My guest today is Troy Berg, CEO of Dane Manufacturing located in Wisconsin. Unlike most contract manufacturers in the upper Midwest, Dane Manufacturing has end-to-end capabilities to serve customer needs without reliance on third parties for service. The addition of packaging and shipping services ensures Dane provides high-quality, high-pay manufacturing jobs that have positive impacts on the community.

Dane's customers count on them to self-perform everything associated with their production, including cutting, bending, welding, painting, assembly, packaging, and fulfillment of their products, minimizing the potential for supply-chain disruptions and layering of cost, all while increasing the accountability for quality. Dane’s customer base has evolved as well. The company went from making “hidden parts” to producing recognizable parts that have key applications in a wide range of consumer products: architectural metal for elevator cabs, joint plates and corner guards for airports, handrails for hotels and conventional centers, job boxes for construction sites, and more.

I speak with Troy about how he and his family acquired this 85-year-old manufacturing company, their massive scaling, and growth since the early 2000s, details about their acquisitions and real estate expansion over the years, and Troy’s plan for the future of Dane.

This podcast is brought to you by Axial, (www.axial.net), a trusted online platform for business owners & their M&A advisors to use to safely and intelligently explore and execute capital raises, acquisitions, and exits with strategic buyers or professional financial sponsors. I am your host, Peter Lehrman, Founder and CEO of Axial. In every episode, we will explore the vast world of small business M&A. We will interview both the proven and emerging owners, operators, investors, and advisors whose strategies and methods have been put to the test. 

If you have enjoyed this episode, check out Axial.com for more.  There are recorded Axial member roundtables, downloadable tools for dealmakers, quarterly lead-table rankings, and lots of other useful information. To join Axial as an acquirer, an owner considering an exit, or as a sales-side M&A advisor, you can get started for free at Axial.com.  Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] with questions, suggestions, or show topic ideas.

Discussion points:

Resources:

Troy Berg LinkedIn

Dane Manufacturing

Peter Lehrman LinkedIn

Axial Website 

My guest today is Ken Heuer, Principal at Kidd & Company, a principal investment firm with a unique approach to designing businesses that transform their industry segments. Combining intensive research and hands-on involvement, Kidd & Co creates highly successful businesses that generate world-class investment returns.

Ken Heuer joined Kidd & Company in 2008 and participates in all facets of the firm’s activities, including sourcing new opportunities, investment strategy development, conducting technical, financial and market due diligence, maintaining relationships with debt and equity co-investors, and overseeing strategy execution for existing investments. Previously Ken was a Managing Director at Spencer Trask, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he worked with companies in the life sciences, healthcare, information technology, software and communications sectors. Prior to Spencer Trask, Ken was an investment banker at JPMorgan, where he worked on numerous capital-raising and M&A transactions. Ken received a BS in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from New York University, where he was a Stern Scholar. Ken currently serves on the Board of the New York Chapter of the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AM&AA).

I speak with Ken about the many bubbles and crashes he seems to have been a part of and rode to success over the years (internet in the 90s, real estate in 2008, and the pandemic) and also how Kidd & Company functions as a “generalist” investment firm, with perhaps fewer dollars to invest, but bringing in much higher returns than some megalithic private equity organizations.  Kidd focuses on outsourcing the less desirable functions in their businesses to allow the principals to focus on what they enjoy - which has provided very successful exit opportunities in a number of industries.

This podcast is brought to you by Axial, (www.axial.net), a trusted online platform for business owners & their M&A advisors to use to safely and intelligently explore and execute capital raises, acquisitions, and exits with strategic buyers or professional financial sponsors. I am your host, Peter Lehrman, Founder and CEO of Axial. In every episode, we will explore the vast world of small business M&A. We will interview both the proven and emerging owners, operators, investors, and advisors whose strategies and methods have been put to the test. 

If you have enjoyed this episode, check out Axial.com for more.  There are recorded Axial member roundtables, downloadable tools for dealmakers, quarterly lead-table rankings, and lots of other useful information. To join Axial as an acquirer, an owner considering an exit, or as a sales-side M&A advisor, you can get started for free at Axial.com.  Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] with questions, suggestions, or show topic ideas.

Discussion points:

Resources:

Ken Heuer LinkedIn

Kidd & Co Website

Email Ken

Peter Lehrman LinkedIn

Axial Website

My guest today is Matt Johnson, Founder of TheFeed.com.  The Feed is THE eCommerce marketplace for endurance athletes' nutrition needs before, during, and after their workout, big race, or event.  

Matt Johnson’s journey to founding The Feed started when he was President of the Tour de France Team at Slipstream Sports. He is also an avid ski racer, has won a dozen Master's World Cup races, and a few years ago was Master's SG World Champion. Matt saw how better nutrition was giving Tour de France riders a huge advantage in their training (getting more out of every workout) and in competition (performing stronger in the last 20% of the race or the last week of a 3-week stage race), and the concept of The Feed marketplace was born.

The Feed was built for athletes, by athletes, to share how the right nutrition at the right time can instantly improve your performance, get you more out of each workout, and increase your enjoyment of training and racing. But one size doesn’t fit all. The Feed builds you a personal Feed (from over 150 top nutrition brands (like SwissRX, Maurten, and Clif) that will work for you and your sport, your diet, your flavor preferences, and your training goals. 

I speak with Matt about his personal journey - from selling college textbooks online in the mid-90s, to leading Tour de France teams, to founding The Feed and how it has evolved. Currently, The Feed is scaling up 60-70% every year, they are exploring different brand acquisitions, building robotics to increase speed and capacity in their Boulder, CO warehouse, and creating a successful business that eventually will be ready for a great exit strategy when the time is right.

This podcast is brought to you by Axial, (www.axial.net), a trusted online platform for business owners & their M&A advisors to use to safely and intelligently explore and execute capital raises, acquisitions, and exits with strategic buyers or professional financial sponsors. I am your host, Peter Lehrman, Founder and CEO of Axial. In every episode, we will explore the vast world of small business M&A. We will interview both the proven and emerging owners, operators, investors, and advisors whose strategies and methods have been put to the test. 

If you have enjoyed this episode, check out Axial.com for more.  There are recorded Axial member roundtables, downloadable tools for dealmakers, quarterly lead-table rankings, and lots of other useful information. To join Axial as an acquirer, an owner considering an exit, or as a sales-side M&A advisor, you can get started for free at Axial.com.  Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] with questions, suggestions, or show topic ideas.

Discussion points:

Resources:

Matt Johnson LinkedIn

Email Matt

The Feed Website

Peter Lehrman LinkedIn

Axial Website 

In this episode, we tackle an industry that you don’t often hear about in entrepreneurial or investment circles - the commercial laundry business.  Join me as I talk with Sang Cho, Chair & CEO of Cooperative Laundry - the most technologically advanced commercial laundry services company to hospitality markets (hotels and hospitals) in the United States.  

Sang talks about the early days in NYC where his family owned a laundry that he grew up in and worked in as a teen, his self-admitted lack of knowledge as far as operating a massive commercial business, and the many pitfalls that befell him and the company, and the lessons learned from that experience that are contributing to the success of Cooperative Laundry today.

Sang started working in his family's dry cleaning business in 2005 and grew it from a 20-employee, $2MM company to a 600+ employee, $50MM revenue company.  Sang exited that business through a private equity transaction in 2013 and has since embarked on investing in and operating Cooperative Laundry. Their custom-built, 60,000-square-foot facility is located in Kearny, New Jersey, delivering the best commercial laundry services in North America.  Its fully automated workflow delivers an end-to-end level of precision that the laundry industry has never known. 

This podcast is brought to you by Axial, (www.axial.net), a trusted online platform for business owners & their M&A advisors to use to safely and intelligently explore and execute capital raises, acquisitions, and exits with strategic buyers or professional financial sponsors. I am your host, Peter Lehrman, Founder and CEO of Axial. In every episode, we will explore the vast world of small business M&A. We will interview both the proven and emerging owners, operators, investors, and advisors whose strategies and methods have been put to the test. 

If you have enjoyed this episode, check out Axial.com for more.  There are recorded Axial member roundtables, downloadable tools for dealmakers, quarterly lead-table rankings, and lots of other useful information. To join Axial as an acquirer, an owner considering an exit, or as a sales-side M&A advisor, you can get started for free at Axial.com.  Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] with questions, suggestions, or show topic ideas.

Discussion points:

Resources:

Sang Cho LinkedIn

Cooperative Laundry Website

YPO for Entrepreneurs

Peter Lehrman LinkedIn

Axial Website