New podcast episode is up (link below), and is especially relevant for CEOs, so as aspiring CEOs and SMB business leaders I hope you'll check it out. In it I interview Rich Manders, a serial SMB entrepreneur who is now a CEO Coach with Freescale Coaching. Rich can be best described as the "Entrepreneur's Entrepreneur", and has played seemingly every role that one can play within the SMB ecosystem: Founder, Operator, Acquirer, Seller, and Coach, just to name a few.

Rich grew one of his businesses, iAutomation, from $0 to $90M in sales (now the subject of a Harvard Business School case study) before selling it to a Private Equity Firm, and after continuing on in the CEO role alongside his PE parent, sold it again for an 8x multiple of capital and a 50% IRR. Among (many) other things, I ask Rich about:

- How to incorporate the private equity operating "playbook" within SMBs

- Whether CEOs should use options or equity to attract/retain talent

- How much cash CEOs should keep on their balance sheets

- What differentiates successful acquisitions from unsuccessful ones

- Best time management practices for CEOs

- The unique operational challenges that high growth presents to CEOs

- What life on the other side of an exit truly looks and feels like

- ...and many other questions

Listen in your browser (incl. show notes and downloadable transcript): Rich Manders: Lessons from Founding, Growing, Buying, Selling, Coaching, and Investing in SMBs

Listen on other platforms: Apple | Google | Spotify | Breaker | Pocket Casts | RadioPublic