Business Leaders Podcast

By Bob Roark

Hosted by Bob Roark, CEPA | 200+ episodes with business owners | Exit planning specialist and business owner.

This podcast provides general educational information and is

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The podcast currently has 220 episodes available.

Business Leaders Podcast episodes:

May 22, 2017Business valuation and growth, (What drives both) with world traveler David Fein CEO ValuSource
Business valuation, growth, what drives both with world traveler David Fein cofounder and CEO of ValuSource. David is an entrepreneur, world traveler, and adventurer at age 16 he was the second youngest person ever set foot on the South Pole. To put himself through college, David started and ran a sailboat charter business. At the age of 25, he fulfilled a longtime dream by sailing across the Pacific to Tahiti on a 34-foot sailboat. In 1986, after returning from Tahiti. He cofounded ValuSource. For over 30 years, ValuSource has been the leading provider of business valuation software, data, and services.
South Pole at 16
When I was about 14, I stumbled Sea Cadets, which is like Navy reserve for young guys. And it’s the same exact program that an enlisted Navy guy goes through. You take the same courses, you take the same tests, you learn the same kind of things. You go to an abbreviated boot camp in San Diego. And you also spent time…I was spending summers on tugboats in San Diego and Easter vacations in Port Hueneme in their missile recovery boats, and I spent time in Aegis missile destroyers, at 14, 14 and 15. So, to me, I mean it was so exciting. It was so incredible, I mean, it was like, you know, I was in high school and doing all this incredible stuff. And I was loving it, it was just an incredible experience. And then the Coast Guard open three billets on the USS Burton Island, 300-foot big red icebreaker. It was headed Antarctica. And as soon as I heard that, I mean never in my life did I want something so deeply. I mean it was just, you know, the lights went off, I was excited. And they told me that I couldn’t go because I wasn’t the right rank and I had too many tests in time, and you know, they basically said forget it. And I said, look, you know, let me try. And so, they did. And I managed to pass all the tests and meet the things, and so I got to apply. And to make a long story short, I got selected as one of the three Sea Cadets in the United States to go

Father’s advice
I remember talking to my father and, you know, telling him that, you know, I’m getting to the continent, which is enough of a miracle for a 16-year-old anyway. But what I really wanted to do was get to the South Pole. So, I’ll never forget what he said to me. He looked at me and he said David, you know, never let seemingly difficult things or even seemingly impossible things, get in the way of you putting your heart into going after what you really want. You know what I mean. So, I said, oaky. I mean, you know, what does that mean? He was a big thinker. And so, anyway, to make a long story short, we put together the South Pole project.

Sailing to Tahiti at 25
That feeling in your chest where your dream becomes this fear, you know what I mean, it’s like it’s a little terrifying to think about, to really sailing across… It’s the reality is very different than sort of the romantic vision of being on the boat. So, I remember that moment where they called and the asked, and I remember feeling scared really, I mean wow, okay, this is the real deal, I’m going to set foot on a boat, throw the mooring lines off and not see land for 35 days.
Sailing is sort of 80% tedium, you know, 10% of absolute joy and ecstasy, and 10% terror. And it’s sort of like life.

What is ValuSource
ValuSource has become the leading provider of business valuation software in the world. Everybody from merger and acquisition people that need to do it, people that need to buy small businesses, and there are professionals that need to value businesses. For example, if a company issues stock options...
...more
49min
May 22, 2017 Business valuation and growth, (What drives both) with world traveler David Fein CEO ValuSource
Business valuation, growth, what drives both with world traveler David Fein cofounder and CEO of ValuSource. David is an entrepreneur, world traveler, and adventurer at age 16 he was the second youngest person ever set foot on the South Pole. To put himself through college, David started and ran a sailboat charter business. At the age of 25, he fulfilled a longtime dream by sailing across the Pacific to Tahiti on a 34-foot sailboat. In 1986, after returning from Tahiti. He cofounded ValuSource. For over 30 years, ValuSource has been the leading provider of business valuation software, data, and services.
South Pole at 16

* When I was about 14, I stumbled Sea Cadets, which is like Navy reserve for young guys. And it’s the same exact program that an enlisted Navy guy goes through. You take the same courses, you take the same tests, you learn the same kind of things. You go to an abbreviated boot camp in San Diego. And you also spent time…I was spending summers on tugboats in San Diego and Easter vacations in Port Hueneme in their missile recovery boats, and I spent time in Aegis missile destroyers, at 14, 14 and 15. So, to me, I mean it was so exciting. It was so incredible, I mean, it was like, you know, I was in high school and doing all this incredible stuff. And I was loving it, it was just an incredible experience. And then the Coast Guard open three billets on the USS Burton Island, 300-foot big red icebreaker. It was headed Antarctica. And as soon as I heard that, I mean never in my life did I want something so deeply. I mean it was just, you know, the lights went off, I was excited. And they told me that I couldn’t go because I wasn’t the right rank and I had too many tests in time, and you know, they basically said forget it. And I said, look, you know, let me try. And so, they did. And I managed to pass all the tests and meet the things, and so I got to apply. And to make a long story short, I got selected as one of the three Sea Cadets in the United States to go

Father’s advice

* I remember talking to my father and, you know, telling him that, you know, I’m getting to the continent, which is enough of a miracle for a 16-year-old anyway. But what I really wanted to do was get to the South Pole. So, I’ll never forget what he said to me. He looked at me and he said David, you know, never let seemingly difficult things or even seemingly impossible things, get in the way of you putting your heart into going after what you really want. You know what I mean. So, I said, oaky. I mean, you know, what does that mean? He was a big thinker. And so, anyway, to make a long story short, we put together the South Pole project.

Sailing to Tahiti at 25

* That feeling in your chest where your dream becomes this fear, you know what I mean, it’s like it’s a little terrifying to think about, to really sailing across… It’s the reality is very different than sort of the romantic vision of being on the boat. So, I remember that moment where they called and the asked, and I remember feeling scared really, I mean wow, okay, this is the real deal, I’m going to set foot on a boat, throw the mooring lines off and not see land for 35 days.
* Sailing is sort of 80% tedium, you know, 10% of absolute joy and ecstasy, and 10% terror. And it’s sort of like life.

What is ValuSource

* ValuSource has become the leading provider of business valuation software in the world. Everybody from merger and acquisition people that need to do it, people that need to buy small businesses, and there are professionals that need to value businesses. For example, if a company issues stock options or someone passes away and there’s a business involved, or if there’s a divorce and that couple can’t agree on the value of the business,
...more
49min
May 19, 2017Business consultant, experienced strategist, middle market expansion & growth expert, Larry Hay President Haycorp
Business consultant, direction to destination, franchise master to middle market investor, Larry Hay President of HayCorp, a business consulting firm founded in 2003. Larry helps companies identify their core business opportunities and strategically position themselves to take advantage of developing business and consumer trends. Larry was named as one of the Top 100 Executives in Colorado by the Denver Business Journal.
The early years
Grew up in Savannah, Georgia in the south, and kind of, you know, grew up out in the country on the lake. My dad was a barber, you know, and didn’t really necessarily come from business background. My dad did his own his own business, my mother actually owned her own business. She had a Sears distributorship, a Sears store, and a flower shop, and a few other things like that.

First jobs
Wound up getting a job at Radio Shack back in the days when Radio Shack was exploding all over the place.
I grew up through their system, so I was the store manager for a while, and I guess I was 24 when I took over my first district, as they called them. I think I had 30 stores or so, scattered across the southern part of Georgia, and I was responsible for everything. So, I had full P&L [SP] responsibility for all these stores. I opened stores, I hired people, did all the training, took over everything, and pretty much out there autonomously on your own.
I was recruited by Pepsi. I had been with Taco Bell for about…excuse me, with Radio Shack for about 13 years or so, and then Pepsi approached and said…and they were looking for, within Pepsi, in the restaurant division, in Taco Bell, it was [inaudible [00:05:20] a transformation stage. That’s when John Martin had just taken over CEO, and Taco Bell had turned into the chain that we know of today, and had started the price wars in the fast-food business. And so, they were looking for somebody from outside the business, that had a different perspective, to step into this fast-food environment and help them grow and build that business. So, I had just come from an environment where we were expanding and growing, and I did a lot of problem-solving, and went into areas that were either underdeveloped or under-penetrated, or sometimes in turnaround situations. And so, that’s what was appealing to them because, primarily, their group of upper management had all grown up in the fast-food business.
When I took over this…I ran the south, and they were about, give or take, 125 locations or so, and I grew it to a thousand. So, by the time I left, I had a thousand Taco Bells in one way, shape, or form, scattered throughout what you consider the traditional South, and the Mason-Dixon to Texas.
I went to Einstein, then I ran Kinko’s for the Central U.S., and that was really interesting. It was through a transformational stage that Kinko’s was going through.
I went out and I did a technology startup, and it was a home technology integration company with some partners.
I got into the healthcare business, and I was one of the founders of a company called SmartCare Family Medical Centers. It was one of the very first five medical centers to do retail healthcare clinics and services in the country for a decade, I was the operating partner for a billion-dollar private equity firm here in Denver, Colorado, and we primarily focused on middle market to lower-middle market investments in the banking-related side.

Haycorp
I actually have had a consulting firm for…gosh, a long time, 10, 15 years, something like that, that I did in addition to the other things that I had going on. And so, now I’m doing it full-time, and I’m kind of doing the same thing. I’m helping middle-market companies, lower-middle-market...
...more
46min
May 19, 2017 Business consultant, experienced strategist, middle market expansion & growth expert, Larry Hay President Haycorp
Business consultant, direction to destination, franchise master to middle market investor, Larry Hay President of HayCorp, a business consulting firm founded in 2003. Larry helps companies identify their core business opportunities and strategically position themselves to take advantage of developing business and consumer trends. Larry was named as one of the Top 100 Executives in Colorado by the Denver Business Journal.
The early years

* Grew up in Savannah, Georgia in the south, and kind of, you know, grew up out in the country on the lake. My dad was a barber, you know, and didn’t really necessarily come from business background. My dad did his own his own business, my mother actually owned her own business. She had a Sears distributorship, a Sears store, and a flower shop, and a few other things like that.

First jobs

* Wound up getting a job at Radio Shack back in the days when Radio Shack was exploding all over the place.
* I grew up through their system, so I was the store manager for a while, and I guess I was 24 when I took over my first district, as they called them. I think I had 30 stores or so, scattered across the southern part of Georgia, and I was responsible for everything. So, I had full P&L [SP] responsibility for all these stores. I opened stores, I hired people, did all the training, took over everything, and pretty much out there autonomously on your own.
* I was recruited by Pepsi. I had been with Taco Bell for about…excuse me, with Radio Shack for about 13 years or so, and then Pepsi approached and said…and they were looking for, within Pepsi, in the restaurant division, in Taco Bell, it was [inaudible 00:05:20] a transformation stage. That’s when John Martin had just taken over CEO, and Taco Bell had turned into the chain that we know of today, and had started the price wars in the fast-food business. And so, they were looking for somebody from outside the business, that had a different perspective, to step into this fast-food environment and help them grow and build that business. So, I had just come from an environment where we were expanding and growing, and I did a lot of problem-solving, and went into areas that were either underdeveloped or under-penetrated, or sometimes in turnaround situations. And so, that’s what was appealing to them because, primarily, their group of upper management had all grown up in the fast-food business.
* When I took over this…I ran the south, and they were about, give or take, 125 locations or so, and I grew it to a thousand. So, by the time I left, I had a thousand Taco Bells in one way, shape, or form, scattered throughout what you consider the traditional South, and the Mason-Dixon to Texas.
* I went to Einstein, then I ran Kinko’s for the Central U.S., and that was really interesting. It was through a transformational stage that Kinko’s was going through.
* I went out and I did a technology startup, and it was a home technology integration company with some partners.
* I got into the healthcare business, and I was one of the founders of a company called SmartCare Family Medical Centers. It was one of the very first five medical centers to do retail healthcare clinics and services in the country for a decade, I was the operating partner for a billion-dollar private equity firm here in Denver, Colorado, and we primarily focused on middle market to lower-middle market investments in the banking-related side.

Haycorp

* I actually have had a consulting firm for…gosh, a long time, 10, 15 years, something like that, that I did in addition to the other things that I had going on. And so, now I’m doing it full-time, and I’m kind of doing the same thing. I’m helping middle-market companies, lower-middle-market companies that are either trying to expand or have operational challenges theyR...
...more
0min
May 16, 2017Train the Brain- learn easier, think faster, perform better at any age; 80 centers, 46 countries Kim Hanson CEO LearningRx
Train the Brain- learn easier, think faster,perform better at any age; 80 centers, 46 countries with Kim Hanson CEO of LearningRx a Colorado Springs based franchise. Discover if you or your child has a learning challenge, give the gift of brain training so that they can learn better, easier, and faster.
How it started-
Dr. Ken Gibson, a pediatric optometrist who developed the LearningRx process. He really started out wanting to answer a question, and that question was, how can you be smart and still struggle to read?
As a child, himself, he was off the charts when it came to, like, logic and reasoning, and a lot of things that we look at today and know what IQ is, but he really struggled to read. And so, there was this mystery as to how can you be smart and yet struggle? He is a genius at systems and taking research and wisdom from the field, but then making it practical and putting it into, like, this system that he devised.

When did Kim become involved?
When I was two years old, he put me in a high chair and he taught me 800 words off flash cards. We know today that that’s not a good way to do it, but it’s a great party trick. So, when I was four, I became his partner.

Kim’s story-
I loved to draw as a kid, and so my dad also one day said, “You know what? You should make some greeting cards.” So, I went and I worked on it and drew them. And I said, “Okay, here they are, Dad.” And so, we went to the printer. We looked at the different costs. We had them printed up. And I thought, “Great, I have greeting cards.” And then, when we got home, he said, “Well, now you have to go sell them.” I was 9 years old. As a 15-year old, I became the first one-on-one trainer.
He’d always tell me, “You need to come back and work for me. You need to come back and work for me.” And so, when they moved to Colorado, it was just the right timing, the right timing for them, the right timing in my life, and so that’s when I joined. It was about a year before we started franchising. Before that, we just licensed our program to doctors, and specialists, and hospitals.

Realization-
When I trained them, you know, I think the first moment that I realized the power of what my dad’s program, you know, could do in someone’s life was actually when I got to college, because I had trained a lot of students. And I’d seen it in their life, but I remember the first time I had huge empathy was in college. I had a friend, and she would study so hard. She’s study, like, four, six, eight times harder than everyone else.
No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t get the grade she wanted.

Process and Understanding
How does the individual know or even discover that they have a learning challenge, and how do they reach out to you guys, and what’s your recommendation to them?
There are seven underlying skills. Most people don’t know that. There’s also two parts to smart.
There’s what you know, which is what the school focuses on, but then there’s also how you process information. It’s like your attention, and your memory, and how you see things visually, how you process them auditorily. And so, what we do is we look at those seven skills, and we See where someone’s strengths and weaknesses are. And then, we can pinpoint why they’re having a struggle.
What’s difficult about tutoring is that you’re re-teaching what they didn’t get the first time, right? So you’re re-teaching content. But, a lot of times, what will happen is you reteach it and they still don’t get it.

...
...more
42min
May 16, 2017 Train the Brain- learn easier, think faster, perform better at any age; 80 centers, 46 countries Kim Hanson CEO LearningRx
Kim Hanson, CEO of LearningRx, a Colorado Springs based franchise with 80 centers in the U.S., and a presence in 40 countries around the world. Discover if you or your child has a learning challenge, give the gift of brain training so that they can learn better, easier, and faster.
How it started-
Dr. Ken Gibson, a pediatric optometrist who developed the LearningRx process. He really started out wanting to answer a question, and that question was, how can you be smart and still struggle to read?
As a child, himself, he was off the charts when it came to, like, logic and reasoning, and a lot of things that we look at today and know what IQ is, but he really struggled to read. And so, there was this mystery as to how can you be smart and yet struggle? He is a genius at systems and taking research and wisdom from the field, but then making it practical and putting it into, like, this system that he devised.

When Did Kim become involved?
When I was two years old, he put me in a high chair and he taught me 800 words off flash cards. We know today that that's not a good way to do it, but it's a great party trick. So, when I was four, I became his partner.

Kim’s story-
I loved to draw as a kid, and so my dad also one day said, "You know what? You should make some greeting cards." So, I went and I worked on it and drew them. And I said, "Okay, here they are, Dad." And so, we went to the printer. We looked at the different costs. We had them printed up. And I thought, "Great, I have greeting cards." And then, when we got home, he said, "Well, now you have to go sell them." As a 15-year old, I became the first one-on-one trainer.
He'd always tell me, "You need to come back and work for me. You need to come back and work for me." And so, when they moved to Colorado, it was just the right timing, the right timing for them, the right timing in my life, and so that's when I joined. It was about a year before we started franchising. Before that, we just licensed our program to doctors, and specialists, and hospitals.
Realization-
When I trained them, you know, I think the first moment that I realized the power of what my dad's program, you know, could do in someone's life was actually when I got to college, because I had trained a lot of students. And I'd seen it in their life, but I remember the first time I had huge empathy was in college. I had a friend, and she would study so hard. She's study, like, four, six, eight times harder than everyone else.

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get the grade she wanted.
Process and Understanding
How does the individual know or even discover that they have a learning challenge, and how do they reach out to you guys, and what's your recommendation to them?
There are seven underlying skills. Most people don't know that. There's also two parts to smart.
There's what you know, which is what the school focuses on, but then there's also how you process information. It's like your attention, and your memory, and how you see things visually, how you process them auditorily. And so, what we do is we look at those seven skills, and we See where someone's strengths and weaknesses are. And then, we can pinpoint why they're having a struggle.
What's difficult about tutoring is that you're re-teaching what they didn't get the first time, right? So you're re-teaching content. But, a lot of times, what will happen is you reteach it and they still don't get it.
Tactics and observations-

We get a lot of students that have difficulty learning to read, and it's because they have low auditory processing skills. And you can have logic and reasoning off the charts, but have, you know, have a hard time blending, segmenting, and analyzing sounds, which is the number one skill that you need to have when you're learning to read.
...more
42min
May 11, 2017The Arena, Where Champions Train; coaching baseball, practicing law and making a difference with Coach Doug Goldberg
The Arena, which is a 20,000-square foot state of the art athletic training center where Doug is the current owner and head coach; Doug’s also owned and operated Goldberg Law Center for over 30 years. He specializes in the Estate and Business Planning Law practice. Doug’s played and coached baseball for more than 50 years, and is currently in his third year as a varsity baseball coach at Air Academy High School.
“I really want to do this…
” And I remember the day that I signed the contract to buy this property and we were just leaving to go on a spring trip with my Air Academy baseball team and thought, “Holy smokes, what have I done?” I got down to New Mexico and I thought, “Huh. This is going to be a real thing.” What had started as a little dream of having the baseball field inside where my kids could hit and take ground balls turned into a 20,000-square foot state of the art training facility.

Some things that your dad taught you, early influences.
You’ve got to have a standard, you have to have some rules, some kind of the rules of engagement, you know, you have to have a bar that’s set, and you can’t waiver, you know, you’ve got to strive for excellence.
My dad was never a guy that had to have 10 things in writing and 6 lawyers look at every document. He basically was a guy that would look you in the eye, shake your hand and say, “That’s the deal.” And when you made a deal with my dad you could put it in the bank. I mean, and so, you know, he was a great man of his word.

“Baseball will tell you when you’re done.”
As a young man, I was done at age 21. You get that letter in the paper (from the Montreal Organization) in the mail that says, “We’re granting you your unconditional release.” You know, I gave that to my dad and said, “what does that mean?” He says, “Well, in the real world we just call it getting fired.” And so, it’s, you know, it’s different but, you know, the game is a game of adversity and…which is a tremendous teaching tool. But it’s also a game of passion and it’s a game that, you know, you’ve got to be smart to play baseball.

“We get a lot of athletes here.”
We train kids that are eight, we train Olympic athletes, we train professional athletes and kind of everybody in between all sports. We have MMA fighters and we have Olympics Judo athletes and figure skaters and people from all walks of athletics and…but I’m really excited for the young people I see walk in and just to watch the light, you known, turn on and shine in their eyes as they go through their sport.

What do you think was the best piece of advice you ever received?
It came from my dad said “Don’t ever let anybody control your life, you know. You control your life. Don’t let them control your calendar. If they tell you when you can get up, and when you can go on vacation and when you have to be there, they own you.”

As a leader, what’s the number one thing that you need to have?
“And I just thought about it for maybe 10 seconds and the word that comes to me is courage. Boy, you’ve got to have courage to be a leader and you’ve got to have courage to be a business owner.”

Parting advice; “The bad times are going to come.”
“You’ve just got to have the courage to see it through and know that, you know…I mean, my personal belief is I’m a Christian and, you know, God’s going to take care of you, God promised never to...
...more
23min
May 11, 2017 The Arena, Where Champions Train; coaching baseball, practicing law and making a difference with Coach Doug Goldberg
The Arena, which is a 20,000-square foot state of the art athletic training center where Doug is the current owner and head coach; Doug’s also owned and operated Goldberg Law Center for over 30 years. He specializes in the Estate and Business Planning Law practice. Doug’s played and coached baseball for more than 50 years, and is currently in his third year as a varsity baseball coach at Air Academy High School.
“I really want to do this…

* ” And I remember the day that I signed the contract to buy this property and we were just leaving to go on a spring trip with my Air Academy baseball team and thought, “Holy smokes, what have I done?” I got down to New Mexico and I thought, “Huh. This is going to be a real thing.” What had started as a little dream of having the baseball field inside where my kids could hit and take ground balls turned into a 20,000-square foot state of the art training facility.

Some things that your dad taught you, early influences.

* You’ve got to have a standard, you have to have some rules, some kind of the rules of engagement, you know, you have to have a bar that’s set, and you can’t waiver, you know, you’ve got to strive for excellence.
* My dad was never a guy that had to have 10 things in writing and 6 lawyers look at every document. He basically was a guy that would look you in the eye, shake your hand and say, “That’s the deal.” And when you made a deal with my dad you could put it in the bank. I mean, and so, you know, he was a great man of his word.

“Baseball will tell you when you’re done.”

* As a young man, I was done at age 21. You get that letter in the paper (from the Montreal Organization) in the mail that says, “We’re granting you your unconditional release.” You know, I gave that to my dad and said, “what does that mean?” He says, “Well, in the real world we just call it getting fired.” And so, it’s, you know, it’s different but, you know, the game is a game of adversity and…which is a tremendous teaching tool. But it’s also a game of passion and it’s a game that, you know, you’ve got to be smart to play baseball.

“We get a lot of athletes here.”

* We train kids that are eight, we train Olympic athletes, we train professional athletes and kind of everybody in between all sports. We have MMA fighters and we have Olympics Judo athletes and figure skaters and people from all walks of athletics and…but I’m really excited for the young people I see walk in and just to watch the light, you known, turn on and shine in their eyes as they go through their sport.

What do you think was the best piece of advice you ever received?

* It came from my dad said “Don’t ever let anybody control your life, you know. You control your life. Don’t let them control your calendar. If they tell you when you can get up, and when you can go on vacation and when you have to be there, they own you.”

As a leader, what’s the number one thing that you need to have?

* “And I just thought about it for maybe 10 seconds and the word that comes to me is courage. Boy, you’ve got to have courage to be a leader and you’ve got to have courage to be a business owner.”

Parting advice; “The bad times are going to come.”

* “You’ve just got to have the courage to see it through and know that, you know…I mean, my personal belief is I’m a Christian and, you know, God’s going to take care of you, God promised never to leave you or forsake you and so, lean on that, trust that, and that’s the best advice I could give.”

Listen in, hear more
You can find Doug at…
...more
23min
May 08, 2017 ThinkTopic, excelling at tackling business problems with AI and machine learning with Jeff Rose
ThinkTopic with Jeff Rose founder and CEO.
ThinkTopic is a tech firm in Boulder, Colorado that was founded a short two years ago combining the latest discoveries of machine learning with expertise and systems engineering. Rather than a typical data science company that might produce some reports or generate some insights, ThinkTopic builds tools and systems that are meant to empower the business owner.
ThinkTopic
…is a machine learning-focused software consultancy technology company that works in a broad range of different types of problems, some computer vision, data science, signal processing, doing some work in biotech, financial tech, kind of real wide range of areas.
…when you create a machine learning model, in essence what you’re doing is writing a program that’s taking in some data and adjusting its parameters based on what data it’s been exposed to so far, with the goal of sort of modeling that data to kind of understand it. Meaning what are the set of states that data can take and what do those states mean.
ThinkTopic
…is excelling at, tackling fresh problems that businesses or organizations are facing and they’re maybe not quite sure how to approach it or what types of techniques would be appropriate or how hard of a problem is it even. Is it feasible at all?
Biotech
…diagnostic development and in using neural networks and machine learning models to analyze data coming from some of their proteomic analysis technology. So in essence we get results from a very sophisticated blood test that shows the set of concentrations of various molecules in the bloodstream. And then we’re working on developing models to help make diagnostic decisions or predictions or sort of score people based on that information.
Satellite Imagery
…so for that project I worked with a GIS consultant and what we did is created a tool where we licensed data from a number of data provider companies, also the Department of Energy, found a bunch of open data, and built a tool where they could, in essence, select Tajikistan and say, “Okay, show us the regions that have at least 10 meters per second of average wind speed at an 80-meter hub height.”
…they could create a constraint like that, and then hit “enter” and it would show the sweet spots on a map. And then they could add an additional constraint and say, “I must be less than this slope and it must be within a certain distance to a road and within a certain distance to a power line and have less than a certain population density,” and so on and so on. And then they could really narrow into the key spots to then actually fly out and investigate.
Cell Phone Network
…we were trying to look at usage data from their users in terms of how many calls were they making, how many are getting dropped, are they calling people in or out of network, in-country or out-of-country, potentially even the web of phone numbers that they’re calling, and try to design some algorithms that could help the company to know who is likely to leave next month.
… it’s a fairly straightforward exercise to build a model that can take in a data set like that, predict who’s likely to leave given historical data, and then you can train another model that actually learns over time which type of offer is this person likely to benefit most from or likely to stick around because they were offered it.
Great moments
…I think that’s something that particularly my brother is great at celebrating, like when we get new stuff working. And in software we’re building things that kind of have lots of moving parts and it’s exciting when you finally turn on a new system and it does the right thing. We...
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55min
May 08, 2017Commercial elevator maintenance business to new franchise opportunity with Randy and Garrett McGinniss
Commercial elevator maintenance business from 67 units on service in 2007 to a little over 1,200 units today with a management team with over 80 years of collective experience; Randy McGinnis, CEO of PEAK Elevator, and Garrett McGinnis, Director of Franchise Development for PEAK Vertical Transportation Group reveal their new franchise opportunity available in the commercial elevator business.
“Rarely do I get goosebumps anymore about a pizza joint or a sub sandwich concept. But Randy, I have to tell ya, I’ve got goosebumps. Because I believe that the timing is right for your pioneering concept within your industry.” Dave Hood, International Franchise Group
The franchise opportunity affords elevator professionals–that’s mechanics, sales associates, and other elevator professionals–the opportunity to own their own elevator business.
“Look, rather than just hire a consulting firm right off the bat, let’s test and prove this theory.”
I think in this circumstance for folks that are listening, the part that appeals to me is that you go from concept to proof.
I always like to know that when you’ve got a conceptual idea, that you really…you put a pilot program together and you beta test, and you pilot this concept.
We believe in our research and our history tells us that there are thousands of seasoned elevator professionals in the U.S. who currently are working for another company. And you know, they’re not satisfied.
The customer. They want that preventive maintenance. They want that customer care. They want that customer service feel that has kind of already vacated our industry.
How many units are there in the United States, do you reckon? Nine hundred and forty five thousand. A unit in the elevator industry is typically defined as an elevator or an escalator, or a piece of equipment that we maintain or service.
To learn more there’s a three-day event, it’s the 9th, the 11th, and the 13th of May 2017, we’re going to offer a chance for them to come in, learn more about the concept, and really unlock some details to figure out if this is something they’d like to pursue.

We dig into all the details about the vertical transportation industry opportunity, I found it fascinating.
To learn more, listen in……
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.peakelevator.com
www.peakelevatorfranchise.com
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37min

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