PROCO360 | Best Podcast for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

“I’ve learned the value of culture – if we don’t create a culture, the culture will be created whether you like it or not.” Phil Dumontet, CEO and Co-founder, Whole Sol Phil discovered that healthy options for fast casual food that he found in NYC were not available in Colorado – a place with an active and healthy population.  That seems odd to Phil and his wife Alexa so they decided to fix that by using profits from a delivery company Phil bootstrapped then sold to GrubHub, move to Denver, and create Whole Sol – now five locations and growing fast.

“Making things is not for the faint of heart – everything takes so much longer and costs so much more than anybody expects.” Andrew Coors, Steelhead Composites Andrew Coors is a member of the famous Coors family of brewing fame.  But he wanted to do something different – take new advanced materials like carbon fiber used for sporting goods and adapt them to a commercial environment.  You’ll enjoy hearing Andrew talk about using discipline to resist “fun” projects and stick to the mission – but he didn’t always succeed – listen for a great story about Champagne bottles!

“It (electric chair prop) was so violent we had to replace 100 bodies the first year because the heads flew off!” Ed Edmunds, Founder & CEO, Distortions Unlimited I heard about Distortions Unlimited, based in Greeley, and decided to bring this bonus episode to you just in time for Halloween!  The conversation is an entertaining conversation about the creation of very advanced monster props, masks and animatronics!  If you like Halloween, you’ll LOVE this episode!

“That’s where my passion comes from... I love getting that response of WOW!”  Rick Case, Founder & CEO, Nite Ize  Rick Case started Nite Ize with a single invention – an elastic band that would hold a small flashlight at the side of one’s head to enable hands-free lighting.  Now, that seems obvious.  Back in 1989 it was a new idea – and since then Colorado-based Nite Ize has created over 600 products based on solving problems that make customers say, “WOW!”  How do you improve a bungee cord or a key holder?... or better tie loose cables or play with a flying disc at night?  Rick and I talk about how Nite Ize has become a world leader in creating innovative products.  Very cool.

“We’re doing something no one’s done before, and it’s really hard... with that comes a lot of friction...”  Nick Martin, Founder & President, The Pro’s Closet  Nick Martin started selling used bike parts out of the back of a van to support his racing ambition lifestyle.  He turned that scrappy effort into Colorado-based The Pro’s Closet, the world’s largest seller of certified pre-owned bikes.  An intriguing niche for sure, this conversation covers a lot of ground around disrupting a market.  I appreciate Nick’s comments about “friction” and how The Pro’s Closet has addressed supply and demand imbalances during covid, shipping, guarantees, and more.   

“We scream from the mountaintops about what our product is and how we make our product.” Eric Foster, Co-founder, CEO, & “Lifter of Heavy Things,” Stem Ciders If you’ve shopped for craft beer in the last year, you’ve seen alongside beer on the shelves, the fast and furious increase in cider products – the brands, the flavors, the total shelf space – and you’ve probably seen the presence of cider tap rooms.  I’m a lover of craft beer, and fascinated by the growth of what it seems is a product on a “parallel” growth track.  I wanted to know what’s similar and what’s different.  Plus, wanted to understand Eric’s title, “Co-founder, CEO & Lifter of Heavy Things.”  Thanks to sponsor 1stBank for introducing me to Stem Ciders. 

"I could have cut off a lot of the time to get here by dreaming bigger earlier on." Tim Reeser, CEO & Co-founder, Lightning eMotors Colorado is about to have a real vehicle manufacturing factory. It’s hard to believe – and amazing and exciting. Lightning eMotors is a Loveland based company that began with technology developed at CSU, then adapted several times as its co-founder, Tim Reeser, and the team adapted and redefined the company until they found the answer for an important niche in the electric vehicle market – one that’s substantial enough to scale, yet small enough to be somewhat uninteresting to the major EV players. That in itself makes an interesting podcast episode. We also talk about going public via a SPAC – a special purpose acquisition company – all the rage right now.

“Our developers don’t need to know code – they just have to be smart people that know the business problem they’re solving.” Kylee McVaney,CEO, Nextworld An interesting episode about building a self-adapting ERP software platform in Colorado.  We’ve all heard about ERP software systems that are so huge and so cobbled together with hacked fixes over time that they’ve become unwieldy and brutal to use and maintain – and massively expensive and painful to replace.  Of course, when ERP systems are eventually replaced, they are on a new path to obsolescence.  Nextworld’s mission is to solve that “locked on delivery” problem with a software platform that takes the business function blueprint and adapts it to the best technology of the day.  Fascinating.

“There are accessible ideas that instantly make sense, are easy to invest in… then there’s our idea: niche, geeky, weird…” Jenn Knight, AgentSync It had been a while (Xero Shoes) since I interviewed spousal co-founders.  Aside from a great story of a niche business born to solve a painful problem, I enjoyed hearing from Jenn and Niji about how they manage the business and their lives together.  A point I found particularly interesting is how the established trust between them facilitates business decisions and progress. 

Re customer experience: “We are the ultimate arbiter of truth.” Mario Ciabarra, Quantum Metric My interview with Mario Ciabarra of Quantum Metric was tons of fun.  Mario is a high energy entrepreneur who built a few very small businesses before hitting on something BIG with Quantum Metric – in its last round of funding, Quantum Metric was valued at over $1 Billion.  Now bestowed with “unicorn” status, I asked Mario how he feels about that.  We talked lots about the problem the company solves, and the challenge of even explaining what they do to early customers who needed a solution they’d never seen before.