November 26, 2025 • 28 mins
Starting a business in 2017 meant navigating COVID supply chain nightmares and now tariff challenges. But for Nik Mondo, bootstrapping through chaos became the ultimate test of creativity and integrity.
Nikolas Mondo, founder and CEO of Mondo Media Solutions, built a thriving commercial AV and technology integration company from the ground up—no private equity, no shortcuts, just grit and word-of-mouth growth. From his early days working on a Lancaster farm to running live events at the White House, Nik's journey took him through a failed first partnership before he found his footing in Philadelphia. Today, his company serves clients from New York to Florida with 36 employees and nearly 80 total team members, providing everything from security cameras to conference room systems as a single-source solution. By slowing down to upgrade systems and staying laser-focused on integrity and quality control, Nik positioned his company for explosive growth—including landing the largest privately held company in the United States as a client.
Key Takeaways:
- Integrity drives growth: Zero marketing spend—all growth from word-of-mouth built on keeping promises and fixing mistakes
- Slow down to speed up: Spent 13 months overhauling systems to create the foundation for scaling to $70M
- Bootstrap creatively: Limited resources demand innovation, like forming peer networks during COVID shortages
- Values guide hiring: Lead with core principles to ensure culture alignment during rapid expansion
- Balance your life: Success includes personal goals—Nik's prioritizing his pilot's license and getting back to cycling
About Nikolas Mondo:
Nikolas Mondo is an entrepreneur and founder of Mondo Media Solutions, a Philadelphia-based commercial A/V and technology integration company. With a passion for both business growth and building strong client relationships, he focuses on delivering innovative solutions that bring people, spaces, and technology together.
Connect with Nikolas:
Website www.mmsproav.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nikolasmondo/, linkedin.com/company/mmsproav/
Instagram instagram.com/mmsproav/
Facebook facebook.com/mmsproav/
X x.com/mmsproav
This episode is brought to you by Mondo Media Solutions; Your total technology partner for IT, security, and conference room solutions. Go to mmsproav.com to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:00):
The following programming is sponsored by Marc
J.
Bernstein.
The views expressed do notnecessarily reflect the views of
this station, its management,or Beasley Media Group.
Entrepreneur, founder, author,and financial advisor Marc
Bernstein helps high-performingbusiness owners turn their
visions into reality.
Through his innovative work andthe forward-focused forum, Marc
(00:20):
connects entrepreneurs toresources that fuel their
success.
Founders Forum is a radio showand podcast where entrepreneurs
share their journeys, revealingthe lessons they've learned and
the stories behind theirsuccess.
Join Marc and his guests for amix of inspiration, valuable
insights, and a little fun.
Now let's dive in.
Marc Bernstein (00:40):
Good morning, America.
How are you?
It is not a sunny day inPhiladelphia today.
It's raining.
And our guest today is Nik.
I'll tell you more about him ina minute.
But Nik, you know, I wasthinking about the weather on
the way in here.
And I was thinking how peopleare really affected by the
weather.
My wife is always looking atthe weather report, and oh no,
(01:01):
it's going to be raining today,or oh yeah, it's going to be
raining because we need therain, but don't I don't like it.
And to me, it's like I think ofthe Beatles song Rain, which is
Rain Shine, I don't mind.
You know, that's kind of liketo me, I like the changes.
I don't mind it.
But you know, people, it seemsto me people are affected by the
weather.
(01:22):
What's your view of that beinga business?
Nikolas Mondo (01:24):
Absolutely.
I think uh it can certainlyaffect people's moods, uh, you
know, along with the seasonstoday.
It's uh very gloomy, overcast.
Uh you know, I've definitelyhad experiences where it uh I
look out the window and I'mlike, hmm, gonna hang out here
for a couple more minutes, notready to pop right out.
Right, right.
Marc Bernstein (01:43):
Yeah, sometimes you want to stay in bed a little
longer and that kind of thing.
But I think without thechanges, look, I live in Florida
um part of the year, and ofcourse I go in the winter and
it's sunny and blue every dayand it's beautiful.
And then every once in a whileyou get rain, and I'm kind of
like thankful because it's likechanging it up a little bit, you
know.
Some some too much of the same,you know, you don't want it to
(02:06):
be like Groundhog Day, you know.
Right, right, right.
So, so anyway.
So our guest today is uhNikolas Mondo, and I just want
to tell you before I go into hiswhole intro that he and I met,
we had a magical evening onenight, a year ago or so, I think
I don't remember how long agoit was, at the Union League of
Philadelphia, where we shared acigar made by his family, which
(02:29):
is like kind of a legacy cigar,and it was a wonderful night,
and we said, we're gonna have toget together on the show, and
we're finally here.
So I'm very excited about it,Nik.
Nikolas Mondo (02:38):
Yeah, uh I am as well, and uh, we'll have to uh
reconvene on over another cigar.
Marc Bernstein (02:43):
Um uh that sounds good to me.
So Nikolas Mondo, Nik Mondo, isfounder and CEO of Mondo Media
Solutions.
He's an entrepreneur andfounder of Mondo Media
Solutions, as I said, aPhiladelphia-based commercial,
AV, and technology integrationcompany.
He has a passion for bothbusiness growth and building
strong client relationships andfocuses on delivering innovative
(03:06):
solutions that bring people,spaces, and technology together.
I'm gonna change it up a littlebit today, Nik.
Your your your business isbusting out all over right now.
A lot of good things happening.
Let's talk about that, and thenwe'll get into your story.
Nikolas Mondo (03:20):
Yeah, so um, over the last several years, you
know, we've seen explosivegrowth in almost every vertical
that we're in, um, from the MSPside to uh just general overall
low voltage technologies withinorganizations.
So uh one of the ways thatwe've kind of expanded so
rapidly is by providing multipleservices for our clients once
(03:44):
we get in the door.
Um it's kind of a single sourcesolution, total technology
partner.
Marc Bernstein (03:50):
Uh for the non-techies amongst us, explain
what all that means in realterms.
You go into business and whatare you actually doing?
Nikolas Mondo (03:57):
Aaron Powell Yeah, absolutely.
So uh when we get uh initiallya contract will come in to do
security uh cameras or accesscontrol, uh things of that
nature.
That's a good start, right?
That's any one of those.
You know, the phone, the uhphone or they'll reach out for
uh any one of the services weprovide.
And then once they realize thatthey're paying multiple vendors
(04:17):
for all of these differentservices and we can consolidate
that, generally saving them alot of money.
Uh that's that's kind of howwe've uh continued to have such
explosive growth.
But um yeah, leading into uh asof late, you know, we're we're
now working with the nationalcompanies.
We just got onboarded with thelargest privately held company
in the United States.
(04:38):
Um there's a lot of uh uhexpanse and and resource
allocation that we've uh we'vehad to rapidly uh accommodate to
continue.
You had to hire a bunch ofpeople.
Yeah, yes.
And uh you know, the projectsthat we have are are ranging
from you know, the the bulk ofour projects are from New York
to DC.
Uh but you know, uh we'reworking on actively with
(04:59):
projects in Rhode Island andGeorgia and now Florida.
Marc Bernstein (05:02):
So hopefully I'll be able to this is a
national company, so right.
Nikolas Mondo (05:06):
Yeah.
So it's it's I mean, uhtraditionally we've just been up
and down the East Coast, butwe're also starting to expand
west, you know, uh morefrequently than we were.
So the we would have legacyclients that would have us um
kind of one-off uh project hereor there on on the West Coast,
and it's now it's you know,we're regularly seeing that as
(05:26):
an expansion.
Marc Bernstein (05:26):
So I didn't mean to cut you off, but hopefully I
will see in Florida this way.
So it's great.
So uh so so now that we know,we know what you do and we know
it's booming.
How many employees do you have,by the way?
Nikolas Mondo (05:38):
Uh well we balloon on the construction
projects.
Right now we're at about 36,um, and then we have a whole
bunch of 1099s for the differentservices that we provide.
Marc Bernstein (05:48):
So um as you know, as we expect how many
people totally do you haveworking out there today, would
you say I think right now we'rejust under about 78.
Nikolas Mondo (05:57):
Gotcha.
So um on on the between the1099s and the fractional uh
support that we have and theW-2s.
Marc Bernstein (06:06):
Gotcha.
So let's um let's back up andtell us how you started.
How you know, but you know,going back to because you're not
from Philadelphia originally.
Let's talk about that.
Let's talk about how you gotinto business and how it morphed
into what it is today.
And I want to talk a little bitabout the challenges you've had
since you started the company,because um all but one guest on
(06:26):
the show have had them.
We were talking about itoffline before.
So uh yes, tell us about thebeginnings.
Nikolas Mondo (06:33):
So I started uh grew up in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, and um from outthere, uh first job ever was
helping out on a farm.
Uh my buddy had had owned thefarm, and we my dad would take
me prior to school, we would gowork, um, and then I would ride
the bus from there into school.
And that taught me a lot of thework ethic that I still have
today uh growing up.
(06:54):
My family was um, a lot of myfamily are entrepreneurs uh with
businesses who are currently mymentors.
Um uh just really drilled inand instilled the the work ethic
in me.
And uh fast forward uh into myuh early, early 20s, I started
working at a production companywhere we did live events for uh
(07:15):
concerts and and uh events.
And I started in the warehousethere and worked my way up uh
till I was running the salesdepartment there, and then
eventually got poached by acompany uh that was the uh
nationally one of the largestcompanies for for live events
for the staging side.
I from there did a lot ofevents at the White House, uh uh
(07:36):
down at the National Mall, upand down the East Coast, New
York.
Um and uh ultimately partneredwith someone that I met there
doing a political event and uhstarted my first business.
And from there, you know, uh Ilearned a lot uh as my first
business endeavor that uh youknow business can be
(07:56):
Darwinistic.
Marc Bernstein (07:58):
Was that a staging business?
Was that primarily staging?
Nikolas Mondo (08:00):
It was it was essentially what I'm doing now,
just not as many uh verticals.
Got it.
So we were just doing kind ofinstallation of audio and video
and conference rooms and thingsof that nature.
Marc Bernstein (08:10):
Aaron Ross Powell What happened with that
business and how did you come tostart uh one by yourself?
Nikolas Mondo (08:15):
Um Well, uh we hit the ground running very
quickly.
Um and then it just kind of uhas some business relationships
do, we just kind of uh startedbutting heads a little bit and
then uh just ended up splittingways.
So that was uh it was a goodlearning tool for me and uh just
kept it moving.
I came back towardsPhiladelphia.
That business was based downaround DC.
(08:35):
Okay.
Um uh came back toPhiladelphia, regrouped, and uh
rolled right into anothercompany, helping them facilitate
their growth.
Uh I was unsure what I wantedto do at that point.
I had spent a lot of time inthat industry and I was thinking
about pivoting.
Um, you know, it was a it was areal blow to you know my ego
and my you know mental uh statejust uh as I'd worked so hard to
(08:59):
get there.
Go back to work for someoneelse.
Yeah.
And um so uh ultimately I Iworked at another company and um
helped it was helping themfacilitate their growth.
And uh saw you intrinsicallyget asked for uh install
installed or permanentinstallations when you're
working in the live event space.
They say, Oh wow, this isbeautiful.
(09:20):
Can you do this here for us andthen we can rent this out and
so on and so forth.
So um with that, uh I saw thethe channel there and I asked
the CEO if he wanted to go downthat route.
Did not.
So I started the sistercompany, and then within a
couple years uh had to make themove as we were continuing to
grow.
Gotcha.
And when did you actually startuh Mondo Media?
(09:43):
Uh in 2017 is when uh thecompany was founded, and we have
uh um rolled right from thereinto COVID and from there now
into the tariff situation whereyou know it's been uh it's been
a real fun time and a real funjourney to to start a company in
2017.
Marc Bernstein (10:02):
So so there's those um hills and valleys that
we always talk about.
Um what were your what weresome of your biggest challenges
from from that period to today?
Nikolas Mondo (10:11):
Biggest challenges I had um essentially
was bootstrapping.
So uh company is privatelyowned, I haven't taken any PE.
So just uh managing uh thebootstrapping aspect uh from uh
all the resources that it takesto operate a business to uh
getting creative with that.
So that's been that's been oneof the biggest challenges with
(10:34):
uh supporting so many verticals.
Marc Bernstein (10:35):
Aaron Ross Powell So I was gonna ask you
about the skills you'vedeveloped, but creativity, I
imagine, is one of them.
Right.
Nikolas Mondo (10:41):
Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, I I used to deploy my
creative outlet in music byplaying drums, and uh I did that
throughout my childhood andtwenties, and then as I become
more limited on my bandwidth oftime, you know, my creative
outlet.
Trevor Burrus Bandwidth, I getit.
Yeah.
Marc Bernstein (10:55):
I actually, by the way, you know I'm a
musician.
I have I I actually have thatname, bandwidth, um, you know,
uh reserved for that's great.
Yeah.
So I appreciate that.
Because I think there needs tobe a live technology, maybe you
can help me with this, wherebands can rehearse and perform
in sync.
Because obviously Zoom, none ofthat stuff works.
Nikolas Mondo (11:18):
Yeah, there was um they were trying to do that,
perform shows during code.
I do remember that.
Um but yeah, there's there'sprobably a market there for us.
Marc Bernstein (11:24):
There's I I remember one, but the Rolling
Stones did a live show, and Ifound out afterwards they had to
they had to patch it alltogether.
There were they didn't have thetechnology to just perform live
on this video and have it insync.
And then it still was a littleout of sync if you listen to it.
Yeah.
So um so if they couldn't findit, it wasn't out there.
There are some now, but they'revery complicated to to work,
(11:46):
and I'm I'm sure it's comingsoon.
Nikolas Mondo (11:48):
It's latency issues and you know, getting all
that to align.
With AI, I'm sure that willcontinue to develop for sure.
Marc Bernstein (11:54):
I'll sell them my name when it's ready.
So anyway.
Um so uh we have room, by theway, for drummer once in a while
in the studio if you want tocome down and see it.
Okay, absolutely.
So, anyway, so that's whereyour creativity came from.
And tell me how that wasexercised in the business and
where you had to use that.
If you can give me an example.
Nikolas Mondo (12:12):
Yeah, for sure.
So um obviously having limitedresources, we can't just uh
apply all the people to thepositions, you know.
You have to get creative withum with how we're uh deploying
resources along with, you know,uh the issues we faced with
procuring equipment duringCOVID.
(12:33):
That was just uh we had we wesaw 24, sometimes 30 months on
back orders for equipment whereyou know there was just uh
creative solutions.
We had to I formed a grouponline uh with other business
owners across the country in thesame vertical where it was
like, hey, what do you have inyour warehouse?
How can we, you know, we kindof just all stuck together to to
(12:55):
get the the needle moving, keepthe needle moving for for our
clients.
Um that was a that was a bigchallenge.
That was took a lot of creativethought to to navigate through
those times for for that.
And uh uh currently it's it'suh continued on to um as we
continue to grow, uh getting thethe right team on board.
(13:16):
You know, we've had I've had tomake a couple changes there.
So that's as when you'reexpanding rapidly, uh I'm still
trying to keep a heavy focus onquality control.
Marc Bernstein (13:27):
Um yeah, so uh thinking about that.
So as you're growing, obviouslythere's challenges with that.
And one of them, and you madetalked about changes, and we
might need to finish this afterour break, which is coming up in
a minute.
But tell me about your companyculture, because as things grow,
sometimes it's harder to keepthat together.
So, first of all, what are youtrying to build in the culture
in your company and how have thechanges impacted that?
Nikolas Mondo (13:50):
Sure.
So integrity, I'd say, is theis the first word.
You know, if it's ifsomething's wrong, or if we uh
inevitably, if we do somethingincorrect, we fix it.
Um and that's that's somethingthat was instilled to me when I
was young.
You know, I was told you canjudge the integrity of a man by
the work he does in a place thatno one will see.
(14:11):
So um I've tried to maintainthat, and we've actually slowed
down to speed up.
That's uh that was the mainthing that we did.
Uh we slowed down to change ourERP software and how we were
managing our projects.
And uh with that, it was achallenge as anyone that has
tried to uh roll through andchange the software and uh that
(14:36):
they will know that the thechallenges you face with that.
So um with that, you know, youlose some personnel.
There's it's it can be veryfrustrating that's deviating
from the norm of theirschedules.
And um uh that's that's achallenge that's it's uh
something that you face whenyou're when you're rolling
through that.
So keeping the integrity uh forthe people that you sometimes
have to ad hoc, throw onto theuh the roster, so to speak, is
(15:00):
is something that um you justtry and make sure you're they're
ingrained with with the corecompany values, and that's
that's you lead with that whenyou're hiring and uh make sure
that those those uh missions andcore values align.
Marc Bernstein (15:12):
Love that.
And this is a great place totake a break.
So we're gonna take aone-minute break, and we'll be
right back with Nik Mondo onFounders Forum.
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(16:16):
We are back on Founders Forum and we're having
Mondo fun with Nik today.
How do you like how I workedthat in?
Nikolas Mondo (16:24):
I you know, growing up, it's uh there's been
a lot of play with uh my mylast name and uh great last
name.
I I appreciate.
In fact, uh fun little facthere is one of my friends in
high school used it, came up tome in high school with a napkin
and said, Can I use your namefor wrestling?
And I said yes.
And he ultimately became likeuh one of those uh professional
like backyard wrestlers.
(16:46):
I don't remember um one ofthose, but it's now if you
Google my name, it's he comes upnext to it.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Marc Bernstein (16:51):
Well, it sounds like it should be up that should
be a wrestler's name.
You know, it's great for that.
It's pretty cool.
Uh hey, uh, so you were we weretalking about integrity as a
core value of yours.
Happens to be one of our corevalues in our company as well.
And we use a very specificdefinition of integrity, and I'm
gonna paraphrase it, butbasically it's do what you say
you're going to do, do it ontime, and if you can't do that,
(17:15):
if you can't keep your word,because that's called keeping
your word, and this comes from aHarvard Business Journal
article that's been out thereand become very popular.
So keep your word, and if youcan't keep your word, honor your
word, which means get in frontof it.
And that means if you know, ifyou're my customer, you're my
client, and I can't do what Isaid I'm going to do on time and
(17:36):
do it right for you, I'm gonnasay, hey Nik, unfortunately this
happened.
Um, what can I do to undo anyharm?
I'm gonna cause you by I meanthat's how seriously we take it.
Sure.
You know, if if if if that'syou know, if we can't accomplish
that on time.
And you know, most people willsay, well, it's okay, you have a
few more days or whatever itis, or we're gonna really do
(17:57):
what we have to do to undo anyharm.
So how does that align withyour definition of integrity?
Nikolas Mondo (18:02):
Is it close to it's it's right in line.
Um it's I mean, we're it'salmost verbatim, you know, and
that and that I think that thatapplies to every industry.
Um, you know, and if the ifyour core one of your core
values is integrity, you know,the main thing that we've have
focused on is managingexpectations, you know, and that
that goes a long way.
(18:22):
And uh the clear and concisecommunication with your clients
and and being honest, you know,um that's that's really what has
led us to be at the point wherewe're at as we've to date have
not done any marketing.
Um I have I've spent zerodollars on marketing and um it's
been word of mouth all the way.
Or they've just called, youknow, and um uh you know we are
(18:44):
doing heavy SEO now and it'sit's you know, we're seeing the
benefits of that, but uh goingback to the integrity side, it's
it's it's something that, youknow, leaving that as a core
value, um you you're not gonnago wrong.
Marc Bernstein (18:58):
You're right where we are.
We've never ours our businessobviously is all word of mouth
as well in the financialplanning business, but we are
now also looking to startmarketing because we have
something special we feel goingand we need to get the word out
there.
So so I get that.
So I I wanted to bring up thatdistinction because most people
when you ask them what integritymeans, it means telling the
truth or being honest, or youknow, but that's a quality.
(19:21):
And integrity, the way you'reusing it and the way we use it,
is about action.
It's about things you do, youknow, how you communicate, doing
what you say you're going todo, being on time.
You know, there's a lot a lotloaded into that, yeah.
But it's not just a quality,it's about uh your actions,
yeah, which which I I I thoughtit was important to make that
distinction.
(19:41):
Uh so let's talk about if if wewere so it's October now, I
don't know when you're listeningto this listeners, but it's now
October of 2025.
If it'll be closer probably bythe time you're listening, but
if we're it's October of 2028and you and I are together
having a cigar, you know,whatever we're doing, and we're
(20:02):
looking back on the last threeyears, what would have to happen
in your life and it could yourbusiness and it could be your
personal life if you'd like.
But what does that vision looklike for a three-year period
where you would say that was asuccessful three-year period in
my life and in my business?
Nikolas Mondo (20:17):
Absolutely.
So the last as of last year, Ithe came to the fruition of my
five-year plan.
And uh this year, I'm as ofthis year, I'll be resetting uh
my next five-year plan.
This the three-year uh for meis going to be focusing on
personal goals.
I have really pushed hard andspent a lot of time and
(20:39):
resources uh personally intobuilding the business.
Um, three years success linefor me look to be able to
continue to put people in thosepositions where uh they are
handling more of the day-to-dayoperations.
Um personally, I'm workingtowards uh like to get my
private pilot's license and uhget back into cycling.
(21:01):
I had a back injury where uhI've been doing PT.
I'm trying to recover fromseveral herniated discs.
I had back surgery prior.
So for me, I'd love to be ableto golf and and kind of just go
out there and do the day-to-dayactivities again and and get
back a little bit of thepersonal side, the social side
of myself.
Cycling is bicycle bicycling.
Marc Bernstein (21:19):
Yeah.
Bicycling.
Yeah.
I uh you there are two of mypassions, golf and bicycling as
well.
Nikolas Mondo (21:23):
So it's it's when you're limited on uh the uh
activities you can do because ofyour back, it's that's one of
the that and rowing is is youknow I'm kind of limited with
the You were a rower too?
No, I just um it's somethingthat I enjoyed.
Yeah.
Uh I played hockey growing up.
Marc Bernstein (21:40):
So hence the back injuries.
It doesn't help, I know.
We we it's a mine's hip, soI've been a little limited with
golf lately and cycling.
But I did a 40-mile riderecently to the shore, which was
I hadn't done that for a while,so I'm getting back to it.
So was that for uh a cause?
The MS ride, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
Nikolas Mondo (22:00):
I've uh I had some friends do that the other
year.
I was I'll I will likely tryand get in into uh the MS ride
next year.
I think that's that's somethingI I really would uh prefer to
support also.
That's a good cause.
Marc Bernstein (22:11):
I signed up to do 75, but last minute, because
the the hip has really beenbothering me, I said I'll be
able to do this, but I may notbe able to walk for a couple
days, so I decided to just gowith 40.
But next year the plan is 75again.
So maybe we'll do that.
Join our team.
Yeah, absolutely.
I would love to, actually.
I'll commit to that.
Commit to that, all right.
It's a commitment.
We talked about commitment thelast couple of shows, so we
(22:33):
won't get into that now, butthat means we're doing it.
Okay.
All right, cool.
I'm in.
Um, so what challenges do yousee with the three-year goals?
Because one of the things withentrepreneurs when they say
they're going to do things forthemselves, my observation is
the business still kind of sucksthem up, you know, and and they
don't always get to it.
That's one possible one, but Idon't want to put words in your
(22:53):
mouth, but what but what uh whatdo the challenges in regard to
that look like?
Nikolas Mondo (22:58):
That's that that is certainly spot-on uh
assessment, you know.
All of the personal uh goalsnormally fall by the wayside,
just uh when we get back to thebandwidth statement.
So uh I'm really gonna try andcarve out that time uh for this
this period.
And uh that will be the otherchallenge I think that we'll
(23:20):
face is is the continued growth.
And do we open up in in anothermarket or another satellite
location uh to support the someof the resources that we need
farther away?
Marc Bernstein (23:32):
Aaron Powell By the way, I didn't ask you, but
uh it's unusual.
People usually mention youknow, we want to double our
business or we want to, youknow, the how much they want to
increase their business.
You didn't mention that.
You looked which I love thatyou looked at the personal side.
Um what does the what does thatgrowth look like for you if you
have that defined for the nextthree years?
Nikolas Mondo (23:50):
Aaron Powell So we just took a period of um what
I anticipated to be nine monthsinto ultimately ended up being
four thirteen months for us toswap out all of our software and
it was a slowdown to speed up.
Uh we had to reassess everysingle aspect of the company
from uh our documentation, ourdeployment, how we're operating
(24:10):
uh internally and externally.
So uh with that, you know,we're now built to continue to
scale.
Uh we're working on securingour uh a commercial property for
ourselves to to move into.
And I think that uh success forus is is the continued growth.
You know, uh we have somelegacy clients that our roadmap
(24:32):
looking at that, you know, uh60, could be 60, 70 million
dollar uh down the roadoperation uh within you know the
next five, five, six years.
So it's going to be luckily allmy hair already fell out.
So I'm just gonna really leanon my team, you know, and uh uh
(24:54):
and get the right people in theright positions and and trust in
them and uh and make sure thatum I I'm allowing them to do
what they what they need to doin order to succeed as well.
Marc Bernstein (25:04):
So we talk a lot about that on the show, the
putting people into their uniqueabilities and then let them go.
You know you know, get peoplethat can do those things better
than you can do them, and youhave nothing to worry about.
You just have to lead.
Nikolas Mondo (25:17):
That's that's it.
And I I think that um I likecoaching, you know, and I don't
like micromanaging.
So it's it's uh it's somethingthat uh my one of my questions
is is it done?
Is it not done?
And if it's not, what was theroadblock?
And you know, if that's ifthat's a trend that continues,
then maybe it's not a uh anissue with the actual work
itself.
Yep.
Marc Bernstein (25:38):
Um so I know you're a reader.
Um tell me what book are youcurrently reading next time?
Nikolas Mondo (25:44):
Well, normally I'm I'm reading business books
or self-improvement books, and Ihave three books on the on the
desk.
You're like me.
I can't ever just read onebook.
Well, I picked up Imminent byum that was uh Jose Elizondo, I
believe, is is the is theauthor.
And it's uh a book about uh theUFA uh UFO and UAPs.
(26:08):
I'm just interested in that.
And he was a uh uh governmentofficial or he was in the
defense space for for both spaceand and a bunch of different
acronym uh government entities,right?
So uh that's a book that I'mreading, but I also just picked
up all of the the flighttraining books that are are
(26:28):
sitting on on my desk that youknow if they're sitting there
and I'm looking at them everyday, I'm gonna be more inclined
to uh to just start the process.
Marc Bernstein (26:35):
But it's one of those things where you haven't
flown before?
Nikolas Mondo (26:38):
I have flown.
Most of my uh uncles areprivate pilots and have uh uh
different planes.
And every time I go to Tampaevery year for spring training
for baseball.
And um my uncle usually takesme flying there.
And uh we go out and and flyaround.
And I so I've been gettinglessons over the years uh
privately as a flight instructoras well.
So um it's just something thatI would love to have my own uh
(27:01):
license and be able to jumparound and and uh maybe conduct
some of these farther sitesurveys.
Uh nice.
Marc Bernstein (27:09):
That's great.
By the way, Tampa for springtraining, you're going to see
the Yankees, not the Philliesidea.
Nikolas Mondo (27:14):
Oh well, we'll just have to yeah, no, that's
gonna be uh that's gonna be ano.
Definitely Phillies through andthrough.
Marc Bernstein (27:20):
Okay, but we're we're so but you go to other
cities then from Tampa to to seespring training, or no?
Nikolas Mondo (27:24):
Yeah, so we can you can jump around and think
Blue Jays is in Dune Dune Dune.
Um yeah, there's a there's abunch of spring training teams.
Everyone goes down there foryou know the Grapefruit League
and uh Yankees, and it's YankeesStadium down there is beautiful
at Ben.
So it's it's you know, theyreally do it.
Marc Bernstein (27:41):
I was there for the opening when the Phillies
played them, actually.
Okay, wow in Brennerfield.
Yeah, so and it that actuallythere we are.
There's the sound.
So we're that's all the time wehave.
Nik, I knew we were gonna haveMondo fun today, and we did.
We started out that way, andit's been a great show.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you very much for havingme.
Thanks.
Thank you, and thank you allfor listening, and we'll see you
(28:01):
next week on Founders Forum.
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(00:20):
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Now let's dive in.
Marc Bernstein (00:40):
Good morning, America.
How are you?
It is not a sunny day inPhiladelphia today.
It's raining.
And our guest today is Nik.
I'll tell you more about him ina minute.
But Nik, you know, I wasthinking about the weather on
the way in here.
And I was thinking how peopleare really affected by the
weather.
My wife is always looking atthe weather report, and oh no,
(01:01):
it's going to be raining today,or oh yeah, it's going to be
raining because we need therain, but don't I don't like it.
And to me, it's like I think ofthe Beatles song Rain, which is
Rain Shine, I don't mind.
You know, that's kind of liketo me, I like the changes.
I don't mind it.
But you know, people, it seemsto me people are affected by the
weather.
(01:22):
What's your view of that beinga business?
Nikolas Mondo (01:24):
Absolutely.
I think uh it can certainlyaffect people's moods, uh, you
know, along with the seasonstoday.
It's uh very gloomy, overcast.
Uh you know, I've definitelyhad experiences where it uh I
look out the window and I'mlike, hmm, gonna hang out here
for a couple more minutes, notready to pop right out.
Right, right.
Marc Bernstein (01:43):
Yeah, sometimes you want to stay in bed a little
longer and that kind of thing.
But I think without thechanges, look, I live in Florida
um part of the year, and ofcourse I go in the winter and
it's sunny and blue every dayand it's beautiful.
And then every once in a whileyou get rain, and I'm kind of
like thankful because it's likechanging it up a little bit, you
know.
Some some too much of the same,you know, you don't want it to
(02:06):
be like Groundhog Day, you know.
Right, right, right.
So, so anyway.
So our guest today is uhNikolas Mondo, and I just want
to tell you before I go into hiswhole intro that he and I met,
we had a magical evening onenight, a year ago or so, I think
I don't remember how long agoit was, at the Union League of
Philadelphia, where we shared acigar made by his family, which
(02:29):
is like kind of a legacy cigar,and it was a wonderful night,
and we said, we're gonna have toget together on the show, and
we're finally here.
So I'm very excited about it,Nik.
Nikolas Mondo (02:38):
Yeah, uh I am as well, and uh, we'll have to uh
reconvene on over another cigar.
Marc Bernstein (02:43):
Um uh that sounds good to me.
So Nikolas Mondo, Nik Mondo, isfounder and CEO of Mondo Media
Solutions.
He's an entrepreneur andfounder of Mondo Media
Solutions, as I said, aPhiladelphia-based commercial,
AV, and technology integrationcompany.
He has a passion for bothbusiness growth and building
strong client relationships andfocuses on delivering innovative
(03:06):
solutions that bring people,spaces, and technology together.
I'm gonna change it up a littlebit today, Nik.
Your your your business isbusting out all over right now.
A lot of good things happening.
Let's talk about that, and thenwe'll get into your story.
Nikolas Mondo (03:20):
Yeah, so um, over the last several years, you
know, we've seen explosivegrowth in almost every vertical
that we're in, um, from the MSPside to uh just general overall
low voltage technologies withinorganizations.
So uh one of the ways thatwe've kind of expanded so
rapidly is by providing multipleservices for our clients once
(03:44):
we get in the door.
Um it's kind of a single sourcesolution, total technology
partner.
Marc Bernstein (03:50):
Uh for the non-techies amongst us, explain
what all that means in realterms.
You go into business and whatare you actually doing?
Nikolas Mondo (03:57):
Aaron Powell Yeah, absolutely.
So uh when we get uh initiallya contract will come in to do
security uh cameras or accesscontrol, uh things of that
nature.
That's a good start, right?
That's any one of those.
You know, the phone, the uhphone or they'll reach out for
uh any one of the services weprovide.
And then once they realize thatthey're paying multiple vendors
(04:17):
for all of these differentservices and we can consolidate
that, generally saving them alot of money.
Uh that's that's kind of howwe've uh continued to have such
explosive growth.
But um yeah, leading into uh asof late, you know, we're we're
now working with the nationalcompanies.
We just got onboarded with thelargest privately held company
in the United States.
(04:38):
Um there's a lot of uh uhexpanse and and resource
allocation that we've uh we'vehad to rapidly uh accommodate to
continue.
You had to hire a bunch ofpeople.
Yeah, yes.
And uh you know, the projectsthat we have are are ranging
from you know, the the bulk ofour projects are from New York
to DC.
Uh but you know, uh we'reworking on actively with
(04:59):
projects in Rhode Island andGeorgia and now Florida.
Marc Bernstein (05:02):
So hopefully I'll be able to this is a
national company, so right.
Nikolas Mondo (05:06):
Yeah.
So it's it's I mean, uhtraditionally we've just been up
and down the East Coast, butwe're also starting to expand
west, you know, uh morefrequently than we were.
So the we would have legacyclients that would have us um
kind of one-off uh project hereor there on on the West Coast,
and it's now it's you know,we're regularly seeing that as
(05:26):
an expansion.
Marc Bernstein (05:26):
So I didn't mean to cut you off, but hopefully I
will see in Florida this way.
So it's great.
So uh so so now that we know,we know what you do and we know
it's booming.
How many employees do you have,by the way?
Nikolas Mondo (05:38):
Uh well we balloon on the construction
projects.
Right now we're at about 36,um, and then we have a whole
bunch of 1099s for the differentservices that we provide.
Marc Bernstein (05:48):
So um as you know, as we expect how many
people totally do you haveworking out there today, would
you say I think right now we'rejust under about 78.
Nikolas Mondo (05:57):
Gotcha.
So um on on the between the1099s and the fractional uh
support that we have and theW-2s.
Marc Bernstein (06:06):
Gotcha.
So let's um let's back up andtell us how you started.
How you know, but you know,going back to because you're not
from Philadelphia originally.
Let's talk about that.
Let's talk about how you gotinto business and how it morphed
into what it is today.
And I want to talk a little bitabout the challenges you've had
since you started the company,because um all but one guest on
(06:26):
the show have had them.
We were talking about itoffline before.
So uh yes, tell us about thebeginnings.
Nikolas Mondo (06:33):
So I started uh grew up in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, and um from outthere, uh first job ever was
helping out on a farm.
Uh my buddy had had owned thefarm, and we my dad would take
me prior to school, we would gowork, um, and then I would ride
the bus from there into school.
And that taught me a lot of thework ethic that I still have
today uh growing up.
(06:54):
My family was um, a lot of myfamily are entrepreneurs uh with
businesses who are currently mymentors.
Um uh just really drilled inand instilled the the work ethic
in me.
And uh fast forward uh into myuh early, early 20s, I started
working at a production companywhere we did live events for uh
(07:15):
concerts and and uh events.
And I started in the warehousethere and worked my way up uh
till I was running the salesdepartment there, and then
eventually got poached by acompany uh that was the uh
nationally one of the largestcompanies for for live events
for the staging side.
I from there did a lot ofevents at the White House, uh uh
(07:36):
down at the National Mall, upand down the East Coast, New
York.
Um and uh ultimately partneredwith someone that I met there
doing a political event and uhstarted my first business.
And from there, you know, uh Ilearned a lot uh as my first
business endeavor that uh youknow business can be
(07:56):
Darwinistic.
Marc Bernstein (07:58):
Was that a staging business?
Was that primarily staging?
Nikolas Mondo (08:00):
It was it was essentially what I'm doing now,
just not as many uh verticals.
Got it.
So we were just doing kind ofinstallation of audio and video
and conference rooms and thingsof that nature.
Marc Bernstein (08:10):
Aaron Ross Powell What happened with that
business and how did you come tostart uh one by yourself?
Nikolas Mondo (08:15):
Um Well, uh we hit the ground running very
quickly.
Um and then it just kind of uhas some business relationships
do, we just kind of uh startedbutting heads a little bit and
then uh just ended up splittingways.
So that was uh it was a goodlearning tool for me and uh just
kept it moving.
I came back towardsPhiladelphia.
That business was based downaround DC.
(08:35):
Okay.
Um uh came back toPhiladelphia, regrouped, and uh
rolled right into anothercompany, helping them facilitate
their growth.
Uh I was unsure what I wantedto do at that point.
I had spent a lot of time inthat industry and I was thinking
about pivoting.
Um, you know, it was a it was areal blow to you know my ego
and my you know mental uh statejust uh as I'd worked so hard to
(08:59):
get there.
Go back to work for someoneelse.
Yeah.
And um so uh ultimately I Iworked at another company and um
helped it was helping themfacilitate their growth.
And uh saw you intrinsicallyget asked for uh install
installed or permanentinstallations when you're
working in the live event space.
They say, Oh wow, this isbeautiful.
(09:20):
Can you do this here for us andthen we can rent this out and
so on and so forth.
So um with that, uh I saw thethe channel there and I asked
the CEO if he wanted to go downthat route.
Did not.
So I started the sistercompany, and then within a
couple years uh had to make themove as we were continuing to
grow.
Gotcha.
And when did you actually startuh Mondo Media?
(09:43):
Uh in 2017 is when uh thecompany was founded, and we have
uh um rolled right from thereinto COVID and from there now
into the tariff situation whereyou know it's been uh it's been
a real fun time and a real funjourney to to start a company in
2017.
Marc Bernstein (10:02):
So so there's those um hills and valleys that
we always talk about.
Um what were your what weresome of your biggest challenges
from from that period to today?
Nikolas Mondo (10:11):
Biggest challenges I had um essentially
was bootstrapping.
So uh company is privatelyowned, I haven't taken any PE.
So just uh managing uh thebootstrapping aspect uh from uh
all the resources that it takesto operate a business to uh
getting creative with that.
So that's been that's been oneof the biggest challenges with
(10:34):
uh supporting so many verticals.
Marc Bernstein (10:35):
Aaron Ross Powell So I was gonna ask you
about the skills you'vedeveloped, but creativity, I
imagine, is one of them.
Right.
Nikolas Mondo (10:41):
Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, I I used to deploy my
creative outlet in music byplaying drums, and uh I did that
throughout my childhood andtwenties, and then as I become
more limited on my bandwidth oftime, you know, my creative
outlet.
Trevor Burrus Bandwidth, I getit.
Yeah.
Marc Bernstein (10:55):
I actually, by the way, you know I'm a
musician.
I have I I actually have thatname, bandwidth, um, you know,
uh reserved for that's great.
Yeah.
So I appreciate that.
Because I think there needs tobe a live technology, maybe you
can help me with this, wherebands can rehearse and perform
in sync.
Because obviously Zoom, none ofthat stuff works.
Nikolas Mondo (11:18):
Yeah, there was um they were trying to do that,
perform shows during code.
I do remember that.
Um but yeah, there's there'sprobably a market there for us.
Marc Bernstein (11:24):
There's I I remember one, but the Rolling
Stones did a live show, and Ifound out afterwards they had to
they had to patch it alltogether.
There were they didn't have thetechnology to just perform live
on this video and have it insync.
And then it still was a littleout of sync if you listen to it.
Yeah.
So um so if they couldn't findit, it wasn't out there.
There are some now, but they'revery complicated to to work,
(11:46):
and I'm I'm sure it's comingsoon.
Nikolas Mondo (11:48):
It's latency issues and you know, getting all
that to align.
With AI, I'm sure that willcontinue to develop for sure.
Marc Bernstein (11:54):
I'll sell them my name when it's ready.
So anyway.
Um so uh we have room, by theway, for drummer once in a while
in the studio if you want tocome down and see it.
Okay, absolutely.
So, anyway, so that's whereyour creativity came from.
And tell me how that wasexercised in the business and
where you had to use that.
If you can give me an example.
Nikolas Mondo (12:12):
Yeah, for sure.
So um obviously having limitedresources, we can't just uh
apply all the people to thepositions, you know.
You have to get creative withum with how we're uh deploying
resources along with, you know,uh the issues we faced with
procuring equipment duringCOVID.
(12:33):
That was just uh we had we wesaw 24, sometimes 30 months on
back orders for equipment whereyou know there was just uh
creative solutions.
We had to I formed a grouponline uh with other business
owners across the country in thesame vertical where it was
like, hey, what do you have inyour warehouse?
How can we, you know, we kindof just all stuck together to to
(12:55):
get the the needle moving, keepthe needle moving for for our
clients.
Um that was a that was a bigchallenge.
That was took a lot of creativethought to to navigate through
those times for for that.
And uh uh currently it's it'suh continued on to um as we
continue to grow, uh getting thethe right team on board.
(13:16):
You know, we've had I've had tomake a couple changes there.
So that's as when you'reexpanding rapidly, uh I'm still
trying to keep a heavy focus onquality control.
Marc Bernstein (13:27):
Um yeah, so uh thinking about that.
So as you're growing, obviouslythere's challenges with that.
And one of them, and you madetalked about changes, and we
might need to finish this afterour break, which is coming up in
a minute.
But tell me about your companyculture, because as things grow,
sometimes it's harder to keepthat together.
So, first of all, what are youtrying to build in the culture
in your company and how have thechanges impacted that?
Nikolas Mondo (13:50):
Sure.
So integrity, I'd say, is theis the first word.
You know, if it's ifsomething's wrong, or if we uh
inevitably, if we do somethingincorrect, we fix it.
Um and that's that's somethingthat was instilled to me when I
was young.
You know, I was told you canjudge the integrity of a man by
the work he does in a place thatno one will see.
(14:11):
So um I've tried to maintainthat, and we've actually slowed
down to speed up.
That's uh that was the mainthing that we did.
Uh we slowed down to change ourERP software and how we were
managing our projects.
And uh with that, it was achallenge as anyone that has
tried to uh roll through andchange the software and uh that
(14:36):
they will know that the thechallenges you face with that.
So um with that, you know, youlose some personnel.
There's it's it can be veryfrustrating that's deviating
from the norm of theirschedules.
And um uh that's that's achallenge that's it's uh
something that you face whenyou're when you're rolling
through that.
So keeping the integrity uh forthe people that you sometimes
have to ad hoc, throw onto theuh the roster, so to speak, is
(15:00):
is something that um you justtry and make sure you're they're
ingrained with with the corecompany values, and that's
that's you lead with that whenyou're hiring and uh make sure
that those those uh missions andcore values align.
Marc Bernstein (15:12):
Love that.
And this is a great place totake a break.
So we're gonna take aone-minute break, and we'll be
right back with Nik Mondo onFounders Forum.
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(16:16):
We are back on Founders Forum and we're having
Mondo fun with Nik today.
How do you like how I workedthat in?
Nikolas Mondo (16:24):
I you know, growing up, it's uh there's been
a lot of play with uh my mylast name and uh great last
name.
I I appreciate.
In fact, uh fun little facthere is one of my friends in
high school used it, came up tome in high school with a napkin
and said, Can I use your namefor wrestling?
And I said yes.
And he ultimately became likeuh one of those uh professional
like backyard wrestlers.
(16:46):
I don't remember um one ofthose, but it's now if you
Google my name, it's he comes upnext to it.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
Marc Bernstein (16:51):
Well, it sounds like it should be up that should
be a wrestler's name.
You know, it's great for that.
It's pretty cool.
Uh hey, uh, so you were we weretalking about integrity as a
core value of yours.
Happens to be one of our corevalues in our company as well.
And we use a very specificdefinition of integrity, and I'm
gonna paraphrase it, butbasically it's do what you say
you're going to do, do it ontime, and if you can't do that,
(17:15):
if you can't keep your word,because that's called keeping
your word, and this comes from aHarvard Business Journal
article that's been out thereand become very popular.
So keep your word, and if youcan't keep your word, honor your
word, which means get in frontof it.
And that means if you know, ifyou're my customer, you're my
client, and I can't do what Isaid I'm going to do on time and
(17:36):
do it right for you, I'm gonnasay, hey Nik, unfortunately this
happened.
Um, what can I do to undo anyharm?
I'm gonna cause you by I meanthat's how seriously we take it.
Sure.
You know, if if if if that'syou know, if we can't accomplish
that on time.
And you know, most people willsay, well, it's okay, you have a
few more days or whatever itis, or we're gonna really do
(17:57):
what we have to do to undo anyharm.
So how does that align withyour definition of integrity?
Nikolas Mondo (18:02):
Is it close to it's it's right in line.
Um it's I mean, we're it'salmost verbatim, you know, and
that and that I think that thatapplies to every industry.
Um, you know, and if the ifyour core one of your core
values is integrity, you know,the main thing that we've have
focused on is managingexpectations, you know, and that
that goes a long way.
(18:22):
And uh the clear and concisecommunication with your clients
and and being honest, you know,um that's that's really what has
led us to be at the point wherewe're at as we've to date have
not done any marketing.
Um I have I've spent zerodollars on marketing and um it's
been word of mouth all the way.
Or they've just called, youknow, and um uh you know we are
(18:44):
doing heavy SEO now and it'sit's you know, we're seeing the
benefits of that, but uh goingback to the integrity side, it's
it's it's something that, youknow, leaving that as a core
value, um you you're not gonnago wrong.
Marc Bernstein (18:58):
You're right where we are.
We've never ours our businessobviously is all word of mouth
as well in the financialplanning business, but we are
now also looking to startmarketing because we have
something special we feel goingand we need to get the word out
there.
So so I get that.
So I I wanted to bring up thatdistinction because most people
when you ask them what integritymeans, it means telling the
truth or being honest, or youknow, but that's a quality.
(19:21):
And integrity, the way you'reusing it and the way we use it,
is about action.
It's about things you do, youknow, how you communicate, doing
what you say you're going todo, being on time.
You know, there's a lot a lotloaded into that, yeah.
But it's not just a quality,it's about uh your actions,
yeah, which which I I I thoughtit was important to make that
distinction.
(19:41):
Uh so let's talk about if if wewere so it's October now, I
don't know when you're listeningto this listeners, but it's now
October of 2025.
If it'll be closer probably bythe time you're listening, but
if we're it's October of 2028and you and I are together
having a cigar, you know,whatever we're doing, and we're
(20:02):
looking back on the last threeyears, what would have to happen
in your life and it could yourbusiness and it could be your
personal life if you'd like.
But what does that vision looklike for a three-year period
where you would say that was asuccessful three-year period in
my life and in my business?
Nikolas Mondo (20:17):
Absolutely.
So the last as of last year, Ithe came to the fruition of my
five-year plan.
And uh this year, I'm as ofthis year, I'll be resetting uh
my next five-year plan.
This the three-year uh for meis going to be focusing on
personal goals.
I have really pushed hard andspent a lot of time and
(20:39):
resources uh personally intobuilding the business.
Um, three years success linefor me look to be able to
continue to put people in thosepositions where uh they are
handling more of the day-to-dayoperations.
Um personally, I'm workingtowards uh like to get my
private pilot's license and uhget back into cycling.
(21:01):
I had a back injury where uhI've been doing PT.
I'm trying to recover fromseveral herniated discs.
I had back surgery prior.
So for me, I'd love to be ableto golf and and kind of just go
out there and do the day-to-dayactivities again and and get
back a little bit of thepersonal side, the social side
of myself.
Cycling is bicycle bicycling.
Marc Bernstein (21:19):
Yeah.
Bicycling.
Yeah.
I uh you there are two of mypassions, golf and bicycling as
well.
Nikolas Mondo (21:23):
So it's it's when you're limited on uh the uh
activities you can do because ofyour back, it's that's one of
the that and rowing is is youknow I'm kind of limited with
the You were a rower too?
No, I just um it's somethingthat I enjoyed.
Yeah.
Uh I played hockey growing up.
Marc Bernstein (21:40):
So hence the back injuries.
It doesn't help, I know.
We we it's a mine's hip, soI've been a little limited with
golf lately and cycling.
But I did a 40-mile riderecently to the shore, which was
I hadn't done that for a while,so I'm getting back to it.
So was that for uh a cause?
The MS ride, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
Nikolas Mondo (22:00):
I've uh I had some friends do that the other
year.
I was I'll I will likely tryand get in into uh the MS ride
next year.
I think that's that's somethingI I really would uh prefer to
support also.
That's a good cause.
Marc Bernstein (22:11):
I signed up to do 75, but last minute, because
the the hip has really beenbothering me, I said I'll be
able to do this, but I may notbe able to walk for a couple
days, so I decided to just gowith 40.
But next year the plan is 75again.
So maybe we'll do that.
Join our team.
Yeah, absolutely.
I would love to, actually.
I'll commit to that.
Commit to that, all right.
It's a commitment.
We talked about commitment thelast couple of shows, so we
(22:33):
won't get into that now, butthat means we're doing it.
Okay.
All right, cool.
I'm in.
Um, so what challenges do yousee with the three-year goals?
Because one of the things withentrepreneurs when they say
they're going to do things forthemselves, my observation is
the business still kind of sucksthem up, you know, and and they
don't always get to it.
That's one possible one, but Idon't want to put words in your
(22:53):
mouth, but what but what uh whatdo the challenges in regard to
that look like?
Nikolas Mondo (22:58):
That's that that is certainly spot-on uh
assessment, you know.
All of the personal uh goalsnormally fall by the wayside,
just uh when we get back to thebandwidth statement.
So uh I'm really gonna try andcarve out that time uh for this
this period.
And uh that will be the otherchallenge I think that we'll
(23:20):
face is is the continued growth.
And do we open up in in anothermarket or another satellite
location uh to support the someof the resources that we need
farther away?
Marc Bernstein (23:32):
Aaron Powell By the way, I didn't ask you, but
uh it's unusual.
People usually mention youknow, we want to double our
business or we want to, youknow, the how much they want to
increase their business.
You didn't mention that.
You looked which I love thatyou looked at the personal side.
Um what does the what does thatgrowth look like for you if you
have that defined for the nextthree years?
Nikolas Mondo (23:50):
Aaron Powell So we just took a period of um what
I anticipated to be nine monthsinto ultimately ended up being
four thirteen months for us toswap out all of our software and
it was a slowdown to speed up.
Uh we had to reassess everysingle aspect of the company
from uh our documentation, ourdeployment, how we're operating
(24:10):
uh internally and externally.
So uh with that, you know,we're now built to continue to
scale.
Uh we're working on securingour uh a commercial property for
ourselves to to move into.
And I think that uh success forus is is the continued growth.
You know, uh we have somelegacy clients that our roadmap
(24:32):
looking at that, you know, uh60, could be 60, 70 million
dollar uh down the roadoperation uh within you know the
next five, five, six years.
So it's going to be luckily allmy hair already fell out.
So I'm just gonna really leanon my team, you know, and uh uh
(24:54):
and get the right people in theright positions and and trust in
them and uh and make sure thatum I I'm allowing them to do
what they what they need to doin order to succeed as well.
Marc Bernstein (25:04):
So we talk a lot about that on the show, the
putting people into their uniqueabilities and then let them go.
You know you know, get peoplethat can do those things better
than you can do them, and youhave nothing to worry about.
You just have to lead.
Nikolas Mondo (25:17):
That's that's it.
And I I think that um I likecoaching, you know, and I don't
like micromanaging.
So it's it's uh it's somethingthat uh my one of my questions
is is it done?
Is it not done?
And if it's not, what was theroadblock?
And you know, if that's ifthat's a trend that continues,
then maybe it's not a uh anissue with the actual work
itself.
Yep.
Marc Bernstein (25:38):
Um so I know you're a reader.
Um tell me what book are youcurrently reading next time?
Nikolas Mondo (25:44):
Well, normally I'm I'm reading business books
or self-improvement books, and Ihave three books on the on the
desk.
You're like me.
I can't ever just read onebook.
Well, I picked up Imminent byum that was uh Jose Elizondo, I
believe, is is the is theauthor.
And it's uh a book about uh theUFA uh UFO and UAPs.
(26:08):
I'm just interested in that.
And he was a uh uh governmentofficial or he was in the
defense space for for both spaceand and a bunch of different
acronym uh government entities,right?
So uh that's a book that I'mreading, but I also just picked
up all of the the flighttraining books that are are
(26:28):
sitting on on my desk that youknow if they're sitting there
and I'm looking at them everyday, I'm gonna be more inclined
to uh to just start the process.
Marc Bernstein (26:35):
But it's one of those things where you haven't
flown before?
Nikolas Mondo (26:38):
I have flown.
Most of my uh uncles areprivate pilots and have uh uh
different planes.
And every time I go to Tampaevery year for spring training
for baseball.
And um my uncle usually takesme flying there.
And uh we go out and and flyaround.
And I so I've been gettinglessons over the years uh
privately as a flight instructoras well.
So um it's just something thatI would love to have my own uh
(27:01):
license and be able to jumparound and and uh maybe conduct
some of these farther sitesurveys.
Uh nice.
Marc Bernstein (27:09):
That's great.
By the way, Tampa for springtraining, you're going to see
the Yankees, not the Philliesidea.
Nikolas Mondo (27:14):
Oh well, we'll just have to yeah, no, that's
gonna be uh that's gonna be ano.
Definitely Phillies through andthrough.
Marc Bernstein (27:20):
Okay, but we're we're so but you go to other
cities then from Tampa to to seespring training, or no?
Nikolas Mondo (27:24):
Yeah, so we can you can jump around and think
Blue Jays is in Dune Dune Dune.
Um yeah, there's a there's abunch of spring training teams.
Everyone goes down there foryou know the Grapefruit League
and uh Yankees, and it's YankeesStadium down there is beautiful
at Ben.
So it's it's you know, theyreally do it.
Marc Bernstein (27:41):
I was there for the opening when the Phillies
played them, actually.
Okay, wow in Brennerfield.
Yeah, so and it that actuallythere we are.
There's the sound.
So we're that's all the time wehave.
Nik, I knew we were gonna haveMondo fun today, and we did.
We started out that way, andit's been a great show.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you very much for havingme.
Thanks.
Thank you, and thank you allfor listening, and we'll see you
(28:01):
next week on Founders Forum.
Announcer (28:06):
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and that you found value to takewith you throughout your day.
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