Painting a Path to Success: A CEO's Tale with Dwayne Luquetta

In our second episode, we explore a different form of entrepreneurship and small business ownership - leading a business as the CEO of a hold-co portfolio company. Dwayne Luquetta is the CEO of Chenmark-held Benjamin Moore of Kelowna - a paint retailer located in British Columbia. Dwayne discusses the drivers of his decision to partner with Chenmark, the challenges he faces as a new CEO, his thoughts on growth, and his human capital strategy. Zach and Vivek follow up with a discussion of entrepreneurship in Chenmark and an evaluation of franchise and franchise-like models. 

If you are interested in small and medium sized businesses or search funds, we hope you enjoy this episode! 

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Episode Summary: 

• What working for a Chenmark holding company is like and how he decided to work at Chenmark (01:00 - 06:03);
• How to evaluate the decision of working at Chenmark against traditional corporate jobs and starting a search fund (06:03 - 11:40); 
• Explaining the business of Benjamin Moore Kelowna, the size of the business, and the challenges in the first 90 days as CEO (11:40 - 23:40);
• Conceptualizing growth levers and an evaluation of customer selection (23:40 - 32:00); 
• Human capital strategy and thinking about hiring and training employees (32:00 - 39:13);
• Chenmark’s impact on Dwayne’s business and advice (39:13 - 48:55);
• Zach and Vivek debriefing and discussing the Chenmark and Franchise Model (48:56 - End);

Intro music by Rex Banner