DreamSpring, 30 years and half a billion dollars

Christopher Harris got an idea for a business during the COVID-19 pandemic when people started getting groceries and meals from delivery services.

“Time is the most valuable thing that we have,” Harris said.

In April, Harris got a $10,000 loan from DreamSpring to start Dirty Laundry Solutions, a pick-up and drop-off laundry service with a similar model to other delivery services.

“DreamSpring had an incredible role to play as an economic first responder,” Haines said. “The team here, which was working around the clock, helped to save thousands of jobs.”

Harris is one of many hopeful entrepreneurs who have received loans from DreamSpring, a micro-lender that is celebrating 30 years of operations. The organization has given out about $500 million during its time.

Anne Haines started DreamSpring, a lending non-profit that aimed to be a source of loans to the unbankable to make it possible for New Mexico entrepreneurs to start small businesses with 10 or fewer employees.

“It was evident there was a huge capital gap," Haines said.

Thirty years ago, she said there were many small businesses who couldn't work with banks because they were too small.

“A traditional bank typically starts at like $100,000 or $200,000 dollars,” said Laura Marrich, a spokeswoman for DreamSpring. "Typically, banks only give out loans to businesses with two years of history."

For a mom-and-pop shop, they don't need those large loans, Marrich said.

DreamSpring, in contrast, is a micro-lender. Most of its loans are between $5.000 and $15,000. The company can loan out a maximum of $2 million in some cases.

The goal of DreamSpring is to give an opportunity to aspiring business owners to start their own business and grow into a larger, bankable business that's able to use large bank loans.

“Raising people up to mature into not aspiring entrepreneurs but into entrepreneurs,” said Jason Burns, who received a DreamSpring loan when he was 21 to buy the rest of the equipment he needed to start a mobile detailing company for recreational vehicles.

He went back to DreamSpring to expand the business three years later, and when the company started working directly with big dealerships, he sold his business.

“When I started my business, I didn’t have a wife and kids,” Burns said.

He’s now the chief operations officer of Riccobene Masonry Co., a national company that manufactures in Albuquerque and ships to all over the world.

He’s a model figure for the path DreamSpring hopes to pave for the community, according to DreamSpring officials.

Harris is still involved in the organization by being part of its leadership community, which is a resource that mentors and onboards DreamSpring entrepreneurs.

DreamSpring met COVID-19 challenges, which were particularly difficult for small businesses, with expansion. DeamSpring is headquartered in Albuquerque, but it has clients in 27 states.

The lender said in the future it wants to reach the $1 billion milestone.

“Through these 30 years, we’ve put more than half a billion dollars into the hands of small business,” said Marrich. "... Hopefully, (we're) going to get to that $1 billion mark much sooner."