In this episode of The Tech Leader's Playbook, Avetis Antaplyan sits down with Sam Goodner, the serial entrepreneur and former CEO of Catapult Systems — Microsoft’s top-ranked consulting partner at the time of its acquisition. Sam shares his 30-year journey from starting a small IT consulting firm in 1993 with just $17,000 in the bank to scaling multiple companies to eight- and nine-figure exits, including turning a parking tech startup into a unicorn.
Through vivid stories and practical lessons, Sam reveals the disciplines behind operational scalability, decentralized leadership, and what it truly takes to build a company that can run — and grow — without its founder. He discusses his book Like Clockwork: Run Your Business with Swiss Army Precision, the frameworks he used to recession-proof his companies, and how he transformed chaos into predictable growth. From his military lessons in Switzerland to his role as an angel investor mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, Sam offers a masterclass in clarity, systems, and execution — proving that growth isn’t luck, it’s discipline.
Takeaways
Great businesses scale through clarity, disciplined execution, and time, not luck.
Founders often become the bottleneck — true leadership means empowering others to decide and own outcomes.
Operational scalability starts when the company can run and grow without the founder.
Create rules of empowerment: if a decision is right for the customer, company, ethical, aligned with values, and you’re accountable — act.
Codify best practices with playbooks, especially for sales and hiring.
Hire people better than you, then get out of their way.
Mentorship and coachability accelerate growth more than any funding round.
Recession-proofing begins before the downturn — diversify industries, services, and recurring revenue streams.
Every company needs to define what it’s best in the world at and its unfair advantage.
Founders should spend 95% of their time on the business, not in it.
Focus on discipline and systems, not just ideas — execution is where companies win.
Success evolves from climbing mountains to helping others climb theirs.
Chapters
00:00 Intro: Scaling Beyond Chaos
01:30 From Developer to Founder: The Birth of Catapult Systems
03:20 Bootstrapping to Profitability in the 90s
06:00 Why Raising Money Isn’t Always the Answer
07:30 Investing in Flash Parking: Spotting a Unicorn in an Unsexy Industry
12:00 The Power of Coachability and Mentorship
16:50 Breaking Founder Mode and Achieving Operational Scalability
21:00 Building Playbooks for Sales and Talent Acquisition
26:00 Decentralized Decision-Making and the Rules of Empowerment
37:00 The Swiss Army Precision: Inside Sam’s Book “Like Clockwork”
43:00 Recession-Proofing Your Business
51:00 Balancing Focus and Diversification
55:00 Defining Your Unfair Advantage
57:00 The Aha Moment: Realizing You’re the Bottleneck
59:00 The Third Chapter: Giving Back and Mentoring Entrepreneurs
01:01:00 Closing Thoughts: Build Systems, Empower People, Stay Disciplined
Sam Goodner’s Social Media Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samgoodner/
Sam Goodner’s Websites:
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