By Reid Zeising
In 2009, I owed $22 million that I had no way to pay.
A couple of years earlier, I had led a semi-hostile takeover of a public company and loaded it with more debt than it could carry. When the Great Recession hit, the business came apart. I went from nine figures of equity value on paper to $22 million in contingent liabilities with my name on them. I was also in active addiction. I had young children at home and I was failing at nearly every responsibility I had.
I have written before about the modeling mistake behind that deal. This piece is about what came after it. Those six years of digging out shaped how I think about everyone Gain serves today: the injured plaintiff waiting on a settlement, the provider waiting to be paid for care already delivered and the attorney carrying both of them through a case that can take years to resolve.
Losing Control of Everything at Once
When the business collapsed, I lost control of nearly every part of my life. My finances, my reputation and my timeline all belonged to other people.
That is close to what a serious injury feels like for the people on the other side of our work. A plaintiff hurt in a crash wakes up to medical bills, lost wages and a case whose timeline sits in the hands of an insurance carrier. Most of them did nothing to deserve where they landed. I cannot say the same about myself. I do know what it feels like to wake up every morning with a debt hanging over you and no clear date when it ends.
What finally changed things for me was getting honest about my addiction and getting into the rooms of recovery. That is where I learned to separate what I could control from what I could not. I gave up trying to run everything, including the outcome, and turned my will and my life over to the care of God. I prayed and meditated every morning for the right things to happen. Then I went to work on the parts that were actually mine to do.
That distinction is the most practical advice I have for anyone in the middle of a long personal injury case. A plaintiff cannot control how long a carrier takes to make a fair offer. They can control showing up to every medical appointment, keeping their records organized and staying in close contact with their attorney. Those habits protect the value of a claim while everything else plays out.
Why I Did Not Declare Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy was available to me, and plenty of people suggested it. I decided against it because the people I owed had trusted me.
It took six years. At the end of them, every debt holder had been paid.
I think about that stretch whenever I hear people in our industry talk about receivables as abstractions. Behind every open medical lien is a provider who treated a patient before anyone knew how the case would end. That surgeon, physical therapist or imaging center extended credit to a person, the same way my lenders once extended credit to me. One published analysis of Illinois claims found that providers collected just 51% of what they billed on personal injury cases, and that gap lands on real practices with payrolls to meet.
Six years on the owing side of that relationship made me take the other side seriously. When a case settles, the people who carried the risk deserve to be paid quickly and accurately, without weeks of phone calls and manual reconciliation. That conviction sits underneath a large part of what Gain does.
Two Investors Who Stayed
The part of this story I am most grateful for involves two investors in that failed business. They had every reason to cut ties with me, and I probably deserved it. They stayed instead. Once the debts were behind me, they pointed me toward the business that became Gain.
That is what patient capital looks like in practice. Two people looked at someone in the lowest stretch of his life and decided he was still worth backing.
I see versions of that decision every day in personal injury. An attorney takes a case on contingency and fronts the costs for years. A provider treats an uninsured patient on a letter of protection. A funding partner advances money so a plaintiff can cover rent and everyday bills instead of accepting a lowball offer. Civil justice has become a financial endurance contest, and each of those choices is a bet on a person before the outcome is known.
What I Brought Into Gain
I would not wish that period on anyone. I am also more thankful for it than for almost anything else that has happened to me. It left me with a few convictions I carry into work every day.
People in crisis deserve dignity, and the systems around them should be built to give it to them. The people who extend trust before an outcome is known should be made whole when that outcome arrives. Time is expensive for anyone waiting on money they are owed, which is why so much of what we build at Gain is aimed at shortening the wait.
Every plaintiff, provider and attorney we work with is somewhere in the middle of their own long road. I spent six years on mine. I know how much it mattered that a few people decided not to give up on me.
This article was influenced by a conversation I had on The 60 Second Podcast with Matt McCoy. Give it a listen here: The 60 Second Podcast: Reid Zeising