EP.19 – Scaling with Purpose: David Carrier on Leading Through Change and Challenge - Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Hello, I'm Roy Richardson, and this is the
Dynamic Business LeadersPodcast.
Welcome to this edition of theDynamic Business Leaders
Podcast.
I'm your host, Roy Richardson,together with my co-host Sean
Murphy.
The Dynamic Business LeaderPodcast is brought to you by
Aurora InfoTech, a cybersecurityfirm helping businesses stay
secure in today's digital world.

(00:25):
Our guest today, folks, issomeone who's built and scaled
disruptive technologies, led asuccessful business exit, and
now invests in companies andreal estate with a sharp eye for
strategy and tax efficiency.
He's the founder of Quantum Flowand now serves as managing
partner at Quantum Fly CapitalGroup.

(00:45):
He's a former chairman of GrowFL, a passionate advocate for
CEO education, and a mentor toemerging leaders.
And when he's not buildingbusinesses, he's flying planes,
spending time with his family,and developing high-yield
investment strategies.
Please join us in welcomingDavid Carrier, a visionary
entrepreneur with a story that'sas aspiring as it is

(01:09):
instructive.
And to kick things off, I wantto hand this over to Sean.
Sean has known David for manyyears and brings a unique
perspective to today'sconversation.
Sean?
Well, thanks, Roy.
Good afternoon, fellas.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22):
Great to be with you both.
I've had the privilege ofknowing Dave for about six years
now.
And we got to know each otherthrough GroFL.
But since then, we've uh formeda personal friendship like
myself.
His daughter has adoptive kids,and so we bonded with each
other, not only on the businessside, but on the personal side
as well.
And um, I've gotten to know hiswife, Debbie, who's from uh my

(01:45):
neck of the woods, from the theOkeechobee Arcadia area.
And uh as much as I love theinner city, I'm also a huge fan
of the rural part of our greatstate.
And then don't talk about hisson Brad, who when we're on our
weekly calls, it's just tolisten to the two of them go
back and forth and banter andand him talking about his
Raleigh fingers on uh mush dash.

(02:07):
It's just very comical.
But back to Dave and I met atGrowFL, like I said, he's the
former chair, he has anincredible passion for second
stage companies, which is whereI've spent 30 years in Detroit.
And so I just love the fact thathe has a passion for it.
And I just wanted to take onequick minute to just shout out
Grow FL before we get intoDave's story because a lot of

(02:30):
folks don't know about GrowFL.
But 16, 17 years ago, when TomO'Neill and the governor of the
great state of Florida uh cameup with this concept of helping
second stage and bringingresources to the companies to
help scale them up and grow.
I have been a huge fan of it allof the years.
It's run by an incredible woman,Tammy Sweet.
She's been there since theinception and just love what

(02:53):
they do and what they stand for.
And I cannot wait for past twoguests that we've had on.
I can't wait for the world toknow about Dave and his
accomplishments and what he'sdone for our community.
So, Dave, it's great to have youon.

SPEAKER_01 (03:05):
How do I follow that up, Sean?
I can assure you, my son wouldnot have any idea about your
reference to Raleigh Fingers.

SPEAKER_03 (03:12):
But I well, he's gonna know knowing Brad, he's
gonna Google it and he'll he'llunderstand, right?
Dave, let's dive in a little bitand 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, andI think the last time we were at
an event, you you pulled outyour phone and you were showing
me all your aviation stuff.
It's amazing.

(03:33):
But where was the one place thatreally shifted your thoughts
about life or business?

SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
That is an easy question to answer.
In fact, it's probably one ofthe easiest ones on this list.
When I started Quantiflow in2007, and one of the things that
really defined who we were as acompany is our reach.
We we marketed throughindependent representatives all
over the world, really.
And we had a really dynamitefootprint, particularly in the

(04:03):
Western Hemisphere, North,Central, South America, and all
the way out to the PacificIslands.
And so every year, somebody hadto volunteer to go to the energy
show in Hawaii, and I was theguy.
Usually we would turn that show,which is about a two or
three-day show, big good showfor us, uh, into about a 10 or

(04:25):
12-day trip.
And uh, one of those trips wehappened to take, we spent three
or four days in Oahu, and thenwe took a little side trip,
spent a week in Maui.
And this was, of course, beforethe downtown Lahaina burned
down.
And I can truly say that I thinkthat place is heaven on earth.

(04:46):
It is an amazing place.
But more important than the areais the attitude, right?
So when you're kind of fight allday and you're trying to balance
work and life, and this is gonnabe a theme today, because I'm
gonna go back to this a fewtimes.
It's real important for businessowners to take the time to

(05:06):
reflect.
Because when you're in thefight, sometimes you don't make
good decisions.

SPEAKER_02 (05:11):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (05:11):
And uh, I remember going to Maui, I brought a
couple of books with me.
I did some great reading outthere on the Lanai with my
flip-flops up on the rail andthe whales jumping in the Maui
channel out there.
It was just an unbelievableplace, and it's amazing how your
body just responds to input whenit's relaxed.

(05:34):
So Maui's my place.

SPEAKER_00 (05:36):
Yeah, amazing indeed when you think on you know, so
busy with our day-to-day hustlethat we sometimes, you know,
forget about the finer things oflife, right?
And just disconnecting, beingable to unplug and go to an
exotic location or someplace,some maybe just you know, town
over and feed up and just youknow, one thing with the

(05:56):
islands, whether it's in theCaribbean or the Pacific, people
really you know feel verywelcome, right?

SPEAKER_01 (06:02):
Oh, absolutely.
And the other the other point,the just as important as that,
Roy, is the fact that whenyou're in Maui, you're six hours
behind this time zone.
Right.
So, really, even if you wantedto reconnect, it's very
difficult to do unless we do itfirst thing in the morning.
So, if you were to connect firstthing in the morning, you have
the rest of the day to just sortof reflect and absorb.

(06:25):
And really, again, I can't sayit enough.
Powering down is so criticallyimportant to business owners,
particularly as they begin togrow and the business starts to
get a little out of control, youknow, the tiger by the tail.

SPEAKER_00 (06:39):
Right, yeah, do that.
Yeah, trying well said, and solet me ask you here, David, uh,
being a pilot myself, an aviatorto another, what inspired you to
pursue your pilot's license at50?
I know I read that in your funfact.

SPEAKER_01 (06:55):
So well, I started the business in 2007, but I've
been traveling since about 1994when I started as a regional
manager for a for a company thatwe'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.

(07:16):
Airways Chairman's Preferred.

SPEAKER_00 (07:17):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (07:18):
1% of their traveling and uh that was a
great airline.
I wish they were still around.
But nonetheless, I did a lot oftraveling and spent a lot of
time looking out the side of theairplane.

SPEAKER_02 (07:29):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (07:29):
And I always wondered what it was like to
look out the front of theairplane.
And when I actually about thetime 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 littlebit of time on my hands, I want
to learn to fly.
Because when I travel in thestate of Florida, it takes me
four hours to get to theairport, get up the plane, and

(07:51):
get right to Miami, for example.
And when I learn to fly, I couldmake that trip in 45 minutes in
my airplane.
Yeah, um, it would I call it mytime machine because it
literally, I could spend a daymaking engineering calls in
Miami and be home for dinner.
Yeah, have to worry about thedrive.

(08:13):
And to be honest with you, whenI'm flying, I'm sure it's the
same with you.
It's Zen.
All you're thinking about is notdying.
Keep the plane in the air,listen for your call on the
radio.
But no, it's to me, it's areally relaxing.

SPEAKER_00 (08:28):
Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 (08:29):
I get very relaxed on a plow.

SPEAKER_00 (08:31):
It is.
And speaking about four-hourjourneys, you can spend four
hours on I-4 just trying to getto Tampa.
So while going to Miami.

SPEAKER_01 (08:38):
Unfortunately, I don't fly much anymore because I
don't have the need to.
But when I did have the planeand I was flying regularly for
business, if it was in thesoutheast, that's how I was
getting there.

SPEAKER_00 (08:50):
Nice.
Well, that's agree with you.
One of the things I enjoyed mostis 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 toalso, you know, plan on some
things that you know you know,without that that external
noise, so to say.

SPEAKER_03 (09:09):
So listen, now that we've warmed up, run the clock
back, explore Dave's journey alittle bit.
We're gonna go back to the 70sin Tampa.
Grew up in the family mechanic,the mechanical trades business.
Um that shaped the way leadtoday, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
Oh, I think it's dramatic.
Far back as I can remember, evengoing back prior to 1977 when I
landed in Florida.
My father worked for a plumbingwholesale house in Worcester,
Massachusetts.
And one day my mother decided wewere moving to Florida.
And of course, there was nothinghe could say about it.
It was great.
And uh, we moved down here, hehad no job, but uh he ended up

(09:51):
getting a position in in thesame type of business as a
plumbing wholesale.
And that sort of evolved intobecoming what's called an an
independent representative, somanufacturer's representative.
So eventually he became a wemoved from the plumbing
wholesale trade to themanufacturer's representation

(10:12):
trade, which these are thepeople that sold to plumbing
wholesales, if you want tounderstand it that way.
And it's actually the people whorepresented my product at
Quantum Flow when I started thecompany who have these
independent reps.
So I I mean, this is I grew up.
This is why I ended up where I'mat.
Certainly wasn't planned thatway.

(10:33):
I just went to work for my daduh while I was going to college
because he just needed the help.
I just didn't escape the gravitywell.
He ended up sticking around.

SPEAKER_03 (10:43):
But very cool.

SPEAKER_01 (10:45):
My dad was uh amazing.
I lost him in 1998 at only age58, 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 andwe were working together for so
long, I feel like that benefitedme a lot in what I would

(11:05):
eventually do in the future.
Yeah, so I look at myself now assort of a Florida native.
I've been here since I was 13.
So yeah, fan, and all nineyards.
I still cheer for the Patriots,but another if it's between the
Patriots and the Bucs, I'm gonnachoose the box.

SPEAKER_03 (11:23):
No, without a shadow of a doubt, that friend and your
wife, Debbie, would not allowyou to speak those words about
being a Florida native.
Because, like you, I'm marriedto a native, and I said, You've
been here since I was 14.
Doesn't that uh qualify?

SPEAKER_01 (11:38):
Um, no, no, no, technically, technically, she's
not a native, she was born inHouston, so okay.
I thought she was a native, butshe moved here at two weeks old.

SPEAKER_03 (11:47):
Okay, look, so yeah, just wanted to throw that out
there.
That's all that is.
You just met because you and Ican't claim native.

SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
But listen, bro, stick in your spokes, right?

SPEAKER_03 (11:55):
Let's go to Armstrong Pumps and uh give us
some of the lessons that youlearned from that chapter that
still guides you today.

SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
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 anoffice in Central Florida in
1989 for my family's company ofindependent reps.
And uh my specialty was with acompany that made plumbing
pressure booster systems.

(12:24):
So think anywhere you have tolift your pressurize water,
think of a high-rise building,right?
How do you get the water to thetop floor?
You got to pressurize them.
So these are the type of deviceswe I specialized in as an
independent rep with my parents.
They came to me and gave me areally great offer to join the
team.
I was in my early 30s.

(12:46):
I was probably younger than myson is now.
It was a way to sort of sit onmy 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 opportunityto strike out on my own.
My dad was 100% in favor.
He goes, Look, I could obviouslyuse you here, but he is gracious
enough to allow me to lead.

(13:08):
And it was really one of thebest things that ever happened
to me because it was sort oflike getting thrown into the
fire.
I had to learn to become notjust an independent
representative and a sales guyin the field.
I had to now learn to manage ateam of salespeople.
Right.
And so it, along with a lot ofthe other stories that we

(13:29):
certainly don't have time to gothrough on this podcast, is what
sort of shaped me as anindividual.
And that always impacted me iswe're not sort of the essence of
all these stories that shapedus.

SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (13:41):
And in my case, I went out there without a clue in
the world, you know, to be amanager of people.
And I made a lot of stupidmistakes.
You know what?
That's necessary.
That's the best way to learnbecause you never forget it when
you make the mistake.
And so they taught me to managea group and eventually gave me

(14:02):
the confidence to kind of runfrom there.
I started the Peter principle.
Yeah, you advanced to the pointwhere you can no longer advance
any further.
And that's what happened to meat Armstrong.
I was actually uh voted salesmanof the year my first year there
by my peers.
Huge, because I was the youngestsalesman in the group, and these

(14:22):
guys all had years ofexperience.
But I learned a lot from theseguys.
It was really good to get outthere and really just hone my
craft, if you will.
Make a lot of stupid mistakesdoing it, but it was a great way
to learn.
So, yeah, I have a lot of greatmemories of club of that first
management position.

SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
And I'm I'm assuming that that came with a world and
being many different places,right?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (14:49):
Of course, the the downfall, the negative in that
is it did cost me my firstmarriage.
I think a lot of that had to dowith being young and stupid and
realizing that you know somethings that are more important.
I got lucky, right?
So I met a wonderful woman yearsago and Debbie, and we have a
great relationship, and my kidslove her.

(15:12):
So it's you know, kind of workedout the way it did.
But you have to be careful.

SPEAKER_02 (15:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (15:18):
You get out there and you start getting a little
full of yourself and thinkingthat you can start a world in a
day.
You can't.

SPEAKER_00 (15:24):
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 thesechapters here and share in it
more your story.
And it's about Delta P systemsand how that experience prepared
you for launching Quantum Flow.

SPEAKER_01 (15:42):
So I guess I should have known better.
That's how I'm gonna start thisstory.
Went out there and I learned alot of great things with
Armstrong and then actually tookon another position between that
and Delta P and eventually aglobal sales manager.
So I was traveling globally upuntil 9-11.

(16:03):
And on 9-11, I was home with myyoung son Brad at about six or
seven years old, and he was homefrom school sick.
Thankfully, I was there with himwhen things unfolded on TV, and
it kind of changed my attitude.
I realized then and there, waita minute, I could have been on
that plane, I could have beentraveling when this happened.

(16:25):
A lot of things could have gonewrong.
Uh, so it did really kind ofmean, and so as a result of
that, it sort of pushed me intothis business.
Uh, this gentleman was uhstarting in Ormond Beach, and he
was a former uh customer ofmine, a contractor.
And he did he decided that hewanted to start building these
plumbing machines, thesepressure booster systems.

(16:47):
I was told, yeah, but he reallydidn't know how to build a
business.
And you know, I had many yearsnow in management, building it
building in a business, andactually succeeding and fails,
and you know, we're breakingsales.
So I told him then join you onone condition.
First of all, he couldn't affordme.
I was a global sales manager, hecouldn't afford me in a million

(17:08):
years.
I took a pay cut and I lived offsavings.
And the reason I did that isbecause I was going to be paid
partially in income and sweatequity in the form of stock in
the business.
So got you know, we were ninemillion, I think, in sales, and
I had developed all the salesprograms.

(17:30):
In fact, I had developedeverything that became that
business and discovered at thattime my business partner didn't
know much about business andwas, you know, wasting, he
didn't manage money, didn't justa lot of different things.
And so I, you know, one day andI said, Look, it's gonna be one
either you or me, one of us hasto go.

(17:51):
And he goes, Well, I'm olderthan you.
He was about 10 years older.
He says, So you may as well buyme out.
I said, Perfect.
Give me a number.
He gave me a number, and uh, Iput a business plan together,
went to several banks.
The very first bank that I wentto was BBT.
BBT said, This is the best deal,this is an easily financiable

(18:11):
deal.
We will pay him and we will kickhim out the door.
So, long story short, thathappened.
We got, you know, we were rightalong.
We were two weeks from themoment that we were supposed to
close on this financing deal,and he would be out of my life
forever, and I would own thebusiness free and clear.
He reneged and the way hereneged wasn't the way normal

(18:34):
people reneged.
No, well he decided that hey, ifI change the locks on the door
and he can't get in, maybe hewon't come back.

SPEAKER_00 (18:43):
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (18:44):
So uh short, that I I would I I bowled the uh
reluctant entrepreneur, right?
Uh I I left went down the roadto an attorney that was
recommended to me, and I gavehim through the whole story
about how I built this company.
And he goes, Well, he says, Doyou want me to start the
paperwork?
I said, What are you talkingabout?

(19:05):
I just told you a story.
He goes, Well, he says, Itsounds to me like that business
succeeded because of you.
Give yourself the credit for it.
I, you know, what do you wantthe new company to be called?
And I met some really, reallygood people there.
I'll keep that till the next tothe question down the way.
I uh I started quantum flow thatway because I had no other
choice.

(19:25):
I had I had ideas.
When I left, we used none oftheir ideas.
In fact, I gave my attorney mymy disc from my computer.
He let me keep the computer, Igave him my disk drive.
And my at my attorney'srecommendation, I'm glad I did
that because six months laterthey came back to try to sue us
to shut us down.

(19:45):
All right.
And then the rest is history.
History, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 (19:50):
And that was in 07.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
This happened, by the way, right before Christmas
2006.

SPEAKER_03 (19:58):
So, Dave, you're kind of a nerd.
You're talking about makingboosters and water flow systems
and things like that.
That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 (20:04):
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 tothat stuff.

SPEAKER_03 (20:12):
Not not on your question earlier, like in the
couple of the the books youread, a couple of the the
people, the books are about.
I I can see why you chose thosebooks and the people because
they kind of are like yourself.
So anyway, Roy, you wanna youhave about the boost system?

SPEAKER_00 (20:28):
Yeah, so first of all, Dave, it's amazing how when
one door shuts, the other oneopens, and some sometimes it's
shutting that door or havingthat door shut on you to a
couple of times, right?
That's right, that's right.
Amazing.
So you started Quantum Flow andthen and developed the the uh
the booster operating systemsoftware.

(20:49):
You know, tell us about it andthe biggest technical challenge
you face while doing so.

SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
Yeah, so quick uh segue into this.
So as I mentioned, we I left thehard drive with all our ideas
with my attorney because youknow, when Quantum Flow, I knew
there was a need for a productthat really leveraged
technology.
We're talking 2007, right?
Right.

(21:16):
No, so you saw thispreponderance of technology.
Well, in the industrial space,this is where we started seeing,
you know, touch screeninterfaces and different types
of of computing solutions thatwere much, much faster than just
meager relays and days andthings like that.
And I knew where I wanted, andand this is an important topic,

(21:38):
so let me just sidebar for aquick minute.
People that come to me, they go,Well, well, what how did you
come up with that?
I mean, where did you get thisidea?
And the best example I can giveis start with the end in mind.
Right where you want to be.
When you understand where youwant to go to, it's a lot easier
to fill in the blanks from startto finish.

(22:00):
If you know where you're gonnafinish, it's easy to backfill
into the starting of anddevelopment of that.

SPEAKER_02 (22:07):
True.

SPEAKER_01 (22:07):
And I knew I wanted something that was the products
that were on the market weresomething called constant speed
systems.
In other words, when thepressure dropped, they just
turned on on a motor that wasrunning across the line, meaning
full speed, and it pressurizedthe building and then it shut
off.
And when there was anotherdemand, they'd do the same
thing.
It was on off.
There was no in-between asenergy started getting more

(22:30):
expensive around for years andyears, something called variable
frequency drives that wouldpaint and change the actual
speed of a motor, like to changethe light on the on a wall with
a RIA stat.
It could be automaticallycontrolled to speed up or speed
down according to the demand inthe system.
And we knew this is we wanted tobe the leader in variable speed,

(22:54):
pressure boosting technology,but we would be the leader that
was very recognizable fromeverybody else.
So that was number one.
We saw the value as you reducethe speed, by the way, of a
pumper fan, your energy isreduced by the cube of the speed
reduction.
So if you're running at onlyhalf speed on a pumper fan, it

(23:17):
actually is using 12% totalpower.
Now, most of the time thesethings are operating, they're
operating at those low speedsanyway.
So instead of turning on at fullpower, these things are just
kind of ramping up and downthroughout the day.

unknown (23:31):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (23:31):
So energy-wise, they were extremely energy efficient.

SPEAKER_02 (23:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (23:35):
In many cases, you could go back and show a payback
for the equipment if you didyour sales program right.

SPEAKER_03 (23:42):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (23:44):
Okay, instead of selling you this piece of
equipment, how'd you like it forfree?
And now you've got theirattention, right?
Well, here's how you're gonna doit.
You're gonna you're not notgonna put in a constant speed,
you're gonna put in a variablespeed.
So that was step number one.
Step number two is we had tohave a software package that
detected these minute changes inthe building and responded

(24:05):
accordingly.
That was number one.
Number two, you had to know whenthere was no more flow in the
system so it could shut off.
Because how do you save the mostamount of energy?
You don't run the motor.

SPEAKER_02 (24:17):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (24:18):
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 (24:28):
So having said that, the the flow of the technology
took that long to figure out, orwas it the the fact that you got
it in the system inside ofclients took that long?

SPEAKER_01 (24:43):
Yeah, great, great question.
Yeah, we actually was sort ofnipping at the heels of the of
the tech.
So when we started doing this,there was really no, I call it
artificial intelligence forpumps.
Everybody's pumps, everybody'sproducts out there, even the big
guys, were very, veryrudimentary.
They were very it was a maturemarket, right?

(25:04):
It was machines and relays andstuff.
And we, you know, our our ourtagline, well, we weren't a pump
manufacturer or we weren't asystems manufacturer, we were a
technology company that justhappened to build on systems,
right?
So we we uh everything was toomuch, right, right again.
And we were always getting atthe heels of the tech.

(25:27):
Right.
So as the software got better,as the computers got stronger,
our technology evolved with it.
So yeah, that's why it took thatlength of time to sort of evolve
with the evolving systems thatwere there.

SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
You know, my previous company, Dave, was in
telecom, and so we we wesupported a lot of critical
infrastructure companies,utility companies, skata
systems.
And you're right, it was a lotof it, a lot of it was real
relay based, on or off, no noability to do any type of
variable or ramp up as as demandwas needed, etc.
So kudos, Sean.

SPEAKER_01 (26:04):
As I was walking out the door, just to yell at person
as you were walking, went fromSCADA to IP based.
Yeah, I mean, you can as a hugesomeone who's been that market,
there's a there's a hugeexponential leap in technology.

SPEAKER_03 (26:17):
Makes sense.
And all of the years I've knownyou, and we've had conversations
about a lot of this stuff.
It makes sense why you chose acouple of the people, the books
that you've read and who've kindof helped you grow the business
and who you kind of uh model methe right word, but you know,
you've taken pieces away fromthem to help you grow your
business.
So anyway, with that, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 (26:37):
Let me just make one before we move on.
Let me make one more pointbecause this is super, super
important to viewers.
You know, we were not the bigguy on campus, we were the tiny
little bug, right, in inSanford, Florida, that was sort
of trying to change the world.
When it comes to tech, and whenit comes to innovation,

(26:58):
innovation is the greatequalizer.
It takes the smallest, mostinsignificant business.
And in our case, we wereacquired by, are you ready for
this?
A 150-year-old multi-billiondollar German company.
So, you know, we think of amark, even though we're a very,
very small position for them.

SPEAKER_00 (27:19):
Smart, smart German.

SPEAKER_01 (27:20):
You know, for those that are thinking you know, it's
insurmountable, right?

SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
A smart German company, I was gonna say,
because you know, my my formerbusiness partner always, you
know, he had saying, and heworked for compact computers for
many years and in Europe and isinstrumental in putting the
digital equipment corporationand compact merger together.

SPEAKER_03 (27:40):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (27:41):
Yeah, and saying he's like, you know, the
companies that fail to innovate,you know, when they reach their
plateau and they could becomecomfortable are the ones that
actually fall behind.
And small is good, man.
I and I can tell you fromexperience.
I mean, Mike started my telecomcompany, we were the last to
market, and and the banksactually turned us down and said
we and we put our own money in,and and 10 years later with 60

(28:03):
market share.
Because being small, you canpivot very quickly.
These that's right, thesebigger, these bigger companies
are so set in their ways.
By the time they figure outwhat's going on, it's monkey
years later.

SPEAKER_01 (28:14):
And Sean can appreciate this.
The banks are only there whenyou don't need them.

SPEAKER_03 (28:19):
That's right.

SPEAKER_01 (28:20):
By the time we grew, and I didn't really need them
anymore.
Oh, yeah, you know, we'll punchyour teeth.

SPEAKER_02 (28:26):
Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 (28:26):
But up then it's impossible.
Well, yeah, it's well this Sean,you can think to this no bank
can ignore a great businessplan, right?

SPEAKER_03 (28:37):
That's the case.
You would think that's the case.
Not every bank, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
So you're done you can of worms there, David.

SPEAKER_03 (28:47):
Right, right, right, right.
There's to be said about whatyou just said and what I about
what's going on.
You and I, Dave, have had thisconversation about the you know,
some big, beautiful bill, right?
We don't need to go intopolitics about it, but we know
that it's it's multi-metal-sizedcompanies that can really take
advantage of what's going on outthere, and that's the exciting
part for me today.

(29:08):
And you and I are on a weeklycall talking about deals.
So um exciting.
But listen, who once wrote acheck to the government equal to
your life's gross income?
Wow, I remember you telling meabout that a couple of years
ago.
Uh, how did that amount reshapeyour financial strategy?

SPEAKER_01 (29:27):
Well, you know how it's fun to do with all these
politicians talking about payingyour fair share.
I paid 100% of my total life'sincome.
Is that fair enough?
You know, obviously a businesssale, so it was a lot of money.
But at the end of the day, I usethat story, if you will, to sort
of grab people's that say, youknow, if you're not considering

(29:49):
a business sale or if you'reconsidering a business sale, it
doesn't matter.
You should be ready.
And there's some elements in theQSBS.
For example, that if you getready two years in advance,
there's a way for you to avoidthe pain I had with that check.
So things like this that becomevery, very important.

(30:12):
And you know, you know, now thatI've left and I've sold my
business, I do more privateequity, and we live in the
margins, right?
Any opportunity you can get tomake a business more profitable,
if I'm doing an acquisition, youknow, you the margins are
everything.
The margins of that particularbill, and that thing is, in my

(30:34):
opinion, it is written for thelove of Main Street.
It was written for the love ofthe small business that has been
stomped all over for the pastcouple of administrations.
And it's just not right.
It's the backbone of thecountry, and GE and Exxon aren't
going to keep us afloat.
In fact, most most employment,Dick, what is it, like 80% of

(30:57):
the employment in the UnitedStates is small business, and
the rest might be even more thanthat.

SPEAKER_00 (31:01):
Right.
Yeah, right, right.
That must have uh profoundlyimpacted how you think about
wealth and long-term planning.
Uh, you know, speaking ofspeaking of transitions, for
founders who are approaching amajor financial milestone like
an exit, what advice would youoffer to help them prepare
strategically?

SPEAKER_01 (31:20):
Yeah, that that that common question, I would say,
and you've probably heard thison Shark Tank a million times.
Know your numbers.
You're if you're you're an owneror a founder, whatever capacity
you're in in ownership capacity,you had a better know the
numbers for your business.

(31:41):
You better know your your grossmargin, net margin, your EBITDA.
Everything is important there.

SPEAKER_02 (31:48):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (31:48):
Because you know, at the end of the day, let's say
somebody walks in from Germanyand puts a puts a money on your
desk.
How do you know that's enoughmoney?
Everything is really a functionof your earnings.

SPEAKER_02 (32:00):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (32:00):
Well, they're buying the future cash flow success of
that business.

SPEAKER_03 (32:05):
Yeah, Dave, you it is so to know the numbers, man.
It is paramount.
And you know, we CEOs and theydon't know the numbers and they
wonder why they can't getfunding and things like that.
And so it's important.
But you you've um you've gotinvolved with the multifamily
stuff and you decided to thatthat it's now time to go into
more private selectiveinvestments.

(32:28):
What red flags do you look forin deals today?

SPEAKER_01 (32:31):
With the private equity or the or the real
estate?

SPEAKER_03 (32:34):
With the the the private equity stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (32:36):
Okay.
So let me quickly back up on thereal estate and just kind of
explain to you how now doingmore private equity.
So we a couple of years ago, Iwas looking for something to do,
you know, in my and uh I did goto these programs and I went
through the entire program andyou know, pine that here's how
you can make a billion dollarsin real estate, you know, the
typical here about two o'clockin the morning on on TV.

(32:59):
And and and all although it hadsome value, the problem was is
that value went when interestrates were zero, one, two
percent, right?
There's there's enough out thereto to create cash flow and to
add value to a real estateportfolio.

(33:20):
The problem is all these peoplethat were listening to these
programs and staying up at twoin the morning decided to try
their hand at this, and they hadno idea how to do proper due
diligence.
So what they ended up doing issomething called compressing the
cap rate.
The cap rate is the actualincome that a business can

(33:41):
generate in a year.
And you whether it's a you knowconventional business or
multifamily apartment complex,and what ended up happening is
they were paying too much forthe property and they couldn't
service the debt as the ratesstarted creeping up.
And a lot of these people gotthemselves into some serious hot

(34:03):
water.
It's kind of like a from fromthe from the GFC.
And so I did invest in somesyndications, which means I was
in a lump investment with abunch of other people, and those
things are still I'm stillwaiting for those to to sort of
bear fruit.

(34:23):
For me, I can wait.
It doesn't matter.
My money's stored there, butthere's some people that you
know there they're there aresavings 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 asthey said?
Probably not, because you knowthe Biden administration took
care of that.
Everything is coming back.

(34:43):
I think that was the purpose ofthis this uh jobs and tax cuts
bill, what we call the OBBB, tosort of mainstream.
So, long story short, so whatwas the other option?
The other option was as a formerchair of Grow FL, these great
businesses of the backbone, theeconomic Florida, these small

(35:04):
businesses that were might bestruggling and may need some
assistance, whether it befinancial or management, but
they had really numbers and theyknew their numbers, right?
Or maybe they just shifted offtrap and they got a little too
far off the center line.
There was an opportunity thereto invest in those businesses
and the return, think of rentstabilization in a multifamily,

(35:28):
can take two, three, four, fiveyears.
But you can stabilize a businessfairly quickly as long as you
can raise revenue and increasesales and do all these, you
know, the fundamentals.
So that's how I moved frommultifamily into private equity.
And we we look at a lot ofdifferent businesses every day
that that you know, a trucktank, right?

(35:51):
Hey, if I can get somebody inthere that knows what they're
doing, that isn't just there to,you know, throw them a couple
hundred thousand dollars and andand get a loyalty for whatever
they're producing.
Those those guys, they've gotyou know 20, 30, 40, 50
portfolio companies that theyown a piece of.
They can't really spend the kindof time that a private equity
firm can.

(36:11):
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 onthe ground from a financial and
business perspective.
So that's why we that's how weelected to move into private
equity.

SPEAKER_03 (36:28):
Very, very good.
Well, the the cap rates andinterest rate stuff is I love
the way you've honed in on thatstuff over the last couple of
years, and you've really focusedon interest margin going forward
and just been uh pleasure ofworking with you and getting to
know you and all of this stuff.
And I'm just looking forward towhat the future has and knowing
that Florida is a middle marketstate, right?

(36:49):
And so there's so manyopportunities, and this bill
that was passed is gonna helpwith that.
And so, yeah, to Roy.

SPEAKER_01 (36:56):
That is predictable, Sean.
You know, it's you you andtalked about this many times.
At the end of the day, if thenumbers are good, it's just a
math problem.
We just gotta figure out how toback in to the correct math,
right?
And you know, it's like hello,you squeeze here, it's gonna
blow up here, you squeeze, youknow.
So you got that that happymiddle.
You got good sales, you got goodmarketing, you got good

(37:18):
production, if that's the case.

SPEAKER_00 (37:20):
It's a perfect segue.
You you you kind of you kind ofhit a little bit on what I was
about to ask, but but if you canexpand it a little more for me
and unpack it, looking ahead,trends do you see shaping the
future of private equity andreal estate investing?

SPEAKER_01 (37:33):
Yeah, I mean, all you do is watch, you know, uh
CNBC or these uh financialchannels.
The Fed has done a startdropping the rates
precipitously.
They want a controlled recovery.
And what happens is,unfortunately, for the small
business, that liquidity that'snormally would be available to

(37:54):
them at lower rates becausebanks are willing to lend,
they're willing to take agreater risk because they're not
making as much on the federalside.
Those businesses have the sameaccess that a large business
that really doesn't need themoney, but they'll take it
anyway, right?
They're getting really greatwholesale rates, right?

(38:15):
Sean, I'm sure you know allabout this, right?
I'm borrowing a million dollarsand I'm I'm borrowing against
assets that I have.
In other words, I don't pay you.
You just take a million out ofmy bank account.
My rates are fantastic, right?
But if you have a small businessthat's bootstrapping, they don't
have access to the equal cashposition that an Exxon does, or

(38:40):
GE or these, you know, Apple orthese huge companies that are
publicly traded.
They have a limited access tocash.
So what what's the what's therelief valve there?
The relief valve there isprivate equity and private cash
that is saying, look, we'regonna partner with you because
we believe in your business.

(39:00):
So not only do we believe inthat business, we're gonna bring
money into your business so youcan grow so that now as
partners, we grow together andwe both benefit accordingly.
Right.
I think that's as much as Iwould 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 tillPowell gets out of there.

(39:23):
And even then, you know, theyhave to be responsible.
They can't, you know, the FedSide note the best book I've
ever read.
We're gonna talk about booksI've read.
The best book and the scariestbook I've ever read in my entire
life is a book called TheCreature from Jekyll Island.
G.
Edward Griffin.

SPEAKER_02 (39:43):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (39:44):
Read that book.
It's about the founding of theFed F.
It is the scariest and the bestbook I've ever read.

SPEAKER_02 (39:50):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (39:50):
So I I I understand a little better how these things
work because of that book.
And I would strongly recommendanybody watching this to get it
and read that book.
But again, this is really whereI see the trend for private
equity actually being a benefitbecause we we don't have all the
answers, but we're not going toapproach a position in a company

(40:12):
if we don't know exactly whatwe're gonna do when we get
there.

SPEAKER_02 (40:16):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
We're putting up our own money, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (40:19):
Right, right.
Yeah, we're previous segment.
We touched on private equity,how you know they're picking up
service-related industriesbecause of that, throwing
revenue.
Exactly.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (40:29):
When do you not need your refrigerator repaired,
right?

SPEAKER_03 (40:33):
Yeah, right, right.
How can you have that?
So so Dave, we met at GoreFL andwe're still involved.
You're you're a lot moreinvolved than I am.
I know you did the judging ofthe companies of the year a
couple of weeks ago.
When when you were the chair, sowhat was the one initiative that
you are most proud of that thatthat got accomplished?

(40:53):
And I know there's a couple ofthings, but but tell us about
yours.

SPEAKER_01 (40:57):
Uh, as you know, Sean, that is a two-year stint.
It's actually a six-year stintbecause you're you're you're
vice chair for two years, yourchairman for two years, and then
you're immediate past chair fortwo years.
So that's a six-year stint, andI learned a ton.
And again, how did I learn?
I learned from talking to peoplelike you, talking to other

(41:18):
businesses, listening to theproblems, coming up with
solutions.
In our case, something I'mprobably most proud of, and it
actually took it went beyondtwo-year chairmanship.
And it actually happened oneweek after I handed the gavel
over to Pete Previtt, who was myvice chair, and we became a
501c3 non-program.

(41:40):
And all the background, all thework for that was done during my
chairmanship.
So you know, we we said westarted as a state-funded
entity.
Now I'm GrowFL is 100% funded byits members.
It's a it's an organization thatexists to educate second-stage
businesses in guess what,exactly what I'm doing now in

(42:02):
private equity.
Here's how you succeed.

SPEAKER_03 (42:04):
Yes, yes, yes, beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 (42:06):
Yeah, yeah, it was a perfect segue for me.
That's why I say this uh if ifif being the renewer was dropped
on my lap, being a reluctantprivate equity investment
dropped on my lap as well.

SPEAKER_00 (42:17):
Wow.
Uh I mean, first of all,congratulations on on that.
And you know, everybody'sendeavor, at least it should be
everybody's endeavor, that youknow, when you get involved in
something, always uh leave itbetter than it was and sounds
from things that you you you didthat and and beyond more.
So kudos to you.

SPEAKER_03 (42:35):
I'll tell you, you know, typically when you roll up
as a chair, right, you kind oftake a break and you don't
you're you're not as engaged.
And Dave is still very much soengaged and has been engaged.
And again, it's just a part ofhis DNA of being out there to
support second-stage companies.

SPEAKER_01 (42:51):
So I'll run into founders council, and we now
have a group of entrepreneursthat have either successfully
founded and exited businesseslike me, and that access to us
is free of charge to grow callmembers.
I mean, just think of otheradvertisement than becoming a
member of Groff Cal.
Right.

(43:11):
Right, perfect segue again.

SPEAKER_00 (43:13):
So building building on that, how do you approach
mentoring second stage CEOsdifferently from early stage
founders, given their uniquechallenges and growth
trajectories?

SPEAKER_01 (43:24):
That's actually an easy answer.
Groffel is only at second stage.
So we don't do any startup, youknow.
And actually, the thing Groafelcame into being was Tom O'Neill,
who was a uh professor over atuh UCF, had actually had an
incubator at UCF.
And some of those companies weregrowing out of the incubator and

(43:47):
they were moving from startup tosecond stage, and they had no
place to go.
So Groafel was created to helpthose second stage businesses,
and it just so happens thatsecond stage has the greatest
contribution to the economicengine of Florida, and I suspect
probably most states.
State, that's right.
Nice, yeah, yeah.

(44:09):
So yeah, we we do a lot of peernetworking and panel networking
in general at some of theevents.
People will come up to me andask me questions, and I'll ask
them questions.
So it's a really greatorganization for peer
networking, right?

SPEAKER_03 (44:25):
Well, look, we've we've we've done some stuff,
talked about some serious stuffhere.
Um, we got a little uh a fewmore things to talk about, but
let's have a little bit of funwith some quick fire favorites.
And what was the mostadventurous thing you ever done
outside of business?

SPEAKER_01 (44:40):
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 firstnight flight.

SPEAKER_00 (44:51):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (44:52):
And uh as finally command.
I know this was just my firstnight.
First time flying at night.

SPEAKER_00 (44:59):
You gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 (45:00):
And I was sitting at the end of the runway in Deland,
my my CFI buddy next to me, andI'm sitting there and he's like,
Well, are you gonna go?
Somebody on the runway, and I'mgoing, I don't know.
And all I see is literally whatlooks like a black curtain.
And that night, well, there wasno moonlight that night, it was

(45:24):
flying off into the darkness,right?
Yep, was the scariest thing Iever 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 becauseit's just so much calmer, you
don't get the heat rising andall the you know, the bumpiness.
And but that was yeah, that wasintense.

SPEAKER_00 (45:44):
You learned very quickly, Sean, to see and not
and not feel because becausewhen when you don't have horizon
out there, you can becomedisoriented where where your
body actually telling you thatyou're flying straight and
level, but you may actually bein a in a dive.
Yeah, uh, and and so you rely onon your instruments.
Yeah, you you you instrument tobecome the best of buddies all

(46:06):
the time, man.

SPEAKER_03 (46:07):
Sounds like sounds like in my my sophomore year
coming, I became an advancedrescue diver, right?
And we had to do a night dive inoff the coastline beach at like
80 80 feet, you know what?
I mean, it's like uh yeah, soyou rely on those you don't know
what you're swimming into,right?

SPEAKER_01 (46:24):
I know where the interests were, that was about
it, right?
Right, yeah, I keep myselfstraight and level.

SPEAKER_00 (46:30):
That's funny.
So speaking on and and rollrolling on that theme here, you
know, what was the prizinglesson you know you learned from
flying?

SPEAKER_01 (46:38):
The the process.
I really liked the process.
In fact, I liked it so much thatI turned it into a sales
program.
And with Quantum Flow, we hadthree basic things that we
focused on with our salespeople.
Because remember, my managerstrain salespeople.
I had to train my managers totrain people, and I used, you

(47:01):
know, my example.
You have the pre-flight.
Hey, we're gonna go make thiscall, and here's what we hope to
accomplish.
You have the flight or the salescall, and then you have the
post-flight.
What did we do?
Did we check off these things?
So it was sort of a greatcross-check of your instruments,
so to speak, to verify thatthings get done in an orderly

(47:22):
manner.
And one of my one of my friendsand uh sales consultants says,
because what you don't want todo is show up and throw up.
That's what he called.

SPEAKER_00 (47:34):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (47:34):
You never always have a plan.
And that's part of what Ilearned.

SPEAKER_00 (47:38):
It's it's amazing you referenced that because I've
I've used that in my owncompany.
My my my our current company isa we're a cybersecurity firm.
And and with my people, youknow, I often speak about the
flight checklist and thedifferent segments of the flight
checklist for and and what theymean.
And and cybersecurity deal a lotwith incident response and
having an incident responseplan.

(47:58):
And I've I I use aviation a lotas analogy.
And to the aviation industry, wecan learn a lot from, right?
And when you look at it, they'venailed down the whole concept of
an incident response plan.
I mean, before we push back froma gate, even as a passenger,
they repeat that in the eventthat you know sudden cap and
depressurization, you know, themask will fall, put it on you

(48:20):
first before others, etc.
And so in terms of why it'simportant and why not, why
planning for emergency duringemergency is the worst time,
worst thing to do.
Right, right, right.
So take it away from it.

SPEAKER_01 (48:37):
Was my was my free-pronged thing?
What's my multi-lite sales plan?

SPEAKER_03 (48:42):
That's why you'd be turning them on your nose up
when I invite you to myleadership 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 youcarry with you, Dave.
So the most uh meaningfulconnection you've made in your
career.

SPEAKER_01 (49:01):
That that actually is easy too.
When I was with Quantum Flowearly on, and we were sort of
bootstrapping, and every day wasan emergency, and uh, we were in
the midst of we had starteddeveloping this computer
software for the machine.
I was on it, I was traveling, ofcourse.
We were three weeks old as abusiness, and my software

(49:25):
engineer left and went to workfor a competitor while I was
traveling.
So I had to come back and I hadto learn myself how this
software works.
Fortunately, I had a gentleman,Gonado Guerreras, and Rick, as
we called him, was a genius of aman.
I mean, graduated top class atMIT.

(49:46):
He was an electrical genius, andhe took me under his wing almost
like a father, and he encouragedme and said, Look, there's ways,
you know, you can do it.
You know, he was my cheerleader.
And I remember one night, andthis is a really exciting, this
is a really cool story, that wehad a problem where the system
kept shutting down for noapparent reason.

(50:09):
And I was there, it was likeseven, eight o'clock at night,
and I'm standing out there, andliterally, this is the days when
we had to put a garden hose onthe end of this pump system so
we could run water through itbecause we didn't have a test
facility yet.
And I had the program up on thecomputer screen and I was
monitoring the program, I wasmonitoring the pulses.

(50:29):
You can probably appreciatethis, Roy.
Used a function blocktechnology, right?
And I'm sitting there, and I, asI was looking at the monitor,
the pump shut off arbitrarily,and I saw a red dot on the
monitor.
And I realized when I tracedthat back, the on signal for the

(50:50):
pump was tied to a soft signalin the variable frequency drive.
In other words, it was acomputer signal that relied on a
Modbus communication to work.
And if that communicationglitched for a minute, it would
stop the pump and reset thetimer and the pump would start
again.
It would never shut off.
So I was excited and giddy as aschoolgirl.

(51:13):
I pick up my phone and Iexplained to him, Rick, I found
the problem we've been lookingfor, and I explained it to him.
And he goes, David, you'reright.
You found the problem.
That's exactly how he said, butno, he he was hugely
instrumental in just keeping theball rolling, keeping me
encouraged.

(51:34):
That was a huge night, thosethose few minutes, and
definitely rip is a huge part ofmy success.

SPEAKER_00 (51:41):
Excellent.
That's that's awesome.
And uh, how do you say I I thinkwe can all reflect back on on
people who are very, veryinstrumental in us being where
we are in our careers and rightand and being that motivator to
coach, right?
To to inspire us to see greaterthan we ever even thought we
were able to see and achieving.

(52:01):
So that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 (52:03):
Yeah, and that base program became became the you
know, booster operating systemsof course.

SPEAKER_00 (52:08):
So and so, Dave, looking back, if you could
change one aspect of yourjourney, what it what would it
be and why?

SPEAKER_01 (52:15):
Yeah, I think you know, we just talked about
confidence, right?
I think it was I knew deep downI could do it, but I didn't have
the confidence to do it.
You know, I wasted seven yearsof my life at Delta P.
And I mean, you know, who knowswhere we could have gone if I
had started Quantum Post sevenyears earlier in 2000.

SPEAKER_03 (52:35):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (52:36):
So yeah, I mean, just believe in yourself.
And when you know that that youcan 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 theday, it worked out, and that's
what I want.
I would have just startedearlier.

SPEAKER_03 (52:53):
Got it.
Here's something I'm lookingforward to in this conversation.
I've enjoyed uh hearing it againas if it was the first time, so
I've enjoyed it.
You know, most of it I alreadyknew, but it's uh never gets
old, man.
It's up to a phenomenal story.
And any books that you've readover the years that had a
lasting impression?

SPEAKER_01 (53:12):
Yeah, one of the fortunate things is uh my travel
allowed me a lot of airplanetime, and I'm not the kind of
guy that loves to just boot up alaptop, you know, like this, and
uh bought, you know, bought aKindle and I read a lot of
books.
You know, it's more justentertainment.
Some of them were in my case, mybooks are business related or

(53:35):
financial books.
I really enjoyed book aboutSteve Jobs, uh his biography,
and I love the way WalterIsaacson writes that book, uh,
writes his books in in stories,short stories.
And then followed up with theElon book that he wrote just a
couple of years ago, and I readthat actually on a cruise that I

(53:56):
was doing, and I remember I waslike three days into the cruise,
and then the book was read, andI'm like, crap, it was
wonderful, oh yeah, this this isthe only book I brought.
So, but both those books provedto me one thing.
These guys focused on customeruser experience, customer
experience, they found theircustomer everything.

(54:19):
Money didn't matter to them,really.
I mean, and you can say timethat money didn't matter, they
were not really wealthy, theybecame wealthy as a result of
what they did, right?
Uh, especially in Elon Musk inthe book where you talk where he
talks about how many times thatrocket blew up in the South
Pacific when they were trying tolaunch space dogs.

(54:40):
So that that is a huge one.
Of course, my favorite uh myfavorite quote is on my wall at
Puinaplo, and it's a Steve Jobsquote.
And the quote is the journey isthe destination.
You know?

SPEAKER_03 (54:54):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (54:54):
And he understands that you can hear without going
through the journey, and thejourney is what builds who you
are.

SPEAKER_02 (55:02):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (55:02):
That was number one.
As far as a business, that wasit, you know, for me, that was
just inspirational.
That would be a rocket fuel wasmy second book.
Rocket fuel is about, you know,visionary versus integrator.
I I lucky I had a greatintegrator at Quantum Flow in my
in my lead engineer who neversaid no.

(55:23):
Right?
I want you to do this.
I never got a no, you know, andthen that's that's what you need
for someone.
You need the yin and yang.
You need the guy that thinksabout it, and then the guy that
goes out and does it.
And he was my my do guy.
And I changed my third choicestory, Sean, because I really
wanted to point out this bookbecause I loved this book.

(55:44):
Kill Billy Alogy by JD Vance.

SPEAKER_03 (55:47):
Okay.

SPEAKER_01 (55:47):
You can't find a more challenging story if you
look.
That was that that to me was aninspirational story.
So you ever have a chance toread that book?
It's it's amazing.
It's a great deal of respect forthat guy.

SPEAKER_00 (56:02):
Right.
It's it's it's amazing.
You you mentioned before SteveJobs user experience.
And you know, we we spoke aboutthis in in the segment as well.
He is what he did and is stillaround today and still
continues.
I mean, Apple, when when youlike it or dislike their
products, they have nailed theuser experience, right?

(56:26):
The simplification of technologyto the point where the least
technical person becomes amaster on their products.

SPEAKER_02 (56:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (56:34):
Well, and they're still living off of his stuff.
They haven't reallyrevolutionized anything since,
you know, probably oh seven.
I listened to the book on audioa couple of days ago, and they
were talking about how he was hewas saying back in 03 that your
phone would be the computer.
Yeah, he was pushing to say,hey, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 (56:54):
My phones are as much as a computer now.

SPEAKER_00 (56:56):
Yeah, right.
It's more it's more, it's moresome desktop computers that some
people have in and you know andin their homes.

SPEAKER_03 (57:04):
And we went, we had a phone, we had an iPhone, we
had the iPod, which was the themusic.
Yeah, you had uh had an iPad.
Yep.
So four or five years ago, youdon't see iPads like you used
to, you know, you see everyoneon their phones, your phones are
a little bit bigger now, but thephones were smaller back then,

(57:25):
and so again, uh and so I knowthat the gripes that I've heard
from Wall Street about Tim Cook,right?
That he is just he's notvisionary, he's just but Steve
Jobs.

SPEAKER_01 (57:37):
So I will say this too, Sean.
I mean, I don't think had I notreally read that book and really
understood what user experiencewas all about, because I really
didn't understand until I readthat book.
I doubt I would have built thekind of value that we built at
Quantum Flow.
Right, yeah, literally, eventhough you wouldn't do this, as
a you could connect that to apipe.

(57:58):
And incidentally, we do pump theuh Orlando City Soccer Stadium,
both the field and the building.

SPEAKER_00 (58:05):
Oh, yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_01 (58:06):
Yeah, that's sort of our big point about all the
systems in that building, aswell as a bunch in Vegas.
But basically, the contractorcan install that into a dry
pipe, the system will recognizethe pipe is dry, fill the system
with water, and thenautomatically go into automatic
operation.
There is no other product in theworld besides the quantum flow

(58:28):
product that will do that.
So that was the value generationthat drove the the actual
buyout, right?
They're not just buying yourEBITDA, they're buying your
potential to continue to growthat EBITDA.
Yeah, you know, and you can't dothat without pricing power.

SPEAKER_03 (58:48):
Right.
We're gonna we're gonna skiparound a few things.
You know, you've given someincredible information around
leadership and well on that,because this is about
leadership.
And so what was what what arethree valuable pieces of advice
you would give to others basedon your experiences?

SPEAKER_01 (59:06):
We already know number one, customer experience
is number one, right?
Always number two is watch yourbottom line, know your numbers,
and then number three.
I mean, it's really simple.
Customer experience, know yournumbers, don't forget to vacate,
don't forget to reflect andrelapse.
Right because if you don't,you're gonna drive yourself

(59:27):
crazy.
So that that those were thethose are sort of the big the
big theme I would have.

SPEAKER_03 (59:33):
Customer experience, know your numbers, and don't
forget to take some time off torecover.

SPEAKER_01 (59:38):
I said I call it recovery and reflection.
It's a lot easier on a uh on aLanai and Maui.

SPEAKER_00 (59:50):
Oh, yeah, things become a lot clearer.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 (59:52):
Your brain opens up, yeah.
You would be surprised.

SPEAKER_00 (59:56):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (59:56):
I mean, I'm sure you guys know that.

SPEAKER_00 (59:58):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Uh great.
Uh Would say recipe for successthere with those three three
recommendations.
And thank you for that.
We wrap up here.
Let's look ahead, delve a littlebit into legacy and what you
hope to leave behind.
I mean, quantum fly capital isclearly positioned to make a
meaningful impact.
Uh, what kind of influence doyou hope it will have on Central

(01:00:20):
Florida's business ecosystem?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:22):
Yeah, well, obviously we did talk about our,
you know, any investments thatwe make, we just we don't want
to go in there with makingmoney.
We want to go in there with theintent of making better
businesses.
Right.
And improving businesses andcreating jobs and you know,
creating revenue and doing allthe things that are that are
viewed as positive.

(01:00:42):
You know, I've a family trustand have the legal things that
people do when they have aliquidity event like I did, but
I'm not done yet.
I mean, again, this is mycontribution post-manufacturing
well, because I'm still anentrepreneur at heart, but I
enjoy building.

(01:01:02):
I enjoy the building part, thedevelopment part.
You know, once it's developed,okay, now it's it's it's on
autobiolence.
So probably that's probably thethe things that's gonna drive
drive me to get up in themorning that way.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:17):
That's right.
So so I I I'm gonna enjoy theanswer to the question.
Vision for empowering theunderserved community through
investment.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:25):
Well, first of all, let's talk about the obvious
choice, which is you know, westill have a job.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:31):
Right.
That's right.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:31):
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 thanmost Tampi.
Because we trained our people tobe skilled and they enjoyed
their job and they produced.
And as a result, everybody won.
They won, and we won.

(01:01:53):
Each year during the Christmasholidays, we would always set
aside a large fund where wewould distribute it to local
charities, which were importantto me.
For time we would we woulddonate to charities far flung,
and we realized that all thatmoney wasn't getting to the
people that could benefit fromit.
So we started searching forlocal local uh charities.

(01:02:18):
Uh, raised families was one ofthem.
Can't remember the lemon of thelady's name, if it was Carol, or
but but we we did a lot withthem, but you know, wanted to
impact our local communitybecause that's where our
employees were.
So yeah, that was reallyimportant to give back in that
way.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:35):
Nice and perfect segue here as we round the top
of something here that that Iask every one of our guests, and
each would say guests has hashas sort of uh raised the bar
for first one coming in.
Right.
But if you could build a dreamteam of advisors past or
present, who would you want atthe table to help you guide that

(01:02:56):
mission?

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:57):
Well, you obviously know who the first one is, that
would be jobs, the guy was thesales and marketing genius, and
more importantly, he was acustomer experience genius.
And if you read the book, if youdo get around to reading that
book, I mean he was a tyrantbecause he was so focused on the
that sometimes he abused his hisemployees.

(01:03:19):
So not from that perspective,but from just the sheer laser
focus of what he wanted from hispeople.
And I'm from a geniusperspective, it's gotta be Elon.
And this has nothing to do withthe fact that I read the books.
I read the books because thosepeople impacted me before I read
the book.
I read the book because I wantedto learn more about people.

(01:03:42):
So from sales, we got sales,we've got the genius in the
room, and then this one was Imean, this is one of the hardest
questions you gave me.
And all I can think of wasstrategy.
Strategy, I think Napoleon,right?
Is the most uh gifted you know,strategist probably in the last
500 years, right?

(01:04:03):
And you know, I have some FrenchCanadian in me, so a lot of
French Canadian.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:07):
Yes.
Well, so you got for customerexperience nailed down, we got
the genius in the room withmusk, so customer experience,
jobs, genius in the room withmusk, and for strategy, we have
Monsieur Bonaparte, MonsieurNapoleon Bonaparte.
Bonaparte, monsieur, très bien,très bien.
So I would say that uh Sean, Iwould have to put this one at

(01:04:29):
the top of our list of uh boardsthere too, man.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:33):
It's fun, guys.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:35):
No, it's amazing that there's very little overlap
on these boards of advisors,right?
We've done yeah, and and you hadyour yours before I I joined the
podcast, Roy.
The last four podcasts, they'reall the the there's one uh Steve
Jobs was the only one.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:50):
And I think Elon, I think we had Elon on there on
somebody's up here.
Interesting, interesting.
Well, David, first of all, it'sbeen incredible, yeah, and and
what a journey.
And I said before that as in amovie in a very interesting one,
and and and I should have said aa biography, because it's it's
it's truly just sitting herelistening to the different

(01:05:10):
challenges that you've gonethrough, and but more so your I
would say drive each timeadversity faced you in the face,
or or you know, that you you oryou face adversity, uh how you
pivoted and just createdopportunity from it after
opportunity.
Amazing, amazing story.
And I know that some of ourlisteners would would you know

(01:05:33):
want to get in touch with youand and follow your work.
It's how how can they how canyou know listeners connect with
you?

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:39):
The website for the private equity is qfly capital,
c A P I T A L dot com.
You probably can get a littlemore information on what we're
doing.
You will notice when you go tothat site that we're moving from
a real estate syndication to aprivate equity, you know.

(01:05:59):
If you want to have some fun andwatch somebody trying to kind of
fly an airplane, quantum quantumfly channel has quantum fly when
I learned to fly, and that'ssort of evolved into that's
moved from learning to fly tosome flying adventures to travel

(01:06:20):
that my wife and I have all overthe world.
And now it's I think it's gonnaevolve again into travel and and
and and finance, you know, andhow we look at at companies and
and what you sort of grow yourbusiness and and develop your
your you know, your value as acompany, your pricing power.

(01:06:41):
That's something that peoplewant to see.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:43):
Fantastic, Dave.
Everything I thought it would beand more.
Your story is powerful, man, andit reminds us of how resilience
and strategic thinking can shapebusinesses and entire
industries.
So thank you for the time.
I appreciate it.
And uh yeah, I can't wait toshare it to the to the public,
man.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:02):
It's been a pleasure, guys, and I've really,
really enjoyed the banter.
And uh, you really challenged mea couple of times there.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:10):
Yeah, well, absolutely, David.
I you know, I share with withSean your your insights on
entrepreneurship, innovation,staying grounded through family
and mentorship really resonated.
And we know that our listenerswill take away a lot from
conversation, especially as Isaid before, the power of
resiliency and reinvention andbuilding a lasting uh legacy.

(01:07:30):
So kudos to you.
Thank you for being here, Sean.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:34):
Yeah, and to our audience, and to our audience,
um, thank you for tuning in tothis edition of the Dynamic
Business Leader Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:42):
If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to
subscribe, leave a review, andshare it with someone who would
benefit from David's story.
That's right.
And until next time, staycurious, stay driven, and keep
leading with purpose.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:58):
Love that.
Love it, love it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:01):
Amen.
Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host ofthe Dynamic Business Leaders
Podcast.
Are you a business owner orleader of a successful business?
If yes, we'd love to have you asa guest on our program.
Our goal is simple.
We provide a platform forleaders to share their
experiences to benefit others.
We want to hear your story, howyou got started, the challenges
you faced along the way, andyour passion today.

(01:08:23):
If this sounds like you're youknow someone who fits these
criteria, then be sure to get intouch with us by visiting our
website linked in the episodedescription below.
Also, don't forget to subscribeto our YouTube channel and click
the notification bell to benotified when our next episode
goes live.
Or if you'd rather listen to usduring your car rides, you can
also follow us on your favoriteaudio channel using your

(01:08:45):
podcatcher.
Thanks again, and remember, keepcrushing it.

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

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}EP.19 – Scaling with Purpose: David Carrier on Leading Through Change and Challenge