Para - About

Mission and Values

Grow the Pie!

We believe that sweat equity should be recognized and rewarded. Business owners work hard in order to build a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities. Our goal is to support business owners who have the grit and passion to succeed and together, build a better economy for everyone.

Understand Before Being Understood

We actively strive to understand the person working across from us. We believe that everyone brings something to the table and that it is important to understand their views before we express our own. If we seek to understand first then compromise, empathy and understanding will follow.

It Takes a Village

Capital alone is not enough to start or make a small business successful. Business owners depend on their communities and other businesses for support, advice, and expertise. At Para, we try to understand how everyone--both internally and externally--contributes to the overall effort. This allows us to move forward together and faster.

People are Fallible, Systems Shouldn't Be

Everyone makes mistakes. We want to create a culture where we can own up, resolve, and learn from our mistakes. More important to us than determining culpability or placing blame, is developing systems and processes for improvement. These endure past any one person’s effort, error, and ultimately our own time at Para.

Lending Is Not a Permanent Solution

At Para, we believe that providing you with credit is only one of the ways to help you start or grow your business. We want to build a long-lasting, successful business alongside you; one that’s aligned with your needs. Sometimes you may need a loan or line of credit, and sometimes you may not--and that’s okay! At Para, we want to offer you only the support you want. We will never encourage you to take on unnecessary debt.