On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, the largest one-day market crash in history at the time. The Dow lost 22.6% of its value that day, equal to approximately $500 billion, rattling the world's economy and putting businesses everywhere on edge.
A week after Black Monday, in a non-descript Chelsea building a short subway ride from Wall Street, a former taxi driver/music student by the name of Stephen Varone did what any cocky young man with big dreams and little money would do in the face of a global financial collapse: He launched his own company.
Joining Stephen in his quixotic quest was a trusted band of colleagues he had worked with at a previous firm: His mom, Faye Varone; right-hand man Christopher Walsh; and structural engineer Michael Larkin, along with a few other engineers and architects who pitched in as needed. (Peter Varsalona, now RAND's Principal, would join the firm five years later as a college intern, quickly becoming a member of the core group.) Working on a shoestring budget and a short-term loan, the new company was off and running. Or more accurately, off and crawling.
The early days were rocky. The company lived from one job to the next, and no one saw a paycheck for at least a couple of months. Fast forward 25 years, and RAND handles nearly 1,000 jobs a year and has more than 80 employees—all of whom, we're happy to report, receive a regular paycheck.
"It's been a long and challenging climb to get where we are now, but I wouldn't have had it any other way," says Stephen. "By expanding at a slow, steady pace we've been able to maintain the quality of our work and build trusting relationships with clients as well as our own staff."
The relationships Stephen has cultivated over the years have made RAND the firm it is today—a company clients want to work with (as our consistent repeat business tells us) and one employees want to work for (four times named one of Crain's Best Places to Work in New York City). To read more about Stephen's and RAND's rise from those humble beginnings, click on his rebellious rocker photo above (the leather jacket and tinted aviators are long gone, but he's still a music man at heart) for the final installment in RAND's 25th anniversary ad campaign.
A quarter century later, RAND is still in its original office (albeit with six times more space), and Stephen and the rest of us are doing what we've been doing all along: Working hard, having fun, and giving clients what we promise. It's a formula for success good for at least another 25 years.
