Have You Made A "Love Child" With Your Banker Lately?

B29 StrEATery -- A "Love Child."

In 21 years of owning small businesses, I’ve had my share of experiences with commercial banks. I’ve had “relationships” with four of them, ranging from local to regional to national, and the experience largely has been transactional in nature. Oh, sure, there’s been arm twisting, the yearly lunch, cajoling, a fly-fishing trip, and the occasional “sweat” session through economic downturns – now that’s when a bank really gets involved in “the relationship.”

So I’ve been through the wringer and survived and now I’m on to my fifth bank with Social Good Network. And I can truly say I never thought I’d utter these words, but here they are: I love our bank.

Jennifer's "da bomb." And she gets startups.

We bank with Intermountain Community Bank (ICB). Now, I hesitate to call Jennifer Deroin a banker, because she’s really “da bomb.” Jennifer is so unlike any other commercial banker I’ve met. She’s proactive. She’s creative. She thinks with an entrepreneurial mindset. Jennifer’s totally a banking cat with different stripes, and she takes the tired and trite banking adage of “we’re your partner” and turns it into true.

Here’s another good example of how her bank is different. Check out the ICB partnership with Brick 29 Bistro restaurant and their B29 Streatery Food Truck (d-frickin-licious, by the way). ICB helped make it happen, and the folks at B29 were so happy with the relationship that they plastered it on their exceptionally cool food truck. Now when was the last time you ever heard of a commercial bank creating a “Love Child” with a customer – let alone co-promoting their brand this way? That’s forward thinking. That’s differentiation. THAT is a relationship. And I love it.

Proudly proclaimed on the food truck's graphics.

Thanks, Jennifer and ICB – you’ve been crucial to the progress of our startup thus far. We’re looking forward to more of it.

-- Russ Stoddard