Housing Giants - June 10, 2008 - (Page 18)

the service to move-up buyers through the customization process and decided to launch his own company. It wasn’t easy, though. “I think the biggest challenge is you put a business plan together, you go out there, and we were in an environment in 2005 where everybody wanted to be in this space,” says Wall. “There were a lot of people that wanted to do things. … But getting things nailed down on how we were going to fund the company was a big challenge.” Getting the funding only took two months, with Wall putting together a deal with Warburg Pincus, which provided $50 million in funding. “I didn’t have a date in plan because we didn’t how when we would be funded,” he says. In hindsight, to fund the company in 60 days would have been really ambitious, but it still seemed like it took forever.” Wall brought with him several colleagues from Choice, including Matt Bilardi, vice president of land acquisition; CFO Darris McClure; Erin Kolp, chief of staff; Kelly Pollard, director of purchasing; and Andrew Brimberry, director of information technology. McClure says they understood they were doing something important at the time. “It is a unique opportunity when you have the chance to start something from scratch and make it what you want or to fit Steve’s vision of what he wanted to see in a company or a product,” he says. After the funding issue was resolved, the team still faced two significant challenges. First, it didn’t have any product to sell — no models, no communities. Second, the team had reputations from previous work, but no one had ever heard of Wall Homes because it had never existed before. (Bilardi notes that they discussed hundreds or thousands of names before finally settling on Wall Homes.) “You think of yourself as a veteran,” Wall says. “You’ve been doing this for how long, and you’ve got a lot people who have joined you who have been doing it forever, but you’re a new company. The start-up process wasn’t easy. Wall Homes CFO Darris McClure explains the challenges. 18 HOUSING GIANTS.6.10.08 www.HOUSINGGIANTS.cOm http://www.wall.com/Bio-PollardK.asp http://www.wall.com/Bio-BrimberryA.asp http://www.warburgpincus.com/ http://www.wall.com/Bio-BilardiM.asp http://www.wall.com/Bio-McClureD.asp http://www.wall.com/Bio-McClureD.asp http://www.wall.com/Bio-KolpE.asp http://www.wall.com/Bio-PollardK.asp http://www.housinggiants.com

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