Background check company makes it big with small clients

By Josh Spilker

No sign or clear entrance is noticeable to Castle Branch’s downtown Wilmington offices. Castle Branch is a background check company handling sensitive information for millions of people, confirming records of potential employees for employers. While large companies have been doing background checks for years, medium-sized and smaller companies with fewer resources have turned to outside agencies, like Castle Branch.

“Typically, businesses only will change if there is a force behind it,” said Brett Martin, president of Castle Branch, mentioning that a company will be burned by an unruly accountant or a false resume before it looks to background checks.

“What changed was the attitude. Large companies before were doing background checks, and it filtered through the system.”

Martin opened Castle Branch in 1997 in Chapel Hill after working as a political consultant in Raleigh. The 41-year-old had asked a company to do background research on his client and possible opponents and witnessed the process up close.

Martin decided to move the company to Wilmington after an employee joked about it on a trip. He launched the company as a one-man operation and now has 140 employees and expects 200 by the end of the year.

According to Martin, Castle Branch is the 12th-largest background screening company in the country, performing more than 1 million searches each year for thousands of clients. He estimates his growth in searches has been at a 30 percent for the past five years – meaning that their work has caught on.

“The industry has really been around for a long time. After 9/11, people felt more of a need to know who they were hiring,” said Tracy Seabrook, executive director of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners.

Depending on state laws, employers have to be careful with what they do with the information to make sure they are not guilty of discrimination. “You as an employer have to be diligent with what you do with that record,”Martin said.

The records often are stretched across the country and world. Castle Branch’s 3,500 researchers conduct searches at county courthouses, financial institutions and state agencies across the country.

“We exist because the information is so disparate around the country,” Martin said.

Typically, a search begins with either one of two identifiers – a social security number or birth date – along with a name. History on the client, including financial, educational, criminal and driving records turn up. Matches are made across those records, and then are verified with the applicant’s claims.

Early on, people were concerned about identity theft and privacy issues, but now more companies see the need for the services.

“There were a lot of people up in arms,” Martin said. “That changed very quickly. It is most undoubtedly a part of the employment process.”

Seabrook, of the professional background screeners association, said some states have passed unnecessary laws as a reaction to privacy concerns.

“We’ve battled a couple of areas, where the courts will ask to redact the whole social security number or their birth date,” Seabrook said. “You can’t steal someone’s identity by knowing their birth date. A researcher needs to see one of those to find a criminal court record.”

When asked if Castle Branch has ever given a wrong report, Martin rephrases the question.

“Have we ever been sued for getting something wrong? No,” Martin said as he knocked on the wooden windowsill next to his chair.

“What matters is what you do when you get something wrong ...It’s what you do next.”

Wrong reports could include a misfiling at the courthouse or a typographical error. The applicant to look at his or her report and then responds to the information.

Background and beyond
Castle Branch also has reformulated its system into other avenues – into a “consumer” division – that includes screening for college students.

“More college admissions officers are waking up and saying we need to do background checks,” Martin said, referring to the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University.

Those events will cause universities to re-evaluate their admissions standards and incorporate background and criminal record checks into their process. According to Martin, Castle Branch is the No. 1 background screening company for college students in the country.

“Something only happens when there is a force,”Marin said “One force is violence on s tudent campuses.”

Castle Branch also runs CertifiedBackground.com, a site geared towards personal searches; Courtsearch.com, a legal database; and 123nc.com and ispyny.com for criminal records.

More sites have opened up more opportunities for Castle Branch to sell in different demographics.

“He has a knack for marketing,” said David Spears, CEO of GeniSys Networks and a business associate of Martin’s. “He really knows how to get the results from different avenues of marketing.”

It also is a sign of an entrepreneur – one who always is on the lookout for new things.

“They’re constantly scanning the horizon for opportunities ... just because they haven’t been in that business doesn’t mean they won’t get into that business,” said Dr. Steven Harper, a professor of management at University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), who has worked with Martin on the Business Entrepreneurial Advisory Board.

Martin hinted that he is developing a new site for Castle Branch aimed at personal social history. “It’s not going to be much of a background check,” Martin said, but that it would be about dating.

“We’ve brought our dating life online, but we haven’t changed the tools,”

According to Spears, the new sites show Martin’s willingness to adapt.

“One of the things he said to me was, ‘You’re going to run into bumps on the road,’” Spears said.

“He sees that as fun. He’s like ‘Good, bring it on. I’ll take care of that.’”

In talking about challenges, Martin referred back to the forces at work, citing financial, governmental or even legal issues at getting a company up and running.

“There is so much that stands in the way of your success,” he said.

Martin said he’s enjoyed his time as president of Castle Branch but recognizes there might be a time when the company is too large for him to handle.

“I’ve had the fortune of growing up with the company,” he said. “Entrepreneurs are good at getting something from A to B, but getting it from A to Z takes a different mindset.”