know it in time you know I was a strange for my family for three years I never thought that I would go back and it was that one pivotal moment which was important for me And just to remember that was what kind of helped me come back. I love that, man. So it's always amazing how one sentence, one phrase, one or two words,

completely change the trajectory of not only your life, but obviously your family's life, your kid's life, and then whatever generations to come later on, just from that one sentence. But thank you for being vulnerable to even write this book. Again, like I've just went through the same process. And it was so, there was so many times where I wanted to tell them that I don't even want to put it in the book. Like I sent it in, delete it because I don't want that in there.

But like you said, if one person can be inspired, but the hard way home and Avonza capital holding. So if you want to get in touch with you, Frank, they want to get the book. They want to find out more information about you. How can they do so? Well, they can find the book on Amazon and some of the other bigger book retailers. And if they want it to get in touch with us, they can just go to our website. It's www.abonza. NYC, and they can reach us through there.

Well, Frank, again, I can appreciate you being here. I can relate so much to your story. I think there's a lot of other people that are either in the moment or they're out of the moment. And hopefully that they'll become entrepreneurs. And if they ever need anything as a small business, they can contact you. So thank you so much for, hey, change in the world. changing the world being vulnerable enough to write it down and change the world which a lot of people are not a lot of people will not do that so i appreciate you for uh for being here on founder's story

my pleasure thanks for having me