Startups With Stu

Stuart Draper
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

Stu Draper, a serial entrepreneur, knows just how exhilarating it is to launch a startup to the moon. He is a 9-time Inc. 5000 honoree before age 40 with tens of millions generated in revenue from his startups and an angel investor in 8 businesses. He's also the co-author of the bestselling textbook Digital Marketing Essentials. Stu knows just what it takes to transform an innovative idea into a thriving business. Inspired by the creators of groundbreaking ventures, Startups With Stu is an illuminating podcast that dives into the trials and triumphs of startup founders and investors who have committed their lives to reaching financial freedom through entrepreneurship. Podcast guests will be seeking advice on how to overcome the obstacles they're facing. Expect motivating stories as Stu spotlights the hard-fought victories that reveal the inner workings of entrepreneurship. By demystifying the startup process, Startups With Stu aims to equip aspiring founders with the grit and know-how to transform visionary concepts into startup success. Startups With Stu is produced using PodUp podcasting software.

  1. 8h ago

    He Started Making Baseball Bats at 15! The Entrepreneurial Journey of Jacob Walters

    Jacob Walter worked from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 the next morning, slept a few hours, and did it again. Then he left for the College World Series, where he was about to work 12-hour days for ten straight days, and had a mental breakdown on the way. That's when he knew the garage model was done. Jacob Walter is the founder of JAW Bats, a custom wood bat company that turns competition-ready bats into painted art. He started making bats at 15 or 16, made it official in 2012, and now at 33 has partners, a new building, new machinery, and new products on the way. Stu met him at the College World Series in Omaha, bought one of his limited edition bats, and in this episode they trade lessons on scaling, selling, and standing out. What he covers: → Working 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. several days in a row before the College World Series, then a mental breakdown on the way to Omaha → Starting JAW Bats officially in 2012 after making bats since he was 15 or 16 → A shoulder injury, being 150 pounds "soaking wet," and the year off school that ended his baseball career and started his business → Custom "special request" bats: his creative director Braden Hopper has to make artwork work on a constantly tapering cylinder, and painting takes hours and days → Why "you have to do things that are not scalable to be scalable" → Leaving the garage model behind: partners, a new building, new machinery, and new products including batting gloves → Two years of reinvesting almost everything, and why social media and word of mouth alone don't work like they used to → Hiring all his friends ("they say don't do that") and why he owes them everything → Stu's two-week vacation test from "Walk Away Wealthy": find out where your business still needs you → Stu chartering a private jet to bring The Sandlot's Patrick Renna (Ham Porter) to National Parks Baseball Resort, after sponsoring all nine episodes of Dugout Dads as the last name in the credits → A billionaire's real reason for putting his logo on BYU sports: it's a recruiting tool for athletes → Why Qualtrics sold for $8 billion and an SAP investor still said he'd never heard of it 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: Stu's love of baseball and Jacob's "to the moon" 03:00 – Meeting at the College World Series and the limited edition Bomber bat 06:00 – Gift idea: custom bats for coaches and corporate gifts 08:00 – Special requests and creative director Braden Hopper 11:00 – Victus, the "bat king," and friendly competition 12:30 – Making bats at 15 and starting the company at 17 15:00 – Shoulder injury, a year off school, and learning to fail faster 18:00 – Stu's billionaire mentor and why he sponsors BYU athletics 22:00 – "The Obstacle Is the Way" and why a problem-free business is failing 24:00 – The 3:30 a.m. grind and the breakdown on the way to Omaha 28:00 – Partners, a new building, new machinery, and new products 31:00 – Betting on yourself when the spending is scary 34:00 – Hiring friends and carrying the team 36:00 – Forever business or exit? A legacy brand beyond baseball 38:00 – "Walk Away Wealthy" and the two-week vacation test 42:00 – Building a business and a family; Jacob's dad works with him every day 44:00 – A founder who turns worn baseballs into art, and moons that aren't exits 46:00 – Stu's marketing ideas: influencer tours and gifts to CEOs 49:00 – Dugout Dads, the chartered jet, and Patrick Renna at the resort 55:00 – Purple Cow, Shoe Dog, and Qualtrics' $8B anonymity 58:00 – Closing and what's next for JAW Bats ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow. Swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #baseball #custombats #woodbats #collegeworldseries #jawbats #smallbusiness #brandbuilding

  2. 5d ago

    He Generated $15 Million in Revenue — Then Built His Own Business

    Sanjiv Lal generated about $15 million in revenue for a startup and walked away with a small slice of it. Not long after, he bought a failing genetic laboratory on a handshake over dinner in Cincinnati. Sanjiv Lal is a former Eli Lilly drug rep who went on to own labs, hotels, and the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center, and Stu introduces him as a nine-figure founder. He co-founded Regen Therapy and the Motive family office, and he lives in West Hollywood after growing up in Parma, Ohio, to Punjabi parents. In this conversation he and Stu talk about fear, building a team that turns down LabCorp, a hospital stay that changed his mission, and how his family office buys businesses only if it can run them. What he covers: → Generating about $15M in revenue for a California startup and getting paid a small piece of it → Being offended when people called his territory a "great job": "Bro, this is my business" → Buying a failing genetic lab in Covington, Kentucky, on a handshake over dinner in Cincinnati, with a full business plan handed to his partner Nigel and a 50% stake of his own → Growing up Punjabi in Parma, Ohio, where the plan was doctor, lawyer, or pharmacist and the line was "you don't own a hotel" (he owns hotels now) → Stu's text to a young man deciding whether to take a big risk, built around a sentence that starts "I'm afraid that" and 2 Timothy 1:7 → Sanjiv's claim that only two fears are born into us, loud noises and falling, and everything else is learned → Why he calls people "wage slaves" to a $60-70K salary they're afraid to lose → Competing with LabCorp for hires with mission, mutual interviews, and stay-at-home moms who took "a flier" on a startup → Renting a semi-pro baseball field so his employees' families could have a picnic with bounce houses and free concessions → Four days in the ICU, then stage 3 kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and the overseas regenerative medicine he says changed his life → Realizing he'd made money on the billing side of sickness: ICD-10 codes, revenue cycle management, and being "worth something" to everyone when he was a patient → Why his family office only buys what it can operate: Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center in March 2025, partner Sam Brooks running it day to day, and hotels where average daily rate is the lever 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: third recording of the day, West Hollywood, and Parma roots 03:00 – Lilly drug rep, then $15M in revenue for a startup and a small cut 07:00 – "People kept calling it a job": the decision to own 09:00 – The handshake deal for a failing genetic lab in Covington, Kentucky 13:00 – Growing up Punjabi: doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, and "you don't own a hotel" 15:00 – Fear: Stu's text message and 2 Timothy 1:7 19:00 – Two innate fears, wage slaves, and being happy but unhappy 24:00 – Wanting the ball: ego, humble pie, and 180 people counting on him 27:00 – Beating LabCorp for hires with mission and mutual interviews 30:00 – The baseball field picnic for employees' families 31:00 – The ICU stay and the mission change 35:00 – Regen Therapy: bringing regenerative medicine to every state 38:00 – Aging, "find out who you are first," and Sanjiv's mantra 42:00 – Joy span: Stu's dad hiking and why run clubs work 45:00 – The Motive family office: owner-operators, Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center, and hotels 50:00 – Where to follow Sanjiv and closing ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow. Swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #familyoffice #longevity #regenerativemedicine #healthcare #hotelinvesting #overcomingfear #sanjivlal

  3. Nov 2

    Forget Billion-Dollar Startups: This VC Backs Profitable Founders

    A founder sat down to pitch a $75,000 investment and said there was just one little problem: a developer in Ukraine was holding her code base hostage. She told the investors before the wire cleared. She bought the shares back for $225,000, and a month later they were worth $2.5 million. Erica Wassinger is a venture capitalist at Proven Ventures, a $10 million Nebraska-only seed fund that invests through "debt equity": the founder buys the shares back out of a slice of monthly revenue, capped at 3x. She went from a journalism degree at Kansas State to Wharton, Berkeley, and the Silicon Prairie, and she thinks the billion-or-bust model is the wrong bet for most businesses. Stu and Erica get into how she decides who gets her attention, why she cuts every forecast in half, and how Stu's $25,000 friends-and-family check turned into $967,000. What she covers: → A $75,000 investment where the founder confessed before the wire that a Ukraine-based dev consultant was holding her code base hostage → Buying back equity at 3x ($225K) out of roughly 5% of monthly gross revenue, then watching the shares become worth $2.5M in a multi-million dollar round a month later → Why Erica hates pitch decks and won't let founders use one on a call: send her the demo you give your customers instead → "My love language is a CRM": how her website contact form feeds her CRM, and why it beats a warm intro → Her Founders Field Guide to being capital ready: your customer, their problem, and how $1 of capital creates $3 in revenue → Why Proven Ventures cuts every founder's forecast by 50-60% → Why a founder who pays themselves nothing is a red flag, and the math on what a buyer subtracts when you pay yourself $100K but replacing you costs $300K → Why profitability and EBITDA, once "dirty words" in Silicon Valley, are what acquirers use to set the price now → A fund that wants to be "obsolete" on your cap table, and says it's beating the top-quartile fund on cash returned (per Carta's Q2 analysis) → Stu's $25,000 friends-and-family investment in 2013 that came back as a $967,000 check in 2021 → A bad executive hire, burned cash, and why "figure it out" founders are the ones she never loses sleep over → The pretend cowgirl pitch: Silver Spur Ranch in Idaho, Dax and Bodie, and a possible Startups with Stu retreat with horses 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: Silicon Prairie, Lincoln, and summers in the Sandhills 03:00 – Journalism degree to venture capital: Kansas State, Wharton, and Berkeley 06:00 – Why founders must pay themselves and what buyers do with that math 10:00 – Proven Ventures: a $10M Nebraska fund and the last $1M of Fund One 12:00 – Profitability and EBITDA: the "dirty words" that are saving portfolios 14:00 – Why Erica does podcasts and the shows founders learn from 17:00 – How to get her attention: the personalized LinkedIn invite and the website form 19:00 – Why she hates pitch decks and wants your customer demo instead 23:00 – "My love language is a CRM" and the Founders Field Guide to being capital ready 27:00 – The Ukraine dev consultant holding a code base hostage 30:00 – Debt equity explained: $75K in, $225K back, 5% of gross revenue 34:00 – $225K of shares worth $2.5M, and a fund that wants to be obsolete 37:00 – Cutting every forecast 50-60% and capping returns at 3x 40:00 – Stu's $25K friends-and-family check that became $967K 42:00 – Founders who figure it out, follow-on checks, and a bad executive hire 45:00 – Silver Spur Ranch, cowgirl grit, and why you can't bet the farm every time 48:00 – Closing: think about your capital stack differently ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow. Swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #venturecapital #fundraising #nebraska #siliconprairie #seedfund #revenuebasedfinancing #provenventures

  4. Oct 28

    He Returned $1 Million to Investors — A Founder’s Unusual Story

    Tim Klich raised $1 million from pickleball players before he'd built a single court. Then he gave every dollar back, because the project ran so late he felt bad keeping it. Tim spent 35 years as a commercial banker, the last 20 lending to tech startups, and never once got in trouble with a regulator. At 60 he started the Austin Pickle Ranch, and the city of Austin spent the next three years teaching him why bankers make poor real estate developers. He's 64 now, plays in every 7 a.m. game, and bought into a pro team as one of the eight original founders of Major League Pickleball. What he covers: → Telling a guy at a 2019 Wimbledon finals watch party that pickleball is "for losers who can't play tennis," then playing it at his house that night → Raising 1Minfoundingmemberdeposits(5,000 for five years of free play) with a college intern answering inbound emails while checks showed up in the mail → Structuring those deposits as a loan, not a security, so he never had to register with the Texas State Securities Commission → Giving all $1M back to members when the delays dragged on → A city that tried to declare a river through the middle of his land, three years of fighting it, and the epiphany that renting beats owning → His first location in a downtown parking garage: it killed it there, then noise complaints and zoning shut it down → A 70-location pickleball chain filing Chapter 11 the same week, and the overbuild Tim predicted back in 2023 → Why venues paying 70-80% of revenue in rent are nearly impossible to buy (a typical SaaS company pays 10-15%) → Why every pickleball court is the same size, and why community is the only real differentiator → Being willing to be "the bad guy" when a player's DUPR rating isn't high enough for the top game → Turning down a Merrill Lynch move to San Francisco in the mid-90s, then driving his parents nonstop from Columbus to Austin in a minivan after his dad's stroke → The one thing he'd do differently: raise outside money earlier 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: from 35 years of commercial banking to a pickle ranch 02:30 – Why a banker who backed tech startups became a founder at 60 05:00 – Lending against raw land and the Wimbledon night that changed the plan 09:00 – The downtown parking garage location: killed it, then got shut down 12:00 – A river nobody could find on a map and the "rent, don't own" epiphany 16:00 – $1M in founding member deposits, then giving all of it back 20:00 – The $5,000 loan structure: five years of free play, no securities filing 23:30 – Predicting the pickleball overbuild in 2023 and the 70-location bankruptcy 26:30 – Every day at the club: 7 a.m. games and midnight closes 29:00 – Four generations on one block and the San Francisco job he turned down 32:30 – Branding, a brand book, and why Yellowstone helped 35:00 – Why buying a pickleball venue rarely pencils out (rent at 70-80% of revenue) 38:00 – Community as the moat: open play, ratings, and being the bad guy 42:00 – Stu on dialing in the customer experience 44:00 – What Tim would tell himself before starting: raise outside money earlier ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow. Swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #pickleball #austintx #secondact #sportsbusiness #smallbusiness #austinpickleranch

  5. Oct 7

    A Solopreneur's Perspective on Entrepreneurship - Tim Shea's story

    Tim Shea's data analytics company has clients that include the NBA, UFC, Princess Cruise Lines,  and Reddit. He started the company solo, scaled to five employees during Covid, then went back  to solo — by choice. He calls VC "another form of poverty." He calls his current setup "crushing it." Tim Shea is the founder of Latticework, a retail and DTC data analytics company focused on  50–100M brands. With 25 years in data analytics, he's helped major brands decode the  difference between the customer who buys once on Black Friday and the customer who buys  every single month for two years straight — and figure out exactly how much they can afford to  spend to acquire more of the second type. What he covers: → Why your data is stuck in 20–30 different platforms the moment you start growing — and why reassembling it every Monday is killing your team → The "Moneyball for retail" framework: finding the counterintuitive, high-leverage metrics hidden inside your company's history → True North metrics: the 1–2 numbers every early-stage founder should optimize everything around — and when to switch them → LTV broken three ways: Black Friday buyers who don't come back for 12 months vs. January buyers who purchase every month for two years → Athletic Greens' CMO on payback period: average customer stays for two years at $99/month — do the math on what you can spend to acquire them → Why paying $1,000 to acquire a customer is not crazy — and why a finance-background CEO freaks out while a marketing-background CEO gets it → The AI + data future: pointing Claude at Snowflake, skipping the BI dashboards, and building custom scenario tools that show "$50K opportunity if you bend this curve by 1%" → Why Tableau and Looker are becoming obsolete — and what replaces them → Five companies in, solo again: why he delivers the work himself instead of building a team of junior folks → The "scarlet letter" of entrepreneurship: why big companies won't hire ex-founders → Why VC is "a whole other form of poverty" — and why debt, crushing it, and buying other businesses are all legitimate alternatives → When to call Tim: when your CFO is spending 4–8 hours a week jamming spreadsheets together every Monday morning 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro and how "Latticework" got its name 03:00 – What Tim does: retail and DTC data analytics for $50–100M brands 07:00 – The universal startup data problem: stuck in 30 platforms, reassembled every Monday 11:00 – Moneyball for retail: finding the counterintuitive high-leverage metrics 15:00 – True North metrics: what to optimize for at each stage of growth 19:00 – LTV 101: why you don't have one LTV ratio — you have three types of customers 24:00 – Athletic Greens' two-year average retention and what that means for acquisition spend 28:00 – AI + data: pointing Claude at Snowflake, killing the BI dashboard era 32:00 – Tableau gets a hug, then gets replaced: the new world of custom AI dashboards 36:00 – Growing up in Boston, moving to LA, discovering entrepreneurship the hard way 40:00 – Five companies in, back to solo — and why he's delivering the work himself 44:00 – The "scarlet letter" of being an ex-founder in a corporate job interview 47:00 – Lifestyle business vs. VC: why crushing it is a legitimate option 51:00 – Stu's PE exit story and the "bootstrapped" label he didn't expect 55:00 – National Parks Baseball Resort and how past skills stack into new ventures 58:00 – Now you have a friend in the data analytics business ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow — swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #dataanalytics #retail #dtcbrands #moneyball #ltv #ecommerce #latticework

  6. Oct 5

    He Lost Everything — Then Built a Global Education Company

    Fadi Alshalabi had 48 hours to leave Syria. He left behind his wife, his six-year-old daughter,  and his sick father. One week later, his wife told him she was pregnant with their second child.  He was starting over in Berlin with nothing but a research contract and a dream about education. Fadi Alshalabi is the founder of Niuversity — an online education platform that has taught  80,000 students across 40 countries, achieved a 92% course completion rate (the global average  is 8-12%), and ran a 100-student pilot with Google that graduated every single student. He grew  up in Damascus, was expelled from the US after 9/11, fled Syria in 2013 when Assad's regime  tried to arrest him, nearly got deported from Germany in 2020 after Covid wiped out his funding,  and is now a German citizen teaching digital skills to Arabic-speaking learners worldwide. What he covers: → Growing up in Damascus — the oldest inhabited capital in the world — and watching the Arab Spring turn into war → Being expelled from the US in 72 hours after 9/11 as a Middle Eastern student → Working as Head of International Affairs at Damascus University: managing 45 staff, running EU-funded projects, refusing to appear on TV to defend Assad's narrative → Getting 48 hours notice to flee Syria in 2013 — leaving his wife, six-year-old daughter, and pregnant wife behind → Seven and a half months separated from his family while they tried to get a German visa from the Beirut embassy → Being forced into entrepreneurship — selling his house in Syria and wiring money out illegally to fund his residence permit in Germany → The idea for Niuversity: seeing his own former students standing in food lines as refugees in Berlin in December 2015 → Why the global course completion rate is 8-12% — and how Niuversity hit 92% with live teaching → Winning second place at a Berlin startup competition — and a Google rep saying "from my side, you deserved first" → Asking Google for one favor: a video call with the director of Google Skills in Dubai, not an email → Running a 100-student pilot with Google that hit 100% completion — then signing a 2.5-year contract → Getting a letter in July 2020 saying Germany was revoking his residence after 7 years of taxes, employees, and integrated daughters → Three days in the hospital after a near heart attack — doctors asking him to write his will → Fighting the German government, winning the case, and eventually becoming a German citizen → Niuversity today: 5 staff, pivot underway, teaching professors how to teach online and integrate AI → The new mission: bringing EU-accredited digital credentials to Syrian universities after the fall of Assad 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: growing up in Damascus, the oldest inhabited capital in the world 03:30 – The Arab Spring hits Syria — and Fadi refuses to defend Assad on international TV 07:00 – 48 hours to leave: how the Damascus University president saved his life 11:00 – Seven and a half months separated from his family, wife pregnant with their second daughter 15:00 – The first expulsion: post-9/11, 72 hours to leave the US 18:00 – Forced into entrepreneurship: selling his house in Syria, wiring money to Germany illegally 22:00 – The idea for Niuversity: seeing his own former students in a Berlin food line in December 2015 26:30 – Building the Arabic Coursera — and why completion rate was the obsession 30:00 – 92% completion vs. the global 8-12% average — and nobody believing it 33:30 – The Google rep at a Berlin startup competition: "You deserved first place" 36:00 – Asking for a video call, not an email — and the 100-student pilot that hit 100% completion 40:00 – The 2.5-year Google contract and working with Meta 43:30 – Covid kills the funding model — 12 employees, thousands of students, one email saying it's over 47:00 – July 2020: Germany revokes residence after 7 years — near heart attack, three days in hospital 51:00 – Fighting back, winning the legal case, becoming German citizens 54:30 – Niuversity today: EU digital credentials, teaching AI to professors, mission in Syria 58:00 – What keeps him up at night — and Stu's advice on pre-selling to donors ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow — swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #edtech #elearning #refugee #syria #germany #niuversity #onlineeducation

  7. Sep 23

    From Frat House to Wing Empire: The Matt Friedman Story

    Matt Friedman had a commercial kitchen available every night after 6:30pm — the fraternity  house kitchen. He installed a phone line, printed some flyers, went to Sam's Club for wings  and one type of Coke, and started delivering buffalo wings to college students at the University  of Florida. That was 1993. Twelve banks said no when he tried to get a loan. His parents  said yes to $50,000. Wing Zone was born. Matt Friedman is the founder of Wing Zone — a brand he built from a $500 frat house  experiment to an Inc. 500 franchise company with locations across the US and internationally  — and current CEO of Epic Wings, a 40-year-old, 35-location fresh wing brand in Southern  California. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller "From Frat House to Franchising,"  available for $0.99 on Kindle or as a 14-hour audio book Matt recorded himself. What he covers: → A $500 startup in a frat house kitchen: one phone line, Sam's Club ingredients, guerrilla flyer marketing on campus → Walking into 12 banks with a business plan and getting declined by every single one of them → His parents lending him $50,000 in 1994 — a real loan, due back whether the business succeeded or failed, contingent on him graduating first → Capitalizing on a failed restaurant: finding a closed spot near campus with existing hood, plumbing, and electrical — then lipsticking the pig → Going from 1 to 7 company-owned stores in 5 years — all Florida and Georgia college markets → Making the Inc. 500 as a bootstrapped wings chain with zero outside investors → The friend-turned-partner Adam: 50/50 for 27 years, five arguments total, completely different skill sets — and still best friends → First franchisees were his own store managers who wanted to own their Wing Zone location → Why franchising didn't show a dollar of profit for the first two and a half years — and why that's normal → The rhino mascot and why thick skin is required: when franchisees succeed they credit themselves, when they fail they point at you → Why he joined Epic Wings as CEO: no freezers, everything fresh, 35 locations in 40 years, zero national ambitions → The most underrated ingredient in restaurant success: consistency, not quality → Writing "From Frat House to Franchising" with a ghostwriter over 25 weeks — then recording the 14-hour audio version himself 🔗 CONNECT WITH MATT FRIEDMAN Book: "From Frat House to Franchising" — $0.99 on Kindle, 14-hr audio on Audible Epic Wings: epicwings.com 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: Wing Zone founder, Epic Wings CEO, and author 02:30 – Writing "From Frat House to Franchising": ghostwriter, 25 chapters, 14 hours in the studio 07:00 – Why the audio book is $0.99 — and why he recorded it himself 10:00 – The frat house kitchen insight: commercial kitchen, empty after 6:30pm 13:30 – $500 startup: one phone line, Sam's Club run, flyers on campus 17:00 – Twelve bank rejections and the $50,000 parental loan (with graduation required first) 21:00 – Finding a failed restaurant near campus and making it the first Wing Zone storefront 24:30 – The name "Winging It," the trademark fight, and the rebrand to Wing Zone 27:00 – Adam: the 50/50 partner, different skill sets, five arguments in 27 years 31:00 – One to seven stores in five years — taking the best manager to each new city 34:30 – Making the Inc. 500 as a bootstrapped chain 37:00 – Why franchising is a completely different business than running restaurants 41:00 – Splitting the company: Matt runs franchising, Adam runs operations — both own 50/50 of each 44:30 – Two and a half years before franchise profits — and what the recurring revenue looks like after 48:00 – The rhino mascot and what it means to be a franchisor 51:00 – Selling Wing Zone in 2021 and pivoting to consulting 54:00 – Epic Wings: 40 years old, 35 locations, no freezers, fresh everything 57:00 – Quality vs. consistency — and why consistency wins every time ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow — swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #wingzone #epicwings #franchising #foodbusiness #restaurantbusiness #fomfrathousetofranching #bootstrapped

  8. Sep 21

    The Buyer’s Perspective: How to Build a Business Worth Acquiring

    A dentist Stu knew from church retired after decades of practice and just closed the doors.  Didn't sell it. Didn't know he could. Just locked up and walked away from what could have been  a real exit. Jason Morris heard the story and said it almost happened to a company he knows  every week. Rich Jarvis is the founder of Epic Capital Funds — $830 million under management, $3.4 billion  in the pipeline — and Jason Morris is his partner at Impact Equity Partners, a 14-year portfolio  CEO turned business acquirer. Together they sat down with Stu to talk through how private equity  actually works, what they look for when buying founder-built businesses, and what most  entrepreneurs get wrong about building for an exit. What they cover: → A Lake Tahoe hotel project that took nine years just to get through entitlement — the first hotel approved in Tahoe City in over 60 years → The "SUCCEED" model: Structure, Underwriting, Core teams, Capital stack, Exit strategy, Execution, Due diligence — how they vet every deal → What a portfolio CEO actually does: 14 years of managing companies inside PE portfolios, hitting metrics, getting to exit → Buying a hypoallergenic adhesive manufacturer in Oregon (biggest industry: gel nails) — and the bolt-on DTC brand merger that followed → Three non-emergency transportation companies under contract, plus an auto repair company to service their fleet → The dentist who closed his doors on 40 years of work without selling — and why Stu nearly cried → "Second bite of the apple": how Rich and Jason structure deals so founders can share in the upside again when they sell → Reviewing 3,000 companies in one year — and how discipline in the "buy box" gets you from chaos to traction → Why focusing on revenue instead of profit is the most common alignment failure in growing companies → Rich's weekly non-negotiable: "clarity breaks" — out of the office, asking two questions, revisiting the why → The EOS/Traction framework and why most of their portfolio companies attribute scalability directly to it → Why raising capital is about relationships first, transactions second — and how Rich built $830M AUM through RIA relationships, not direct investor pitches → How Stu raised money for Stu Kent: not through one big ask, but decades of being a trusted person 🔗 CONNECT WITH RICH JARVIS Epic Capital Funds: epiccapitalfunds.com 🔗 CONNECT WITH JASON MORRIS Impact Equity Partners: impactequitypartners.com 🔗 CONNECT WITH STU Instagram: @stu Website: https://startupswithstu.com 📌 CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro: two guests, two companies, one whiteboard week in Boise 03:30 – Rich Jarvis: first rental in 1998, lost everything 2008-2011, restarted in 2019 07:00 – Epic Capital Funds: $830M AUM, $3.4B pipeline, what those numbers actually mean 10:30 – The Lake Tahoe hotel: 9 years to entitlement, first approval in 60 years 13:00 – Jason Morris: 14 years as a portfolio CEO — what that job actually is 17:00 – The whiteboard week in Boise that launched Impact Equity Partners 20:30 – What they buy: cash-flowing, 10+ year businesses with lifestyle-owner upside 24:00 – The dentist story: closed the doors after 40 years without selling a thing 27:30 – Second bite of the apple: how deal structure gives founders another payday 31:00 – First acquisition: Oregon hypoallergenic adhesive manufacturer (gel nails → DTC) 35:00 – HVAC company, three NEMT companies, and an auto repair bolt-on 38:30 – 3,000 companies reviewed, a disciplined buy box, and saying no to shiny objects 42:00 – Revenue vs. profit: the alignment failure that kills growing companies 45:00 – Rich's clarity breaks and why he considers them the most important hour of his week 48:30 – EOS/Traction, scorecards, rocks, and one source of truth 52:00 – RIA relationships: how $830M AUM came from fewer, deeper relationships — not a big list 55:30 – How to raise capital: relationships over transactions, value over asks 58:00 – Measuring life from the rocking chair: 5,000 lives impacted vs. Standing Room Only ⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow — swap to actual timecodes before publishing. #entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #privateequity #realestate #businessacquisition #smallbusiness #exitstrategy #investing #epiccapitalfunds

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8 Ratings

About

Stu Draper, a serial entrepreneur, knows just how exhilarating it is to launch a startup to the moon. He is a 9-time Inc. 5000 honoree before age 40 with tens of millions generated in revenue from his startups and an angel investor in 8 businesses. He's also the co-author of the bestselling textbook Digital Marketing Essentials. Stu knows just what it takes to transform an innovative idea into a thriving business. Inspired by the creators of groundbreaking ventures, Startups With Stu is an illuminating podcast that dives into the trials and triumphs of startup founders and investors who have committed their lives to reaching financial freedom through entrepreneurship. Podcast guests will be seeking advice on how to overcome the obstacles they're facing. Expect motivating stories as Stu spotlights the hard-fought victories that reveal the inner workings of entrepreneurship. By demystifying the startup process, Startups With Stu aims to equip aspiring founders with the grit and know-how to transform visionary concepts into startup success. Startups With Stu is produced using PodUp podcasting software.

Information

  • Creator
    Stuart Draper
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    79
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2026 Stuart Draper. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Startups With Stu

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