Financial entrepreneur's lifelong dream is now a reality

Thorpe Capital Group was launched in March 2000, just six days after the Nasdaq stock market reached its all-time high.

Yet Devin Thorpe, founder of the Salt Lake-based investment bank, did not realize that the end of the Internet frenzy was just beginning.

"We started at the very pinnacle of the Internet bubble economy," Thorpe said. "When we got into the business things were crazy busy. Everybody was an entrepreneur. Everybody needed help with a business plan and growing a business. I didn't have to walk out of the building to find clients."

By 2002, Thorpe said, the venture capital and private equity markets were almost dead. Thorpe didn't give up, though. He was driven, he said, to realize a lifelong dream of becoming a financial entrepreneur.

"Being an entrepreneur in the model that I am is not much different than being an entrepreneur in any other field," Thorpe said. "You have to be willing to make some bets that have life-altering consequences — good and bad."

One of Thorpe's early clients was Usana Health Sciences, a Salt Lake-based health and nutrition company that has expanded into 12 countries.

Gilbert Fuller, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Usana, said Thorpe Capital helped Usana acquire two companies, Draper-based Wasatch Products and FMG, a Salt Lake-based media company.

"We used them to evaluate the acquisitions and help us in negotiating the transactions," Fuller said. "If we were to call in someone from New York or San Francisco, the cost would have been far greater. The Thorpe guys and gals did a fine job. They're smart. They know where to get information and what to look at. We were pleased with them."

Thorpe, who holds a master's of business administration degree from Cornell and an undergraduate degree from the University of Utah, said his company specializes in helping businesses find venture capital, private equity or buyers. The bank's target is larger middle-market companies, those with revenues at $5 million to $500 million.

Thorpe Capital centers exclusively on Utah companies. The group helped LoveSac, a Salt Lake-based furniture and fashion chain, to raise $12 million. In October, LoveSac was named the state's fastest revenue growth company by MountainWest Capital Network.

A typical entrepreneur who spends his career building a business, Thorpe said, may not have the relationships he or she needs to pull together the next round of financing.

"There's a lot of money available, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy, and that's why our role is so important," Thorpe said. "We have the networks, the relationships and the expertise to pull a transaction together quickly and efficiently."

---

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com