Anish Patel's family history reads like an American immigrant story compressed into two generations: his parents, Indians born in Uganda, were expelled by dictator Idi Amin in the 1970s, and his father learned to make pizza in Italy before settling in Atlanta and opening the first Patellini's. The family moved the business to Main Street in Sarasota around 1995, where his mother has run it for 30 years straight, surviving a landlord lawsuit chronicled on the front page of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and, eventually, buying the building outright rather than keep paying rent. Patel and his brother grew up doing homework in the restaurant after school and washing dishes on weekends, an upbringing he credits with the mindset that built everything that came after.
From Delivering Pizza to Owning a Piece of Sarasota
Patel traces his real estate education to childhood weekends spent flipping through paper listing sheets pulled from those old plastic tubes outside for-sale homes, guessing prices with his mother. That fascination turned real when the 2008 financial crisis hit just as he was finishing his finance degree at USF; rather than chase a career into a collapsing industry, he came home to help his family buy the Main Street building outright. He and his brother bought their first rental property around 2010 with no mentors and no real playbook, following a simple rule -- rent had to hit 1 percent of the purchase price monthly -- and have sold only one property since, holding onto roughly 100 units they still manage entirely in-house without a property management company.
That hands-on real estate experience became the foundation for Loanova Funding, the mortgage company Patel co-founded with partner Anthony Ambrosio and business partner Rich Boyd, a Sarasota County Sheriff's deputy and SWAT sniper. Loanova offers both traditional home loans through American Financial Network and non-QM products for investors who don't fit conventional bank criteria -- self-employed borrowers, people with lower credit scores, or those who simply move too fast for a six-month reserve requirement. Patel built the company around business development managers embedded in local markets rather than online lead generation, arguing that borrowers trust a face they can call directly over a file that bounces between departments.
Roundabouts Keep His Kids Asleep
Asked about roundabouts, Patel doesn't hesitate: he loves them, because his two young children fall asleep in the car and a red light's stop-and-go wakes them up every time, while a roundabout keeps traffic moving. He closes the episode by recommending his cousin and close friend Robert Rearden, known locally as Downtown Bobby, as a future Sarasota SpeaX guest for his work in technology and AI.
What you'll take away
- Patellini's Pizza has operated on Sarasota's Main Street for 30 years, surviving a landlord lawsuit covered on the front page of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
- Anish Patel and his brother built a roughly 100-unit rental portfolio starting around 2010, managing every property in-house without a property management company
- Loanova Funding, co-founded with Anthony Ambrosio and Rich Boyd, offers both conventional home loans and non-QM products for self-employed and investor borrowers
- The company relies on local business development managers rather than online lead generation to build trust with realtors and borrowers
- Patel is firmly pro-roundabout because they keep his young children asleep in the car, unlike stop-and-go traffic at red lights
“There's no such thing as mailbox money. You still have to treat it like a business.”
“We don't put you in a deal that we wouldn't do ourselves.”
Places mentioned: Main Street, Ringling Park, Gillespie Park