“A Sales Organization Masquerading as a Bank” — Inside Five Star Bank’s Culture-First (Part 1)

Inside Five Star Bank: A Sales-First Culture, Built Vertical by Vertical

In this special, on-location episode of the Travillian Next podcast, host Amber Buker, Chief Research Officer at Travillian, sits down with Michael Rizzo, EVP & Chief Banking Officer at Five Star Bank, for a documentary-style conversation filmed inside the bank itself  —  a departure from our usual remote set-up.

The result is a candid, ground-level look at the company Rizzo only half-jokingly calls “a sales organization masquerading as a bank.” Amber and Michael unpack how Five Star turned a single referral into a nationwide mobile home park lending platform, how the team identifies (and pounces on) opportunistic verticals like the recent Orange County title-and-escrow build-out, and how leadership is working to protect a flat, entrepreneurial, “never-quit” culture as the bank scales past 300 employees.

Special thanks to John Maxfield for partnering to produce this episode, the first in a new series of collaborations between Travillian Next and Maxfield on Banks.  

Listen Here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

01:14: Walking Into Five Star Bank

The episode opens with Amber reflecting on the unusual experience of stepping into Five Star Bank, describing a sense of energy and excitement that rarely shows up in a bank lobby. She points out that Michael Rizzo himself seems to embody that spirit, a thread she’s already noticed running through the wider team before the cameras even started rolling.

01:41: A Sales Organization Masquerading as a Bank

Michael pushes back on the idea that he’s a typical banker, sharing the running joke he and CEO James Beckwith have between them. They’re really a sales organization wearing a bank’s clothing. He explains that the personality and energy weren’t engineered. They evolved naturally over time and have since become a magnet for the kind of talent Five Star wants to attract.

02:47: Recruiting From Networks, Building Culture by Accident (Then on Purpose)

Amber notes that hiring from your own communities has a compounding effect on culture, and Michael agrees. What started organically has become a strength they now lean into deliberately, both in how they bring people in and in how they build new verticals.

03:35: The Mobile Home Park Origin Story

That same opportunistic mindset is exactly how Michael describes Five Star’s most successful vertical. He walks through how the bank stumbled into mobile home park lending more than a decade ago through a single referral, liked the economics, and asked one of their best people to run with it. Today, that line of business serves professional operators nationwide.

04:55: Scaling Without Sacrificing Credit Quality

With mobile home parks now roughly 30 percent of the CRE book and still growing, Michael details how the operation has matured. The bank has sharper judgment on which operators to back, more bankers on the front end, and meaningful investment in underwriting and portfolio review on the back end. Credit quality, he stresses, is the bank’s number one focus, and spectacular growth has not come at its expense.

06:36: Discipline When 42+ Salespeople Are Bringing in Deals

He describes his daily rhythm of debating deals with the field. With more than 40 producers on the street, the volume is real, the emotional pull on a “yes” is real, and the discipline to evaluate every deal like a businessperson is non-negotiable. Amber connects it to a Maxfield-ism about how infinite demand for capital is both a blessing and a curse.

07:21: How Five Star Bank Spots a Great Operator

Asked how he identifies a good operator, Michael’s answer is simple. It comes down to reputation. The mobile home park market is finite, Five Star has been in it long enough to know the players, and the same dynamic shows up in agribusiness and CRE. You learn who you want to play with.

08:11: Choosing a Vertical, Opportunity Over Plan

Amber lists Five Star’s varied lines, including nonprofits, agribusiness, and RV and manufactured home parks, and asks how the bank decides when something deserves a dedicated team. Michael’s framing is that verticals are mostly opportunistic, and the bigger filter is always the depository franchise. The bank already has more lending opportunities than it can chase, and the real value lives in deposits.

08:54: The Orange County Title & Escrow Opportunity

He brings that point to life with a recent story. Michael got an unusual call from another bank that wanted Five Star to take over its commercial portfolio and the team behind it. Five Star had some title and escrow exposure but no real focus there, so they hired the talent, stood up the processes, and were onboarding new clients in under a month.

10:02: How Five Star Bank Evaluates a New Niche

Drilling into that decision, Michael emphasizes that depository businesses live and die by service. He and James asked the hard questions about whether they wanted to do it and whether it could be profitable, landed on yes, and committed.

11:21: Go All-In, Never Tepid

That commitment, Michael says, is the whole point. The worst thing you can do is dip a toe in. If you’re going, go fully, and give your people the support and conditions to actually succeed.

11:59: “Never Quits,” Culture in Two Words

Amber connects Michael’s “we just dug in” to a conversation with DJ Kurtze’s (EVP at Five Star Bank) the day before, where DJ used the phrase “never quits” three times. She also calls out two cultural levers she’s a fan of, a 24-hour response-time expectation, and uncapped compensation for the sales team.

12:43: Protecting Culture as Five Star Crosses 300 Employees

This is the topic Michael says he thinks and worries about most. Five Star’s defense is structural. The bank runs a deliberately flat organization that keeps senior leadership in close communication with new hires, so the culture transfers through contact rather than memos. He points to DJ as a recent example of a leader who has fully bought in.

15:05: Where Culture Meets Process

Michael argues that culture is more than vibes. It’s process. Five Star’s underwriting flow is built to get to a fast yes or no, and to give the field banker enough confidence to walk into a meeting and credibly outline terms and timing. Removing that uncertainty is, in his words, classic de-risking.

16:36: The Entrepreneurial Spirit Banking Has Lost

Amber recounts an employee telling her that you really have to believe in Five Star to thrive there. Michael picks up that thread, noting that a lot of century-old institutions have lost the opportunistic, entrepreneurial muscle Five Star has worked hard to keep flexed.

17:19: Closing Advice for Community Bank Executives

Asked what he’d tell his peers, Michael keeps it short. Be yourself, be honest, stay engaged with your people, and be respectful of both your team and yourself.

18:10: Why “Field Trips” Are Still the Favorite Part of the Job

He closes by admitting that he and James get competitive about who gets to go out on a deal. Michael calls customer visits his “field trip,” and says the administrative work can wait until tonight if there’s a live deal to be in front of today.

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That’s a wrap on Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2, where Amber sits down with Heather Luck, EVP & Chief Financial Officer at Five Star Bank, for the next chapter of this conversation. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss it.