When Jeff Conyers and seven other business people pooled resources to found Bermuda’s first independent brokerage firm back in 1991, there was no shortage of people telling them their enterprise would flop.

But with hindsight, it is clear the gamble in setting up First Bermuda Securities was well worth taking.

This week, First Bermuda Group chief executive officer Mr. Conyers and two others who were in with him from the start, Michael Schroter and Randy Somerville, celebrated the company’s 15th anniversary.

Sitting in the boardroom in the company’s gleaming new home at the corner of Church Street and Par-la-Ville Road, the Maxwell Roberts Building — named after another of First Bermuda Securities’ founders, who died in his early 40s — the three men reflected with satisfaction on their journey along the sometimes rocky road to entrepreneurial success.

“Eight of us started out, based in the Continental Building, with a modicum of capital and a great deal of enthusiasm,” Mr. Conyers said. “Some people asked why we were doing it.

“Any business goes through difficult times and the first five years were very hard. It takes a good 10 years to make a business function the way you would like it to.

“But to be involved in your own business is one of the most exciting things you can do. At the end of the day, there are no excuses — it’s all down to you and the people you are with. It’s very fulfilling.”

Before setting up the brokerage, Mr. Conyers, also well known as a triathlete, had worked in investments and trusts for the Bank of Bermuda, while Mr. Somerville’s business background was as a chartered accountant who had worked with Ernst & Young and as the chief financial officer of the Bermuda Paint Company. Mr. Schroter had arrived in Bermuda as a chartered accountant who had worked as a business consultant in the UK.

As the Island’s first independent brokerage, the company grew steadily, fuelled by the mushrooming of the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX), and in 1996 it expanded significantly with the takeover of the Bermuda Savings and Loans Co.

“The BSX has been one of the untold success stories of the last 15 years,” said Mr. Somerville, the company’s vice-president, investment services group, who specialises in the brokerage side of the business. “In fact, if you look at what investment would have made more over that time — the BSX or local real estate — I think it would be very close. But the burst of growth we have seen in Bermuda, we have to thank the insurance industry for that.”

Mr. Schroter, First Bermuda Group’s executive vice-president and secretary, said the company had thrived because of the efforts of its employees, who were encouraged to become shareholders, as well as the loyalty of its clients and shareholders.

These days, the First Bermuda Group offers investments, mortgages and a brokerage service and employs 24 staff, based on one-and-a-half floors of the Maxwell Roberts Building, in which the company owns a 27 percent share.

Looking to the future, Mr. Conyers said he wanted the company to build in strength by concentrating on the areas of business on which it is focused today.

And he expected to see the asset management arm of the Bermuda First Group to develop on the back of a recently-established relationship with international financial services giant Credit Suisse.