In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Michelle Doran, Chief Operations Officer of Shipman & Goodwin LLP, offers a rare and instructive look at the operational infrastructure that makes a 106-year-old, 165-attorney law firm run, and what it actually takes to absorb another firm, build a brand new office culture, and onboard 32 people while simultaneously still learning the organization yourself. Michelle joined Connecticut's largest law firm in late 2024 and within months was leading the most ambitious expansion in the firm's history, absorbing 17 attorneys and 15 staff from Boston's Tarlow, Breed, Hart & Rogers, negotiating office space, integrating technology systems across practice groups, and completing the full integration just weeks before this conversation. With 25 years of law firm operations experience spanning AM Law 100 international firms, regional Connecticut practices, and Research Triangle firms in North Carolina, she arrived with exactly the perspective the moment required.

The conversation digs into what a successful merger integration actually looks like from the inside, from listening to every stakeholder before making a single technology decision, to weekly management check-ins that still continue months later, to the deliberate social engineering of getting practice groups in the same room before anyone talks about clients. Michelle shares how Shipman is building brand credibility in a Boston market where it had zero name recognition, why word of mouth and work product quality remain the most powerful marketing tools in professional services, and how AI is changing the way clients find firms before they ever make a call. She closes with the kind of operational wisdom that only 25 years of doing the hard work can produce: will alone is not enough, talent management is your most important investment, and knowing when to lead and when to ask for help is the most underrated skill a business builder can have.

Connect:

Website: https://www.shipmangoodwin.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelledoran10

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Jack Oswald, co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Isothrive, shares one of the most counter intuitive founder stories the show has featured: a company that deliberately walked away from a working consumer product with happy customers, real revenue, and zero FDA headaches, because the science demanded something harder. Isothrive started in 2013 around a single hypothesis that the modern diet has stripped out a specific prebiotic molecule that gut bacteria depend on, built a supplement that generated revenue and data, and then used that foundation to pivot into clinical-stage drug development when an inordinately high percentage of customers began self-reporting the spontaneous resolution of chronic heartburn, a condition that had plagued many of them for decades. Thirty-plus patents, a just-completed phase two trial with results described as better than most phase two trials of any type, and nearly $20 million raised without a single dollar of traditional venture capital later, Isothrive is now in conversations with strategic partners to carry the drug through the final stages of FDA approval and into the hands of the millions of people who have no other option.

The conversation is a masterclass in capital strategy, conviction, and the discipline of following the science even when the market offers an easier exit. Jack is candid about the funding no man's land that caught Isothrive between funds too small to keep up and funds too large to justify the check size, and how a combination of product evangelists who happened to be billionaire investors and relentless resourcefulness ultimately got the company through. He also shares a lesson he wishes someone had told him earlier: do not just raise enough to do the work cheaply, raise enough to justify the larger check, because undercapitalizing a great idea is one of the most common ways founders accidentally slow their own momentum. His closing message is the one that keeps him going on the hardest days: how often does anyone get the chance to give millions of people their lives back?

Connect:

Website: https://www.isothrive.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackoswald/

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Keith Smith, President and CEO of Vonco Products, shares one of the most instructive origin stories the show has featured: a career that started on a factory floor at $9 an hour, ran through engineering school paid for by his employer, an MBA, and a front-row seat to a corporate divestiture, before arriving at the acquisition of a 70-year-old contract manufacturer in Trevor, Wisconsin that Keith initially planned to take into food packaging. The market had other ideas. By 2016 and 2017, inbound demand from medical device manufacturers kept arriving uninvited, and Keith followed where the demand led, ultimately transforming Vonco into a turnkey medical device contract manufacturer making products that go into and out of the human body for customers like Medtronic and major health system supply chains across the United States.

The conversation covers three acquisitions in three years, a 36,500 square foot facility expansion, and the development of Interilock Flow, an FDA-cleared direct-connect enteral feeding solution that won the Flexible Packaging Association's highest achievement award and now serves more than a million patients annually. Keith explains the horizontal acquisition strategy that drives Vonco's growth, targeting founders with no exit plan and becoming their retirement strategy rather than their competitor, and walks through what the first 90 days of integration actually look like when you are trying to keep the people and institutional knowledge you just paid to acquire. He closes with two pieces of hard-won wisdom for any founder still in the building phase: stay curious and follow the market even when it takes you somewhere you did not plan to go, and manage your energy as deliberately as you manage your business, because the next big opportunity will always arrive at the worst possible moment.

Connect:

Website: https://www.vonco.com

Personal Website: https://keithsmith.io/

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Patrik Barr, Director of Sales at Bright Pharma Caps, to discuss how innovation, resilience, and long-term thinking have helped transform a niche manufacturing business into a leader in the nutritional supplement industry. Patrick shares the company's journey from a garage startup to a global capsule manufacturer, highlighting how its commitment to producing cleaner, higher-quality capsules led to the development of the industry's first USDA-certified organic capsules. He reflects on the challenges of navigating patent litigation, supply chain disruptions, international manufacturing, and market volatility, while emphasizing the importance of perseverance, customer trust, and continuous product innovation. Drawing from decades of experience, Patrick offers practical insights into managing growth, protecting intellectual property, and building a business that can withstand both legal and economic uncertainty.

The conversation also explores the operational realities of scaling a specialized manufacturing company, including maintaining reliable supply chains, managing inventory across multiple distribution centers, and balancing customer demand with production capacity. Patrick discusses how Bright Pharma Caps approaches new product development, including delayed-release and liquid-filled organic capsules, while remaining focused on quality, regulatory compliance, and long-term customer relationships rather than short-term growth. Throughout the episode, he highlights the value of underpromising and overdelivering, investing in differentiated products, and staying committed to innovation even during difficult periods, offering valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and business leaders looking to build resilient companies that can thrive in competitive and constantly evolving markets.

Connect:

Website: https://www.brightpharmacaps.com/

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Kunal Vaishnav, co-founder and COO of Exxat, makes a compelling case that a significant and largely overlooked driver of America's healthcare workforce crisis is not burnout or immigration policy, but an administrative bottleneck that his company has spent 14 years building software to fix. With 65,766 qualified nursing applicants turned away in a single year due to a shortage of clinical training placements, Exxat sits at the center of a two-sided marketplace connecting more than 1,600 academic programs, 10,000 clinical affiliates, and 400,000 healthcare students across the country. Kunal traces the company's origin to a chance hallway conversation at USC, a market research project in business school, and two early customers who believed in the vision before the product was even complete, and shares how 14 years of bootstrapping and patient network building ultimately led to a minority growth investment from Excel KKR in January 2026.

The conversation explores what it actually takes to crack a two-sided marketplace in one of the most conservative industries in America, from the deliberate decision to build the school side of the network first before bringing hospital systems on board, to the high-touch customer service model that turns every new client into a word-of-mouth champion. Kunal also offers some of the most practical advice for founders considering outside capital that has appeared on this show, including why you should always keep your relationships with VCs and PEs warm long before you need them, how to vet a potential investor over a shared meal rather than a Zoom call, and why understanding your capital deployment strategy before you raise is just as important as finding the right partner. His closing reminder to founders is simple and grounding: always come back to why you started, are you doing right by your customers, and are you doing right by your employees.

Connect:

Website: https://www.exxat.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-vaishnav

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Larry Kaiser, Chief Marketing Officer of Optimum Healthcare IT, Explore how strategic marketing can become a powerful engine for business growth rather than simply a support function. Larry shares the story of joining Optimum in 2016 when the company had virtually no marketing infrastructure, then spending the next nine years building its brand, digital presence, thought leadership platform, industry partnerships, and commercial marketing engine. Those efforts helped position the company as the nation's leading healthcare IT consulting firm and contributed to its recent $465 million acquisition by Infosys. Throughout the conversation, Larry discusses the importance of starting with a strong marketing foundation, developing a website and content strategy before expanding into broader initiatives, and building long-term relationships that drive sustainable business development in highly competitive B2B markets.

The conversation also examines how companies can successfully expand into new markets without diluting their brand, navigate the complexities of major acquisitions, and embrace artificial intelligence as a tool rather than a replacement for human expertise. Larry explains how Optimum leveraged first-mover advantages, thought leadership, and customer success stories to expand beyond Epic consulting into digital transformation, cloud, ServiceNow, and Workday services while maintaining industry credibility. He also offers practical advice for founders and marketing leaders on building authentic relationships, creating emotionally resonant content, integrating marketing during acquisitions, and using AI to enhance productivity without sacrificing originality. Filled with actionable lessons on branding, growth strategy, and modern marketing leadership, this episode provides valuable insights for entrepreneurs and executives looking to build businesses that scale, adapt, and create lasting enterprise value.

Connect:

Website: https://optimumhit.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencekaiser

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Victor Holt, founder, president, and CEO of VTech Solutions, shares a story that begins with selling flower seeds door to door in northeast D.C.'s Michigan Park neighborhood, runs through the U.S. Air Force and careers at Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and HP, and arrives at a Saturday morning in 2000 when his four-year-old daughter grabbed his face and asked what they were going to do, a question he heard not as a request for breakfast but as a call to build something of his own. What followed was a year and a half of working night shifts while spending his days building VTech Solutions, until April Fool's Day 2002, when he tendered his resignation and never looked back. Twenty-five years later, VTech is an 88-person HUBZone certified, veteran and minority-owned technology and professional services firm serving federal, state, and local government clients across health services, technology, and professional services, including preparing and serving a thousand meals a day at a hospital, every day of the year.

The conversation explores what the HUBZone certification actually means in practice, why Victor believes it is the only socioeconomic set-aside that has never truly met its federal goal, and why he has stayed committed to it anyway because the model forces him to hire from the very communities the program was designed to empower. Victor also shares his framework for small business resilience, the BAIL acronym, Banker, Accountant, Insurance Agent, and Lawyer, a team of Clydesdales you build relationships with before you need them, not after. And he closes with a vision that has nothing to do with exit: a building in Georgetown that bears his family name, a med spa, a family foundation, and a company being transformed into an enterprise designed to outlive him for generations, built on the belief that all communities are big enough, and that sometimes you have to be the change you want before you can drive it.

Connect:

Website: https://www.vtechsolutions.net

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-p-holt-797205a/

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Madeleine Odendahl, co-founder of Merry Pin, shares the unlikely story of how a community economic development professional who spent years watching small businesses struggle decided to open one anyway, and built something that defied every skeptic who gave her a strange look at the bank. Tucked into Washington D.C.'s Shepherd Park neighborhood on Georgia Avenue, Merry Pin is a craft store, café, and community space rolled into one 3,300 square foot storefront, a business model so unusual that Madeline and her co-founder Megan proved its demand first by raising $47,000 from 355 strangers on Kickstarter before signing a lease. Opening on 65% of the capital they actually needed, working full-time jobs while building the business, and doing nearly everything themselves, the two founders created a space rooted not in foot traffic projections but in a deeply held belief that people are hungry for community, creativity, and a place to belong.

The conversation explores how Merry Pin's philosophy of radical accessibility, from free crafting nights and protest art workshops to $2 coffee for furloughed federal workers during the government shutdown, has become both its greatest competitive advantage and its most honest financial risk. Madeline shares how a group of NOAA employees who had never met each other found each other at a table during the shutdown and became regulars, and why giving things away for free is actually the most effective customer acquisition strategy the business has. She also reflects candidly on what it means to build something meaningful while undercapitalized, chronically short on space, and navigating real personal hardship alongside the daily chaos of running three businesses under one roof, and closes with the kind of hard-won wisdom that only comes from two years of everything going wrong and somehow still being exactly where you want to be.

Connect:

Website: https://www.marypindc.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marypindc

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeleine-odendahl

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Geoffrey Easterling, President and CEO of ART and Associates, shares the story of how a former Army officer and McKinsey consultant became the CEO of a 100% employee-owned branded environments company in Atlanta, seven months into what may be one of the most intentional leadership transitions the show has featured. ART and Associates designs and installs all the interior visual elements of corporate, higher education, healthcare, and hospitality spaces, from backlit lobby signs and custom murals to wayfinding systems and custom frames, handling everything from concept through production and installation with an in-house team of designers, project managers, and fabricators. Geoff came to the role not through decades in the creative industry but through a well-timed email to Southeast Acquisition Capital, which was looking for an ESOP-ready leader for a target that happened to be 15 minutes from his home, and whose first deal Geoff helped close while on a stay-at-home parenting leave between his son's naps.

The conversation explores what it actually means to lead a company as an employee-owned ESOP from day one, including the transparency it demands of leadership, the creative energy it unlocks in employees who now have a genuine stake in growth, and the way servant leadership becomes not just a value but an operating model when your team members are also your fellow shareholders. Jeff is candid about the unglamorous infrastructure work that precedes any real growth, converting from cash-based to accrual accounting, standing up HR evaluation systems, rebuilding the marketing presence to reflect a high-end positioning the company has earned but not yet communicated. His five-year vision includes one or two more acquisitions within the ESOP holding company, expansion into federal contracting and museum and monument work, growing the sales and design team, and deepening relationships with longtime clients who have been calling ART for 25 years but not yet for everything ART can do.

Connect:

Website: https://www.artandassociates.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreyeasterling/

In this episode of the Think Small Podcast, Michael Hoffman, Chief Operating Officer of Adeptus Advisors Group, shares how a 35-to-40-year-old public accounting and advisory firm with offices across the East Coast and California has navigated decades of growth without a single year of revenue decline, and what it has taken operationally to sustain that record through COVID, rapid client onboarding, and a recent strategic partnership with the private equity-backed alliance now rebranding as Current. Adeptus serves clients across every industry with tax, audit, and business management services, but is perhaps best known for its deep roots in entertainment business management, a practice that requires simultaneous presence in both New York and Los Angeles. Michael discusses how the firm's annuity-driven revenue model, where satisfied clients simply come back every year, combined with a relentless culture of referral generation, has created a remarkably stable growth engine that required almost no external marketing to sustain.

The conversation covers what it actually looks like to join a professional alliance, maintain your own brand identity and day-to-day operating control, and use the capital infusion and back-office infrastructure to accelerate growth through firm mergers, with three already completed in 2026 and more on the horizon. Michael also digs into how Adeptus is deploying AI not as a headcount reduction tool but as a way to free its people from manual data work so they can spend more time being proactive with clients, developing their skills, and simply enjoying their jobs more during tax season. His closing thought on culture is one of the sharpest distillations of an M&A philosophy heard on this show: growth is only worth pursuing if the people you are merging with are people you would genuinely want to spend four hours in a conference room

with.

Connect:

Website: https://www.adeptusadvisors.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hoffman-bb38107/