The Master Detective
Rob Smith of Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute uncovers the mysteries to building strong businesses, and has fun doing it.
In another life, Rob Smith might’ve ended up as one of the number-crunching investment powerhouse caricatures from an ‘80s movie. Rob loves numbers, especially those with dollar signs. It’s not that he loves profit… it’s that he loves the story that numbers tell about a business. Rob is something of a strategic mastermind, and through all those dollar signs and decimals, he can figure out what’s working and isn’t working for entrepreneurs and businesses.
In fact, Rob’s natural fictional parallel might be Sherlock Holmes. Just like Holmes, Rob takes in the scene and can --almost--predict the future; seeing how a business model will unfold. And, like Holmes, Rob takes great joy in unraveling those mysteries. And through Rocky Mountain MicroFinance, Rob outdoes Holmes because, unlike the detective, Rob and his team help entrepreneurs revise and revamp their models and practices to guide them to greater successes and greater social returns.
Rob and team are always eagerly getting to the bottom of each business model and plan. They possess the vision to see through the obfuscations and over the pitfalls to harness the greatest potential of each entrepreneur and business, and with RMMFI helps put some money where the brain and heart connect.
But, Rob is about more than numbers, money and business. For him and RMMFI, the mission is about people. Every “case” he takes is about helping someone with the opportunity to succeed. Rob wants to enable new business owners, to train them, coach them, and help bring their businesses to life. It’s more than investing, it’s about creating and cultivating opportunity, especially for those among us without existing support structures.
His work is about creating two way streets of value. Rob seeks to engage the community, tapping into an energetic dialogue, learning, and then applying new knowledge to improving great enterprises. It’s never a top-down approach for Rob, but investment through conversation, which is what makes his and RMMFI’s work so unique and special. And it goes for his team, too. Rob wants everyone in RMMFI to find their best, and he wants to help them attain it.
By following Rob’s example, the Denver investment scene, and perhaps even the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem is changing for the better. We can look forward to a future of social and financial returns in stronger communities for generations to come. We can foresee a marketplace full of opportunities for anyone with a great idea and the drive to make it so. We just have to follow the clues, case by case.