Why Most CEOs Get Stuck Between $10M and $50M | And What Actually Gets You Out

What does it take to buy and scale a company in a foreign country, with your spouse, right before a global pandemic? In this episode of CEOs Unscripted, host Jane Gentry sits down with Corbin Butcher, Managing Director of Beire Exhibitions in the Czech Republic, for a raw, unfiltered conversation about entrepreneurship through acquisition, cross-cultural leadership, and what it really means to evolve from a 1.0 to a 3.0 company. Corbin shares how a military career, a "mediocre" stint in investment banking, and a Kellogg MBA led him and his wife Evona to buy a Czech exhibition company, armed with a shoebox full of business cards as their CRM, and turn it into a thriving, scaling business with 80 employees and 2.5x revenue growth. Whether you're leading a $10M or $100M business, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons on scaling systems, building partnerships, managing culture across borders, and knowing when to evolve as a leader before your company outgrows you.

Episode Timestamps

00:00 — Cold open: No backup plan, just make it work

01:07 — Welcome to CEOs Unscripted: Jane's intro & what the show is about

02:46 — Meet Corbin Butcher: From Chicago to the Czech Republic

04:18 — Corbin's background: Army officer, Iraq tours, Kellogg MBA

06:06 — Why investment banking wasn't the fit — and what was

07:07 — The search fund model: Buying a business with your spouse

08:18 — The challenge of being a European company trying to break into the US market

10:51 — How to vet a strategic partner (and why face-to-face is non-negotiable)

13:44 — The qualities that make or break a partnership under pressure

15:08 — American work ethic vs. European work culture: The real clash

17:08 — How Corbin built a high-performance culture within European labor laws

20:31 — The pros and cons of being an American CEO leading a European company

21:50 — Running a business with your spouse: The investor who called it "marital risk"

24:38 — How Corbin and Evona divide roles and break ties

25:36 — First-time CEO with no safety net: How do you learn on the fly?

28:59 — The shock of COVID hitting an 85% leveraged company in year two

31:40 — Biere 1.0 vs. 2.0 vs. 3.0: The lifecycle framework every CEO needs to understand

33:13 — Sales in 1.0: A shoebox of business cards as a "CRM"

36:53 — Operations in 1.0: When everything depends on one person

38:18 — Why promoting your best operator to supervisor is often a mistake

41:30 — What changed in 2.0: Systems, structure, and elevating internal talent

43:05 — The power of vision: Can every employee in your company articulate where you're going?

46:01 — How Corbin had to change as a leader from 1.0 to 2.0

49:46 — How strategic planning evolves at each stage of company growth