From Founder To CEO

Supplier diversity is a hot issue. Rod Robinson took his corporate knowledge of supplier diversity and corporate procurement and turned it into a SaaS platform that is having a huge impact on the industry. He shares:

• The challenges he faced in founding his unique company.
• Why it was hard for him to "let go" when it came time to scale his startup.
• What one leadership skill he wished he learned earlier.

Rod's authentic and candid interview will inspire you to think big and embrace constant learning.

We break the normal routine with this episode of the podcast. As many of you know, we usually interview Founders who are currently the CEO of the company they started. Our interview with Joel Holland is a bit different.

Joel Holland is the founder and now Executive Chairman of VideoBlocks, the first subscription-based provider of stock video and audio, with over 100,000 customers in the television and video production industry, from NBC to MTV to pro-sumers and hobbyists looking to enhance their video projects and productions.

In 2013, VideoBlocks was ranked the 32nd fastest growing technology company in the US/Canada, and the 2nd fastest growing technology company in the DC region by Deloitte for the Fast500, for achieving 7,000% revenue growth over the past 5 years.

Joel and his team have navigated incredible growth and the way they go about making their company a win-win for all is truly inspirational.

In this revealing interview, Joel covers some topics that we have not covered very often...like:

1. Why he decided to wait on raising money.
2. Why he chose to step down as CEO.
3. What you can do to make a decision like this a successful one.
4. Why he chose to promote his CMO to CEO.

Joel really is amazing. For his work with VideoBlocks, Joel has been named one of the "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25" by BusinessWeek Magazine, "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" by the United States Small Business Administration, "Entrepreneur of the Year" for the Greater Washington DC Region by Ernst & Young and in 2013, Joel was recognized on the Inc. "30 Under 30" list.

Plus, Joel was a lot of fun to interview. Enjoy the conversation and let me know what you think.

Have you ever thought that you and your company would be better off with a partner? Not just someone to work with you as an employee, but someone who has an equity stake in your growing company?

Well, listen in on this very interesting episode as our guest from episode #10, Corey Whitaker, comes back to the podcast and shares the why and the how he developed a partnership with Parker Stevenson to help his company grow even faster.

This is the first time we have invited two guests to be on the show at one time. And, I am so glad we did. Both Corey and Parker get really personal and share insights about:

• Why having a partner has been beneficial.
• Can you be friends and partners?
• How do you make a partnership work?
• How do spouses fit into a business partnership?
• Tips on daily and weekly communication when you have a remote partnership.

But, as many of you know, there is nothing simple about launching a business, let alone a one-for-one social enterprise. During his journey From Founder To CEO, Eric learned a lot about himself and growing a social enterprise. He speaks about:

• Why first seeing yourself as the CEO is part of the journey
• How "doing everything myself" isn't sustainable
• Why balancing between daily operations and being the Chief Evangelist is so difficult during the early phases of a startup
• How the one-for-one model only works with sales
• Why execution instead of deliberation is the default successful startup CEO behavior

Originally from Uzbekistan, Ilya Bodner started with nothing and is tackling one of the toughest industries in which to launch a startup - insurance. But, with determination, thousands of hours of interview research, lots of patience, and a wonderful team, Ilya has successfully grown an #insurtech company that is getting huge traction. With over 2,000 insurance agents using his platform, he is well on his way to taking Bold Penguin to even more bold growth.

And, along the way, Ilya has learned quite a bit about the transition from Founder to CEO. You'll hear him talk about:

• How balancing story-telling and operations is key to a successful transition from Founder to CEO
• How adding more structure to his company was important to the success of his company
• Why hiring people smarter than you is hard for Founding CEOs and why it's key to your success

The world is complex and getting more complex by the day. In my experience, anyone that can take aware some of that complexity has a winning business.

Erin Green understands this and founded a fast-growth company that helps you ensure you are getting the value you contracted for with your out-sourced service providers. That includes telecommunications, utilities, merchant processing, and more contract management. It's all about a laser-like focus.

Erin's wisdom about growing from Founder to CEO is well worth a listen. She opens up about:

• Learning to let things go
• "...I can't control every aspect of the business..."
• Working on the business instead of in the business
• The power of a quality mentor
• How promoting a key team member to a higher level operations role made her a more effective CEO

Despite one of the largest bubble bursts in the oil and gas industry, Amit Mehta has not only been able to create great value in that industry, but he has been able to grow his company in this challenging and very traditional industry. He is a fountain of knowledge and experience that he freely shares in this interview. You will learn about:

• How he turned $3 into a multi-million dollar company
• How hiring with heart and head changed his company
• Why he promotes his company as "Insights as a Service" rather than "Software as a Service"
• How he had to change his founder mindset to a "Chief Excellence Officer" mindset

One of the other things I learned about Mehta is how much he loves to read. I thought I read a lot. But, wow...he is the epitome of "leaders are readers." Listen and let me know what you think.

Adrienne Garland is a leader on a mission - on a mission to uplift and educate women leaders and entrepreneurs to be the leaders they can be. Along the way, she has learned a lot about herself as a leader and Founding CEO as she has built her company. I'm sure many of you can relate to her stories about:

• Scalable business models
• Delegation
• Focus
• Building a team

For me, Adrienne's perseverance, grit, and determination are inspirational. 

Oh, and check out her October 2016 conference by clicking here: 

Nick Francis is on a mission to make the "help desk" an amazing experience for every business. He and his team have created a powerful platform that puts the customer first and makes it easier for every business to make customer service a great experience. On the road to building his company, he has learned quite a few things which he shares in this candid interview. He talks about:

• Why he is so passionate about serving the customer.
• Why he had to fire 40% of his company.
• How he uses radical transparency to lead his mostly remote workforce

A few months ago I was looking for some help naming our new service (I can't wait to share it with you). Many of you would probably agree, it can be challenging to find good names that are not already being used. So I was excited when I read about Squadhelp in Dan Shapiro's book, "Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook." I checked it out and it seemed like a great resource to help with our new service.

The experience was amazing. We found our name! So, I figured there had to be a great Founding CEO and dedicated team behind this crowdsourcing platform. I was right. Darpan Munjal's leadership insights, challenges, and stumbles have all led to an organization that delivers on its promise.

I think you'll learn a lot from his "leadership struggle" story about focus. As always, please let me know what you think.