There are many ways to determine what makes a hometown hero, but this may be a little more out of the box than you are used to. This is about a local entrepreneur, a Newfield graduate (Selden) who not only is making it big in business at warp speed, but bringing many, many others along for the ride.
Introducing Frankie D’Antonio, Founder of Lexington Capital Holdings, now located at 2100 Middle Country Road, Centereach. In 10,000 square feet of top-floor office space only a short three years from start-up, Frankie, 26, an average kid with an average childhood, openly tells you how many times he tried and failed.
Until he didn’t.
With an MBA in finance from Stony Brook and after a short stint at a friend’s finance company, Frankie knew what he needed to do.
Frankie opened Lexington Capital in January of 2022 with five employees. A bold start, but he knew that in the earliest stages, it was more of a numbers game to attract the potential customers. The purpose of Lexington Capital is as a broker between businesses and the lending institutions that could fund them. He differentiated Lexington Capital by placing additional focus on the companies that needed help securing funding in alternative, non-traditional ways.
Securing funding is often a slow and complicated process with many variations and avenues available. Lexington, upon analyzing what the needs of the business are, can strategically connect them to the lender that best fits their needs. In some cases, time is of the essence, maybe to purchase property, large equipment, or a vehicle and Lexington gets it done, sometimes on the same day. Securing funding for a business can often make or break their success, so the work itself is very rewarding.
Success is, of course, the main goal of starting a business – but just as a hometown hero has many definitions, so does success. Although reaching eight figures in just under three years is highly impressive – that’s over $10 million in sales – the real success is the coattails with which many others have come in on.
Three of his original five employees who took the leap of faith with him are still his key people now working alongside the other forty-nine employees. Lexington Capital, the soon-to-turn three-year-old company now has fifty-two people on staff. They have Sales, Underwriting, Marketing, IT, and more.
It also isn’t simply fifty-two people – it’s who the people are that Frankie is very proud of. Most are from the Selden-Centereach area, all are young people, most without college degrees, and all were referrals from within. Frankie spoke about many typical young people who, unless they are on the college-doctor-lawyer-engineer path, they just fall into some line of work, often by accident, destined for a life of average earnings, but probably not one that allows many to afford Long Island. He prides himself upon finding the visionaries, the potential, the ones who can be so much more. He then invests significant time and resources into each employee in skill building and training, as he also does for himself. He has created a corporate culture of family, full of high energy, hard work, and fun rewards.
Frankie said the best part of the job is seeing the employees grow and knowing that he is part of changing lives. A number of his employees have circumstances or histories that could have led them in a very different direction. Instead, he now sees twenty-something-year-olds paying for their parents’ mortgages, or supporting their siblings, or just creating financially secure futures here.
Frankie is led by his faith and believes he was created for such a role as this. He actively pursues ways to help others, at work and throughout his community, with the blessings he feels he has been given. Frankie has big plans for growth for his team, his company and himself. He is always challenging himself to go to the next level.
Making it on the Fortune 500 list is one major goal and because of his love for people, and the world around him, he is planning to run for President come 2036…and winning!
