Spectruss Speakeasy Podcast

Jay Shaffer has spent his career at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and investing. He got his start at Sun Microsystems during the growth years of the internet, went on to co-found VoiceQuilt, and now serves as Market Director for VentureSouth Chattanooga and Board Member of Atlanta Technology Angels, where he co-leads the screening committee and analyst program.

In this episode of the Spectruss Speakeasy, Jay brea...

Charlie Brock grew up inside Brock Candy Company, a family business that started in 1906 and became one of the largest candy makers in the country. He watched it go public, get acquired, and eventually close its Chattanooga doors. Instead of slowing down, he founded a media company and sold it, co-founded the Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, ran CO.LAB, and led LaunchTN as CEO for five years to help build Tennessee's startup ecosystem...

What happens when a doctor with 20+ years of experience stops defaulting to prescriptions and starts looking at the full picture? In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, host Sam Silvey, CEO and Founder of Spectruss, sits down with Dr. Patricia McLelland to talk about how functional medicine changed the way she practices and why slowing down often leads to better health outcomes than a quick fix.

Dr. McLelland is a board-cer...

Matt Hullander sold Hullco to private equity in 2021. He walked into the Westin Hotel, signed the papers, introduced his buyer to 72 employees, then went and ate lunch by himself. Five years later, he has built V2 Strategy to help other home service owners avoid the mistakes he made, joined Legacy Dental Group as a partner across 7 practices in North Georgia, ran for mayor of Chattanooga, and is now designing $4M luxury condos.
...

Most business owners treat banking like a transaction. Ron Jones has spent 40 years watching that mindset quietly limit — and sometimes kill — otherwise good businesses.

In this episode of the Spectruss Speakeasy, Sam Silvey sits down with Ron Jones, Regional President of SouthEast Bank, for one of the most practical money conversations we've ever had on this show. Ron has been in commercial banking since 1987 — th...

In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, Ben Brown of Alderman Enterprises joins us to discuss succession, identity, and long-term investing.

As the “Silver Tsunami” of retiring Baby Boomer owners builds, many founders are discovering that selling a company is as emotional as it is financial. Ben shares insights from real acquisitions, including a seller who struggled deeply after exiting.

We also talk about:

• Alderman&r...

In Season 7, Isaac completed the challenge and claimed the prize that had eluded every competitor before him. But the win was just one moment in a much longer journey.

In this conversation, we sit down with Isaac to talk about what it really took to get there, the years of preparation, the mental game, the physical grind, and the discipline required to compete at that level. We also dive into what life looked like after the ...

Profit isn’t what’s left over. It’s a choice you design into your business from day one. That’s the heartbeat of our conversation with Paul Batista, who pairs profit engineering with family systems therapy to help owners break free from the grind. 

Paul’s story runs deeper than dashboards. Three generations of his family fled authoritarian regimes, and that lived experience shapes a clear-e...

Want a med spa patients won’t leave for a $1 discount? We unpack the shift from selling units to prescribing outcomes, showing how a clear brand, rigorous KPIs, and year-long treatment plans build loyalty and higher lifetime value. Janice Snade shares what she’s seeing across practices right now: GLP‑1 medications changing faces and hair, teams unsure how to respond, and owners who don’t run the numbers often enou...

A 1,600-pound animal can read your heartbeat from four feet away, and it won’t lie to you. That’s why we sat down with a therapist who brings horses into the healing process, weaving equine therapy with EMDR to help clients move past trauma, anxiety, and the tech-driven jitters that keep so many of us stuck.

From a hilarious origin story involving beer miles to a jaw-dropping barn breakthrough, this conversation follows ...

Feeling lost between hot takes on hormones and the latest weight-loss shots? We brought in Dr. Patricia McLellan, Vanderbilt-trained, Emory-residency, 27+ years in women’s health, to cut through the noise with a calm, practical roadmap. 

We unpack the six-prong framework she leans on: diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, appropriate supplements, and medical interventions used in the right order.

The co...

When Clay Watson's helicopter plummeted 1,500 feet after losing its tail rotor above a Hawaiian lava field, he had just enough time to begin the Lord's Prayer before impact. That harrowing moment in June 2022 forever changed how the third-generation leader of Mountain View Auto Group approaches both business and life.

Whether you're fascinated by family business dynamics, the resilience required to weather economic storms, o...

What if everything you thought you knew about cybersecurity was dangerously wrong? John Anthony Smith, Founder & Chief Security Officer of Fenix24, delivers a wake-up call that will fundamentally change how you think about protecting your organization's digital assets.

The hard truth: 86% of organizations don't have a single survivable backup copy, and since January, over 90% of backups examined  didn't survive brea...

In this episode, Sam Silvey sits down with Matt McLelland, VP of Sustainability and Innovation at Covenant Logistics, for a real and honest conversation about the future of freight, green energy, and what it actually takes to move toward sustainable trucking.

From the truth behind hydrogen and electric trucks to the economics of clean energy, Matt breaks down what most people get wrong about “going green” in logistics. T...

Seth Cathy, grandson of Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy, joins us for an incredible conversation that spans three generations of entrepreneurship, adventure, and staying grounded despite massive success.

We explore the remarkable origin story of Chick-fil-A - from Truett's Depression-era childhood where "the only toy he had was his brother's loose tooth" to selling Coca-Cola bottles at age 8, and the tragic plane crash that nearly ...

In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, Sam sits down with Austin Webster, third-generation president of The Barn Nursery, to explore how a humble $1,500 roadside fruit stand grew into one of the top nurseries in the country. Austin shares fascinating insights about the plant industry—from seven-year topiary growing processes to managing over a million plants annually—and reveals how Chattanooga's unique biodiversity cr...

In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, Sam Silvey sits down with John Wiygul, founder and president of High Point Climbing and Fitness. From explaining what rock climbing even was to skeptical bankers 12 years ago to now operating eight facilities across three states, John shares the remarkable journey of building the Southeast's premier climbing gym brand.

A lifelong climber who used to skip elementary school to hit the rocks with...

In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, Sam Silvey sits down with Jonathan Bragdon, founder of Capacity Ventures, to explore the contrarian approach to venture capital in today's economy. Jonathan shares his journey from building and exiting companies to launching a venture fund focused on capital-efficient businesses in the Southeast.

With decades of experience as both founder and investor, Jonathan offers invaluable insights on th...

In this episode of Spectruss Speakeasy, we're diving skin-deep with Emily Brewer, founder of The Derm Center in Chattanooga and host of the upcoming Derm Expert Podcast. With 17 years in dermatology, Emily shares her journey from accidental discovery to passionate provider, her patient-first philosophy, and the psychology behind skincare. We talk real skin struggles—from rosacea to melanoma—and why education, empathy, a...