Nick Hodge,
Publisher
Jan. 26, 2022
I don’t like the big banks.
Crime after crime has shown they are not good for humanity. And yet, bank we must.
I’ve made a habit of shunning Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley with my investment dollars so as not to further their insidious itineraries.
But being able to own — from the very beginning — a bank that has aims to serve a different clientele with a different set of values is very appealing. Especially when it’s being founded by people who’ve made you money previously.
This week, I was able to do just that. I am participating in the founding financing for a new bank. And you can join me.
Not only do I expect to make multiple times my money. But I hope to offer the bank’s services once it’s up and running as an additional benefit to all our members.
“TIAA to Buy EverBank for $2.5 Billion”
That was the Wall Street Journal headline over five years ago when Frank Trotter sold the project he’d been working on for the previous two decades.
I’d like to think I had some small effect on EverBank’s success.
As a newbie financial newsletter editor at a young and growing publishing company many years ago, one of my tasks was writing ads and advertorials to get our subscriber base interested in EverBank products.
It was a solid way to generate affiliate income from our email lists outside of our own products.
And it was clearly a solid model for EverBank — positioned as an alternative bank of sorts for the alternative financial media crowd. It offered market index CDs, money market deposit accounts, forex, checkbook control IRAs, and other products positioned for the traditional anti-establishment newsletter crowd.
In some senses, EverBank was a pioneer. It was one of the first national online banks, focusing on mobile banking and digital technology with few brick-and-mortar offices, which is one of the main reasons it was acquired.
Frank had also bolted-on a few businesses through acquisition, including Tygris Commercial Finance Group in 2009, Bank of Florida in 2010, and MetLife’s warehouse finance business — and at the time of the buyout had a sizable mortgage book of jumbo loans.
When the acquisition of EverBank closed in 2017, original investors had made 30 times their money. And Frank Trotter announced a well-deserved retirement.
A New Battle
It’s been over five years since the EverBank acquisition.
TIAA has largely hollowed out the entity so that it’s unrecognizable from its former self.
And that means there is a niche to be filled.
Frank is back. And this time he’s joined by a name that you will likely know.
Together with Rick Rule, who’s putting up ~$15 million of his own money, Frank Trotter is launching Battle Bank.
It is currently raising its first round of funding. I am participating alongside the high net worth investors who are members of Hodge Family Office.
You can become a member now if you would like to partake in the financing.
I don’t have to tell you that owning a bank is a good investment — in Monopoly, Game of Thrones, and real life.
In the case of this bank, the pre-money valuation is zero and the post-money valuation is whatever money comes in in this round.
Again, EverBank provided 30-to-1 returns for its early investors.
Battle Bank is currently going through the regulatory process and expects to open in Q2 or Q3 of this year.
All the details on the deal and how to participate were just provided to members of Hodge Family Office this week.
You can get access here.
But you have to act by the end of the month — January 31st — if you’d like to become a founding financier of this new bank.