Entrepreneur goes for gold with third startup bank

The early days of Todd Katz’s now successful banking career were a deviation of sorts from the textbook way of taking the industry by storm.

It was back in 1996. Katz, after a few years overseeing the legal department of a fast-growing group of banks in Naples and Fort Myers, decided to go out on his own. “I was writing all these proxy statements,” recalls Katz, “and I figured why can’t I do this?”

Both to not compete with his former Southwest Florida employer and to hopefully find fertile community banking turf, Katz, along with business partner Lew Albert, chose Charlotte County for their venture. While fertile, it could have also been futile. Katz recalls for a time he was selling stock to the bank out of the trunk of Albert’s Cadillac, going business-to-business in sleepy Port Charlotte. He would go to the UPS guy, who would suggest someone else, who would point Katz in another direction.