Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast

EP.19 – Scaling with Purpose: David Carrier on Leading Through Change and Challenge

• Roy Richardson and Sean Murphy • Season 2 • Episode 19

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In this episode of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast, host Roy Richardson and co-host Sean Murphy interview David Carrier, founder of QuantumFlo and managing partner at QuantumFly Capital Group. With over 40 years of experience in sales, engineering, and entrepreneurship, David shares his journey from building pump systems to scaling disruptive technologies. He discusses the founding of QuantumFlo, the creation of industry-defining software, and the pivotal moment that led him to invest in himself after a significant setback. Now focused on private equity and real estate, David offers insights into market dynamics, tax strategies, and the importance of leadership education. He also reflects on the mentors and mindset shifts that shaped his success. Join us as we explore David’s inspiring journey and his vision for creating lasting value through innovation and investment.

Key Takeaways

  • Early Foundations: David shares how growing up in a family of mechanical trades professionals and his time at Armstrong Pumps shaped his entrepreneurial mindset and honed his sales and leadership skills. 
  • Starting Quantum Flow: He recounts the pivotal moment that led to the launch of Quantum Flow, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and how their innovative pressure-boosting technology is transforming the industry. 
  • Resilience Through Adversity: David reflects on overcoming major setbacks, including the impact of 9/11, and emphasizes the importance of adaptability and perseverance. 
  • Investment Strategy: He outlines his private equity approach, focusing on second-stage companies and the critical role of financial health in investment decisions. 
  • Community & Legacy: David discusses his commitment to empowering underserved communities through job creation and local philanthropy, highlighting the value of giving back. 
  • Mentorship and Leadership Insights: David reflects on the mentors who influenced his journey and the value of mentorship in nurturing future leaders. He advises aspiring entrepreneurs to prioritize customer focus and the importance of taking time for reflection and recovery.

Don't miss the opportunity to be inspired by David's story. Tune in now to hear about his incredible journey.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, I'm Roy Richardson, and this is the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Welcome to this edition of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. I'm your host, Roy Richardson, together with my co-host Sean Murphy. The Dynamic Business Leader Podcast is brought to you by Aurora InfoTech, a cybersecurity firm helping businesses stay secure in today's digital world. Our guest today, folks, is someone who's built and scaled disruptive technologies, led a successful business exit, and now invests in companies and real estate with a sharp eye for strategy and tax efficiency. He's the founder of Quantum Flow and now serves as managing partner at Quantum Fly Capital Group. He's a former chairman of Grow FL, a passionate advocate for CEO education, and a mentor to emerging leaders. And when he's not building businesses, he's flying planes, spending time with his family, and developing high-yield investment strategies. Please join us in welcoming David Carrier, a visionary entrepreneur with a story that's as aspiring as it is instructive. And to kick things off, I want to hand this over to Sean. Sean has known David for many years and brings a unique perspective to today's conversation. Sean? Well, thanks, Roy. Good afternoon, fellas.

SPEAKER_03:

Great to be with you both. I've had the privilege of knowing Dave for about six years now. And we got to know each other through GroFL. But since then, we've uh formed a personal friendship like myself. His daughter has adoptive kids, and so we bonded with each other, not only on the business side, but on the personal side as well. And um, I've gotten to know his wife, Debbie, who's from uh my neck of the woods, from the the Okeechobee Arcadia area. And uh as much as I love the inner city, I'm also a huge fan of the rural part of our great state. And then don't talk about his son Brad, who when we're on our weekly calls, it's just to listen to the two of them go back and forth and banter and and him talking about his Raleigh fingers on uh mush dash. It's just very comical. But back to Dave and I met at GrowFL, like I said, he's the former chair, he has an incredible passion for second stage companies, which is where I've spent 30 years in Detroit. And so I just love the fact that he has a passion for it. And I just wanted to take one quick minute to just shout out Grow FL before we get into Dave's story because a lot of folks don't know about GrowFL. But 16, 17 years ago, when Tom O'Neill and the governor of the great state of Florida uh came up with this concept of helping second stage and bringing resources to the companies to help scale them up and grow. I have been a huge fan of it all of the years. It's run by an incredible woman, Tammy Sweet. She's been there since the inception and just love what they do and what they stand for. And I cannot wait for past two guests that we've had on. I can't wait for the world to know about Dave and his accomplishments and what he's done for our community. So, Dave, it's great to have you on.

SPEAKER_01:

How do I follow that up, Sean? I can assure you, my son would not have any idea about your reference to Raleigh Fingers.

SPEAKER_03:

But I well, he's gonna know knowing Brad, he's gonna Google it and he'll he'll understand, right? Dave, let's dive in a little bit and get to know you a little bit better and and let I know you, but let's let the world get to know you better. You've traveled quite a bit, and I think the last time we were at an event, you you pulled out your phone and you were showing me all your aviation stuff. It's amazing. But where was the one place that really shifted your thoughts about life or business?

SPEAKER_01:

That is an easy question to answer. In fact, it's probably one of the easiest ones on this list. When I started Quantiflow in 2007, and one of the things that really defined who we were as a company is our reach. We we marketed through independent representatives all over the world, really. And we had a really dynamite footprint, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, North, Central, South America, and all the way out to the Pacific Islands. And so every year, somebody had to volunteer to go to the energy show in Hawaii, and I was the guy. Usually we would turn that show, which is about a two or three-day show, big good show for us, uh, into about a 10 or 12-day trip. And uh, one of those trips we happened to take, we spent three or four days in Oahu, and then we took a little side trip, spent a week in Maui. And this was, of course, before the downtown Lahaina burned down. And I can truly say that I think that place is heaven on earth. It is an amazing place. But more important than the area is the attitude, right? So when you're kind of fight all day and you're trying to balance work and life, and this is gonna be a theme today, because I'm gonna go back to this a few times. It's real important for business owners to take the time to reflect. Because when you're in the fight, sometimes you don't make good decisions.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh, I remember going to Maui, I brought a couple of books with me. I did some great reading out there on the Lanai with my flip-flops up on the rail and the whales jumping in the Maui channel out there. It was just an unbelievable place, and it's amazing how your body just responds to input when it's relaxed. So Maui's my place.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, amazing indeed when you think on you know, so busy with our day-to-day hustle that we sometimes, you know, forget about the finer things of life, right? And just disconnecting, being able to unplug and go to an exotic location or someplace, some maybe just you know, town over and feed up and just you know, one thing with the islands, whether it's in the Caribbean or the Pacific, people really you know feel very welcome, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, absolutely. And the other the other point, the just as important as that, Roy, is the fact that when you're in Maui, you're six hours behind this time zone. Right. So, really, even if you wanted to reconnect, it's very difficult to do unless we do it first thing in the morning. So, if you were to connect first thing in the morning, you have the rest of the day to just sort of reflect and absorb. And really, again, I can't say it enough. Powering down is so critically important to business owners, particularly as they begin to grow and the business starts to get a little out of control, you know, the tiger by the tail.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, yeah, do that. Yeah, trying well said, and so let me ask you here, David, uh, being a pilot myself, an aviator to another, what inspired you to pursue your pilot's license at 50? I know I read that in your fun fact.

SPEAKER_01:

So well, I started the business in 2007, but I've been traveling since about 1994 when I started as a regional manager for a for a company that we'll probably talk about here in a minute. But at that time, I flew a lot. I blew U.S. Airways. I was what's called U.S. Airways Chairman's Preferred.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

1% of their traveling and uh that was a great airline. I wish they were still around. But nonetheless, I did a lot of traveling and spent a lot of time looking out the side of the airplane.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And I always wondered what it was like to look out the front of the airplane. And when I actually about the time I turned 50, I'm 61 now, but when I turned 50, I decided, you know what? I've not only do I have a little bit of time on my hands, I want to learn to fly. Because when I travel in the state of Florida, it takes me four hours to get to the airport, get up the plane, and get right to Miami, for example. And when I learn to fly, I could make that trip in 45 minutes in my airplane. Yeah, um, it would I call it my time machine because it literally, I could spend a day making engineering calls in Miami and be home for dinner. Yeah, have to worry about the drive. And to be honest with you, when I'm flying, I'm sure it's the same with you. It's Zen. All you're thinking about is not dying. Keep the plane in the air, listen for your call on the radio. But no, it's to me, it's a really relaxing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01:

I get very relaxed on a plow.

SPEAKER_00:

It is. And speaking about four-hour journeys, you can spend four hours on I-4 just trying to get to Tampa. So while going to Miami.

SPEAKER_01:

Unfortunately, I don't fly much anymore because I don't have the need to. But when I did have the plane and I was flying regularly for business, if it was in the southeast, that's how I was getting there.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice. Well, that's agree with you. One of the things I enjoyed most is going on advocation, right? You're disconnecting there, whether you have, you know, a lot of times I flew by myself. Instead, listening in for right, all focus, listening for your call sign, but it enables you to also, you know, plan on some things that you know you know, without that that external noise, so to say.

SPEAKER_03:

So listen, now that we've warmed up, run the clock back, explore Dave's journey a little bit. We're gonna go back to the 70s in Tampa. Grew up in the family mechanic, the mechanical trades business. Um that shaped the way lead today, Dave.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I think it's dramatic. Far back as I can remember, even going back prior to 1977 when I landed in Florida. My father worked for a plumbing wholesale house in Worcester, Massachusetts. And one day my mother decided we were moving to Florida. And of course, there was nothing he could say about it. It was great. And uh, we moved down here, he had no job, but uh he ended up getting a position in in the same type of business as a plumbing wholesale. And that sort of evolved into becoming what's called an an independent representative, so manufacturer's representative. So eventually he became a we moved from the plumbing wholesale trade to the manufacturer's representation trade, which these are the people that sold to plumbing wholesales, if you want to understand it that way. And it's actually the people who represented my product at Quantum Flow when I started the company who have these independent reps. So I I mean, this is I grew up. This is why I ended up where I'm at. Certainly wasn't planned that way. I just went to work for my dad uh while I was going to college because he just needed the help. I just didn't escape the gravity well. He ended up sticking around.

SPEAKER_03:

But very cool.

SPEAKER_01:

My dad was uh amazing. I lost him in 1998 at only age 58, so I've outlived my dad up now. Yeah, it was a shock, but yeah, just I know that I missed a lot, but because I was around him and we were working together for so long, I feel like that benefited me a lot in what I would eventually do in the future. Yeah, so I look at myself now as sort of a Florida native. I've been here since I was 13. So yeah, fan, and all nine yards. I still cheer for the Patriots, but another if it's between the Patriots and the Bucs, I'm gonna choose the box.

SPEAKER_03:

No, without a shadow of a doubt, that friend and your wife, Debbie, would not allow you to speak those words about being a Florida native. Because, like you, I'm married to a native, and I said, You've been here since I was 14. Doesn't that uh qualify?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, no, no, no, technically, technically, she's not a native, she was born in Houston, so okay. I thought she was a native, but she moved here at two weeks old.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, look, so yeah, just wanted to throw that out there. That's all that is. You just met because you and I can't claim native.

SPEAKER_01:

But listen, bro, stick in your spokes, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Let's go to Armstrong Pumps and uh give us some of the lessons that you learned from that chapter that still guides you today.

SPEAKER_01:

It is interesting how this came about. So Armstrong was a manufacturer, right? Like Quantum Flow would become. Right. And I was working, I opened an office in Central Florida in 1989 for my family's company of independent reps. And uh my specialty was with a company that made plumbing pressure booster systems. So think anywhere you have to lift your pressurize water, think of a high-rise building, right? How do you get the water to the top floor? You got to pressurize them. So these are the type of devices we I specialized in as an independent rep with my parents. They came to me and gave me a really great offer to join the team. I was in my early 30s. I was probably younger than my son is now. It was a way to sort of sit on my own, right? Right. And not be under mom and dad, because my mother worked in the business as well. So I kind of had an opportunity to strike out on my own. My dad was 100% in favor. He goes, Look, I could obviously use you here, but he is gracious enough to allow me to lead. And it was really one of the best things that ever happened to me because it was sort of like getting thrown into the fire. I had to learn to become not just an independent representative and a sales guy in the field. I had to now learn to manage a team of salespeople. Right. And so it, along with a lot of the other stories that we certainly don't have time to go through on this podcast, is what sort of shaped me as an individual. And that always impacted me is we're not sort of the essence of all these stories that shaped us.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And in my case, I went out there without a clue in the world, you know, to be a manager of people. And I made a lot of stupid mistakes. You know what? That's necessary. That's the best way to learn because you never forget it when you make the mistake. And so they taught me to manage a group and eventually gave me the confidence to kind of run from there. I started the Peter principle. Yeah, you advanced to the point where you can no longer advance any further. And that's what happened to me at Armstrong. I was actually uh voted salesman of the year my first year there by my peers. Huge, because I was the youngest salesman in the group, and these guys all had years of experience. But I learned a lot from these guys. It was really good to get out there and really just hone my craft, if you will. Make a lot of stupid mistakes doing it, but it was a great way to learn. So, yeah, I have a lot of great memories of club of that first management position.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm I'm assuming that that came with a world and being many different places, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Of course, the the downfall, the negative in that is it did cost me my first marriage. I think a lot of that had to do with being young and stupid and realizing that you know some things that are more important. I got lucky, right? So I met a wonderful woman years ago and Debbie, and we have a great relationship, and my kids love her. So it's you know, kind of worked out the way it did. But you have to be careful.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You get out there and you start getting a little full of yourself and thinking that you can start a world in a day. You can't.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. Oh, that's true. True. And so from those early lessons, I built a career of innovation and resilience. Let's unpack uh some of these chapters here and share in it more your story. And it's about Delta P systems and how that experience prepared you for launching Quantum Flow.

SPEAKER_01:

So I guess I should have known better. That's how I'm gonna start this story. Went out there and I learned a lot of great things with Armstrong and then actually took on another position between that and Delta P and eventually a global sales manager. So I was traveling globally up until 9-11. And on 9-11, I was home with my young son Brad at about six or seven years old, and he was home from school sick. Thankfully, I was there with him when things unfolded on TV, and it kind of changed my attitude. I realized then and there, wait a minute, I could have been on that plane, I could have been traveling when this happened. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Uh, so it did really kind of mean, and so as a result of that, it sort of pushed me into this business. Uh, this gentleman was uh starting in Ormond Beach, and he was a former uh customer of mine, a contractor. And he did he decided that he wanted to start building these plumbing machines, these pressure booster systems. I was told, yeah, but he really didn't know how to build a business. And you know, I had many years now in management, building it building in a business, and actually succeeding and fails, and you know, we're breaking sales. So I told him then join you on one condition. First of all, he couldn't afford me. I was a global sales manager, he couldn't afford me in a million years. I took a pay cut and I lived off savings. And the reason I did that is because I was going to be paid partially in income and sweat equity in the form of stock in the business. So got you know, we were nine million, I think, in sales, and I had developed all the sales programs. In fact, I had developed everything that became that business and discovered at that time my business partner didn't know much about business and was, you know, wasting, he didn't manage money, didn't just a lot of different things. And so I, you know, one day and I said, Look, it's gonna be one either you or me, one of us has to go. And he goes, Well, I'm older than you. He was about 10 years older. He says, So you may as well buy me out. I said, Perfect. Give me a number. He gave me a number, and uh, I put a business plan together, went to several banks. The very first bank that I went to was BBT. BBT said, This is the best deal, this is an easily financiable deal. We will pay him and we will kick him out the door. So, long story short, that happened. We got, you know, we were right along. We were two weeks from the moment that we were supposed to close on this financing deal, and he would be out of my life forever, and I would own the business free and clear. He reneged and the way he reneged wasn't the way normal people reneged. No, well he decided that hey, if I change the locks on the door and he can't get in, maybe he won't come back.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh short, that I I would I I bowled the uh reluctant entrepreneur, right? Uh I I left went down the road to an attorney that was recommended to me, and I gave him through the whole story about how I built this company. And he goes, Well, he says, Do you want me to start the paperwork? I said, What are you talking about? I just told you a story. He goes, Well, he says, It sounds to me like that business succeeded because of you. Give yourself the credit for it. I, you know, what do you want the new company to be called? And I met some really, really good people there. I'll keep that till the next to the question down the way. I uh I started quantum flow that way because I had no other choice. I had I had ideas. When I left, we used none of their ideas. In fact, I gave my attorney my my disc from my computer. He let me keep the computer, I gave him my disk drive. And my at my attorney's recommendation, I'm glad I did that because six months later they came back to try to sue us to shut us down. All right. And then the rest is history. History, that's right.

SPEAKER_03:

And that was in 07. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

This happened, by the way, right before Christmas 2006.

SPEAKER_03:

So, Dave, you're kind of a nerd. You're talking about making boosters and water flow systems and things like that. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01:

When it comes to that stuff, yeah. Yeah, when I left the business, I was probably the most person in the country when it came to that stuff.

SPEAKER_03:

Not not on your question earlier, like in the couple of the the books you read, a couple of the the people, the books are about. I I can see why you chose those books and the people because they kind of are like yourself. So anyway, Roy, you wanna you have about the boost system?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so first of all, Dave, it's amazing how when one door shuts, the other one opens, and some sometimes it's shutting that door or having that door shut on you to a couple of times, right? That's right, that's right. Amazing. So you started Quantum Flow and then and developed the the uh the booster operating system software. You know, tell us about it and the biggest technical challenge you face while doing so.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so quick uh segue into this. So as I mentioned, we I left the hard drive with all our ideas with my attorney because you know, when Quantum Flow, I knew there was a need for a product that really leveraged technology. We're talking 2007, right? Right. No, so you saw this preponderance of technology. Well, in the industrial space, this is where we started seeing, you know, touch screen interfaces and different types of of computing solutions that were much, much faster than just meager relays and days and things like that. And I knew where I wanted, and and this is an important topic, so let me just sidebar for a quick minute. People that come to me, they go, Well, well, what how did you come up with that? I mean, where did you get this idea? And the best example I can give is start with the end in mind. Right where you want to be. When you understand where you want to go to, it's a lot easier to fill in the blanks from start to finish. If you know where you're gonna finish, it's easy to backfill into the starting of and development of that.

SPEAKER_02:

True.

SPEAKER_01:

And I knew I wanted something that was the products that were on the market were something called constant speed systems. In other words, when the pressure dropped, they just turned on on a motor that was running across the line, meaning full speed, and it pressurized the building and then it shut off. And when there was another demand, they'd do the same thing. It was on off. There was no in-between as energy started getting more expensive around for years and years, something called variable frequency drives that would paint and change the actual speed of a motor, like to change the light on the on a wall with a RIA stat. It could be automatically controlled to speed up or speed down according to the demand in the system. And we knew this is we wanted to be the leader in variable speed, pressure boosting technology, but we would be the leader that was very recognizable from everybody else. So that was number one. We saw the value as you reduce the speed, by the way, of a pumper fan, your energy is reduced by the cube of the speed reduction. So if you're running at only half speed on a pumper fan, it actually is using 12% total power. Now, most of the time these things are operating, they're operating at those low speeds anyway. So instead of turning on at full power, these things are just kind of ramping up and down throughout the day.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So energy-wise, they were extremely energy efficient.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

In many cases, you could go back and show a payback for the equipment if you did your sales program right.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, instead of selling you this piece of equipment, how'd you like it for free? And now you've got their attention, right? Well, here's how you're gonna do it. You're gonna you're not not gonna put in a constant speed, you're gonna put in a variable speed. So that was step number one. Step number two is we had to have a software package that detected these minute changes in the building and responded accordingly. That was number one. Number two, you had to know when there was no more flow in the system so it could shut off. Because how do you save the most amount of energy? You don't run the motor.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So what we were able to do was over time, by the way, this took 13 years from 2007, you know, to uh 2018 or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_03:

So having said that, the the flow of the technology took that long to figure out, or was it the the fact that you got it in the system inside of clients took that long?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, great, great question. Yeah, we actually was sort of nipping at the heels of the of the tech. So when we started doing this, there was really no, I call it artificial intelligence for pumps. Everybody's pumps, everybody's products out there, even the big guys, were very, very rudimentary. They were very it was a mature market, right? It was machines and relays and stuff. And we, you know, our our our tagline, well, we weren't a pump manufacturer or we weren't a systems manufacturer, we were a technology company that just happened to build on systems, right? So we we uh everything was too much, right, right again. And we were always getting at the heels of the tech. Right. So as the software got better, as the computers got stronger, our technology evolved with it. So yeah, that's why it took that length of time to sort of evolve with the evolving systems that were there.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, my previous company, Dave, was in telecom, and so we we we supported a lot of critical infrastructure companies, utility companies, skata systems. And you're right, it was a lot of it, a lot of it was real relay based, on or off, no no ability to do any type of variable or ramp up as as demand was needed, etc. So kudos, Sean.

SPEAKER_01:

As I was walking out the door, just to yell at person as you were walking, went from SCADA to IP based. Yeah, I mean, you can as a huge someone who's been that market, there's a there's a huge exponential leap in technology.

SPEAKER_03:

Makes sense. And all of the years I've known you, and we've had conversations about a lot of this stuff. It makes sense why you chose a couple of the people, the books that you've read and who've kind of helped you grow the business and who you kind of uh model me the right word, but you know, you've taken pieces away from them to help you grow your business. So anyway, with that, that's it.

SPEAKER_01:

Let me just make one before we move on. Let me make one more point because this is super, super important to viewers. You know, we were not the big guy on campus, we were the tiny little bug, right, in in Sanford, Florida, that was sort of trying to change the world. When it comes to tech, and when it comes to innovation, innovation is the great equalizer. It takes the smallest, most insignificant business. And in our case, we were acquired by, are you ready for this? A 150-year-old multi-billion dollar German company. So, you know, we think of a mark, even though we're a very, very small position for them.

SPEAKER_00:

Smart, smart German.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, for those that are thinking you know, it's insurmountable, right?

SPEAKER_00:

A smart German company, I was gonna say, because you know, my my former business partner always, you know, he had saying, and he worked for compact computers for many years and in Europe and is instrumental in putting the digital equipment corporation and compact merger together.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and saying he's like, you know, the companies that fail to innovate, you know, when they reach their plateau and they could become comfortable are the ones that actually fall behind. And small is good, man. I and I can tell you from experience. I mean, Mike started my telecom company, we were the last to market, and and the banks actually turned us down and said we and we put our own money in, and and 10 years later with 60 market share. Because being small, you can pivot very quickly. These that's right, these bigger, these bigger companies are so set in their ways. By the time they figure out what's going on, it's monkey years later.

SPEAKER_01:

And Sean can appreciate this. The banks are only there when you don't need them.

SPEAKER_03:

That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

By the time we grew, and I didn't really need them anymore. Oh, yeah, you know, we'll punch your teeth.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01:

But up then it's impossible. Well, yeah, it's well this Sean, you can think to this no bank can ignore a great business plan, right?

SPEAKER_03:

That's the case. You would think that's the case. Not every bank, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So you're done you can of worms there, David.

SPEAKER_03:

Right, right, right, right. There's to be said about what you just said and what I about what's going on. You and I, Dave, have had this conversation about the you know, some big, beautiful bill, right? We don't need to go into politics about it, but we know that it's it's multi-metal-sized companies that can really take advantage of what's going on out there, and that's the exciting part for me today. And you and I are on a weekly call talking about deals. So um exciting. But listen, who once wrote a check to the government equal to your life's gross income? Wow, I remember you telling me about that a couple of years ago. Uh, how did that amount reshape your financial strategy?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know how it's fun to do with all these politicians talking about paying your fair share. I paid 100% of my total life's income. Is that fair enough? You know, obviously a business sale, so it was a lot of money. But at the end of the day, I use that story, if you will, to sort of grab people's that say, you know, if you're not considering a business sale or if you're considering a business sale, it doesn't matter. You should be ready. And there's some elements in the QSBS. For example, that if you get ready two years in advance, there's a way for you to avoid the pain I had with that check. So things like this that become very, very important. And you know, you know, now that I've left and I've sold my business, I do more private equity, and we live in the margins, right? Any opportunity you can get to make a business more profitable, if I'm doing an acquisition, you know, you the margins are everything. The margins of that particular bill, and that thing is, in my opinion, it is written for the love of Main Street. It was written for the love of the small business that has been stomped all over for the past couple of administrations. And it's just not right. It's the backbone of the country, and GE and Exxon aren't going to keep us afloat. In fact, most most employment, Dick, what is it, like 80% of the employment in the United States is small business, and the rest might be even more than that.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah, right, right. That must have uh profoundly impacted how you think about wealth and long-term planning. Uh, you know, speaking of speaking of transitions, for founders who are approaching a major financial milestone like an exit, what advice would you offer to help them prepare strategically?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that that that common question, I would say, and you've probably heard this on Shark Tank a million times. Know your numbers. You're if you're you're an owner or a founder, whatever capacity you're in in ownership capacity, you had a better know the numbers for your business. You better know your your gross margin, net margin, your EBITDA. Everything is important there.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Because you know, at the end of the day, let's say somebody walks in from Germany and puts a puts a money on your desk. How do you know that's enough money? Everything is really a function of your earnings.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they're buying the future cash flow success of that business.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, Dave, you it is so to know the numbers, man. It is paramount. And you know, we CEOs and they don't know the numbers and they wonder why they can't get funding and things like that. And so it's important. But you you've um you've got involved with the multifamily stuff and you decided to that that it's now time to go into more private selective investments. What red flags do you look for in deals today?

SPEAKER_01:

With the private equity or the or the real estate?

SPEAKER_03:

With the the the private equity stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So let me quickly back up on the real estate and just kind of explain to you how now doing more private equity. So we a couple of years ago, I was looking for something to do, you know, in my and uh I did go to these programs and I went through the entire program and you know, pine that here's how you can make a billion dollars in real estate, you know, the typical here about two o'clock in the morning on on TV. And and and all although it had some value, the problem was is that value went when interest rates were zero, one, two percent, right? There's there's enough out there to to create cash flow and to add value to a real estate portfolio. The problem is all these people that were listening to these programs and staying up at two in the morning decided to try their hand at this, and they had no idea how to do proper due diligence. So what they ended up doing is something called compressing the cap rate. The cap rate is the actual income that a business can generate in a year. And you whether it's a you know conventional business or multifamily apartment complex, and what ended up happening is they were paying too much for the property and they couldn't service the debt as the rates started creeping up. And a lot of these people got themselves into some serious hot water. It's kind of like a from from the from the GFC. And so I did invest in some syndications, which means I was in a lump investment with a bunch of other people, and those things are still I'm still waiting for those to to sort of bear fruit. For me, I can wait. It doesn't matter. My money's stored there, but there's some people that you know there they're there are savings in this stuff. And if they don't see a return, yeah, there's eventually going to be a return. Is it gonna be as glorious as they said? Probably not, because you know the Biden administration took care of that. Everything is coming back. I think that was the purpose of this this uh jobs and tax cuts bill, what we call the OBBB, to sort of mainstream. So, long story short, so what was the other option? The other option was as a former chair of Grow FL, these great businesses of the backbone, the economic Florida, these small businesses that were might be struggling and may need some assistance, whether it be financial or management, but they had really numbers and they knew their numbers, right? Or maybe they just shifted off trap and they got a little too far off the center line. There was an opportunity there to invest in those businesses and the return, think of rent stabilization in a multifamily, can take two, three, four, five years. But you can stabilize a business fairly quickly as long as you can raise revenue and increase sales and do all these, you know, the fundamentals. So that's how I moved from multifamily into private equity. And we we look at a lot of different businesses every day that that you know, a truck tank, right? Hey, if I can get somebody in there that knows what they're doing, that isn't just there to, you know, throw them a couple hundred thousand dollars and and and get a loyalty for whatever they're producing. Those those guys, they've got you know 20, 30, 40, 50 portfolio companies that they own a piece of. They can't really spend the kind of time that a private equity firm can. And we're trying to be local, we're trying to be in Florida, right? Florida. So we can spend the time. That's what's required. Gotta be on the ground, boots on the ground from a financial and business perspective. So that's why we that's how we elected to move into private equity.

SPEAKER_03:

Very, very good. Well, the the cap rates and interest rate stuff is I love the way you've honed in on that stuff over the last couple of years, and you've really focused on interest margin going forward and just been uh pleasure of working with you and getting to know you and all of this stuff. And I'm just looking forward to what the future has and knowing that Florida is a middle market state, right? And so there's so many opportunities, and this bill that was passed is gonna help with that. And so, yeah, to Roy.

SPEAKER_01:

That is predictable, Sean. You know, it's you you and talked about this many times. At the end of the day, if the numbers are good, it's just a math problem. We just gotta figure out how to back in to the correct math, right? And you know, it's like hello, you squeeze here, it's gonna blow up here, you squeeze, you know. So you got that that happy middle. You got good sales, you got good marketing, you got good production, if that's the case.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a perfect segue. You you you kind of you kind of hit a little bit on what I was about to ask, but but if you can expand it a little more for me and unpack it, looking ahead, trends do you see shaping the future of private equity and real estate investing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, all you do is watch, you know, uh CNBC or these uh financial channels. The Fed has done a start dropping the rates precipitously. They want a controlled recovery. And what happens is, unfortunately, for the small business, that liquidity that's normally would be available to them at lower rates because banks are willing to lend, they're willing to take a greater risk because they're not making as much on the federal side. Those businesses have the same access that a large business that really doesn't need the money, but they'll take it anyway, right? They're getting really great wholesale rates, right? Sean, I'm sure you know all about this, right? I'm borrowing a million dollars and I'm I'm borrowing against assets that I have. In other words, I don't pay you. You just take a million out of my bank account. My rates are fantastic, right? But if you have a small business that's bootstrapping, they don't have access to the equal cash position that an Exxon does, or GE or these, you know, Apple or these huge companies that are publicly traded. They have a limited access to cash. So what what's the what's the relief valve there? The relief valve there is private equity and private cash that is saying, look, we're gonna partner with you because we believe in your business. So not only do we believe in that business, we're gonna bring money into your business so you can grow so that now as partners, we grow together and we both benefit accordingly. Right. I think that's as much as I would love to see the Fed just rates by a hundred basis points, you and I both know it's not gonna happen, not at least till Powell gets out of there. And even then, you know, they have to be responsible. They can't, you know, the Fed Side note the best book I've ever read. We're gonna talk about books I've read. The best book and the scariest book I've ever read in my entire life is a book called The Creature from Jekyll Island. G. Edward Griffin.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Read that book. It's about the founding of the Fed F. It is the scariest and the best book I've ever read.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So I I I understand a little better how these things work because of that book. And I would strongly recommend anybody watching this to get it and read that book. But again, this is really where I see the trend for private equity actually being a benefit because we we don't have all the answers, but we're not going to approach a position in a company if we don't know exactly what we're gonna do when we get there.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

We're putting up our own money, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. Yeah, we're previous segment. We touched on private equity, how you know they're picking up service-related industries because of that, throwing revenue. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

When do you not need your refrigerator repaired, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, right, right. How can you have that? So so Dave, we met at GoreFL and we're still involved. You're you're a lot more involved than I am. I know you did the judging of the companies of the year a couple of weeks ago. When when you were the chair, so what was the one initiative that you are most proud of that that that got accomplished? And I know there's a couple of things, but but tell us about yours.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, as you know, Sean, that is a two-year stint. It's actually a six-year stint because you're you're you're vice chair for two years, your chairman for two years, and then you're immediate past chair for two years. So that's a six-year stint, and I learned a ton. And again, how did I learn? I learned from talking to people like you, talking to other businesses, listening to the problems, coming up with solutions. In our case, something I'm probably most proud of, and it actually took it went beyond two-year chairmanship. And it actually happened one week after I handed the gavel over to Pete Previtt, who was my vice chair, and we became a 501c3 non-program. And all the background, all the work for that was done during my chairmanship. So you know, we we said we started as a state-funded entity. Now I'm GrowFL is 100% funded by its members. It's a it's an organization that exists to educate second-stage businesses in guess what, exactly what I'm doing now in private equity. Here's how you succeed.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, yes, yes, beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, it was a perfect segue for me. That's why I say this uh if if if being the renewer was dropped on my lap, being a reluctant private equity investment dropped on my lap as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Uh I mean, first of all, congratulations on on that. And you know, everybody's endeavor, at least it should be everybody's endeavor, that you know, when you get involved in something, always uh leave it better than it was and sounds from things that you you you did that and and beyond more. So kudos to you.

SPEAKER_03:

I'll tell you, you know, typically when you roll up as a chair, right, you kind of take a break and you don't you're you're not as engaged. And Dave is still very much so engaged and has been engaged. And again, it's just a part of his DNA of being out there to support second-stage companies.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'll run into founders council, and we now have a group of entrepreneurs that have either successfully founded and exited businesses like me, and that access to us is free of charge to grow call members. I mean, just think of other advertisement than becoming a member of Groff Cal. Right. Right, perfect segue again.

SPEAKER_00:

So building building on that, how do you approach mentoring second stage CEOs differently from early stage founders, given their unique challenges and growth trajectories?

SPEAKER_01:

That's actually an easy answer. Groffel is only at second stage. So we don't do any startup, you know. And actually, the thing Groafel came into being was Tom O'Neill, who was a uh professor over at uh UCF, had actually had an incubator at UCF. And some of those companies were growing out of the incubator and they were moving from startup to second stage, and they had no place to go. So Groafel was created to help those second stage businesses, and it just so happens that second stage has the greatest contribution to the economic engine of Florida, and I suspect probably most states. State, that's right. Nice, yeah, yeah. So yeah, we we do a lot of peer networking and panel networking in general at some of the events. People will come up to me and ask me questions, and I'll ask them questions. So it's a really great organization for peer networking, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, look, we've we've we've done some stuff, talked about some serious stuff here. Um, we got a little uh a few more things to talk about, but let's have a little bit of fun with some quick fire favorites. And what was the most adventurous thing you ever done outside of business?

SPEAKER_01:

I thought about this for a long time, and and and Roy can relate to this. So when I was learning to fly, one of those what prerequisite flights would do is your first night flight.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh as finally command. I know this was just my first night. First time flying at night.

SPEAKER_00:

You gotcha.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was sitting at the end of the runway in Deland, my my CFI buddy next to me, and I'm sitting there and he's like, Well, are you gonna go? Somebody on the runway, and I'm going, I don't know. And all I see is literally what looks like a black curtain. And that night, well, there was no moonlight that night, it was flying off into the darkness, right? Yep, was the scariest thing I ever had to do. And then, of course, after that, after I did it, my favorite time to fly was at night. I don't know about you because it's just so much calmer, you don't get the heat rising and all the you know, the bumpiness. And but that was yeah, that was intense.

SPEAKER_00:

You learned very quickly, Sean, to see and not and not feel because because when when you don't have horizon out there, you can become disoriented where where your body actually telling you that you're flying straight and level, but you may actually be in a in a dive. Yeah, uh, and and so you rely on on your instruments. Yeah, you you you instrument to become the best of buddies all the time, man.

SPEAKER_03:

Sounds like sounds like in my my sophomore year coming, I became an advanced rescue diver, right? And we had to do a night dive in off the coastline beach at like 80 80 feet, you know what? I mean, it's like uh yeah, so you rely on those you don't know what you're swimming into, right? That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_01:

I know where the interests were, that was about it, right? Right, yeah, I keep myself straight and level.

SPEAKER_00:

That's funny. So speaking on and and roll rolling on that theme here, you know, what was the prizing lesson you know you learned from flying?

SPEAKER_01:

The the process. I really liked the process. In fact, I liked it so much that I turned it into a sales program. And with Quantum Flow, we had three basic things that we focused on with our salespeople. Because remember, my managers train salespeople. I had to train my managers to train people, and I used, you know, my example. You have the pre-flight. Hey, we're gonna go make this call, and here's what we hope to accomplish. You have the flight or the sales call, and then you have the post-flight. What did we do? Did we check off these things? So it was sort of a great cross-check of your instruments, so to speak, to verify that things get done in an orderly manner. And one of my one of my friends and uh sales consultants says, because what you don't want to do is show up and throw up. That's what he called.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

You never always have a plan. And that's part of what I learned.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's amazing you referenced that because I've I've used that in my own company. My my my our current company is a we're a cybersecurity firm. And and with my people, you know, I often speak about the flight checklist and the different segments of the flight checklist for and and what they mean. And and cybersecurity deal a lot with incident response and having an incident response plan. And I've I I use aviation a lot as analogy. And to the aviation industry, we can learn a lot from, right? And when you look at it, they've nailed down the whole concept of an incident response plan. I mean, before we push back from a gate, even as a passenger, they repeat that in the event that you know sudden cap and depressurization, you know, the mask will fall, put it on you first before others, etc. And so in terms of why it's important and why not, why planning for emergency during emergency is the worst time, worst thing to do. Right, right, right. So take it away from it.

SPEAKER_01:

Was my was my free-pronged thing? What's my multi-lite sales plan?

SPEAKER_03:

That's why you'd be turning them on your nose up when I invite you to my leadership program events that I'd be having, right? Yeah, I already know that stuff, man. No checklist, no checklist. Behind every success story, moments of reflections. Let's dive into lessons you carry with you, Dave. So the most uh meaningful connection you've made in your career.

SPEAKER_01:

That that actually is easy too. When I was with Quantum Flow early on, and we were sort of bootstrapping, and every day was an emergency, and uh, we were in the midst of we had started developing this computer software for the machine. I was on it, I was traveling, of course. We were three weeks old as a business, and my software engineer left and went to work for a competitor while I was traveling. So I had to come back and I had to learn myself how this software works. Fortunately, I had a gentleman, Gonado Guerreras, and Rick, as we called him, was a genius of a man. I mean, graduated top class at MIT. He was an electrical genius, and he took me under his wing almost like a father, and he encouraged me and said, Look, there's ways, you know, you can do it. You know, he was my cheerleader. And I remember one night, and this is a really exciting, this is a really cool story, that we had a problem where the system kept shutting down for no apparent reason. And I was there, it was like seven, eight o'clock at night, and I'm standing out there, and literally, this is the days when we had to put a garden hose on the end of this pump system so we could run water through it because we didn't have a test facility yet. And I had the program up on the computer screen and I was monitoring the program, I was monitoring the pulses. You can probably appreciate this, Roy. Used a function block technology, right? And I'm sitting there, and I, as I was looking at the monitor, the pump shut off arbitrarily, and I saw a red dot on the monitor. And I realized when I traced that back, the on signal for the pump was tied to a soft signal in the variable frequency drive. In other words, it was a computer signal that relied on a Modbus communication to work. And if that communication glitched for a minute, it would stop the pump and reset the timer and the pump would start again. It would never shut off. So I was excited and giddy as a schoolgirl. I pick up my phone and I explained to him, Rick, I found the problem we've been looking for, and I explained it to him. And he goes, David, you're right. You found the problem. That's exactly how he said, but no, he he was hugely instrumental in just keeping the ball rolling, keeping me encouraged. That was a huge night, those those few minutes, and definitely rip is a huge part of my success.

SPEAKER_00:

Excellent. That's that's awesome. And uh, how do you say I I think we can all reflect back on on people who are very, very instrumental in us being where we are in our careers and right and and being that motivator to coach, right? To to inspire us to see greater than we ever even thought we were able to see and achieving. So that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and that base program became became the you know, booster operating systems of course.

SPEAKER_00:

So and so, Dave, looking back, if you could change one aspect of your journey, what it what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think you know, we just talked about confidence, right? I think it was I knew deep down I could do it, but I didn't have the confidence to do it. You know, I wasted seven years of my life at Delta P. And I mean, you know, who knows where we could have gone if I had started Quantum Post seven years earlier in 2000.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, I mean, just believe in yourself. And when you know that that you can do it, just carry that belief. And I didn't believe in myself, and that's my fault, I'll live with it, but at the end of the day, it worked out, and that's what I want. I would have just started earlier.

SPEAKER_03:

Got it. Here's something I'm looking forward to in this conversation. I've enjoyed uh hearing it again as if it was the first time, so I've enjoyed it. You know, most of it I already knew, but it's uh never gets old, man. It's up to a phenomenal story. And any books that you've read over the years that had a lasting impression?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, one of the fortunate things is uh my travel allowed me a lot of airplane time, and I'm not the kind of guy that loves to just boot up a laptop, you know, like this, and uh bought, you know, bought a Kindle and I read a lot of books. You know, it's more just entertainment. Some of them were in my case, my books are business related or financial books. I really enjoyed book about Steve Jobs, uh his biography, and I love the way Walter Isaacson writes that book, uh, writes his books in in stories, short stories. And then followed up with the Elon book that he wrote just a couple of years ago, and I read that actually on a cruise that I was doing, and I remember I was like three days into the cruise, and then the book was read, and I'm like, crap, it was wonderful, oh yeah, this this is the only book I brought. So, but both those books proved to me one thing. These guys focused on customer user experience, customer experience, they found their customer everything. Money didn't matter to them, really. I mean, and you can say time that money didn't matter, they were not really wealthy, they became wealthy as a result of what they did, right? Uh, especially in Elon Musk in the book where you talk where he talks about how many times that rocket blew up in the South Pacific when they were trying to launch space dogs. So that that is a huge one. Of course, my favorite uh my favorite quote is on my wall at Puinaplo, and it's a Steve Jobs quote. And the quote is the journey is the destination. You know?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And he understands that you can hear without going through the journey, and the journey is what builds who you are.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

That was number one. As far as a business, that was it, you know, for me, that was just inspirational. That would be a rocket fuel was my second book. Rocket fuel is about, you know, visionary versus integrator. I I lucky I had a great integrator at Quantum Flow in my in my lead engineer who never said no. Right? I want you to do this. I never got a no, you know, and then that's that's what you need for someone. You need the yin and yang. You need the guy that thinks about it, and then the guy that goes out and does it. And he was my my do guy. And I changed my third choice story, Sean, because I really wanted to point out this book because I loved this book. Kill Billy Alogy by JD Vance.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You can't find a more challenging story if you look. That was that that to me was an inspirational story. So you ever have a chance to read that book? It's it's amazing. It's a great deal of respect for that guy.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. It's it's it's amazing. You you mentioned before Steve Jobs user experience. And you know, we we spoke about this in in the segment as well. He is what he did and is still around today and still continues. I mean, Apple, when when you like it or dislike their products, they have nailed the user experience, right? The simplification of technology to the point where the least technical person becomes a master on their products.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, and they're still living off of his stuff. They haven't really revolutionized anything since, you know, probably oh seven. I listened to the book on audio a couple of days ago, and they were talking about how he was he was saying back in 03 that your phone would be the computer. Yeah, he was pushing to say, hey, whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

My phones are as much as a computer now.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, right. It's more it's more, it's more some desktop computers that some people have in and you know and in their homes.

SPEAKER_03:

And we went, we had a phone, we had an iPhone, we had the iPod, which was the the music. Yeah, you had uh had an iPad. Yep. So four or five years ago, you don't see iPads like you used to, you know, you see everyone on their phones, your phones are a little bit bigger now, but the phones were smaller back then, and so again, uh and so I know that the gripes that I've heard from Wall Street about Tim Cook, right? That he is just he's not visionary, he's just but Steve Jobs. That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_01:

So I will say this too, Sean. I mean, I don't think had I not really read that book and really understood what user experience was all about, because I really didn't understand until I read that book. I doubt I would have built the kind of value that we built at Quantum Flow. Right, yeah, literally, even though you wouldn't do this, as a you could connect that to a pipe. And incidentally, we do pump the uh Orlando City Soccer Stadium, both the field and the building.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's sort of our big point about all the systems in that building, as well as a bunch in Vegas. But basically, the contractor can install that into a dry pipe, the system will recognize the pipe is dry, fill the system with water, and then automatically go into automatic operation. There is no other product in the world besides the quantum flow product that will do that. So that was the value generation that drove the the actual buyout, right? They're not just buying your EBITDA, they're buying your potential to continue to grow that EBITDA. Yeah, you know, and you can't do that without pricing power.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. We're gonna we're gonna skip around a few things. You know, you've given some incredible information around leadership and well on that, because this is about leadership. And so what was what what are three valuable pieces of advice you would give to others based on your experiences?

SPEAKER_01:

We already know number one, customer experience is number one, right? Always number two is watch your bottom line, know your numbers, and then number three. I mean, it's really simple. Customer experience, know your numbers, don't forget to vacate, don't forget to reflect and relapse. Right because if you don't, you're gonna drive yourself crazy. So that that those were the those are sort of the big the big theme I would have.

SPEAKER_03:

Customer experience, know your numbers, and don't forget to take some time off to recover.

SPEAKER_01:

I said I call it recovery and reflection. It's a lot easier on a uh on a Lanai and Maui.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, things become a lot clearer. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Your brain opens up, yeah. You would be surprised.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I'm sure you guys know that.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh great. Uh Would say recipe for success there with those three three recommendations. And thank you for that. We wrap up here. Let's look ahead, delve a little bit into legacy and what you hope to leave behind. I mean, quantum fly capital is clearly positioned to make a meaningful impact. Uh, what kind of influence do you hope it will have on Central Florida's business ecosystem?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, obviously we did talk about our, you know, any investments that we make, we just we don't want to go in there with making money. We want to go in there with the intent of making better businesses. Right. And improving businesses and creating jobs and you know, creating revenue and doing all the things that are that are viewed as positive. You know, I've a family trust and have the legal things that people do when they have a liquidity event like I did, but I'm not done yet. I mean, again, this is my contribution post-manufacturing well, because I'm still an entrepreneur at heart, but I enjoy building. I enjoy the building part, the development part. You know, once it's developed, okay, now it's it's it's on autobiolence. So probably that's probably the the things that's gonna drive drive me to get up in the morning that way.

SPEAKER_03:

That's right. So so I I I'm gonna enjoy the answer to the question. Vision for empowering the underserved community through investment.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, first of all, let's talk about the obvious choice, which is you know, we still have a job.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

They can live, right? And they're served. That's right. And if they have a good job, that's right, our our uh rate of pay at Quantiplo was higher than most Tampi. Because we trained our people to be skilled and they enjoyed their job and they produced. And as a result, everybody won. They won, and we won. Each year during the Christmas holidays, we would always set aside a large fund where we would distribute it to local charities, which were important to me. For time we would we would donate to charities far flung, and we realized that all that money wasn't getting to the people that could benefit from it. So we started searching for local local uh charities. Uh, raised families was one of them. Can't remember the lemon of the lady's name, if it was Carol, or but but we we did a lot with them, but you know, wanted to impact our local community because that's where our employees were. So yeah, that was really important to give back in that way.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice and perfect segue here as we round the top of something here that that I ask every one of our guests, and each would say guests has has has sort of uh raised the bar for first one coming in. Right. But if you could build a dream team of advisors past or present, who would you want at the table to help you guide that mission?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you obviously know who the first one is, that would be jobs, the guy was the sales and marketing genius, and more importantly, he was a customer experience genius. And if you read the book, if you do get around to reading that book, I mean he was a tyrant because he was so focused on the that sometimes he abused his his employees. So not from that perspective, but from just the sheer laser focus of what he wanted from his people. And I'm from a genius perspective, it's gotta be Elon. And this has nothing to do with the fact that I read the books. I read the books because those people impacted me before I read the book. I read the book because I wanted to learn more about people. So from sales, we got sales, we've got the genius in the room, and then this one was I mean, this is one of the hardest questions you gave me. And all I can think of was strategy. Strategy, I think Napoleon, right? Is the most uh gifted you know, strategist probably in the last 500 years, right? And you know, I have some French Canadian in me, so a lot of French Canadian.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Well, so you got for customer experience nailed down, we got the genius in the room with musk, so customer experience, jobs, genius in the room with musk, and for strategy, we have Monsieur Bonaparte, Monsieur Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte, monsieur, très bien, très bien. So I would say that uh Sean, I would have to put this one at the top of our list of uh boards there too, man.

SPEAKER_01:

It's fun, guys.

SPEAKER_03:

No, it's amazing that there's very little overlap on these boards of advisors, right? We've done yeah, and and you had your yours before I I joined the podcast, Roy. The last four podcasts, they're all the the there's one uh Steve Jobs was the only one.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think Elon, I think we had Elon on there on somebody's up here. Interesting, interesting. Well, David, first of all, it's been incredible, yeah, and and what a journey. And I said before that as in a movie in a very interesting one, and and and I should have said a a biography, because it's it's it's truly just sitting here listening to the different challenges that you've gone through, and but more so your I would say drive each time adversity faced you in the face, or or you know, that you you or you face adversity, uh how you pivoted and just created opportunity from it after opportunity. Amazing, amazing story. And I know that some of our listeners would would you know want to get in touch with you and and follow your work. It's how how can they how can you know listeners connect with you?

SPEAKER_01:

The website for the private equity is qfly capital, c A P I T A L dot com. You probably can get a little more information on what we're doing. You will notice when you go to that site that we're moving from a real estate syndication to a private equity, you know. If you want to have some fun and watch somebody trying to kind of fly an airplane, quantum quantum fly channel has quantum fly when I learned to fly, and that's sort of evolved into that's moved from learning to fly to some flying adventures to travel that my wife and I have all over the world. And now it's I think it's gonna evolve again into travel and and and and finance, you know, and how we look at at companies and and what you sort of grow your business and and develop your your you know, your value as a company, your pricing power. That's something that people want to see.

SPEAKER_03:

Fantastic, Dave. Everything I thought it would be and more. Your story is powerful, man, and it reminds us of how resilience and strategic thinking can shape businesses and entire industries. So thank you for the time. I appreciate it. And uh yeah, I can't wait to share it to the to the public, man.

SPEAKER_01:

It's been a pleasure, guys, and I've really, really enjoyed the banter. And uh, you really challenged me a couple of times there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, absolutely, David. I you know, I share with with Sean your your insights on entrepreneurship, innovation, staying grounded through family and mentorship really resonated. And we know that our listeners will take away a lot from conversation, especially as I said before, the power of resiliency and reinvention and building a lasting uh legacy. So kudos to you. Thank you for being here, Sean.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and to our audience, and to our audience, um, thank you for tuning in to this edition of the Dynamic Business Leader Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who would benefit from David's story. That's right. And until next time, stay curious, stay driven, and keep leading with purpose.

SPEAKER_03:

Love that. Love it, love it.

SPEAKER_00:

Amen. Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Are you a business owner or leader of a successful business? If yes, we'd love to have you as a guest on our program. Our goal is simple. We provide a platform for leaders to share their experiences to benefit others. We want to hear your story, how you got started, the challenges you faced along the way, and your passion today. If this sounds like you're you know someone who fits these criteria, then be sure to get in touch with us by visiting our website linked in the episode description below. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell to be notified when our next episode goes live. Or if you'd rather listen to us during your car rides, you can also follow us on your favorite audio channel using your podcatcher. Thanks again, and remember, keep crushing it.