The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Founder and CEO of Podopolo, Melinda Wittstock is fast-scaling the world's first socially-interactive and gamified podcast app and network. Think Spotify + Instagram + Creators' Economy + Social Impact. Podcasters make money from their content as listeners discover great podcasts from a 4mm+ library, and win rewards as they connect with hosts and each other, put learning into action, and join in world-changing initiatives. This week our host Steve McGarry sits down with Melinda to talk about her very interesting exit, the story behind Podopolo, what the status of the company is today, and what she is currently doing now. They dive deep into the “why’s” and “how’s” of the exit, and everything that the incredible app Podopolo can do for podcasters. - Website - https://podopolo.com/ - Website - https://melindawittstock.com/ - Instagram @MelindaWittstock2020 - https://www.instagram.com/melindawittstock2020/ - Instagram @Podopolo - https://www.instagram.com/podopolo/ - Twitter @Podopolo1 - https://twitter.com/Podopolo1 - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/netki-inc-/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Anne Cocquyt didn’t come from a traditional entrepreneurial background. It wasn’t until she got into the world of consulting that she realized she wanted to build ideas. With a failed art business under her belt, Anne moves on to the iPhone case market. With some success and an almost accidental exit, Anne now focuses on helping others to start their businesses. As the founder and CEO of The Guild, Anne helps other female entrepreneurs to get their ideas off the ground. The Land Of Entrepreneurs As the daughter of two teachers in a small town in Germany, Anne didn’t grow up with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. Most people she knew went off to work for a car manufacturer or as an engineer. Anne got out of there the first chance she got, 15 years ago, and got into consulting. She says that really teed her up to be a cocky entrepreneur. Her first business was in art in Switzerland, and it didn’t go well. Just 10 years ago, Anne decided to come to the US, and for the first time she was meeting like-minded people. Silicon Valley was full of other entrepreneurs that believed in her vision. The Wrong Side Of The Desk Together with her husband, Anne started an iPhone case business. Her husband created a Kickstarter that didn’t go well. That’s when Anne pushed him to invest their own money. Looking back, she says that was her first real step towards entrepreneurship. While that company grew, Anne went to work at Genentech. When Anne found out they had an innovation department, she knew she had to be a part of it, and so she became a corporate partner. This opened up a whole other world of investing to Anne. She learned the ropes quickly and after a few years realized she was on the wrong side of the desk. She wanted to be pitching her ideas and collecting the big checks. That’s when she decided to start a global community of female investors, something she calls The Guild. What started as a more social platform has pivoted into an educational platform. Anne says all of her experience has culminated into helping female entrepreneurs launch big scale companies. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Anne would tell herself to ask for more help, and sooner. She says she would be quicker with her hiring and firing decisions. Most importantly, she would surround herself with exceptional people and learn from them as much as she could. She would tell herself that she’ll get a different energy from people that can relate to what you’re trying to do. What Anne Is Working On Now Anne’s main focus currently is The Guild. She has, however, recently published a book called Dare To Launch. In it, she shares ten years of wisdom around building companies. She calls it inspiring but practical and says it can be found on Amazon. To learn more, visit: Personal website: annecocquyt.com My book on amazon: https://amzn.to/3N1r4f8 The GUILD Academy website: Letsguild.com/academy -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Joe Meyer is currently the Founder and CEO of CentralBOS, which provides cloud-based, ERP SaaS solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. Prior to that, he’s had many successful exits of all shapes and sizes. Today he talks about how he did it and why. Entrepreneurial Wealth Joe was one of 9 kids growing up, and his dad worked as an engineer for John Deere. From an early age he was taught, if he wanted something, he needed to learn how to make it or how to make money to buy it. His mom always told him that he needed to learn to make a lot of money because he liked to spend it. Joe took accounting in high school and then went into the Army. While enlisted, he saw Atlanta and knew it was where he needed to be. Joe got out of the Army and moved there as soon as he could. After being involved in a couple of small deals, Joe realized that entrepreneurship was a great way to build wealth. Solving A Problem Joe ended up going to work for a large telecommunications company, and that's where he learned a lot about how businesses operate. Once he felt like he had learned enough to do it himself, he left to start Sky Light, a prepaid debit card platform, in 1997. Joe was able to scale the company before exiting for 9 figures. He says they relied on marketing heavily. Joe was always asking, ‘how can I help the potential client?’. The same was true when it came time to exit, Joe needed to know what the other side needed. What are you going to solve for them? Joe can recall another exit where he didn’t realize how big the problem they were trying to solve was until after the sale. Had he known, he could’ve sold for a lot more. Timing Is Tricky It’s hard to know the right time to sell, but sometimes it can come down to where you’re at. Are you tired and ready to move on? That’s fine. There are different leaders for different phases. Not everyone is going to be a Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. Sometimes you should sell even when you’re not ready. Joe remembers having a potentially large acquirer that he didn’t pursue because he thought it was too early. Looking back, he wishes he would’ve pursued it. Now anytime anyone shows interest, Joe asks himself what the risks are of him performing and getting to that level himself. Another tip he has on timing, is to get that first sale under your belt. Once you learn how to do a startup, you can go do another one. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Joe has a couple of things in mind. One would be the importance of keeping things in order. He would also tell himself that sales and marketing is the most critical place to spend your money. It’s what drives the top line, and if people don’t know about you, they can’t buy from you. Another thing he wishes he would’ve done was to focus on and keep tabs on his network. Last, but not least, Joe would tell himself to bank 50% of his wins and to make sure he’s paying himself. For More Info If you’d like to learn more about Joe, visit his profile at https://www.cbos.com/about/executive-team/. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today’s guest, Lucas Carlson, was CEO of AppFog, and now works as CTO of LEADx. He’s had plenty of experience building up companies and even seeing them through to acquisition. Today, he dives into some fascinating topics, including what happens when large companies ghost small startups during the acquisition process. He says it’s not something that makes the headlines, but it’s something that happens all too often. Building Other People’s Dreams Lucas has been a computer programmer since he was in middle school in 1996. He can still remember writing his first HTML website and getting hooked. Lucas continued to build websites through high school, and he knew then it was what he wanted to do. Wanting to broaden his horizons, Lucas went to college for physics. After that, he went right back to computers, building startups for other people. People would come to him with their ideas, and he would take the idea through the early stages, sometimes all the way through to an exit. One project he worked on, Measure Map, was later bought by Google. Another success was Mog, a music streaming service. Lucas helped to grow that from an idea to millions of users. He says it was exciting, taking something from inception to mass adoption. Shortly after Lucas left, the company was sold to Beats. Left In A Lurch The story leading up to the sale of AppFog to CenturyLink has never been told publicly before, but Lucas thinks it holds a valuable lesson. Lucas was able to raise $10million for AppFog, but as they grew rapidly, so did their need for more funds. Unfortunately, just as they went out to raise more capital, the market had just dried up. Lucas decided instead to reach out to strategic partners and ask them if they’d like to invest. People were very excited to get involved. Things were going great until one company said, why don’t we just acquire you. Lucas brought the idea to his board, who said he should go for it. When Lucas asked if they should get an investment banker involved and shop around, the board told him he should just take the deal. Looking back, Lucas wishes he would’ve pushed the idea more. Anyway, everything had been agreed on, and everything was in order, but just weeks before closing, the acquiring company ghosted Lucas. When he finally got through to them, they said they didn’t hit their earnings and that their stock had fallen 25%, and they weren’t in a position to go through with the deal. This left Lucas between a rock and a hard place, almost having to close down his company. Lucas ended up laying off staff and hiring an investment banker. This is when they came across CenturyLink and a deal was made. What Lucas Is Working On Now Lucas is right back where he belongs, as a CTO. He says he feels most comfortable handling the tech side, while someone else handles the business side. He’s co-founded LEADx, an AI-powered coaching platform. To check it out, visit www.leadx.org. If you’d like to hear more of Lucas’s story, he’s written several books, including Finding success In Failure. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Alicia Navarro has wanted to be an entrepreneur even before she knew the name for it. Taking a more traditional path only worked for Alicia for so long before she had to find her place in the startup world. Falling in love with building an idea from the ground up, Alicia would make several attempts before her first successful company, Skimlinks. Spending 11 years at the company, Alicia stepped aside to let someone else bring it to an exit. She shares the full story here. Building From The Ground Up At the young age of 8, Alicia can vividly remember watching a commercial profiling a business owner. She remembers the individual creating great things, and she decided right then that’s what she wanted to do. Alicia went on to study computer science because there were so many things you could do with it. After college, she went into product management, working for large companies. She can recall trying and failing to start some companies throughout her 20s. She felt like a product manager was like being a founder, as they’re often the hub that connects everyone else. She was determined to have that experience and joined her first startup. Alicia fell in love with building something from the ground up. Inspiration From Unlikely Places Vowing to never work for a large company again, Alicia almost broke that rule when she decided to interview for a Google product management position. She made it a long way into the interview process when she was asked to suggest a product and explain how she would monetize it. Scrambling for something to say, she remembered a thought she had been toying with. It was a tool that helped to make group decisions, like where to eat. Alicia got excited as she began to explain the concept. She didn’t end up getting the job, but she had inspired herself to actually build that very tool. Setting Aside Ego For The Win With the industry changing, Alicia felt she was no longer the best person for the company’s growth. She decided the best chance to succeed was to have someone better at operational discipline take over. Alicia chose her successor and handed off the reins. She says too many people get sucked into an ego game and convince themselves they should be good at something, or obsess over what happens when someone sees they’re not good at something. Alicia says to take the ego out of the picture and focus more on what you love doing. For Alicia, she loved being the builder. With a new CEO in place, the company grew and eventually was acquired. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? While Alicia wasn’t the architect of the final acquisition, she knows she helped in a big way. Selling a company isn’t just a numbers game, a lot of value is from the brand halo of a company. She recognizes now that the storytelling aspect gets you a really high exit. She would tell herself to stick to your guns on the value you can bring. What Alicia Is Working On Now Alicia’s newest endeavor is Flown, a platform that helps develop deep focus as you work. If you’d like to learn more about what Alicia is up to, visit her blog at www.navarland.com. All of her social media accounts are linked there as well. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today’s guest has a unique background as a doctor, entrepreneur, investor, and all around deep thinker. Dr. Marcel Muenster shares his story from being a bone-marrow carrier in med school to becoming a tech CEO. It’s often been said that being an entrepreneur is finding a solution to a problem, and that’s just what Dr. Muenster has done. He built ‘Doctor In Your Pocket’, a free online platform that connects travelers with international medical care. Growing the company through the pandemic was hard, but Dr. Muenster knew that if he could hold on, travel would come back, and people would be more concerned with their health. He was right, and that contributed to his exit from the company in March 2021. First Time To The US Dr. Muenster says things all started for him as a medical student in 2006 in Germany. A fellow student told Dr. Muenster about his job couriering bone marrow, mostly from Germany to the US. Dr. Muenster had a significant fear of flying, but thought what better way to get over it while helping others at the same time. The first time Dr. Muenster applied, he was turned down, but he says he continued to call every single day. Finally, he got a position. He says every week he would get emails with locations around the world to choose from. Dr. Muenster remembers his first international trip, his first trip to the United States. He landed in Twin Cities, Minneapolis. By 2009 Dr. Muenster would find himself living in the US, becoming a legal citizen in 2010. An Idea Is Born Having his doctorate from university in Germany didn’t stop Dr. Muenster from getting dual degrees by attending Johns Hopkins. After graduating there in 2011, Dr. Muenster would move to Boston and come across a job with a company called GFK. He says he grew to hate that job so much that he decided it was time to find something he was passionate about. Wanting to enjoy what he was doing led Dr. Muenster to the Harvard Innovation Lab, where he got his first exposure to entrepreneurship. As he learned about legal entities and all the ins and outs of starting a business, Dr. Muenster began to develop the idea for Doctor In Your Pocket. Committed to this idea, he started to make large financial commitments to its growth. Putting 50-60% of his salary toward developing the website, Dr. Muenster admits that he didn’t always know what he was doing. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Dr. Muenster comes prepared with three things. One is that naivety can be a beautiful thing. One of his best motivators has been in not knowing what is to come. He says you have to truly be comfortable with not knowing what's to come in order to be a successful entrepreneur. The second thing, which he is very passionate about, is physical and mental fitness. Dr. Muenster believes your health should always come first. As a CEO, a lot of people are counting on you to be at your best. It takes an investment, but it’s worth it. Last, Dr. Muenster says to invest in smart money. Dumb money just helps to keep things going, whereas smart money comes from investors that can influence the outcome of the company. Where To Learn More Dr. Muenster is currently looking to acquire a business that he can be passionate about and is happy to connect with anyone that has ideas. He can be found on Instagram @marcelmuenstermd, or on both TikTok and Twitter @marcelmuenster. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Our guest today has had 4 successful exits to unpack with us. Todd Sullivan has learned something from every experience and knows his way around scaling a company. He’s now passionate about helping other entrepreneurs through the merger and acquisition process. No Aspirations To Be An Entrepreneur Graduating with his BA from Yale, Todd didn’t have aspirations to be an entrepreneur. In fact, he wanted to be a professional hockey player. He was a minor league player for a year before he realized it wasn’t going to be his future. Through that experience, however, he got the opportunity to be a pro roller hockey player. As soon as he put the skates on, he found his abilities were shattered. So, his first company was redesigning inline skates to be faster and more agile. Todd and his brother worked the company out of a dorm room attic. Todd ended up patenting his design and ultimately made a successful exit. Learning To Build A Business Around this time, Todd took a break from work to go to business school. He knew the product market fit, but he wanted to learn more about building a company. While earning his MBA from Michigan, Todd looked at all other options, as he saw entrepreneurship as being too tough. However, everything came back to being an entrepreneur. Todd ended up graduating as entrepreneur of the year, and he went on to launch a company right after graduation. Spirit Shop was a network of online stores for schools. There was no inventory and everything was made on demand. When Things Don’t Go Smoothly Spirit Shops first shot at an acquisition didn’t go as planned. While at the acquiring company's office, Todd was told the board didn’t approve of the acquisition. So, the company ended up going on hiatus, and Todd says they had a viable, growing business that was destroyed by this process. Luckily, he had automated a lot of the business, so it could still run in the background while he moved on to the next thing. Todd would go on to start and sell two more companies before coming back to Spirit Shop and doing a successful exit. Keep Moving Forward The two business’s Todd created during his hiatus from Spirit Shops were CrowdZone and Betterfly. For those companies, Todd ran a process to find a buyer that included hiring an M&A advisor and attorney. He says there are benefits and downfalls of doing that. He would encourage people to get the outside help, but to choose wisely. When preparing for an exit, it’s important to have control of the elements of your business that allow you to continue to grow. What Todd Is Working On Now With Todd’s background of creating exits, he thought it was time to give back to his fellow entrepreneurs. For the last few years he’s been working with founders, through Acquisition Partners Group, to help them through the M&A process. In other words, they help create exits. Todd also is working to compile all the stories and lessons to build an educational site. It’s not launched yet, but they’re working on ExitWise. There they’ll share all the knowledge and founder stories. Todd says the goal is to make founders smarter. For anyone interested in learning more, you can connect with Todd through acquisitionpartnersgroup.com. To learn more visit: www.exitwise.com -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Sonny Vu is here to talk about his exit from Misfit Wearables to Fossil back in 2012. It was an acquisition that came about because Sonny was searching for brands to do collaborations with. When several of the brands that Sonny wanted to work with happened to be under the umbrella of Fossil, talks of an exit became reality. Today, he serves as CEO of AREVO and Executive Chairman of Impact Biosystems. In between, he’s had a lot of growth and success that he’ll share with listeners. From a budding entrepreneur at age 12, Sonny knows what it means to build from the ground up. A Young Entrepreneur When Sonny was just 12 years old, he landed a job selling fireworks. He sold more than anyone else because he was really into the product, and he knew his stuff. From there he was off running. He invested in many companies, but Misfits is his most notable. He and his wife built it from the ground up from their apartment. They were lucky they got on board when they did, as the wearables trend was just starting to happen. Searching For Possible Collaborations Sonny always knew who to target, and he watched certain brands like a hawk. Watching the Apple Watch and asking himself why people bought it, Sonny found that deep down it was about fashion. After doing collaborations with such companies as Victoria’s Secret, Sonny began to consider who else they could approach. Reaching out to people like Kate Spade and Armani, he found that most of these people were in the Fossil group. Sonny ended up getting a call from Fossil directly because they had heard Misfits was interested in fashion. It was a very natural conversation, and Sonny discovered he would love to work with all of their brands. That’s when everyone came to the realization it may make more sense just to merge. Open To An Exit, But Not Dependent On It The goal from the beginning was to build the company to be sustainable and stand alone. Sonny didn’t want to rely on needing to make an exit. However, he wasn’t opposed to an exit either. Fossil made them an offer, mostly up front cash with incentives to stick around for a while. Sonny says at the time of the acquisition, they had 240 employees, with about 200 of them overseas in China and Vietnam. All the plumbing of the company happened there. By doing this, they were able to keep costs down and speed up. When The Timing Proves Perfect The timing proved to be perfect when Sonny saw that another company that had twice their revenue was acquired at ⅔ the price just six months later. Also, at the time, the new Apple Watch was getting ready to be announced, and Sonny knew he needed to get out ahead of that. From the time of the first emails to money in the bank was about 6 months. Sonny did end up staying on board with Fossil for a while because he wanted to see it through and work with an incredible company. He ended up working on collaborations with 14 of Fossil's brands in his time there. What Sonny Is Working On Now After his Misfits exit, Sonny began running a small, family office where they invest in deep tech companies, mostly in climate change. Lately, they’ve been promoting a lot of plant-based meats. He also serves as the executive chairman at Impact Biosystems, where they’ve recently built a smart massager called Pact. It’s a full feedback smart massage system with muscle scanning technology. To learn more about this product, visit www.thepact.com. If you’d like to get in touch with Sonny, he can be found on LinkedIn @sonnyvu. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today we are talking to entrepreneur and best-selling author, Jeff Wald. Jeff has started and exited a couple businesses, both successfully and unsuccessfully. Learning valuable lessons in business and in life, Jeff keeps moving forward. With a passion for investing in startups, Jeff has helped many new entrepreneurs. He also offers wealth management advice through his latest company, Bento Engine. A Traditional Approach To Business Jeff took the traditional route of Harvard Business School and a job at JPMorgan. He ended up finding himself as Vice President of a private equity firm, where he would often fawn over new startups. The head of the company told Jeff that if he was that enamored, that he should start his own company and offered backing. Jeff would go on to start his own company, but he chose to self fund it. It was a product sharing network called Spinback. It was a way for retailers and brand owners to share their products through the social web. Why You Should Address Issues Early On There were three co-founders for Spinback, including Jeff. He originally thought he would just help fund the company, but was invited to be a part of it. Jeff says he did end up funding it also, while the other two founders sued each other. Jeff regrets spending so much time trying to keep everyone together. He says by the time he realized one of them needed to go, they were both already dug in, and attorneys were involved. So, the company went broke, and Jeff went broke right along with it. He didn’t feel like the investors should pay for the company's failure because of the other two founders. Jeff learned a valuable lesson from that failed exit, and that was to always address issues early on. First And Biggest Hit When he received a call from his mom offering him a room back home, Jeff knew it was over. He had gone to all the right schools, put in the hard work, the time, and the money, yet here he was left with nothing. This sent Jeff into a pretty debilitating depression. It was his first and biggest hit. It took some time, but Jeff eventually picked himself up and dusted himself off. Taking Good Advice When he was ready to start another company, Jeff says he was involved in essentially a restart of the last concept. He says two new entrepreneurs took the driver’s seat while he remained in the background. He gave them code, ideas, and a little funding, and the two built up the company and sold it to BuddyMedia for tens of millions of dollars in BuddyMedia stock. The deal almost didn’t go through, however, when Jeff marched into the owner's office and demanded it be cash and not stock. Jeff felt the stock was overvalued as it was. The owner simply told him, as a friend, he was wrong, and he’d want to take the stock. Taking her advice, the deal went through. Five months later, BuddyMedia got bought out for $800million. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Ten years ago, Jeff was just starting his WorkMarket journey. He says he remembers being so scared to fail again. He would tell himself he could do it. To put in the hard work, and it’ll all be okay. What Jeff’s Working On Now After the last exit, Jeff was able to finish his book, The End Of Jobs. Now, he says he’s at a point where he can start companies and work with other entrepreneurs. For anyone that’s interested in reaching out to Jeff, you can do so by visiting www.jeffwald.com. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today we are talking with Bowen Banbury, the CEO of Thunderbird Capital. Bowen’s first company came about after a failed real estate venture his father had made. He saw a problem and came up with a solution. A once unusable two floors of space turned into a business that exited to the tune of 8 figures. Unfortunately, Bowen’s story has a lot of turmoil involved, but he’s learned a lot from it, and is a better businessman for it. CEO’s Are Human After college, Bowen went straight into business school. He was given an opportunity to be second in command at a new non-profit office in Honolulu. It was an association of CEOs from around that Pacific Rim that did conferences and white papers. Bowen was rubbing elbows with the likes of Boeing and Motorola. He says it was an amazing experience to see how human they were and to witness them make mistakes just like the rest of us. Bowen spent 5 years there before him and his wife decided to move back to the mainland to start a family. A Solution To A Problem Upon moving back, Bowen had learned that his father had purchased two floors of a condominium with no windows. He planned to renovate it, add windows, and rent the condos out. Unfortunately, the HOA wouldn’t give him approval to put in windows. Now stuck with two floors that he couldn’t use, Bowen had an idea. He knew how expensive it was to keep an office full of documents. He thought they could use the space for records storage. Bowen’s dad gave him the green light to start Docuvault. With a prime location in downtown Denver, Bowen started going door to door to law firms. Family Feud When Bowen first started Docuvault, the agreement was that, other than some equity in the company, Bowen’s dad would have no part in it. Bowen says his dad didn’t honor that and was always poking into the business. Bowen found himself running around cleaning up his father’s messes for 5 years before he got tired of it. So, they rewrote the operating agreement and paid Bowen’s dad 4% of gross revenue just to stay out of the company. That lasted about 4 years before Bowen’s dad was back at his old antics. Finally, Bowen’s dad has crossed a line, and they couldn’t resolve their differences outside of litigation. Knowing What You Know Now, What Would You Tell Yourself Ten Years Ago? Bowen thinks back to the legal mess with his family and decides he would tell himself to settle and move on. He says it’s not important to win, just rip off the band-aid. Bowen regrets that he spent 7 years in litigation just because everyone wanted to win. What Bowen Is Working On Now Always dabbling in different things, Bowen says he currently owns some wireless stores and some real estate. He’s also the CEO and owner of The Alternative Board, or TAB. He describes it as an executive coaching platform. He helps to run peer boards for other businesses. He enjoys helping people to grow and get their ducks in a row. If you’re interested in checking out TAB, visit www.tabdenvereast.com. If you’d like to connect with Bowen, he can be reached at bowen@thunderbirdcapital.com. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/