The Accidental Entrepreneurs
Two different innovators that stumbled on ideas in the veterinary field, built a company, then sold for millions........ without having any idea what they were doing.
Each week, Ira and Stacee will spin the wheel of start-up questions and share the knowledge they wish they had back then.
The Accidental Entrepreneurs
Ep 14: Guest cohost Beth Green, How did you find your business partners?
Stacee and our special guest cohost, Beth Green, spin the wheel today and talk about their business partners and the way they found them.
Special mentions:
Toni Passaretti
John O'Brien
Dr. Pat Tomlinson
Karyn Gavzer
Martin Traub-Werner
Hello and welcome. I am Ira Gordon and, along with Stacee Santi, the host of The Accidental Entrepreneurs Podcast. We each previously founded successful companies. Along the way, we became business owners and eventually sold those businesses despite us having no real background in business or ever even planning to become entrepreneurs. In other words, we did this all despite originally having no idea what we were doing or getting ourselves into. In each episode of this podcast, we will share stories and tips from our journey and we'll answer a randomly chosen question about our experience. Let's jump right into the show.
Stacee:Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode, and we have our special co-host, Beth Green. She is filling in for Ira today. So, Beth, how are you?
Beth:I am doing well. I am doing well.
Stacee:Very good. What's new over there? You got any fun plans coming up.
Beth:Oh, I do, I do. I am getting ready to go to Las Vegas. Oh, me too. I'll see you there. Many of you, yeah, except this time I'm going a little early and I'm going to take some self-care time. So what are you going to do? Go to the spa. I'm going to a spa. Yeah, oh, fun Been a while, so I have to remember what it's like.
Stacee:Oh, that's going to be amazing. Well, okay, last week we spun the wheel and the question is "ow did you find your business partner? So, beth, tell us who was your business partner. How did you find them?
Beth:Yeah, I had two types of business partners. I had some partners that were involved in the business and in helping to run the business and they were actually former employees with me at Veterinary Learning Systems. And Veterinary Learning Systems had gone through a buyout and got bought by a French company, Vivendi, and during that time they came in and restructured and that sometimes happens and reduced some of the force, some of their key people. I greatly admired the founder of VLS and I never wanted to go in and steal people from him and anyway. But when they announced that several people were leaving anyway I grabbed them. And so they helped with the concept and in the execution, mainly Tony Passaretti on the on the content side, John O'Brien on the sales side, and then we also had Dr Pat Tomlinson who was a veterinarian at the time. She was actually working for Hill's part of the time and then one day a week working with us as well. So I had them on the business side. But financially I needed a financial sponsor and
Beth:my husband had worked with a group here in Tulsa and they had an investment group that did private equity type investments and presented to the company and the family that was behind this group and talk to them about veterinary medicine, talk to them about how it was becoming a female-dominated industry.
Beth:It wasn't female dominated at that point, but at that point veterinary schools where the majority of students were women, but one day it would be predominantly female oriented and I remember one of the family members said, "wow, I want to be supporting something that supports women, right. So they signed up and every time we decided that, you know, we wanted to do something that maybe required a little bit more more funds. You know we eventually connected with Don Plum and bought Plum's. They were again supportive of that part of everything that we did and provided support and both emotional support and financial support, business acumen. The owner also runs a hedge fund and so I had a lot of business expertise that he could pass on and help. I think also during that time, let's see about 10 years and my husband died of cancer. So all of a sudden my husband, who was my business partner right In real life, all of a sudden I was without him and they came in and stepped in and helped support me through that they did.
Beth:Yeah, oh, that's really nice, you know came in and stepped in and and helped me, help support me through that. Yeah, oh, that's really nice. Anything that we can do for you, you let us know, yeah, and, and you know, when I'd call and say we need to have a meeting, we need to discuss this, they would schedule time to do that, and I think it's difficult. I'm dying to hear your story about business partners too, but having a business partner is no different than you know, marriage right.
Beth:It's got to be somebody that you trust, somebody that you work well with, somebody that you're aligned on the mission and the goals. I was very fortunate to have found that person.
Stacee:Yeah, that's amazing, and I have a question about how, when you first met them, your husband introduced you to them. What was it like to pitch your deck Like? How did you get prepared for that part?
Beth:Well, because my husband worked in that segment of the business had been an entrepreneur. He started his own company, yeah, and you know was a Oklahoma venture company of the year and stuff. He had experience in that and so, yeah, he was my critic and cheerleader, which was also very hard to have your spouse being your critic. I remember the first time he gave me some really critical feedback, I cried because it hurt, you weren't good enough, and he and he was like no, no, no, I'm not trying to criticize, I'm trying to coach you to the next level. And so over time I got really super used to that and I'd be back. I'm like, okay, give me, give me more, me more, I'm ready for more. I think that's an essential part of being an entrepreneur, too is having somebody who does challenge you, is completely supportive of you, but also challenges you as well.
Stacee:Oh my gosh, right before we got on this call, I was meeting with a veterinarian. She's like an emerging entrepreneur and she's starting her company and she wanted me to consult with her and, you know, kind of help her get some strategy going here and I don't know, I had to give her some fairly critical feedback. I felt kind of like oh no. And I asked her how are you feeling about this? And she said crushed. I'm like, oh no, I don't want to crush you. And she just said it's okay. I don't think anyone's ever taken the time to just tell me the truth about where I'm going and what I'm building. And I was like I I feel really bad. And I told her, though, this is the hard part, right, this is where you got to get the grit to keep going.
Beth:Right right.
Stacee:Ira always says it's like telling someone their baby's ugly.
Beth:Yeah, and that's what you know, what I have to tell you. I have a group of CEOs that I was asked to join at one time, mainly in the media world and I was the first woman to ever be asked to join this group and I remember the first time I went and I presented, it kind of felt a little bit more like you're in front of a firing squad. The questions were like you know, and I was like, oh my gosh, I am not yet completely prepared for this. And I remember there was one person who later joined my board and has been a great mentor of mine ever since said the question to me if you were building your business today, would you build it like that? And I looked at him and I said, oh my gosh, no, I went home, retooled my business within two weeks, anyway, but sometimes you need that right.
Stacee:Yeah, yeah, you need that. Well for me, my business partner was our mutual friend, martin Traub-Werner, and the way I met him. It's so funny. When I started Vet2Pet, I knew I needed people to know about it the target audience, the veterinarians and I didn't really know how to get it out there. I mean, you can take out ads in journals, but that's pretty expensive and then if you're not in the right journal, as you know, you end up on the desk of the doctor and I didn't have enough money to take an ad out. In fact, I remember I reached out to one of the big publications maybe it was DVM 360 or something and I asked how much it would be to do a one pager and they told me $10,000. And I thought I'm not asking to be in People Magazine, I don't know where you get $10,000. $25,000.
Stacee:And so I decided I should get some of these speakers at conferences to. Maybe they could tell the vets about vet to pet and the way you could engage pet owners. So there was one lady I really liked a lot. I always went to her sessions. Her name was Karyn Gavzer and she was just one of my personal favorites. So I just cold called her one day and I told her you know, here's who I am, here's what I'm doing. I was wondering if maybe you could mention me in some of your sessions and she told me very nicely she wasn't a gun for hire like that, but that I could join this group called vet partners, which you know, no matter what field you're in on innovating, there's probably a group of people or a place where people hang out that are supporting the area you're trying to break into. You should try to look for that area.
Stacee:I found this group and I go to the meeting. Of the things you have to do when you're a new member is give a five minute little mini pitch to the audience and tell them you know who you are and what you're doing. So I was so nervous I have my little slides and I had to sort of channel my inner Beyoncé and stand up in front of the room of very important people and tell them what I was doing. And I went and sat down and Martin came right over. He was right, he just ran over, I think, and he's like we have to work together and I'm like who are you?
Stacee:You know, but if you've met Martin, he's super nice and really fun and likable guy, and so we just started having some calls and the conversation didn't end there. We kept meeting and then finally he was like let's join forces, I want to be your business partner. So that's how I met him and he was my only business partner. I never got another one. I mean, I got a distribution deal and other people, but I consider him my primary advisor.
Beth:Oh, my gosh and he's the best.
Stacee:How lucky am I that that's who it was? What if it had been somebody awful? I mean, maybe I would have have known, I don't know, but I I feel super lucky that he's a nice person, he's a hard worker, he's like brilliant yeah, yeah compassionate yeah, yeah, things.
Stacee:things tend to work out. You know, I guess, when you look around, what you have available to you at your disposal push yourself a little bit to get uncomfortable, like if you hadn't gone in front of that investor group or I hadn't stood up in front of all those important strange people, strangers I shouldn't call them strange people, strangers. I don't think these things would have happened for me the way they did.
Beth:Yeah, and I think it's like acting. You know, if you just take one step forward, right, it helps. I remember when I first presented the idea to NAVC about I've got this new idea for a journal. I know you've been thinking about doing one. Here's what it is. And I met with their board at WVC after their conference at a lunch and I remember they gave me a handshake deal.
Beth:And then I remember flying home from Vegas that day and my husband coming home and me like curled up on the bed and he's like, well, that meeting must not have gone too well. And I said no, it went really well. I got a handshake deal. And then he said why are you here? And I said, what if I'm wrong? What if I can't do it? What if I, you know? And he was the one who said you know, you can lie here the rest of your life wondering what could have been, or you can try and know that even if, if you you failed that, you will have tried your hardest and you know, have a learning from that as well.
Stacee:And so, yeah, he sounds like an amazing guy.
Beth:Well, I think you've been through it all before too right Having somebody who's been through it, and I feel that way. About mentoring, I'm so excited to see you mentoring other veterinarians. I think I love mentoring and there were so many people that liked the Martins of the world that gave me that gift of their expertise, their advice. You know feedback to look at and, yeah, some of the most important people gave me the feedback that was not always rosy, critical feedback. You know things that I needed to change, anyway, and I took that to heart along the way.
Stacee:Great. Well, now it's part of the show where we will share a favorite tip, trick tool or inspirational person. What do you have for us, beth?
Beth:Well, one of my very favorite poets is Goethe, and Goethe has tons of quotes that I love from Goethe. I feel like he and I were soulmates at some point, but he talks about that. The moment "one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too, and whatever you think you can do, or you believe you can do, begin it, and action has magic, power and grace, and I love that quote. It goes back to what we were just talking about right, that if you just believe it, right that you can do it, and there are going to be hurdles along the way, there are going to be learnings that you have or things that you thought it would be one way and it was a different way, and that just take the action, take the action, and that's where the magic is. Oh, that's great um for me.
Stacee:I think this time I'm gonna share that. I think it's so important for entrepreneurs to stay in their lane right, to stay focused, and you're going to get distracted, you're going to possibly get somebody with a big check to ask you to do something that's a little out of your zone, or you're going to see an opportunity over here along the way that wasn't where you're originally going. But you have to stay focused and I think the analogy for me is like there's this restaurant in Durango and they serve Mexican food, american food. They serve like all these random foods. You can get it all, but you know it's too much and they're just based, they're average at all the meals. It's different than going to the Mexican restaurant or the burger place and I think if you can be super focused and stay in your lane, you're going to have more success than getting distracted and being mediocre at a lot of little things.
Beth:Yeah, yeah, I love that. And Steve Jobs said it's more important sometimes what you say no to right Than what you say yes to. So I think that's so true and I love your restaurant analogy. I feel like the shorter the menu sometimes, the better the food right, Because they focused on what they do amazingly well.
Beth:I'm an In-N-Out girl. You just go in, you know what you got. It's clean, it's consistent, it's always good so.
Stacee:an , I t, girl too. Thanks Beth us, beth. We really had a great time with you.
Beth:Oh, it's amazing. Stacee, I want to thank you for all the inspiration that you give other veterinarians. You were always one of our preferred speakers when we were doing a lot of our work around Veterinary Team Brief. You always were one of the most highly rated speakers. So it amazed me when you were telling this story earlier about being nervous to speak, because I've only seen you speak so authentically and really provide such great context and information to all caretakers, both veterinarians, practice managers, techs, nurses. So anyway, thank you for all that you do for the industry.
Stacee:Oh, thanks.
Beth:And thank you for being my friend.
Stacee:Oh, yes, it's my pleasure. All right, guys, we look forward to seeing you next time. Have a great week out there, Thank you. Thanks for listening to the show today. If you want to learn more about my story or Ira's story, be sure to check out episodes two and three. Thanks for listening to the show today. If you want to learn more about my story or Ira's story, be sure to check out episodes two and three. And if you are an accidental entrepreneur and would like to be a guest co-host on the show and spin the wheel, just message beacohost no spaces to 1-833-463-9727 and tell us your story. See you next time.
