Navy veteran Allen Wu, the founder and CEO of Sequoia Lending, a brokerage firm based in Rockville, Md., arrived in the United States with his parents and two siblings when he was just eight years old. Having emigrated from China, Wu quickly developed a deep and lifelong appreciation for the opportunities this country would afford him and his family.

So much so that it became his dream to serve in the military.

“We were pretty poor in China, and my father impressed upon me the need to appreciate the opportunities we have here in the U.S.,” said Wu. “I thought the best way to show that appreciation was through service — either service to the church or service to the military.”

He chose the latter, he said, because he was smitten with the movie Top Gun, which was released when he was a high school senior in College Park, Md.

“I told myself that I would one day be in that uniform,” said Wu.

He couldn’t apply for the Naval Academy upon his high school graduation because he was not yet a U.S. citizen, so he earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. After working for Lockheed Martin and SAIC, he was looking for more of a challenge and decided to pursue his “fantasy” of serving his adopted country.

Wu joined the Navy and was commissioned as a Naval Officer exactly one week before Sept. 11, 2001. He spent most of his ensuing 11 years of service at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and when he retired from the Navy with an honorable discharge and the rank of Lieutenant, he furthered his American Dream by becoming an entrepreneur.

This week, the U.S. Small Business Administration is celebrating the 11th Annual National Veterans Small Business Week, a time to honor America’s veteran entrepreneurs. NVSBW highlights the essential role veterans continue to play in advancing our economy and aims to ensure their voices and challenges are heard.

Wu’s commercial lending business, Sequoia Lending, provides funding for businesses of all types across the U.S. and even beyond our borders. Sequoia has partnered up with more than 500 funding sources, including private investors, hedge funds, institutional funds, local banks, and more.

Two of those partners are Horsham-based Apex Commercial Capital and its parent company, Firstrust Bank. Apex focuses on providing alternative financing solutions. As a direct, nationwide lender, it offers commercial mortgages and equipment financing to customers who are unable to, or do not wish to, obtain financing through banks or other traditional lenders.

“In 2020, I was looking for commercial lenders and went to a convention in Las Vegas, where I met (Apex Business Development Officer) Andrew Teller, and I’ve been working with Apex ever since,” said Wu. “I couldn’t believe the deals they could close.”

Apex looks beyond the numbers and understands each customer’s story to help them achieve their goals.

“The first client I turned to Apex with owned multiple properties and wanted to buy a mixed-use property in New York but didn’t have any money for a downpayment,” said Wu. “Apex was able to use the equity from his other real estate as the downpayment and gave him the loan to purchase the property. I was very happy. Since then, my relationship with Apex has kept growing. They’ve opened up a lot of opportunities for me.”

Learn more about how Apex Commercial Capital helps small businesses achieve their financial goals by offering a wider variety of commercial financing products and services.