The Fort

Jeff Richards is the Founder of Mooala, the fastest growing plant based milk product in the industry. They discuss Jeff's journey from a corporate job to entrepreneurship, the highs and lows of starting a company, the trend of non dairy milk products and more. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  01:28 – How did Mooala start?  04:48 – Aptitude Testing 06:56 – Why is dairy-free taking off faster than dairy? 09:50 – The Process of Making Almond Milk 12:55 – Is almond milk expanding internationally? 15:23 – What was the turning point for leaving an established job in finance to start a company? How were the early days? 24:43 – How do you know you’re successful when acquiring new clients and expanding to new markets beyond Texas? 31:07 – Finding a Broker 33:16 – The Process of Raising Money 36:10 – When did you start hiring more people? 39:36 – What is the process of innovating new products? Who was instrumental in building Mooala? 46:54 – What do the next five years look like? 53:40 – What conferences should newcomers to the food and beverage industry be in? 55:02 – Does it bother you that this might not be a long-lasting trend?

Craig Lashley is the President of Valiant Residential, a property management firm based out of DFW that leverages the best in next-generation technological advances to make clients’, residents’ and potential residents’ experiences as rich as possible. They discuss the phases a company will go through as it grows, what separates a great property manager, the idea of buying time and the process of working out a deal and what can kill it. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com   1:54 - The early days of valiant  4:30 - The process of hiring and finding leaders 6:23 - phases and changes of a company as the number of people grow 7:52 - First big kahuna (SEGMENT IN QUESTION) 9:18 - Craig’s evolving day to day job 12:20 - How do you identify units to service/manage?  15:05 - What separates a good property manager from a bad one? 17:09- are there any easy fruit to get things in line to make a property more profittable when you take it over? 20:40 - Are people living differently now than they were 5-10 years ago? 22:46 - Buying time in the urban core vs. mving out to the suburbs 29:04 - Time 32:16 - is there an average of how many communities a renter will look at before making a decision? 35:33- Are people moving more frequently than they used to? 38:05 - Different impacts on what will affect rents and underwriting deals (pay increases, weather, recessions) 43:38 - Supply component and development in different markets 48:07 - different ways of living in different cities in the US 50:10 - Work/Life balance 51:08- The process of working out a deal and the things that kill a deal The FORT is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts, for more information on starting a podcast for your business, brand or creative project, visit www.straightuppodcasts.com

Sam Parr is CEO and co-founder of Hustle Con Media, which includes one of the most popular daily newsletters at over a million readers. They discuss Sam's journey to Silicon Valley, how to build a media company, the correlation of money:happiness and more. Enjoy! You can subscribe to The Hustle at https://thehustle.co For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com 2:00 - How did you end up in the Bay area and how did The Hustle come to be?  4:40 - How did you go from working with American Pickers to starting a hot dog stand to an online liquor store? 6:18 - How did Bunk change your life? 8:46 - What is the common theme that you see from founders coming through HustleCon? 11:48 - Chris’ biggest experience at HustleCon 14:26 - The Hustle newsletter  19:00 - How do you develop content? 20:10 - How did you learn growth hacking and finding this non-filtered voice? 22:44 - How does living in Silicon Valley without this politically correct filter affect you? 24:14 - The key things people can do to grow an online media brand 27:08 - How do you know what a user is worth? 28:17- Do you need a certain number of users to become profitable or is it based on the type of content? 31:15 - How the world is shifting in terms of accessability to online content 33:30 - popular media companies becoming less and less relevant, Chris’ newsletters and new media companies like Barstool 39:30 - Feedback from readers at The Hustle 40:38 - How do you judge what content is published and what gets filed away 41:50 - Hosting profitable events  46:22 - Building The Hustle to sell vs. growing into a media empire, investing and starting businesses, and the correlation between money and happieness 54:40 - handling money and success 56:50 - What is Trends and why did you decide to start it? 1:00:00 - Sam’s thinking process 

Holt Lunsford is the Founder & CEO of Holt Lunsford Commercial, a Dallas-based full service commercial real estate company. They talk about luck in business, the process of finding and hiring great people, and Holt's advice for fathers. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  1:40 - Holt Lunsford 4:00 - The generation of Texas Real Estate 16:40 - how much of business success is luck and how much is things that you can control 18:55 - Growth standards 21:40 - How long was the business going until you started making hires 22:40 - what were things you werent doing well that people could learn from? 26:12 - Holt on building relationships with the people he works with and loyalty 28:37 - Holt on the culture of people moving jobs constantly and attracting the next generation of employees 33:36 - What within Real Estate has changed dramatically since starting off in ’86? 35:49 - Chris and Holt on life balance  40:20 - What did you give your kids for their 18th birthdays 43:35 - What advice would you give your 21 year old self  

Tegan Broadwater is the Founder and President of Tactical Systems Network, a security and investigations firm located in Forth Worth TX. Tegan is also the author of "Life in the Fish Bowl: The true story of how a white cop infiltrated and took down 41 of the nation's most notorious CRIPs. They discuss Tegan's undercover work in narcotics, his inspiration for starting TSN and how he is helping change the systemic lack of opportunity in the inner-city. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  Questions for Chris? Ask us anything and Chris may answer your question on the podcast! click the link to leave us a message: https://anchor.fm/thefortpodcast/message 1:53 - Tegan’s Story from rockstar to deep undercover gang infiltration 15:29 - When you’re undercover, do you start changing as a person? 16:38 - How “normal” are one of these drug dealers you deal with?/Heirarchy of gangs 20:33 - Was your goal not to stop until you got to the top guy? 23:45- Tegan’s experience writing “Life in the Fishbowl” 25:54 - moving from FWPD to Entrepreneurship, the relationship between his undercover work and business 27:40 - the similarites of the functions of a gang heirarchy and business organizations 30:09 - How do you move up in the gang system? 33:50 - was there sadness as you reached the end of the operation? 39:25 - What are options for former-convicts to be able to re-enter society, specifically in business? 45:26- what are things people do that contribute to this systemic issue that they may not necessarily recognize 47:50 - How microfinance could play a role in alleviating these systemic problems 51:40 - the idea for starting Tactical  54:20 - Investigations by Tactical 58:38 - The fluidity of running a business and the importance of always learning 1:03:50 - Are you drafting off the success of businesses that lead to needing security? 1:08:28 - is it harder to get away with a crime today with technological advancement? 1:10:40 - Cybersecurity and AI ethics 1:13:25 - does looking through the lens of the bad guy ever work to your disadvantage? 1:16:08 - How many clients that call with a suspicion that something bad will happen end up happening vs. being paranoid 1:17:45 - consulting with developers on security meausres in real estate 1:19:50 - Is there anything besides the current business you are thinking about or working on?

Brent Beshore is the Founder and CEO of adventur.es, a company investing in family-owned businesses. Brent is also the author of The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers. They discuss the history of the company, doing deals, mentorship and tons more, enjoy!  For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  2:10 - How did you start this business? 2:55 - What are the benefits of running your company out of Columbia, MO vs. a major market? 5:13- What are the common characteristics of companies that you acquire? 9:27 - When talking with these founders, what is the relationship like in terms of selling them later on?  14:10 - Do you find that as you grow, you see the people that come to you are more aligned with what you are looking for?  16:28 - is your traffic inbound or are you doing outbound marketing? 18:07 - How has “The messy Marketplace” been recieved, and has it led to more growth for Adventures? 20:02- The experience of writing a book 21:58- What are some of the questions you love to ask potential businesses early on? 27:10 - What is your role in getting a deal done? 28:35 - How do you learn about buying a business and keeping everyone on board motivated to keep running it the same way? 30:50 - Once you buy a business, how is it determined how long current management will stay on? 32:16 - How do you define the “line” of we are here for you but you are your own company and need to run it? 34:57 - Have you ever recalled a time where the company was caught in conflict and how are those conflicts resolved? 37:05 - What are common tools that you use to work on with companies?  41:44 - Is there a common thing that small businesses arent doing well in marketing that can be easily fixed? 44:26- What does Google Analytics do for a business 47:02 - Owner Earnings vs. EBITDA 53:40- How do you determine what a ‘boring business’ is, and what industries are you interested in these days? 58:05 - When you start redistributing to investors, does it ever come off as a sign of weakness? 1:01:36 - How much time do you spend reading? 1:02:50 - How important is your morning routine to you? 1:03:58 - Do you have a favorite book 1:04:25 - What is something you believe that few people believe?  1:07:49 - What advice would you give your 21-year old self? 1:08:45 - Do you have a mentor(s)?

Kari Crowe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Melt Ice Cream. She and Chris discuss Kari's journey across the country meeting with Ice Cream makers, her early days of the company, handling criticism as well as her experiences running a 100-mile race. Enjoy! Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris 2:30 - How the idea of Melt came to be 4:24 - Were you looking to start a business or looking to solve a problem? 5: 22 - Did someone give you a playbook for researching Ice Cream/Melt? 6:20 - was there ever any moments of doubt on this trip? 7:35 - How long was the journey from the research trip to signing the lease? 10:23- How did you decide on flavors? 11:05- How did you know where to spend your money 13:35 - how did customers shape Melt in the early days? 15:20 - When did you hire your first employee?  16:28 - What did a day for you look like when it was only you running things? 18:20 - did someone teach you about customer service value or was it self-learned? 20:40 - Whats something that comes to mind thats important when starting a customer service business 21:50 - How do you train employees? 25:08 - Do you have a favorite interview question? 26:06 - How many locations are open? 30:19 - was there ever a time you thought about outsourcing ice cream making rather than making it in-house? 33:00 - #1 sellers at Melt 33:20 - What was the process of bringing your husband into the business? 35:46 - How valuable has EOS been?  38:30 - 5 year growth plan for Melt 39:40 - How impactful has social media been for Melt? 40:55 - handling negative criticism 44:07 - Mentorship 44:45 - Kari’s journey running a 100- mile race 51:40- What does Fort Worth mean to you? "The FORT" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

Chris talks with Natalie and Caleb Ebel, Co-founders of BackDrop, a paint company looking to change the way we paint our homes, backdrops and offices. They chat about the struggles of launching a company, working with your spouse, raising capital and how their previous employment prepared them for starting a company. You can visit their website at https://www.backdrophome.com Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris 1:57 - How did you decide to start BackDrop? 6:30 - How did your previous jobs prepare you for starting BackDrop? 8:35 - Not needing a huge budget to build an amazing brand 9:31 What is different about BackDrop and how are they changing the industry? 17;38 - WHat are some o the biggest things you’ve learned sinced launching BackDrop? 20:51 - Has your supply chain changed as the business changed? 22;30 - Manufacturing Processes 26:09 - whats it like to work day in and day out with your spouse? (27:34 potential Intro)  30:20- Was there a “we are going to do this” moment for starting a company?  33:17 - What was the process of raising capital like?  37:27 - What was launch day like? 39:40 - what channels are available to you for growth? 41:48 - What does the customer experience look like? 43:50 - How did you determine the process finding best practices? 48:30 - Mentorship 56:00 What are the biggest challenges you face today  58:07 - Framework for setting goals? 1;00;12 - what do you look for in adding people to the company 1;01;50 - How do you learn? 1:05:05 - What's the best advice you have ever received?   "The FORT" is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts LLC

Chris sits down with Brandom Gengelbach, Executive Vice President of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. They discuss what chambers do, how they help businesses, what he sees for the city of Fort Worth as well as cities around the country. Enjoy! Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com  Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris 2:06 - What do you do at the Chamber? 2:35 - what are businesses asking for today thats changed? 5:35 - how do cities differentiate in terms of what they can offer? 7:55 - What do people love about Fort Worth when visitng for the first time? 10:15 - whats the process of a company making a deal with the city 13:27 - What did the Amazon HQ 2 deal teach chambers around the country?  16:11- Did Amazon help you learn more about the city and did Amazon bring more attention to these cities? 21:51 - Why do suburban cities have the ability to make these “better” offers than larger cities 29:03 - Is city growth dependent on bringing in large established businesses or growing internally existing businesses in the city?  32:15- for small businesses, when is it the right time to go to the city chamber for the next move? 34:28 - What is Fort worth doing to be progressive in furthering economic development?

Chris chats with Keith Wasserman, Founder and CEO of Gelt Inc, one of the fastest growing real estate companies in the country. Gelt focuses on purchasing multi family communities, storage facilities and RV parks. You can connect with Keith by email at Keith@geltinc.com or @keith_wasserman on Twitter. Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris 1:15 - How was Gelt started? 9:50 - Investing in the person vs. the project 11:23 - Why multi family and mobile home parks as a business model? 15:23 - How do you think about the future of renting and ownership? 17:20 - The biggest changes in tech and living we see for the future 23:20 - other asset classes Gelt focuses on 31:15 - How do you go about entering new markets? 34:00 - building relationships  36:54- YPO global real estate fair 38:00 - the process of finding investors/securing deals 45:50 - how has your job changes as the company grows? 50:38 - Where will the company be at the “end”? 53:05 - Keith’s thoughts on growth 54:14 - What does Gelt stand for, charity, Chris and Keith’s thoughts on the future of eduction 1:02:25 - advice for success