Birthing of Giants with Lewis Schiff

Hitting the $100 million a year milestone is the moment when most business owners pop the cork on a bottle of champagne. For Matt Manero, it was the catalyst to torch his company and do better.

As president of Commercial Fleet Financing, which offers financing for industrial equipment in the trucking industry, Matt is proud to help his clients succeed. But after realizing in 2015 that his company culture didn’t support his employees, he decided to gamble everything to rebuild and help them thrive. The move cost him several top performers, but Matt’s only regret is neglecting his culture for so long.

I recently caught up with the Birthing of Giants alum to find out what led him to this pivotal moment and what inspired his latest book, You Need More Money (Penguin, 2018).

For more, listen to the podcast!

Show Notes: Interview with Van Sullivan

Traversing new territory is always frightening, but Van Sullivan didn’t get his company Trideum to where it is today by following in the same footsteps as everyone else. Strategy, planning, and innovation are the hallmarks of this company. A successful engineering services contractor for the federal government, Trideum provides high-end engineering for testing weapons systems and training military personnel. In helping to build and sustain the U.S. military, Van’s company epitomizes the place where the supreme importance of defending our nation meets the innovation and entrepreneurship of the private sector.

Trideum's innovative approach has brought the company remarkably fast growth in an industry not known for it. Trideum has doubled in size over the last two years, and made the Inc. 5000 list in 2017 for the fifth time in seven years. Van attributes this success to his “secret sauce”— his willingness to grow the company strategically, even if that strategy takes time.

For more, listen to the podcast!

For more information on the Birthing of Giants Fellowship program, click here to visit the program's website.

The entrepreneurial spirit isn’t just reserved for glamorous industries. As CEO of Heritage Building Maintenance, the legacy company of the Heritage Group, Greg Theroux knows there’s money to be made in providing the fundamental solutions the business world needs. Operating out of Des Moines, Iowa, Greg has decided to concentrate on growing the company locally rather than risk losing focus. But that isn’t to say he’s opposed to change.

At the Birthing of Giants Fellowship program in April 2017, Greg revealed that the demand for “green cleaning” has seen the Heritage Group’s microbial control services experience enormous growth. After completing the fellowship, he successfully launched a new “Cleaning for Health” program to take full advantage of this opportunity. I recently caught up with Greg to find out how he’s restructured his operations to support this shift in direction.

For more, listen to the podcast!

For more information on the Birthing of Giants Fellowship program, click here to visit the program's website.

When David Long - CEO/founder of MyEmployees and Star Culture - became a fellow at our Birthing of Giants program this spring, he had one new risk on his mind. His company, known primarily for producing employee recognition plaques, had recently expanded to offer engagement survey software. David realized this required a big change to how they sold, but he wasn’t sure what the change should be.

“We wanted to combine [our offerings] because in our minds, they are the exact same thing,” he told me. “But they are done differently. They are sold differently. It’s like oil and water—they’re not mixing. And that has been the frustrating thing. So we’re [...] going to split the company into two,” he said.

For more, listen to the podcast!

For more information on the Birthing of Giants Fellowship program, click here to visit the program's website.

In our latest episode of the Birthing of Giants podcast, I’m checking back in with Digital Trends co-founder, Dan Gaul. One year into his goal of building out an affiliate platform for his popular tech news and review site, Dan has returned to give us an update.

For more information on the Birthing of Giants Fellowship program, click here to visit the program's website.