For Randy Rowles, building Helicopter Institute has always been about his passion for helicopters and teaching.

“This is a dream for me,” said Rowles, who founded the Fort Worth, Texas-based helicopter training company in 2009. “I grew up wanting to be in the helicopter industry.”

Rowles and his wife Samantha previously worked at a larger aircraft manufacturer and founded the company soon after.

“I love to train. I love to do the checking of work, the Helicopter Institute was the perfect name and it's amazing to watch the company today, basically how it's grown,” Rowles said. “It’s much, much different than when we started.”

The company provides helicopter training to the public, law enforcement and now the U.S. Navy.

But it wasn’t until 2017 that the company really started to take off after a small investment property paid off and offered the owners an opportunity to lease a Bell 407 helicopter.

From there, the company expanded from a small office to investing in simulators and additional classrooms.

In 2023, Rowles saw an opportunity for a U.S. Air Force contract to help with the initial training of roughly 100 students per year. Building toward bidding on the contract, the Helicopter Institute acquired six helicopters.

While the Helicopter Institute didn’t win the contract, it did catch the eye of a U.S. Navy commodore who also had a need to train students and saw photos of the company’s tail rotors on social media.

“We were asked if we were truly able to do this, and I said, ‘Yes, sir, absolutely,’” said Rowles, who had been building up the company in its effort to win the Air Force contract.

Then came another opportunity with the U.S. Navy, this time a multiyear contract. However, it came with a challenge: Rowles’ helicopters were legacy aircraft, and the Navy required new ones.

“These are $1.5 million helicopters,” Rowles said. “It took an investment to be able to do that.”

Rowles went to the Small Business Administration (SBA) website and searched for the best bank to help, and the first option was U.S. Bank, he said.

That’s when Alessio Iadicicco, vice president and SBA development officer for U.S. Bank began working with Rowles and his team.

“From the moment I asked about it, they took me seriously,” Rowles said.

Iadicicco said what stood out immediately was Rowles’ candor about the company’s challenges and his clear plan for growth.

“He went straight to the problem that he had,” Iadicicco said. “There was a clear goal behind what he was trying to do with that capital.”

The U.S. Bank team took a broader view than simply providing a new loan. After learning about the Helicopter Institute’s goals and financial challenges, the team identified an opportunity to use an SBA loan to consolidate higher-cost debt and improve the company’s cash flow.

U.S. Bank also brought in specialists in treasury management and credit cards to examine other parts of the company’s financial operations.

“We just looked holistically at the whole company operations,” Iadicicco said. “Every partner went there and optimized the process.”

The SBA loan improved the Helicopter Institute’s financial position and gave it greater capacity to invest in equipment and aircraft as it pursued larger opportunities.

Rowles credited U.S. Bank for putting him in a position to bid on the multiyear Navy training contract.

“U.S. Bank was a partner in my success getting a loan through the SBA,” Rowles said. “They understood the process and literally walked me through from beginning to end.”