Latest / MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle / Failure Doesn’t Define You | Joe Grover on Growth, Risk, and Learning from Failure

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Failure Doesn’t Define You | Joe Grover on Growth, Risk, and Learning from Failure · MountainWest Capital Network: Welcome to the Winners' Circle

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The whole vision of Amplio is to dramatically reduce the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: failure rates of small businesses in the United States. The
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: people of Utah, there's something unique. And how do you
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: characterize that and how do you bottle that up? I'm
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: not sure you can. Failure does not define you. And
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: neither does success.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the Mountain West Capital Network podcast, your
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: gateway to the winner's circle. I'm Sherry, the executive director
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: of Mountain West Capital Network.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: And I'm Jason, president of the Mountain West Capital Network
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: and managing director at Protivity. Every episode, we sit down
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: with Utah's most visionary business leaders to uncover the ideas, risks,
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and wins behind the state's fastest-growing companies.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Mountain West Capital Network is best known for the Utah 100,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: our flagship event that recognizes the state's fastest-growing businesses. But
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: behind every number is a story, and that is what
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: this podcast is all about.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: You're not just tuning in to hear what's happened. You're
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: stepping inside the winner's circle to understand how it happened.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Today, we are joined by Joe Grover, the Chief Growth
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Officer at Amplio. Joe has a unique blend of marketing
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and finance experience that gives him a new perspective and
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: skill set for helping companies grow.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Before joining Amplio in 2023, Joe was a CMO at Homey,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: where he led local and corporate marketing teams across multiple states.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Under his direction, Homey was named on many top award
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: lists and won Gold Addy for the best guerrilla marketing
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: campaign in Phoenix, Arizona. He was also the president and
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: CMO of Genesis Media and a CMO and CEO of
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Altitude Digital.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Joe also spent seven years at Mercado Partners, where he
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: supported investments in several fast-growing companies like Skullcandy, Stance, Fusion.io,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: and Goal Zero. Before Mercado, Joe was the founder and
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: CEO of a creative ad agency where he led communication
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: campaigns for companies nationwide. He was also involved in Junto Partners,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: where we first met. where he helped launch several startups
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: over 24 months and became the director of the program
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: to help recruit, train, and mentor hundreds of entrepreneurs.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Joe, welcome to the Winner's Circle.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: So good to see you.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Old friend. For sure.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Like many, many years. Let's go back to the beginning.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Maybe start by telling us a little bit about Amplio
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and what they do and then how you... All that
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: experience we just talked about, how you got involved with Amplio,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and then what led you to your position at Amplio today?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: When I was first working in venture capital, Skullcandy was
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the first investment we made in 2008. They were a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: fast-growing business, and our CFO was Kent Thomas. And Kent
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: is the founder of Amplio. He was called Advanced CFO
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: at the time. I had no idea then that I'd
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: be joining the company nearly 20 years later. And it's
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: amazing because at the time I thought, why do we
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: have a fractional CFO in a business that was $ 300
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: million in preparing to go public. And it was because
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Kent was the best, right? And the founding team wanted
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Kent in the room. And so they had built out
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the full-time finance team and accounting teams, but Kent was
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: still sitting on the board, still advising the company. And
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that was the first moment I thought, wow, fractional executives
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: can really make a difference, both for small companies and
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: companies that are scaling and going through a lot of transformation.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So that's how I first got introduced to Amplio. And,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you know, fast forward all these years and I had
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to join the business. One of the partners,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: John Allen, called me one day and said, hey, I
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: want to go skiing. And if you want to meet
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: with me in person, just invite me to ski at
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Alta on a powder day and I'll move all my
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: other meetings. And so we went skiing and for 30 years,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in fact, we're celebrating our 30th anniversary this year. For
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: 30 years, we provided fractional finance to But about four
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: years ago, John and the partners decided they wanted to diversify.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And so they decided to launch fractional marketing and HR
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and some other services. And so I joined the company
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to launch our fractional marketing services. So that's how I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: kind of made it to Amplio. And Amplio is built
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to give small and scaling companies access to the expertise
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and the experience that they couldn't afford. or can't find
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: as they're scaling their businesses. I think that de-risks the
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurial journey in really important ways.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I love that. Joe, maybe highlight how your roles previously,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and we highlight some of those, how they prepared you
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: in this role that you currently are, you know, the
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: chief growth officer.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a difference between fractional executives, fractional
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: CMOs or CFOs, and consultants. and not to diminish the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: value that consultants can provide, but it's different when you're
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: an operator and like you're in the trenches, you're shoulder
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: to shoulder with a team that is building the product,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: launching the product in the market, taking care of the customers.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And so for 10 years, I was a venture-backed CMO.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: So three different companies, one here in Salt Lake, Homey,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and then one in Denver and one in New York City,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: these venture-backed businesses, I was an operator. And so transitioning
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to Amplio was pretty natural because I I understand what
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: it's like to have a $ 5 to $ 50 million business.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I understand what it's like to report to a board,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to have a number to hit. I know what it's
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: like to almost miss a payroll, to tell an investor
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: we lost their money. Initially, when I was consulting, that's
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a really natural place for me to be, is to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: help these entrepreneurs navigate some of the complexities of this
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: stage of growth.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: The different companies and the different roles, like what prepared
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: you for that? Like, I mean, this is a really
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: interesting journey, I think, from where you started to where
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: now you are. But like just, you know, for the
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: young listeners that are tuning in, maybe just some words
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: of advice or opportunities to look for. Because you're in
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: a pretty, you've got a great position right now. And
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I'm just interested in just a little advice if you
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: have any.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I think I was unqualified for every role that I
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: ever accepted.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, it's all good, right? And so none
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of us, I was never a CMO before I was
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: a CMO. Like we all just have to take one
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: step at a time. And so for, if, if I
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: look back at the beginning of my career, I was
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: probably more opportunistic than some, some people go to law school,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: they become an attorney, they make partner at 40 and,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: They retire at 65 and go to Lake Powell. That's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: a great path, right? But I was probably more opportunistic.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So I looked for opportunities where I could grow and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: learn from the smartest people. And so I got involved
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: in venture capital when I had no business being involved
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: in venture capital. And I earned the right to be
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: at Mercado because I worked for free for six months
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: and helped raise capital for their first fund. Not because
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I have a Harvard MBA or I was a skilled
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: finance executive. And so I just took the opportunities and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I grew along the way. And so I know that's
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not great advice because it's hard to replicate. But what
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I would say is if you're willing to do whatever
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: it takes to accelerate your learning and then whatever job
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: you're in, you continue to provide value every single day,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: then new opportunities will arise and you'll have opportunities to
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: walk through some new doors.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: So I wish it was more intentional and like a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: repeatable process.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: But I've worked hard and I've been really grateful for
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: all the opportunities. The other thing is you really need
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: someone to believe in you.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Right?
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: You need like one person that sees the potential in
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a 22 or 23-year-old kid and gives you opportunities that
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't have otherwise. And for me, like I had
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that opportunity. I was an entrepreneur starting businesses and Greg
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Warnock and Ellen Hall gave me that opportunity.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Right.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: There's no reason why I should have been at Mercado
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Partners when I was. And for that, I will forever
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: be grateful.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: You have been surrounded by I look at these companies
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: that you're talking about. And wow, just great people, great leaders.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, you start off with Kent Thomas, who's dear
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: to our hearts over here at Mountain West Capital Network.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: He was here when I first started. And every single
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: one of them from Skullcandy to Stance.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Jeremy Andrus.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh. Yes.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hanna.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: You're just attracting all these great, amazing people. And then
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: now you're at Amplio. And culture is important of every
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: single one of these companies. I know that. I visited
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Skullcandy in the early days. That was culture defined, I believe,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: in the state of Utah at that time. So what
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: are you doing at Amplio to continue that, and especially
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: with this fast-growing company?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Company. Like, what are you doing? Yeah. You can imagine like, homie,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: we had a, we had kind of a voice. We
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: had a brand voice and we did like a lot
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of guerrilla marketing and we were loud in the market.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And then I joined Amplio, which is run at the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: time by CFOs. What do you mean by that? No
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: offense to all my partners. I love you all. Yeah.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: And I thought, wow.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: We're run by CFOs. And what it meant is like
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: we were conservative in our approach to decision making, to positioning.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: But we were really soundly run. The judgment was there.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: The experience was there. And so I thought, well, how
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: do we develop a culture? And at the time, there
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was four full-time employees when I started and the rest
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: were all CFOs that were contractors, 1099 contractors. And now
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: we have 200, more than 200 full-time employees and 400
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: people total. So like we've really had to define the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: culture over the last four years. And the culture is
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: now something that has evolved as we've acquired eight different businesses.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: They're bringing their own value system and culture and personalities
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to the mix and And I think that's what is
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: going to make this new chapter of Amplio so great.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: But I wouldn't be lying if I said it was
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: perfectly defined. Just today, we were talking about the Amplio
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: value system and which of those values people actually have
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: internalized and are living by and which ones are throwaways
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: that people like their words on the wall, but no
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: one like remembers it and no one's living by it.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: So this is kind of a work in progress. But
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I think we had this beautiful opportunity to bring all
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that made all these companies great and bring it together
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: into one whole. But it's hard work.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can imagine.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would love to explore a little bit more about,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: you know, organic growth versus growth through acquisitions and the
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: thought process that went into that. Because I think that's
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: a fascinating, you know, just when you hear about four
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: people versus one. 400, right? And how do you maintain
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: culture and how do you maintain the value that you're
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: offering to your clients?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And to add one more point on culture, the one
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: thing that I think has been very persistent from the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: very beginning with Kent Thomas and anyone that knows Kent
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and the early partners know this, but one of our
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: values is experts without egos. And can you imagine working
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: with 200 C-level executives? Because that's like the world we
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: live in. And When I first joined, I thought, well,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: this should be interesting. Lots of sharp elbows and strong opinions.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Everyone has the right answer. And that's just not the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: culture of Amplio. And I think, um, people that have
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: worked inside of Amplio and worked with our consultants, I
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: hope will always feel like we are experts in our,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I think these are seasoned C-level executives across these functions
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: of HR finance and marketing, but we don't come with
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: all the answers. We still listen to learn. We're still humble.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: We're still open-minded. We collaborate well together. That's something that
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I think has remained intact. And we're kind of protecting
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: that as we add new companies and new team members.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a good segue to your question.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: What about inorganic versus organic? Grow through M & A,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: grow through doing the hard work of sales and marketing
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: every day. And the reality is you need both. Any
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: company that builds real equity value has to have a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: sales and marketing engine. They have to continue to grow organically.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: And inorganic growth is a really attractive way to bring
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: in capacity, to bring in capability and skills that would
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: take a long time to build. It can accelerate your
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: time to market with new product offerings. We grew marketing
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: from like nothing. And then we acquired three different marketing
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: groups and agencies and fractional firms to really bolster the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: bench strength that we had and the capabilities set. I
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: could have built an agency that would have taken me
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: a lot longer than acquiring Avalanche Media, who had been
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: doing that for 20 years. So I think there's room
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: for both, and both are critically important. I think it
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: always sounds easier than it is to just bolt on
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: a bunch of revenue and EBITDA. by acquiring a bunch
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of companies. And I think anyone who's been involved in
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: M & A, they understand that it is so much harder.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: All the work happens after the announcement that you've acquired
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: this company. And that's hard work because it's people work.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: It's helping to align cultures, motivate people, take the best
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of the companies you're acquiring, helping buttress and improve the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: areas where they're weak. It's about compromise. It's about collaboration.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: It's about communication. And that is the hardest work that
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: you'll do in business. And so it's been a journey,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: eight companies in two years.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: That's amazing. Congratulations.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, I never would have thought when I joined
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: with this small, in fact, I joined Amplio because I thought, oh,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: this will be good work-life balance. I don't have a
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: board to report to. I don't have any investors. And
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: now we're private equity backed. And I report to my
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: board weekly and we have 400 people. So how's that
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: for work-life balance?
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Is there still time for skiing? I mean, not now, but.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: As long as it's business.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Business skiing.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: That's good. I'm glad to hear it.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: I love that. Some of the best business lessons, and
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: we're always here to hear about the highlight stories, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: this is so great, so wonderful, and this went so well,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: but so many of our really important lessons that we've
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: learned and that we've had shared on our podcast has
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: been the setback's. So not to be negative, don't really
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: want to go down that route, but a lot of like,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: what have we heard? What was your favorite mistake? Like
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: the one you learned the most from?
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Today?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: My favorite mistake today or my favorite mistake this week
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: or this month or this year.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You can separate it out that way.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: There's a lot to choose from. And we were talking
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: at the beginning about this podcast that I run called
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the real F word, which is all about failure and entrepreneurship.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: So speaking of negativity, I don't think it's a negative podcast,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: but that's all the lessons there. And we talk about
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: is like what we learn from our, our failures and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: our mistakes. And that's where the richest learning comes from.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And I, I think we're, we kind of shy away
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: from this question and I love it. So I'll share
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: one that maybe I haven't shared as publicly when, when
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I was at homey, it was about five years. And,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hanna and Mike Peregrine and I were running the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: business and we had raised a series A and a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: series B. We expanded to four states. We extended the
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: business to three different service lines. All the value that
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: we created there was really taking the low cost kind
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of sell side real estate model and expanding out to
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the buy side and then to loans. We were a
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: mortgage lender and to insurance, title and insurance. And that
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: vertical integration is where all the value was. But things
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: started to shift. And we were raising a Series C.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: We had two term sheets, one from an investor here
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: in the state, one from outside of the state. And
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: we were debating which of these we should take. And
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: we had built a very aggressive expansion plan to launch
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: 15 more markets in the United States. And that required
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of capital. And at the time, we were
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: raising $ 60- plus million in a Series C. And we invested
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: ahead of the capital market. We invested ahead of the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: growth heavily. And I remember when my team had come
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: up with this really cool campaign about the first 400,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: which was the first 400 employees. And so we had
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: like a badge on our backpack and a sticker. And
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I remember we had a term sheet signed for a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: $ 60 million Series C. And we were two or three
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: months into diligence and things started to get delayed and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the market started to shift. And I thought, uh-oh. And
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I remember that badge and I thought, oh, 400. And
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Johnny Henn and I looked at each other and we're like,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: this is not good. We had overinvested. We had extended
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: ourselves in preparation for 60 million bucks and 15 new markets.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: And that was premature. And the cost of that was
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: really painful because that investor backed away from the table
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: at the 11th hour. So we raised 30 million. not 60.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: And we were sitting on just the P & L
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: was upside down. And then the market started to shift.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: So that was fun. Interest rates were at a record low.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Capital markets pulled back, but interest rates started to climb.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Housing prices basically priced down our core customer. The product
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: market fit, which was so good for five years, had changed.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Product market fit is not persistent. Markets change. So something
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: that worked... five years ago doesn't always work at year
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: 10 or year six even. And so the learning, the
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: mistake was we were hyper-optimistic. And I think this is
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons businesses fell. We were hyper-optimistic and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: we were investing way ahead of growth and ahead of
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the capital. Even if we would have raised the 60 million,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I wish we would have made different decisions. I wish
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: we would have been more prudent about the way we
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: were investing. The growth at all costs mentality during that
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: era was really unfortunate and it was unhealthy. I'm glad
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: we've navigated back to a place where efficiency, unique economics,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and profitability matter again. But at that time, it was
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: all about the top line, customer acquisition, market expansion. So
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: that was one of the mistakes I haven't talked about
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a lot, but I wish I had a do over there.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Would it have changed the outcome for Homey? I'm not sure,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: but it would have certainly given us a longer runway
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and more flexibility at pivoting that business model rather than
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: having a gun to your head.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I would love to explore a little bit more, Joe, just,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: just given that like, you know, business failures, certainly there
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: are stats out there that highlight that a high percentage
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: of small businesses fail, you know, within a period of time.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: And you highlight some mistakes there, which, which we appreciate
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: being so open. What are some other things that you've seen,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: maybe some themes of mistakes that business owners or entrepreneurs
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: make that kind of support or don't support the longevity?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I love this topic. because the whole vision
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of Amplio is to dramatically reduce the failure rates of
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: small businesses in the United States. And the very premise
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: of why we exist and why Kent first started this
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: was that having some judgment, having some experience, having someone
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: sitting in the seat or next in the seat right
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: next to you, who's done this before, who has some
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: pattern recognition, who can identify like, Hey, you're, you're over-investing
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in people or products like you, your runway is six
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: months and the market's changing. Having someone in the seat
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: can de-risk that journey. And I think makes a significant difference,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: but you can't always afford to have those people full time.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: You can't always afford to have a CMO full-time at $ 350, 000
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: a year, a CFO. And so that's why the fractional model,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I think, is really the new growth operating model for
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: small business. It's like the combination of artificial intelligence and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: fractional executives really de-risks the journey. And so some of
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the other patterns I've seen is I think hyper-optimism or
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: over-optimism gets people into trouble, right? We invest ahead of growth.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: We always believe it's going to take half the amount
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: of time and half the amount of money. And almost
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: without exception, it takes twice as long and a lot
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: more money. I think that we scale before we've really
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: proven our product or our business model. And there's a
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: lot of risk in that because you're building on a
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: really weak foundation. And so slowing down a bit and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: just really ensuring you have product market fit, you have
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: service and delivery that keeps customers happy and your retention
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: is good. You have a repeatable sales process and sources
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: of new opportunities, like really nailing that before you start
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: putting more capital in and scaling, I think is so
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: critically important. Doing that prematurely has introduced a lot of
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: risks and has collapsed a lot of companies. So that's
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: That's one pattern that I've seen when companies fail. Oftentimes,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: it's just the lack of experience. Sometimes that can be
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: buttressed with fractional executives, and sometimes it can't be. Sometimes
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the operators that took a business to $ 5 million are
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: not the same that can take it to $ 50. And
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: those that can take it to $ 50 are probably not
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the same that are going to run a $ 500 million business.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: That reality, we live and oftentimes we wait for too
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: long before we make the change and that introduces a risk.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: So it's great.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: So acquiring all these companies. And so it's, there's not,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: you don't really have, and now you've went from four
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: full-time employees to.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Did you say 200?
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: More than 200 W2s.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And so you're not selecting each one of these
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: employees for, individually right now, but as you're looking to
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: continue to be involved with Amplio and continue the culture
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: and continue the growth, what qualities are you looking for
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: as you're hiring and as you're looking to grow?
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, experts without egos. That's the one, like, I mean,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: that is, I mean, Amplio's values are Amplio and the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: E in Amplio is experts without egos. And, and I,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I just don't think there's room for smart jerks in
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: any organization that wants to scale. So, and so there's
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of smart people and if they're smart and
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: they think they have all the answers and they're not
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: collaborative and they're resistant to change, like that is not
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: someone who's going to thrive in a culture that is
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: seeing a lot of change and transformation. Rigidity is something
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: that I just don't think is a great, a great
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: characteristic for any employee in an entrepreneurial environment. And so
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I think as we interview people and we build the team,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I think that's something that we're always really carefully protecting.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And it's hard because we do want the smartest people,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the most experienced executives, but we need executives that also
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: understand that one of our other values is to listen
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and learn. And that's all about just like everyone is
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: learning and they can learn from a controller or an accountant.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: They can learn from another CFO and no one has
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a corner on all the best ideas and all the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: brightest recommendations.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I love that. And I'd like to explore with you
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: the impact of AI, not only, you know, on your business, Amplio,
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: but also on businesses that you're supporting. And what trends
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: or what maybe you could just highlight some of your
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: thoughts as it relates to AI today. I know you're
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: actively utilizing a number of tools. So maybe just give
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: the listeners your thoughts on this.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I love this question. And I listened to a podcast
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: that I did like four months ago. And I was like,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I don't even... It's changed even... My opinion of this
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: has changed in four months. It's changing so rapidly. So
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: if you're listening to this and it's like 90 days old,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: then you can disregard everything I'm saying because this has changed.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: But I am... So optimistic on artificial intelligence and how
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it enables entrepreneurs and founders and teams. Certainly, I think
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: we would all agree that it is the most significant
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: technology advancement that we've seen in our lifetimes. Sometimes I
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: think about the Pentium processor, the first PC that I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: was able to actually start a business on, 75 megahertz.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: And that was transformative. I remember the first time I
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: saw the World Wide Web. And I was on FTP
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: sites in my middle school computer science classes. I was
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: an early adopter of the internet. I remember the first
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: time I saw a browser line by line render that screen.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I thought, this is going to change everything. And I'm
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: more excited today. I mean, the smartphone would be the next,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: like why all of a sudden, like, this is unbelievable.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: My Blackberry, like unlocked this mode of communication that I
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: didn't think was possible. And certainly the iPhone and, and
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: this I'm twice as excited about what artificial intelligence is doing.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: And I know it's hyped. Right. And like, it's, we
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: all talk about it, but then like, practically speaking, we ask, well,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: how are you using AI and which tools are you using?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: And it hasn't completely changed all of our day to
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: days yet.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: But the potential is there and we're seeing that take hold.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: So for me, I think it's about all the work
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: that can be done. AI can do production level work.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: AI can build output in a way that's scalable and fast,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't replace human judgment. It doesn't replace the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: ability of pattern recognition from a human who's been there before.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: It doesn't replace leadership. Like doesn't replace like rallying your
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: team and communicating and coaching and holding them accountable. Like it,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: what it does is allows leaders to do what leaders
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: can only do. And more of their time can be
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: spent doing the highest value activities and the rest of
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the work, data analysis, some content production or review development, right.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Can be offloaded to agents, to artificial intelligence. And that's,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: not only my vision, but like Amplio is building and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: over the last four months has built Amplio Intelligence, which
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: does precisely this. So CFOs can spend their time doing
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: what CFOs can do that only they can do. And
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the rest of that production work, your monthly operating review,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: your financial statement, reporting, you know, your cashflow statements and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: 13 week cashflow forecast, all that can now be done
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: by Amplio Intelligence. So you're paying for your CFO to
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: sit in the meetings to help you navigate the complexity
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: of the scaling of business. And for us, that's the
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: single largest unlock for the growth of Amplio moving forward.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm really hyped on it. And here's the other thing.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It's amazing in our personal life too, isn't it? It
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: really is.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, just over the last three months, I've now
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: built apps that manage all of my health decisions with
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: all of my blood work and supplementation and Like I'm advising,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I don't, I'm sorry if there's any doctors listening. I
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: don't have to go to the doctor, right? And my
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: wife always jokes, she calls Claude, Claudia.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: We do love the doctor.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: She's like, why don't you just ask Claudia? Because she
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: has all the right answers. I'm like, I think I
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: will ask Claudia whether or not I should be on
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: this supplement and what my peptide stack should look like.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: And so it's unlocking so much, not just knowledge, right?
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: But productivity and efficiency in a way that I've never seen.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: maybe since the World Wide Web.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: It's a great response. It's a great response.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: You know, we have Mountain West Capital Network has been
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: involved with Amplio, Advanced CFO, since the beginning of my days,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: which was a really, really long time ago. So it's
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: been really fun to see the transformation and growth and
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: changes that has gone on with this company and the
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: founders and all of that. And I just think it's
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: just been interesting to see how you know, advanced CFO,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: then Amplio. And then we're talking about, you know, deal
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: flow is, you know, all this, the acquisitions and the
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: mergers and all that that's going on. And then we're
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: celebrating you at Utah 100. It's just been what, this
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: is the second or third year that we've been, we've
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: recognized Amplio on the Utah 100 list. So I just
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: think you've been around a while and you've been involved
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: in all these companies. Tell me what, and they're all
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Utah So tell me what is special to you about Utah.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: And do you think that Amplio is the success and
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: transition that they've gone through over the years is unique
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: to being in Utah? Or do you think it could
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: be replicated somewhere else?
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: First of all, we love Amplio. Sherry, we just love
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: what Mountain West Capital Network does for the community. Oh,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: thank you. And we'll always be a sponsor. We probably
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: won't always be on the list.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: You heard it here.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And I would. Yeah, exactly. But we probably won't always
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: be on the list, right? These list companies grow really
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: quickly in some seasons and they slow down in other seasons.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: And I'd far rather be celebrating all of our clients
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: on the list. Every year it's fun to sit at
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the table and I just see our clients coming through
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the line and we're celebrating them, snapping pictures. To me,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I find this great joy in seeing the success of
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Amplio clients on the stage at the 100 event every year.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: But thank you. I think what I would also say
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: is Amplio is figuring it out just like all these
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: other companies. So we've been around 30 years and it
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: always feels bad It always looks better from the outside
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: than it feels like when you're on the inside. I
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: just like all companies. When I was at home, it
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: was like, wow, what a rocket ship. It's amazing. You
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: guys are crushing it. And I was thinking about how
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: are we going to raise another $ 30 million and we're
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: not hitting our numbers in Arizona and I'm going to
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: have to fire someone. So there's just inside a company
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: that is growing and going through any amount of change.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of difficulty. Like, I just want to
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: say that out loud. We have not figured it out.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: And, and, and we're, we're a work in progress, just
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: like all great businesses. But Utah is such a unique
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: business ecosystem. And having worked in Denver and New York city,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I love the city. I love Colorado. They had a
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: more fragmented entrepreneurial ecosystem and, There's Boulder, there's Denver, there's
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: some industry kind of divisions. And I think the accessibility
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: of our most senior and experienced leaders is truly unique. Right.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I just like we can reach out to anyone we
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: want in Utah and they will likely take our call.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: They will likely take a meeting. Maybe they'll even go
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: skiing with me. And so like for like to me,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: that that is unique. There's an accessibility and a humility there.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: that exists that I think is, is really amazing. The collaboration,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the willingness to help younger companies, uh, lots of initiatives
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: focused on that. Um, obviously the Mountain West Capital Network
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and really highlighting deals that are getting done and deals
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: that are getting funded and investors that are active and
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: companies that are scaling. Um, Start School and Silicon Slopes
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: is really focused on helping those even earlier, like those
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs kind of get started and try to de-risk that
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: journey by helping experienced, proven, exited entrepreneurs sharing their wisdom, patterns,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and playbooks with the younger generation of entrepreneurs. And so
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: those are just two of a dozen initiatives, organizations, associations,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: and companies that care deeply about the entrepreneurial ecosystem here
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: in Utah and are willing to invest their time, their money,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: to help us to become a consistent success and not
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: a flash in the pan. So I think that's one
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: of the reasons that everyone says the people, and I
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: agree with that. I said that yesterday on a panel, like,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: The people of Utah, there's something unique about the people
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: in Utah. And how do you characterize that and how
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: do you bottle that up? I'm not sure you can.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great response.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I love that. I guess maybe my last question for
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: you would be just as you kind of think about
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: all the experiences that you've had, obviously the incredible success
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: that you've enjoyed at Amplio as well as others. What advice,
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, when you think about, you know, these kind
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: of up and coming entrepreneurs that, you know, we have
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: many examples and we'll be recognizing them in November at
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: the Utah 100. And what advice, I mean, would you
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: give maybe one or two things that you would say,
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: whether to your younger self or to these that are
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: starting a new business, what are one or two things
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: that you think would stand out?
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: The failure does not define you and neither does success.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: That's so, so like, I just, I care deeply about
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: sharing failure stories because I think it destigmatizes this idea
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: of failure. But when you are operating, especially as an
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur from a position of fear or fear of failure,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: it will change your decision-making process. You will be less
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: courageous about decisions you make, whether it be hiring or partnerships, go-to-market,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: product launches. And that fear of failure can be crippling
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and it will change the way you run your business.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't define you because you probably will fail.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Two-thirds of businesses fail, right? You said 80% earlier. It's
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: between two-thirds and 80% will fail within 10 years. And
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: so if you... if you're an entrepreneur and you haven't failed,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: then you probably haven't tried enough. And so just acknowledging
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: that reality and embracing the learning and growth and journey
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: more than the outcome, whether it be a financial outcome
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: or an award or some type of IPO or an achievement,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: like we just really grandize the individual entrepreneur that has
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: reached this kind of pinnacle of success. And here's the deal.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: I haven't not taken a company public as an operator.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: I haven't sold a business for, 50 million dollars right
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: like i haven't but like the experience the people the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: learning the difficulty of of that journey i wouldn't trade
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: i wouldn't trade for a single outcome so success also
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: doesn't define you and just because you had the fastest
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: growing company five years ago doesn't mean it's even still
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: in business today because you were the entrepreneur of the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: year two years ago doesn't mean anything about your ability
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to lead people today like we just put too much
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: stock in the.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: Superficial that's great advice thank you.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Joe thank you yes we've not heard that version of
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: it before that's great i'm excited to listen to your
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: podcast i think that that is there's some good lessons
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: to be learned there and we'll make sure we have
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: that in our notes.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: We'll call it the loser circle.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: We're not calling it the loser circle.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: We're calling it the non-winner circle. But there's power when
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: those entrepreneurs say, I'm so-and-so and I started this business
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and that business failed, but that doesn't mean I'm a failure.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Like that is like the spirit of that whole principle.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: I love that. I love that. So looking ahead, what's
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: next for Amplio and how can our listeners be part
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: of it?
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: We just want to help. That's it. If you feel
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: like you have a gap in experience or your leadership team,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: we'd love to help. Whether it's marketing, HR, finance, we
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: have a sales tax business. We have a valuation business.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: We just want to be helpful. And that might mean
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: that we can come in and help your business. And
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: it might mean that we can have a call and
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: just help you discover other solutions. I met with 40
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: companies when I joined Amplio. I was really looking for
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: a full-time role. before I joined Amplio. And out of
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: those 40 companies, I think 10 of 40 needed a CMO,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: maybe five. The rest really had no business hiring a CMO.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: And I told them, hey, you'd be wasting your money
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: if you hired me as your CMO. I think the
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: work you need could be done in 10 hours a week.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: I think you need a great director of marketing. And
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: so the realization is like, wow, there's a new model
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: with AI where you don't need a fully staffed senior
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: leadership team at a certain stage. So if your business
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: is 1 million or 2 million or venture backed or
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: 5 million, even 10 million, 15 million, it's possible that
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: there's a different way to operate your business with lower
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: fixed costs and flexibility. So we just want to help.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: That's it. And then Amplio intelligence, right? I haven't even
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: announced this publicly. So Amplio intelligence is, um, is rolling out.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: We've got our first 10 customers, uh, And that, I think,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: has the ability to really accelerate the value that all
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: fractional executives can provide in your business.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: Just on a personal note, I love the Amplio team
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: just as a whole. Everyone that I've ever come in
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: contact with, I mean, I did steal one.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Katie Brown. She's sitting here in the room.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Katie Brown is sitting in the room.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: She's amazing.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: But you just have great, great people. And I think
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: that starts from the top. And even companies that I've
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: been involved with or even have ownership in have had
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Amplio hands in the mix. And those people become like family.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: And you love them dearly. Probably many of them try
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: and be hired away because they become so important to them.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: But anyway, that's just a little side note. And so
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: nicely done over there at Amplio. Just great. Thanks for
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: being here with us today, Joe. It's just really been
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: amazing to have you sit in the chair across from
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: us and to share your insights behind Amplio and their
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: recent growth. Your story, just your personal story is inspiring.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: And the Amplio story is also inspiring. We're just all,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: what next? What next? What are they going to do next?
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: So we're proud to highlight your work here. at Mountain
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: West Capital Network.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: And for our listeners who want to learn more, how
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: can they find and connect with you?
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: That's like the easiest question. and here I am how
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: do they commit.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah is it Alta Snowbird.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah Alta Snowbird University of Utah game yes okay my
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: trip to Lake Powell any of those is the best
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: opportunity yeah anyone can email me my email's not secret
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: jgrover at amplio.com you can text me should I put
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: my phone number on here too careful no you may
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: not want that I'm really again Utah is accessible yeah
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: and so you know I'm a I'm abundant and would
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: be pleased to meet with anyone if there's a way
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: that we can help.
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Joe.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I love that. And to everyone listening, thank you for
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: joining us. A special thanks to the LaunchPod team, Johnny
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: and Christine and Cole and Rachel for producing our show.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Zachary Reed for his vision and direction as producer. Katie Brown,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: we referred to a few times during this, is our
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: operations specialist for keeping us in line and on track.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: And Garrett Lawson and Kevin Jessup for serving as our
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Mountain West Capital Network podcast chairs.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: And don't forget to leave us a five-star review and
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: subscribe to stay updated on Utah's fastest-growing companies and the
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: leaders shaping our business future. There is nothing we appreciate
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: more than hearing from our listeners. Rate, review, and share.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Winner's Circle. Welcome to the Winner's Circle.