April 30, 2024 • 20 mins
Stewart KohlStewart A. Kohl is Co-Chief Executive Officer of The Riverside Company, a $13 billion global private equity firm founded to invest in premier companies at the smaller end of the middle market. Since 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 1,000 companies globally. The firm’s investors include leading pension funds, endowments, funds-of-funds, insurance companies and banks. The firm employs more than 350 people in offices across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr. Kohl joined Riverside in 1993. Prior to that, he was a vice president of Citicorp Venture Capital, Ltd., the private equity arm of Citibank.
In addition to his work with Riverside, Mr. Kohl serves as an Honorary Trustee of Oberlin College and of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. He is also on the Board of Directors of Cleveland Clinic and Co-Chairs its $2 billion Power of Every One Capital Centennial Campaign. He was inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence in 2009. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Building for Hope Capital Campaign of the Center for Families and Children.Mr. Kohl earned the George S. Dively Entrepreneurship Award in 2018. He was inducted into the Northeast Ohio Business Hall of Fame in 2014.
After spending 16 years as a “Heavy Hitter” participant in the Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle fundraiser, Mr. Kohl founded VeloSano, a similar event that has raised more than $20 million to fund cancer research since 2014.Mr. Kohl holds a BA from Oberlin College.
Mr. Kohl joined Riverside in 1993. Prior to that, he was a vice president of Citicorp Venture Capital, Ltd., the private equity arm of Citibank.
In addition to his work with Riverside, Mr. Kohl serves as an Honorary Trustee of Oberlin College and of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. He is also on the Board of Directors of Cleveland Clinic and Co-Chairs its $2 billion Power of Every One Capital Centennial Campaign. He was inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence in 2009. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Building for Hope Capital Campaign of the Center for Families and Children.Mr. Kohl earned the George S. Dively Entrepreneurship Award in 2018. He was inducted into the Northeast Ohio Business Hall of Fame in 2014.
After spending 16 years as a “Heavy Hitter” participant in the Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle fundraiser, Mr. Kohl founded VeloSano, a similar event that has raised more than $20 million to fund cancer research since 2014.Mr. Kohl holds a BA from Oberlin College.
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(00:01):
This is CEOs you should know oniHeartRadio, I'm Keith Hotchkiss. So what
happens when you're the founder of anonprofit and you've raised more than thirty million
dollars for cancer research? What doyou do next? Well, you keep
it going stronger. Today we talkedwith Stuart Cole, CEO of Riverside Companies
and the co founder of Velisano.We talked about the fourteen billion dollar global
(00:21):
business enterprise that is Riverside with rootshere in Cleveland, the current state of
the economy, and of course thenext step to curing cancer. Talk to
me about Velisano and now it's tenthyear. An incredible number of dollars you've
raised, but obviously you want tokeep going. Talk a little bit about
the mission of Elisano, what startedit and how did you get where you
(00:43):
are today? Yeah, the missionof Alisano is is put simply to cure
cancer. And I realize that's anambitious goal. And what I really mean
by that is we're going to whenthe story of how cancer was cured.
And cure doesn't mean will never existand nobody will ever get sick or even
die, but it means that itwon't be the for so many diagnoses,
(01:07):
the death sentence that it is todaywhen that's written, I very much want
Cleveland, Ohio, because of thegreat work that's being done here by places
like the Cleveland Clinic and Velisano asa fundraising machine, to be part of
that story. We'll be buying.We are buying what I like to think
of as jigsaw puzzle pieces, andimagine the biggest, most complicated jigsaw puzzle
(01:32):
you've ever seen, with millions ofpieces, and they have very little color
or anything to differentiate them. Whenyou first start the puzzle, it's overwhelming,
and that's where we were years ago. But then you find the corners
and you build the edges, andalong the way you start to do some
of the middle pieces. And ifyou've done jigsaw puzzles, is a point
where it's where you almost can't putthe pieces down fast enough. It becomes
(01:56):
obvious where the next win goes.And I feel like we're getting to that
inflection point with cancer research, tremendousstrides being made, and a lot of
that is being done right here inCleveland by our friends and neighbors who are
doctors and scientists. So we wantto be a part of that, and
that there was a group of usthat felt that way over ten years ago
and coalesced around the Cleveland Clinic andthis idea and created this thing called Velosano.
(02:23):
Do you have a personal connection toeither cancer or cycling and how this
all sort of came together? Canyou talk a little bit about that?
Sure. The precedent to it isan event in Massachusetts called the Pan Mass
Challenge, and that's now been aroundfor almost fifty years and has raised phenomenal
(02:45):
amounts of money. And I participatedin that for sixteen years every year as
I loaded the bank to head outto Massachusetts, wondering why we couldn't have
something like that in Cleveland, andnow we do. That's what led to
Velosano. Critically, when I joinedthe board of the Cleveland Clinic, I
was delighted to find out that therewere other folks that were familiar with this
(03:06):
fundraising model and we're willing to takea risk with me to try to create
it here, nobody knowing how itwould work, but I had a lot
of faith in Cleveland that it wouldwork well here. You know a lot
of people when they hear you knowwe're going to have a cycling event.
They probably think, oh, maybeit's like a big bake sale or something,
and our ambitions were much greater thanthat. Well, there's no way
(03:31):
that you could raise over ten yearsthe amount of money that you have raised
without it being something much more ambitious. Can you, I mean, I'll
throw the number out there. It'sincredible, more than thirty million dollars raised
by Velisano for cancer research, whichis undoubtedly saving lives. Can you talk
(03:51):
about how some of that money fundsthe research? Where does it go?
What are some things that have happened, you know, as a result of
that funding. Yes, So wehave a model that I'm in private equity
in my day job with the RiversideCompany, and so I have some familiarity
with how venture capital works, andI think of this as a venture capital
like model. Doctors and scientists atthe Cleveland Clinic and somewhat beyond the Clinic
(04:15):
in Cleveland will make proposals for research, and in many cases they have very
little to show that this will work. It's an idea and they need somebody
to take a risk, somebody togive them fifty one hundred, two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars to see ifthey can produce some data, some outcomes,
(04:38):
because if you can, then youcan go for the big dollars,
which come from places like NIH.So we have a committee of our folks,
the technical folks at the clinic.I'm not on it. I barely
passed organic chemistry one oh one.They evaluate these proposals and thirty or forty
of them get funded each year withour proceeds those Since we've now been doing
(05:02):
this for ten years, we arehaving results that can attract money, and
in fact, we think we're closeto having attracted eighty five million dollars of
other funding from the venture capital betswe've placed. Not all those bets work
just like they don't adventure capital,but every one of them, in some
(05:23):
degree or another contributes to those puzzlepieces. So what is that thirty million
dollar figure raised? And Velosano's continuing, What does that mean to you personally?
Talk a little bit about that.Yeah, I think all of our
lives have been touched by cancer.You said that at the outset. I've
always found that expression touched by cancerto be such a strange euphemism, because
(05:46):
nobody gets touched by cancer. Yougenerally get clobbered by cancer. And so
it is, as you suggested,almost a universal part of the human condition,
if you will. And we're almosta program that when we hear the
word cancer, you know, westart sweating. Our hearts starts beating,
whether it's you or God forbid,a spouse, a loved one, a
(06:11):
parent, a child, worst ofall for me, a brother and a
mom and too many dear friends.And unfortunately mostly in our life we just
play defense. We either hope wedon't have it, or we try to
address it early if we do.And those things are important things like early
detection. But what I think ofas vell Asano is a way to play
(06:34):
offense. It's a way to actuallytry to do something that is going to
make a tangible difference. And youknow, just like with our Browns,
you know, you got to getthe football, you got to try to
get it into the end zone.And I feel like this is a chance
to do it selfishly doing it ona bike. It's great because I love
(06:55):
to ride a bike. I ridea bike every opportunity I get, and
it's to me, there's almost likean elegance about how the bike can become
a fundraising weapon in the war againstcancer. Well, obviously your podium and
position at one of Cleveland's premier companiesallows you to have that sort of microphone
(07:16):
and project that. But when youthink about the other companies, the other
folks that have joined into this fight, right, what does the next ten
years look like for vel Asano andhow can people maybe get involved for this
year? So part of the magicof vel Asna. I'd be delighted to
talk about our kind of business model, but it's a very inclusive business model.
So whether you ride or one hundredmiles or ride six miles, whether
(07:41):
you prefer to volunteer rather than ride, whether you'd like to ride virtually so
you don't even have to get ona bike, or whether you'd just like
to be a donor to support thosewho are riding. Literally everyone in Cleveland
and beyond. We receive donations fromliterally around the world can contribute to this.
What started maybe as an event,but I think today has become a
(08:05):
movemental cause called Velisano. So Stuart, can you talk a little bit about
the event, the Velisano event fortwenty twenty three and how people can participate.
Yeah, Kith, this is asyou know, in my Heart's been
a fantastic partner, I think forall ten years. Thank you. This
is our tenth anniversary and we wantto blow it out. Velisano ten.
(08:28):
We will expect it to be notjust the biggest ride as measured by number
of riders dollars raised that we've hadin our history. We've grown just about
every year, even through COVID,but we would like to take a step
function this year. And that meansyou know, all of your listeners,
all of Cleveland and beyond, helpingus again. Everybody can participate as a
(08:52):
rider, a donor, a volunteer, a virtual rider. But we'd like
to see year ten be just aestablish it in a sense, that new
base. And then you asked aboutthe next ten years, and I'd love
to see us double and double anddouble again. That is the potential here
because we're just beginning to tap allthat. I think about the folks listening
(09:16):
to this podcast, and yes,many of them are in Cleveland, but
they're also around the world too,and they're familiar with the work of the
Cleveland Clinic, and I think cancerresearch is something everybody can get behind.
So that's Vellosano dot Org. VL O s A n O. If
you want to get involved in thisyear's event or just be part of the
donation piece. We're talking with StuartCole. He's the co chief executive officer
(09:37):
of the Riverside Company and one ofthe founders of Velisano, the chairman and
chief executive officer of that wonderful organization. So, mister Cole, talk a
little bit about what Riverside is.It's probably a company that's a huge piece
of Cleveland's success, but it doesn'thave that brand name that others might be
(09:58):
familiar with because of the nature ofthe work you do. Can you talk
a little bit about Riverside and whatthat company means to Cleveland and the businesses
of Cleveland. Yeah, So,the Riverside Company is a company that's co
headquartered here in Cleveland and New York. There are two of us who together
own and run the firm, andmy business partner is in New York.
(10:18):
We've been in Cleveland for thirty years, from the very earliest days and have
found Cleveland to be a fantastic placeto create and grow the business. Put
simply, what we do is wehelp private companies that want to grow and
need capital to grow. The capitalwe provide is a combination of the financial
(10:41):
capital, typically in the form ofcontrol equity investment, but we have minority
equity and credit as well, andwe always pair our financial capital with intellectual
capital. In other words, we'realways we're not just a bank given the
money to do what they want.We're always providing a tremendous amount of resources
(11:01):
and assistance. And we're focused ongrowth, partially because growth is fun.
We have a kind of a beliefat Riverside that if you're not growing,
you're dying. And partially because ifwe can help the companies that we invest
in to grow faster, then evenif we have to pay a higher price
(11:22):
for them at the beginning, itwill be very rewarding for our investors at
the end. And if we don'tprovide sufficient reward to our investors, then
they're going to stop wanting to investwith us, and that would be a
problem. Cleveland doesn't get the bestwrap from around the country as being a
hub of innovation or business acumen,right. I mean, we kind of
(11:46):
are pigeonholed by some folks into thatrust belt mentality. But I would imagine
that you and your firm have foundso many diamonds in the roof, and
I think we all believe Cleveland's reallyundervalued in the global marketplace. Is that
why you chose Cleveland? Is thatwhy you're passionate about this market? And
how do you see it growing?What's been what's some good news about it?
(12:09):
What should we know about cleft?Well, what I'll say is Riverside
is a global firm. In additionto our New York and Cleveland headquarters,
we have fourteen little offices spread acrossthree continents, and we invest across North
America, Europe and Australia. What'sgreat is from my perch a top terminal
tower, I'm literally comparing every daythe best companies in Cleveland to the best
(12:30):
companies in Munich, Germany, orMelbourne, Australia, or Dallas, Texas.
And Cleveland, you're right, hasa lot of great companies. We've
invested in a lot of great Clevelandcompanies and would like to invest in many
more. For our investors, whoare our bosses, we can't invest in
a company just because it's in Cleveland. We have to find the best companies
(12:52):
anywhere in the world. But they'reright here under our noses, and I
think implied in your question is alittle bit of a maybe a chip on
the shoulder around here that we haveat whether it's respect to sports, or
weather or business, and I thinkwe need to get rid of that chip
on the shoulder. We have somuch to be proud about. Can you
(13:15):
talk a little bit Stewart about thebusiness climate that we're in now? There
obviously was a tremendous pandemic upheaval.Technology is rapidly evolving, and then,
you know, I wouldn't like tothink that. I don't think our political
system is broken, but it certainlyis fracturous right now. Can you talk
a little bit about how businesses arenavigating the future choppy waters and things.
(13:37):
Some of the businesses that you're investingin, what are they doing innovatively and
how are you seeing the business climatemoving forward? Yeah, Look, there's
no question there are challenges today.You know. My guess is there are
always challenges. The ones you faceat the present time always seem worse than
the ones you navigated through in thepast. I think that's just human nature,
(14:00):
and maybe you really minimize the onesin the future because who wants to
lose that kind of sleep. Ourcompanies by and large have done a fantastic
job when I think about what they'vebeen through over our thirty five years of
existence, and we'll soon invest inour thousand companies, so we have pretty
good set of congressulation. Thank you, thank you, and I look at
(14:22):
how they've performed, you know,not just recently, but through two Gulf
War recessions, in the dot combubble, the global financial crisis that was
really scary in two thousand and eightnine kind of felt like turnout the lights,
and then obviously more recently COVID andnow this high inflationary, high interest
rate period. I think what ourcompanies have learned is to stay on their
(14:46):
toes, to be nimble. Thepace of change just seems to come faster
and faster. You need to embracethat change. And generally what that really
comes down to is embracing technology.It can be painful or uncomfortable or expensive,
but it is the way of theworld, and when you do it
(15:09):
has typically after a period of somepain, it typically brings a lot of
reward. Can we talk a littlebit about the human condition that is resistant
to change. We run a lotof change management in this organization. You
know, the radio business has evolvedin an industry, it's very changing rapid
it's changing rapidly, and I feellike we've been on the precipice of that
(15:31):
while trying to still maintain our trueselves. When we talk about change management
in our organization, we understand thatthirty percent of the employees are all in,
they're ready for change, twenty percentare actively resistant, and fifty percent
or wait and see right, Sothat means it's anyone time you make a
change in an organization, seventy percentof the people are either actively or passively
resisting. You. Why is thehuman condition? Why are we so resistant
(15:54):
as human beings to change and notreally ready to embrace how things are moving
so rapidly. Look, I'm noexpert here, but I believe so often
our behaviors are really deeply sat inour DNA there. They go back to
when we were living in the jungle. They go back to when we if
we had formed some civilizations, theywere quite rudimentary, and I would say
(16:17):
in those days, if you changed, you might die. I mean it,
change brought tremendous risk. And youevolved when when you had to?
When when change in what was happeningin your environment forced you to do something
new and different. Until that happened, you really didn't change. So I
(16:38):
think that's still you know, eventhough it was you know, thousands and
thousands of years ago. I thinkit's still pretty deeply embedded in our So
it's up to it's incumbent on usas leaders. And I know you're you're
president here and a leader, andI'm co CEO and a leader to try
to embrace the right change at theright pace, and maybe most importantly,
(16:59):
to communicate constantly about what you're doingand why you're doing it. Over communicate
and try to convince that seventy percentthat it's not crazy and it's not dangerous
to them. It's actually, inmany ways more dangerous not to make change.
Well, right, isn't that fascinating? You're absolutely right to think of
our forefathers, and you're right.If you made a change, it was
(17:23):
risky, you might die and wemight be at oppressing a tipping point now
where it might be if you don'tchange, you're you're going to die,
right, You'll end up at Searsor some of these other companies, right
right, And I think right nowthe biggest challenge is to pace. It's
breathtaking to me. Changes that usedto occur in decades happen in years.
Changes that used to occur in yearshappen in months. It's stunning and we
(17:45):
just have to embrace them. It'sa kind of a roller coaster ride,
and if you don't want to geton, you know that's how it works.
So we're talking with Stewart Cole again, co chief executive officer of Versi
Company and founder of Alisano. Abig job, it's two big jobs.
It's a lot of big jobs witha lot of companies. So one of
the things we like to talk abouton this podcast is how people who have
(18:07):
that sort of heavy responsibility heavy isthe head that wears the crown. How
do you, besides biking, decompressand center yourself, how do you find
peace in all of this craziness andall this change. I love what I
do. I mean that at thecore of it. I really love what
I do, and maybe almost moreimportantly, I love who I do it
with. So you cited both bothvel Asano and Riverside has kind of two
(18:32):
big jobs. One is a jobjob and one is is something a passion
project, if you will. Butin both cases, in each case we
have a remarkable team that really isdoing the work. I'm not and I'm
here talking about it. They're doingit sure, And in each case we
have remarkable stability. So in thecase of al Asano, the team that
(18:56):
carries out our signature event, theBike to Cure that's coming up September eighth
and ninth this year, has beenthe same team for all ten years.
Wow. And at Riverside, wehave so many people who have been with
us fifteen twenty twenty five years,and that enables so much I had as
a mentor. I was very privileged, very fortunate to have mort Mandel,
(19:19):
who was the founder with his brothersJack and Joseph of Premier Right. And
he wrote a little book that Iwould recommend to all your listeners called It's
All About Who. And he wasso right about that. It's all about
who well, And that actually isa really interesting way to put a bow
on this conversation, right, becausein one sentence we talked about the inevitable
(19:44):
change that needs to occur and willoccur, and at the same time we
talk about stability of the actual person. And I see that here right,
we have a lot of people thathave been with us the entire twenty five
years that I've been here who haveseen a tremendous amount of change with themselves.
Elves have remained a stability, stabilizingforce. Yeah, that's very fascinating.
Well, this has been a fascinatingconversation and we appreciate you coming in
(20:07):
today's Stewart Now, we appreciate you. The conversation was outstanding. But the
ten years of support for Velosano,the important role that iHeart plays in this
community, We're really blessed well tohave you as a partner. We appreciate
you. And if you who arelistening, it doesn't matter what time you're
listening to this podcast. Even ifthis year's event is over, you can
always donate at velisano dot org andstart training for next year. Bing go
(20:32):
and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs.You should know today's show is produced by
Bob coatesaid I'm Keith Hotchkiss. We'llsee you next time.
This is CEOs you should know oniHeartRadio, I'm Keith Hotchkiss. So what
happens when you're the founder of anonprofit and you've raised more than thirty million
dollars for cancer research? What doyou do next? Well, you keep
it going stronger. Today we talkedwith Stuart Cole, CEO of Riverside Companies
and the co founder of Velisano.We talked about the fourteen billion dollar global
(00:21):
business enterprise that is Riverside with rootshere in Cleveland, the current state of
the economy, and of course thenext step to curing cancer. Talk to
me about Velisano and now it's tenthyear. An incredible number of dollars you've
raised, but obviously you want tokeep going. Talk a little bit about
the mission of Elisano, what startedit and how did you get where you
(00:43):
are today? Yeah, the missionof Alisano is is put simply to cure
cancer. And I realize that's anambitious goal. And what I really mean
by that is we're going to whenthe story of how cancer was cured.
And cure doesn't mean will never existand nobody will ever get sick or even
die, but it means that itwon't be the for so many diagnoses,
(01:07):
the death sentence that it is todaywhen that's written, I very much want
Cleveland, Ohio, because of thegreat work that's being done here by places
like the Cleveland Clinic and Velisano asa fundraising machine, to be part of
that story. We'll be buying.We are buying what I like to think
of as jigsaw puzzle pieces, andimagine the biggest, most complicated jigsaw puzzle
(01:32):
you've ever seen, with millions ofpieces, and they have very little color
or anything to differentiate them. Whenyou first start the puzzle, it's overwhelming,
and that's where we were years ago. But then you find the corners
and you build the edges, andalong the way you start to do some
of the middle pieces. And ifyou've done jigsaw puzzles, is a point
where it's where you almost can't putthe pieces down fast enough. It becomes
(01:56):
obvious where the next win goes.And I feel like we're getting to that
inflection point with cancer research, tremendousstrides being made, and a lot of
that is being done right here inCleveland by our friends and neighbors who are
doctors and scientists. So we wantto be a part of that, and
that there was a group of usthat felt that way over ten years ago
and coalesced around the Cleveland Clinic andthis idea and created this thing called Velosano.
(02:23):
Do you have a personal connection toeither cancer or cycling and how this
all sort of came together? Canyou talk a little bit about that?
Sure. The precedent to it isan event in Massachusetts called the Pan Mass
Challenge, and that's now been aroundfor almost fifty years and has raised phenomenal
(02:45):
amounts of money. And I participatedin that for sixteen years every year as
I loaded the bank to head outto Massachusetts, wondering why we couldn't have
something like that in Cleveland, andnow we do. That's what led to
Velosano. Critically, when I joinedthe board of the Cleveland Clinic, I
was delighted to find out that therewere other folks that were familiar with this
(03:06):
fundraising model and we're willing to takea risk with me to try to create
it here, nobody knowing how itwould work, but I had a lot
of faith in Cleveland that it wouldwork well here. You know a lot
of people when they hear you knowwe're going to have a cycling event.
They probably think, oh, maybeit's like a big bake sale or something,
and our ambitions were much greater thanthat. Well, there's no way
(03:31):
that you could raise over ten yearsthe amount of money that you have raised
without it being something much more ambitious. Can you, I mean, I'll
throw the number out there. It'sincredible, more than thirty million dollars raised
by Velisano for cancer research, whichis undoubtedly saving lives. Can you talk
(03:51):
about how some of that money fundsthe research? Where does it go?
What are some things that have happened, you know, as a result of
that funding. Yes, So wehave a model that I'm in private equity
in my day job with the RiversideCompany, and so I have some familiarity
with how venture capital works, andI think of this as a venture capital
like model. Doctors and scientists atthe Cleveland Clinic and somewhat beyond the Clinic
(04:15):
in Cleveland will make proposals for research, and in many cases they have very
little to show that this will work. It's an idea and they need somebody
to take a risk, somebody togive them fifty one hundred, two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars to see ifthey can produce some data, some outcomes,
(04:38):
because if you can, then youcan go for the big dollars,
which come from places like NIH.So we have a committee of our folks,
the technical folks at the clinic.I'm not on it. I barely
passed organic chemistry one oh one.They evaluate these proposals and thirty or forty
of them get funded each year withour proceeds those Since we've now been doing
(05:02):
this for ten years, we arehaving results that can attract money, and
in fact, we think we're closeto having attracted eighty five million dollars of
other funding from the venture capital betswe've placed. Not all those bets work
just like they don't adventure capital,but every one of them, in some
(05:23):
degree or another contributes to those puzzlepieces. So what is that thirty million
dollar figure raised? And Velosano's continuing, What does that mean to you personally?
Talk a little bit about that.Yeah, I think all of our
lives have been touched by cancer.You said that at the outset. I've
always found that expression touched by cancerto be such a strange euphemism, because
(05:46):
nobody gets touched by cancer. Yougenerally get clobbered by cancer. And so
it is, as you suggested,almost a universal part of the human condition,
if you will. And we're almosta program that when we hear the
word cancer, you know, westart sweating. Our hearts starts beating,
whether it's you or God forbid,a spouse, a loved one, a
(06:11):
parent, a child, worst ofall for me, a brother and a
mom and too many dear friends.And unfortunately mostly in our life we just
play defense. We either hope wedon't have it, or we try to
address it early if we do.And those things are important things like early
detection. But what I think ofas vell Asano is a way to play
(06:34):
offense. It's a way to actuallytry to do something that is going to
make a tangible difference. And youknow, just like with our Browns,
you know, you got to getthe football, you got to try to
get it into the end zone.And I feel like this is a chance
to do it selfishly doing it ona bike. It's great because I love
(06:55):
to ride a bike. I ridea bike every opportunity I get, and
it's to me, there's almost likean elegance about how the bike can become
a fundraising weapon in the war againstcancer. Well, obviously your podium and
position at one of Cleveland's premier companiesallows you to have that sort of microphone
(07:16):
and project that. But when youthink about the other companies, the other
folks that have joined into this fight, right, what does the next ten
years look like for vel Asano andhow can people maybe get involved for this
year? So part of the magicof vel Asna. I'd be delighted to
talk about our kind of business model, but it's a very inclusive business model.
So whether you ride or one hundredmiles or ride six miles, whether
(07:41):
you prefer to volunteer rather than ride, whether you'd like to ride virtually so
you don't even have to get ona bike, or whether you'd just like
to be a donor to support thosewho are riding. Literally everyone in Cleveland
and beyond. We receive donations fromliterally around the world can contribute to this.
What started maybe as an event,but I think today has become a
(08:05):
movemental cause called Velisano. So Stuart, can you talk a little bit about
the event, the Velisano event fortwenty twenty three and how people can participate.
Yeah, Kith, this is asyou know, in my Heart's been
a fantastic partner, I think forall ten years. Thank you. This
is our tenth anniversary and we wantto blow it out. Velisano ten.
(08:28):
We will expect it to be notjust the biggest ride as measured by number
of riders dollars raised that we've hadin our history. We've grown just about
every year, even through COVID,but we would like to take a step
function this year. And that meansyou know, all of your listeners,
all of Cleveland and beyond, helpingus again. Everybody can participate as a
(08:52):
rider, a donor, a volunteer, a virtual rider. But we'd like
to see year ten be just aestablish it in a sense, that new
base. And then you asked aboutthe next ten years, and I'd love
to see us double and double anddouble again. That is the potential here
because we're just beginning to tap allthat. I think about the folks listening
(09:16):
to this podcast, and yes,many of them are in Cleveland, but
they're also around the world too,and they're familiar with the work of the
Cleveland Clinic, and I think cancerresearch is something everybody can get behind.
So that's Vellosano dot Org. VL O s A n O. If
you want to get involved in thisyear's event or just be part of the
donation piece. We're talking with StuartCole. He's the co chief executive officer
(09:37):
of the Riverside Company and one ofthe founders of Velisano, the chairman and
chief executive officer of that wonderful organization. So, mister Cole, talk a
little bit about what Riverside is.It's probably a company that's a huge piece
of Cleveland's success, but it doesn'thave that brand name that others might be
(09:58):
familiar with because of the nature ofthe work you do. Can you talk
a little bit about Riverside and whatthat company means to Cleveland and the businesses
of Cleveland. Yeah, So,the Riverside Company is a company that's co
headquartered here in Cleveland and New York. There are two of us who together
own and run the firm, andmy business partner is in New York.
(10:18):
We've been in Cleveland for thirty years, from the very earliest days and have
found Cleveland to be a fantastic placeto create and grow the business. Put
simply, what we do is wehelp private companies that want to grow and
need capital to grow. The capitalwe provide is a combination of the financial
(10:41):
capital, typically in the form ofcontrol equity investment, but we have minority
equity and credit as well, andwe always pair our financial capital with intellectual
capital. In other words, we'realways we're not just a bank given the
money to do what they want.We're always providing a tremendous amount of resources
(11:01):
and assistance. And we're focused ongrowth, partially because growth is fun.
We have a kind of a beliefat Riverside that if you're not growing,
you're dying. And partially because ifwe can help the companies that we invest
in to grow faster, then evenif we have to pay a higher price
(11:22):
for them at the beginning, itwill be very rewarding for our investors at
the end. And if we don'tprovide sufficient reward to our investors, then
they're going to stop wanting to investwith us, and that would be a
problem. Cleveland doesn't get the bestwrap from around the country as being a
hub of innovation or business acumen,right. I mean, we kind of
(11:46):
are pigeonholed by some folks into thatrust belt mentality. But I would imagine
that you and your firm have foundso many diamonds in the roof, and
I think we all believe Cleveland's reallyundervalued in the global marketplace. Is that
why you chose Cleveland? Is thatwhy you're passionate about this market? And
how do you see it growing?What's been what's some good news about it?
(12:09):
What should we know about cleft?Well, what I'll say is Riverside
is a global firm. In additionto our New York and Cleveland headquarters,
we have fourteen little offices spread acrossthree continents, and we invest across North
America, Europe and Australia. What'sgreat is from my perch a top terminal
tower, I'm literally comparing every daythe best companies in Cleveland to the best
(12:30):
companies in Munich, Germany, orMelbourne, Australia, or Dallas, Texas.
And Cleveland, you're right, hasa lot of great companies. We've
invested in a lot of great Clevelandcompanies and would like to invest in many
more. For our investors, whoare our bosses, we can't invest in
a company just because it's in Cleveland. We have to find the best companies
(12:52):
anywhere in the world. But they'reright here under our noses, and I
think implied in your question is alittle bit of a maybe a chip on
the shoulder around here that we haveat whether it's respect to sports, or
weather or business, and I thinkwe need to get rid of that chip
on the shoulder. We have somuch to be proud about. Can you
(13:15):
talk a little bit Stewart about thebusiness climate that we're in now? There
obviously was a tremendous pandemic upheaval.Technology is rapidly evolving, and then,
you know, I wouldn't like tothink that. I don't think our political
system is broken, but it certainlyis fracturous right now. Can you talk
a little bit about how businesses arenavigating the future choppy waters and things.
(13:37):
Some of the businesses that you're investingin, what are they doing innovatively and
how are you seeing the business climatemoving forward? Yeah, Look, there's
no question there are challenges today.You know. My guess is there are
always challenges. The ones you faceat the present time always seem worse than
the ones you navigated through in thepast. I think that's just human nature,
(14:00):
and maybe you really minimize the onesin the future because who wants to
lose that kind of sleep. Ourcompanies by and large have done a fantastic
job when I think about what they'vebeen through over our thirty five years of
existence, and we'll soon invest inour thousand companies, so we have pretty
good set of congressulation. Thank you, thank you, and I look at
(14:22):
how they've performed, you know,not just recently, but through two Gulf
War recessions, in the dot combubble, the global financial crisis that was
really scary in two thousand and eightnine kind of felt like turnout the lights,
and then obviously more recently COVID andnow this high inflationary, high interest
rate period. I think what ourcompanies have learned is to stay on their
(14:46):
toes, to be nimble. Thepace of change just seems to come faster
and faster. You need to embracethat change. And generally what that really
comes down to is embracing technology.It can be painful or uncomfortable or expensive,
but it is the way of theworld, and when you do it
(15:09):
has typically after a period of somepain, it typically brings a lot of
reward. Can we talk a littlebit about the human condition that is resistant
to change. We run a lotof change management in this organization. You
know, the radio business has evolvedin an industry, it's very changing rapid
it's changing rapidly, and I feellike we've been on the precipice of that
(15:31):
while trying to still maintain our trueselves. When we talk about change management
in our organization, we understand thatthirty percent of the employees are all in,
they're ready for change, twenty percentare actively resistant, and fifty percent
or wait and see right, Sothat means it's anyone time you make a
change in an organization, seventy percentof the people are either actively or passively
resisting. You. Why is thehuman condition? Why are we so resistant
(15:54):
as human beings to change and notreally ready to embrace how things are moving
so rapidly. Look, I'm noexpert here, but I believe so often
our behaviors are really deeply sat inour DNA there. They go back to
when we were living in the jungle. They go back to when we if
we had formed some civilizations, theywere quite rudimentary, and I would say
(16:17):
in those days, if you changed, you might die. I mean it,
change brought tremendous risk. And youevolved when when you had to?
When when change in what was happeningin your environment forced you to do something
new and different. Until that happened, you really didn't change. So I
(16:38):
think that's still you know, eventhough it was you know, thousands and
thousands of years ago. I thinkit's still pretty deeply embedded in our So
it's up to it's incumbent on usas leaders. And I know you're you're
president here and a leader, andI'm co CEO and a leader to try
to embrace the right change at theright pace, and maybe most importantly,
(16:59):
to communicate constantly about what you're doingand why you're doing it. Over communicate
and try to convince that seventy percentthat it's not crazy and it's not dangerous
to them. It's actually, inmany ways more dangerous not to make change.
Well, right, isn't that fascinating? You're absolutely right to think of
our forefathers, and you're right.If you made a change, it was
(17:23):
risky, you might die and wemight be at oppressing a tipping point now
where it might be if you don'tchange, you're you're going to die,
right, You'll end up at Searsor some of these other companies, right
right, And I think right nowthe biggest challenge is to pace. It's
breathtaking to me. Changes that usedto occur in decades happen in years.
Changes that used to occur in yearshappen in months. It's stunning and we
(17:45):
just have to embrace them. It'sa kind of a roller coaster ride,
and if you don't want to geton, you know that's how it works.
So we're talking with Stewart Cole again, co chief executive officer of Versi
Company and founder of Alisano. Abig job, it's two big jobs.
It's a lot of big jobs witha lot of companies. So one of
the things we like to talk abouton this podcast is how people who have
(18:07):
that sort of heavy responsibility heavy isthe head that wears the crown. How
do you, besides biking, decompressand center yourself, how do you find
peace in all of this craziness andall this change. I love what I
do. I mean that at thecore of it. I really love what
I do, and maybe almost moreimportantly, I love who I do it
with. So you cited both bothvel Asano and Riverside has kind of two
(18:32):
big jobs. One is a jobjob and one is is something a passion
project, if you will. Butin both cases, in each case we
have a remarkable team that really isdoing the work. I'm not and I'm
here talking about it. They're doingit sure, And in each case we
have remarkable stability. So in thecase of al Asano, the team that
(18:56):
carries out our signature event, theBike to Cure that's coming up September eighth
and ninth this year, has beenthe same team for all ten years.
Wow. And at Riverside, wehave so many people who have been with
us fifteen twenty twenty five years,and that enables so much I had as
a mentor. I was very privileged, very fortunate to have mort Mandel,
(19:19):
who was the founder with his brothersJack and Joseph of Premier Right. And
he wrote a little book that Iwould recommend to all your listeners called It's
All About Who. And he wasso right about that. It's all about
who well, And that actually isa really interesting way to put a bow
on this conversation, right, becausein one sentence we talked about the inevitable
(19:44):
change that needs to occur and willoccur, and at the same time we
talk about stability of the actual person. And I see that here right,
we have a lot of people thathave been with us the entire twenty five
years that I've been here who haveseen a tremendous amount of change with themselves.
Elves have remained a stability, stabilizingforce. Yeah, that's very fascinating.
Well, this has been a fascinatingconversation and we appreciate you coming in
(20:07):
today's Stewart Now, we appreciate you. The conversation was outstanding. But the
ten years of support for Velosano,the important role that iHeart plays in this
community, We're really blessed well tohave you as a partner. We appreciate
you. And if you who arelistening, it doesn't matter what time you're
listening to this podcast. Even ifthis year's event is over, you can
always donate at velisano dot org andstart training for next year. Bing go
(20:32):
and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs.You should know today's show is produced by
Bob coatesaid I'm Keith Hotchkiss. We'llsee you next time.
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