Intentional Growth

#286: Why Will Pemble Started & Sold Web.com After He was Told "We Don't Run in the Halls Here"

Feb 3, 2022

01:20:57

An avid builder is probably the best way to describe Will Pemble. Will is a serial entrepreneur who loves building and selling businesses. His most famous venture was building Web.com, a domain hosting and services firm that he sold in 2008. If you haven’t seen Will in business headlines, you may have seen Will on Youtube or Netflix talking about and showing his backyard roller coaster amusement park with five fully functional roller coasters.

In today’s show Will talks about vision. In his early career he attended college to become a pilot purely out of interest. In college he learned how important it is to have a crystal clear vision and direction on where you want to go or else, you crash. Taking his pilot philosophy to business, he talks about how the slightest adjustments in the day to day operations of your company can affect the long term value of your brand in the market and valuation when you decide to exit. Understanding what you want from your business before you take off (start) will make those trainwrecks that we all know too well way more manageable from a leadership perspective and strategic planning perspective. If you want to learn about why vision clarity is so important and have a couple laughs in the process, this episode is for you.

Disclaimer: more-than-usual swearing

What You Will Learn

How Will knew his job at IBM was not the right fit and took the entrepreneur path
Why Will believes flying an airplane relates to starting and growing a business
Why Will believes if wrote an acquisition plan for the sale of web.com, it would have sold for way more.
How if you are clear where you want to go, the trainwrecks within your business will be more manageable
Why undervaluing and overvaluing ASPECTS of a business rather than the whole entity is one of the biggest mistakes Will makes
Why discipline will allow you to make better emotional decisions
Why time management is a skill that will allow a company to compete with the big players
Why business owners need to practice for emergencies just like pilots
What Will looks for in a deal structure (his favorite aspect)

// USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment

Bio:

Internet pioneer Will Pemble built and sold Web, one of the largest web hosts on earth. As a Top 100 Domain Name Millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Will has been building and growing businesses of all shapes and sizes for over 25 years. In addition to Web.com, Will built and sold a national technical training company, and one of the first Internet Service Providers in San Francisco. Through his executive and personal consulting and coaching, Will brings his passion for giving back to millions of people in person and online.

Will's success extends well beyond the business world. Known worldwide as "CoasterDad," Will and his kids have built several backyard roller coasters which have been featured on Good Morning America, Discovery Channel, CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, and dozens of television shows worldwide. Will has been featured in hundreds of online media outlets, including AOL.com, Hackaday.com, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Make Magazine, Edutopia, to name a few.

Quotes:

12:14 - “If I had made the decision [to be an entrepreneur], it would be because I wasn’t suited for anything else.” - Will Pemble

12:50 - “Could you imagine just getting up and being satisfied? I can’t imagine anything like that.” - Will Pemble

12:57 - “That’s why I am an entrepreneur. I’m always either seeing a problem and wanting to solve it, or creating a problem and wanting to solve it.” - Will Pemble

15:50 - “Everything ends up being the ingredients of whatever goes on next.” - Will Pemble

21:19 - “All day, everyday people in business make choices that directly impact the present and future value of their company.” - Will Pemble

30:00 - “The answer is yes, what’s the question?” - Will Pemble

36:37 - “How do I objectively assess the value, not just of the whole company, but how do I objectively assess the value of the components of that organization?” - Will Pemble

41:15 - “There are thirteen steps that you take in order to effectively delegate to someone, a task.” - Will Pemble

41:39 - “You can bank on delegation, if you do it well. Time management is the only thing you can’t get more of.” - Will Pemble