A Founder's Life
Join me as I explore the powerful intersection of entrepreneurship, health & wellness, and parenthood. In each episode, I’ll be interviewing inspiring individuals who excel in one or more of these areas, sharing their stories, insights, and lessons. My goal is to provide valuable takeaways that can help you thrive both personally and professionally.
A Founder's Life
How to Build Businesses That Last Generations - Tim Metzner - S5 - E16
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode of A Founder’s Life is brought to you by Thankz, helping founders scale with reliable remote talent. Get $1,000 off your first month by emailing founders@thankz.com with the subject line Founder’s Life.
🌐 Follow A Founder’s Life
• YouTube: @AFoundersLife
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a-founder-s-life-podcast/
• Instagram: @afounderslife
• Spotify & Apple Podcast: https://linktr.ee/afounderslife
👤 Connect with Today’s Guest – Tim Metzner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmetzner
Company's Site: https://www.fireroad.io/
Free daily booster shot of motivation: www.dailymo.co
What does balance actually look like when you’re building companies and raising a family at the same time?
In this episode, Tim Metzner, serial entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, and co-founder of FireRode, shares his journey from early startup life to building venture-backed companies while staying deeply present as a husband and father of four. We talk about family integration, health rhythms, faith, seasons of intensity, and why building with the right people matters more than doing everything yourself.
What you’ll learn:
• Why balance comes in seasons, not perfection
• How to integrate family into entrepreneurship
• Why health and fitness must be calendar “rocks”
• The power of building with the right people
• How faith shaped Tim’s leadership journey
⸻
⏱️ CHAPTERS (5 total, accurate)
0:00 – Early Startup Life & Ecosystem Building
2:51 – FireRode, Investing & Tech-Enabling SMBs
5:30 – Family Integration & Being a Present Founder
9:17 – Health, Fitness & Sustainable Energy
19:23 – Faith, Identity & Advice for Founders
Website
Subscribe Now!
Welcome to a Founder's Life. I'm your host, Leo Kastetna. On this show we dive into the real stories behind the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and how we pursue a more balanced and meaningful life along the way. This podcast is sponsored by Thanks, helping founders like us scale with reliable remote talent. Email founders at Thanks.com, that's T-H-A-N-K-Z.com with the subject line of founders' life and you'll receive preferred pricing. Now I'm excited today to be joined by Tim Metzner. Tim, thanks for joining. Would you like to kick off by introducing yourself?
SPEAKER_01Sure, glad to be here. I appreciate uh you having me on. Uh I have a heart for founders and those trying to find balance, I suppose. So a big fan of the of the uh topic in general. Euro entrepreneur myself, so I've been building uh a part of building company since the early 2000s. I uh found my way into a startup when I was still in college at the University of Cincinnati. Honestly, kind of I always joke like I was ruined from ever having a real job at that point. I joined as like employee number four or five of a startup in Cincinnati, and that founder I met just after he had exited his first company to eBay. It was early 2000s, late 90s, early 2000s. He was doing his earnout with eBay and starting another startup on the side and hired me as a college co-op to get that thing spin, you know, spin plates for him and get it moving as he was doing his earnout. And I just fell in love with the entrepreneurial journey. So been a part of starting companies ever since. Uh been in Cincinnati, Ohio, you know, the whole time. And I always tell people my journey has been sort of dual parts like ecosystem builder. So when I was in the early 2000s, there was really no startup community to speak up here in Cincinnati. And I met a good Cincinnati gal who wanted to raise a family here, and my aspirations of going to a more startup-friendly environment like the Bay Area were kind of stopped. And I said, Great, well then we're going to help Cincinnati win. So I've built multiple venture-backed businesses here in Cincinnati and done things like brought Startup Weekend to town and started an accelerator and have spoken in classrooms across universities and high schools in the city and done meetup events and networking and angel investing and more coffee meetings than I can count with uh you know would-be entrepreneurs. So that's been the the fun side hustle, as it were, in addition to building multiple businesses uh as a founder myself.
SPEAKER_00So, what would you describe as sort of the day job today? Which aspect the day job, and what are you doing for the companies and customers you work with?
SPEAKER_01Great question. Yeah. So Fire Road is the current day job. So after building a couple businesses as a founder, jump to the other side of the table. So Fire Road is actually kind of multiple things in once. We've got a venture fund. So we do pre-seed stage investing in, I call it SMB tech. So if you are a founder building technology to tech enable mainstream America, small businesses, blue collar trades, like we look at really categories that AI won't disrupt. We want to back founders who are tech enabling those categories, if that makes sense, right? So we always joke like I use plumbing as the example where sorry AI is not going to fix the pipe in the wall anytime soon, but we can leverage AI and automation to build a better plumbing business, right? So those are the kind of companies we're backing out of Fire Road Venture. So we're pre-seed stage investors in businesses automating non-technical categories. On the other side of Fire Road, we've got this kind of barbell strategy. So that's the early stage risk capital, take some moonshots. On the other side of the house, we're building a holding company. So the goal is buy long-term ownership in those same kind of businesses we're tech enabling. So we haven't gotten a deal done there yet. We're just a couple years in and still kind of working for our first acquisition on that side of the house, but we want to be long-term kind of buy and hold on the hold co side and then tech enabling kind of businesses on the other side of the house. And then third leg of the stool is really um kind of just holding space for myself as a serial founder. I call it the foundry side of the business. Pretty good chance we'll see white space opportunities to build something or pull someone like you in to build a business with and go, like, hey, let's be part of founding, not just investing or buying. So that's the vision. All of it kind of centered around this idea that there's a silver tsunami of aging business owners that needs to transition hands. And the next wave of ownership is likely to be uh much more tech enabled and want to bring in AI and automations, where current, if you're in your 60s, 70s, 80s running a business today, you might be more resistant to AI and automation. And so we just think as these things transition, ownership, there's a perfect opportunity to help tech enable those kind of businesses. Obviously, since they're trading hands, it's a really good time to be buying into those companies as well. So that's that's the whole fire road vision in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00That's makes sense. It's exciting uh opportunities there as you sort of as the world moves forward into more tech enabled. And yeah, as you said, those traditional businesses will always be needed. Yes, that's right. And talk to us a little bit about uh what family means to you, how your family looks. Yeah, so father of four.
SPEAKER_01I've got two boys, two girls. Um got thirteen, twelve, ten, and eight are uh my kiddos. Um, you know, they've been around I've been, you know, they've been around me building businesses since the beginning. Um my wife and family, it's funny, they just left the office. We had like a little fire road Christmas gathering. So all of our families were here and we got to hang out with each other. So it's me and my two partners here, and then their families came and hang out and had pizza and played games. And you know, it's not that we do that every week or anything like that, but we love the idea of being able to integrate and bring families into this thing because I always tell people like the you know, the partner at home is every bit as involved as is the founder themselves, in the sense that like if you want to, you know, for me anyways, like to remain a good dad and and remain married, like I need a partner who's flexible and is just as helpful for me outside of work as is during the working hours. So an example of that is my wife Christy really tees me up to do things like coach and she handles all the logistics and does a lot of the scheduling for me so I can just show up at a practice and run a practice and still be there and and uh be very present. And then she knows like if I've got a 5 p.m. practice, like pretty good chance I'm gonna have to like get back online after that's over and finish the workday out. So, you know, I I don't think integrating perfectly a family into a business, especially in the early stages, is is easy necessarily, but I think it's worth the good fight of like, what are those places and spaces where I can find opportunities to bring the family into it? And you know, for me, that might be like grabbing one of my kids and taking them to one of the startup events with me, right? If I'm doing some extra hours stuff after work, like why don't I take them to a pitch event? They sat in on I I taught a class on venture capital at the University of Cincinnati uh earlier this year and you know, brought my kids to a couple of those classes. Finding time and spaces where I can actually bring them into it, I think is really important for them to get to see what I'm doing and get a sense for the work we're doing. And that for me, it's like having a really hopeful spouse um who can work with the you know the flexibility I need, um, but also team me up to be a good, good father as well has been powerful.
SPEAKER_00It's all of that together, definitely. And I love the the combination of uh your you know with your co-founders having uh their families in as well. So everyone having a chance to really get to know each other.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think just encouraging them to like you know, leave in the middle of the day to go see a Christmas play at school. It's like that stuff is awesome and important, and you know, you it's you know this because you're at the next stage. Like you blink and all of a sudden you don't have little kids anymore. And you're like, what where did that how did that happen? Like where where did that and I think especially like you know, they say the you know the the days are long and the years are fast in parenting, but I think it's actually in parenting and in entrepreneurship where it just like feels like a grind, and then you look up and you're like, man, this we're leaving at this thing for two or three years. That's crazy. Like, and you combine both those, like young family and building a business, and like it's a blur, man. So it's like how do you take advantage of some of those moments to go like, man, that inbox is still gonna be full after the play, go hang out and you know, get back after it later.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the entrepreneur's to-do list is never gonna get finished. So it's about prioritizing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're never done.
SPEAKER_00And how about for you, how's health? And I and health I look at as obviously all those different aspects, whether it be mental health, physical health, sleep, nutrition, fitness, what what whatever aspects you look at for health.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for me, that has like always been a priority and ebbed and float, if it makes sense. Like one of the things like it's always on my mind, even in the grind of like the first, again, it's kind of like the same having a baby and starting a business, like the first year of having a kid, it's like sleep is shot and you know you're you're out of your normal rhythms. Like the same thing happens when you're building a company. It's like you're kind of working all hours of the day to get this thing off the ground. And so fitness and nutrition are definitely not the same for me in that first year of business building. But I think it's one of those things where going into it, I kind of know that, especially after the first company and kid, you're like, okay, I should have a really strong base and foundation going into those early days so that I can maintain it. And if I take a step back, it's like a mentor once told me, he's like, man, don't beat yourself up if you're not at the gym three days a week or four days a week or five days a week in those early days. Like you've made a priority throughout your life. So yes, maybe it'll wane for a little bit in the starting phase, but you'll come back to it. Like, you know, have some people who will remind you and keep you accountable to that. But you know, you can't beat your, you can't do it all. So don't beat yourself up over, you know, a temporary lull in that. But you know, I also know well enough to know like if you get six months into it and you're still making excuses for why you're not at the gym or working out or why you're eating like crap, like, you know, you're not gonna be very effective in that founder chair either. If it's a marathon, and I believe it is, then you gotta you gotta maintain that health and and fitness as well. So finding ways to kind of fit it in, and um, and it's just like family time and fitness is kind of similar to me. Like, treat it like a rock on your calendar is the only way it's ever worked really well for me. So it's like have uh have family dinner nights on the calendar, have your workouts on the calendar, and like your team knows you know, you don't schedule over that unless we have a conversation first. Like have those things be, you know, a serious blocker uh and treat them like you would uh you know an investor pit. Like hold it that sacred, right? So that's been that's been cool for me. Little hacks too, just like a coaching's a good one where you it's both a combination of family time and you're getting active. Like, you know, you're moving up and down the court with your team, you're coaching basketball, you're for me that keeps me active and moving. Um actually a pretty fun moment this morning where uh I played pickup basketball once or twice a week when I can. The group I played with was short today, so I I brought my um my eighth grader with me. I was like, Well, we can play because I'll bring my son with me. So it was the first time my son got to come play pickup ball with me, and we both got a, you know, he got up at didn't have school today, but I got him out of bed at 5 15 a.m. and he came and ran with me. And uh so that was a fun moment actually. Getting to integrate family into the fitness too is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00That's fun. I love that. For me, that's been more on a one-on-one, but I love the fitness time with my kids. For my daughter, it's like when I'm in LA, which I'll be over Christmas, New Year, it'll be an hour's walk early in the morning every day with my son. It's hitting the gym and doing an hour and a half, a hard gym session, and you know, whatever it is, it's for me, it's that more one-on-one, but whatever that is, that linking fitness and family is is is a great time.
SPEAKER_01It's pretty cool. And it's a good way to set the example. I feel like my guess is your kids are probably pretty active and fitness health conscious because you are, right? Like that, you know, that example matters quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00I agree a hundred percent. Plus, my kids have uh seen my uh bigger me when I was 50% larger than I am now. So yeah. Uh they they've seen the health transformation. I've definitely given them uh an understanding and and uh healthy perspective. Yeah, a perspective, yeah. Agree a hundred percent. And what do you like to do for fun?
SPEAKER_01Uh coaching now. It's honest like uh I I coach a lot of basketball these days. Have you know, for the last eight years or so, probably, I guess now, um that's become hobby. When I can't I love the outdoors, hiking, bang motorcycle riding are all hobbies. I don't get to do it enough, but I a handful of years ago started doing adventure motorcycle riding. So you do these like trips where the goal is like get off the pavement as much as possible. So you're on a motorcycle, but you're trying to find these like back roads. That's actually sort of the genesis for the name fire road is you know, when I'm on my motorcycle, I'm always looking for the fire road, which is like this kind of beaten path through the woods. It's like just enough infrastructure you can get into the woods on a motorcycle, but you know it's gonna be hard, it's probably gonna get lost, you're probably gonna drop your bike, and so it's gonna be harder than the average journey, but um, but that adventure has always been fun to me. That's been a a neat hobby doing that as well, but not as much as I'd like to.
SPEAKER_00Maybe one day that'll be with the kids. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um, so I like to talk about a balanced life. Now, for me, the definition of a balance is not the perfect balance because we're never perfectly in balance, but it but it's overall sort of how does a balanced life look for you?
SPEAKER_01I talk a lot about seasons, and maybe it's because I've been through like multiple entrepreneurial starts, you know, kind of serial co-founder. I've gotten to see these different like ebbs and flows of like, man, there's some intense phases in the early days, or you get to a point where you've got sort of a you work for a few years, and then it's like, man, we actually have an opportunity to build something special here, but the window of opportunity is is small. And so there's gonna be some sprint phases in the journey. I've always tried to make it a conversation with my wife such that like she knows, hey, for the next three months, I'm trying to close a fundraise. Like, I'm gonna be jamming, like I'm gonna be going really hard, harder than I want to be going and harder than normal. And let's both agree like that's not gonna become the norm. Like, so if we're a quarter out from now and you know my schedule hasn't changed at all, like I want you to hold me accountable to that. And likewise, like you know, in seasons where it's not as intense at work, like I'm gonna take some extra time to be with the family. Um and there's certain rhythms and rocks we have that have worked really well. Um I think because my you know, the chaos of starting companies, like I have to have things like coaching is one of those rocks. There's just like, man, you know, there's no way otherwise I would shut down and get to a 5 p.m., you know, thing. Um, but if I'm coaching, like I've gotta have, you know, I've got to be there. So I'm shutting down at 4 30 and getting to a 5 p.m. practice and I might get back after it, but that rock has holding me in balance. And like it's one of the few I've found at least like if I'm working out or riding my motorcycle or doing a lot of other things, like my mind is still spinning on work stuff. It really is. When I'm coaching basketball, like it's not like when you're wrangling kids and like trying to, you know, teach someone something else, like it's hard to think about anything but that. So it's a really nice forcing function to spend time with my kids and their friends to know get to know their parents better. Ops my wheels from spinning on work stuff and lets me be kind of present there has been a really good one. Another rhythm my wife and I have done that um has become really important for us and the kids is we do one-on-one trips with our kids. So we have four, so we only do it every five years, but we do like a dedicated away trip and we alternate. So if I did my son's five-year trip, my wife will do his 10-year trip. And it's just a one-on-one trip, like three, four, five days away. They get to help plan it, and it's just the parent and the kid, and there's just something really special and different about traveling and being just dedicated time with the kiddos. It's been really, really good. So I think having things like that to balance out the crazy of like there will be seasons of like sprinting at work, but they also know like there's these things we do that are non-negotiable that we're gonna, you know, remain focused on family and make that a priority, also. So I think it's finding those rocks, creating some rhythms, and then again, having the ongoing dialogue with my spouse about okay, not just letting it go unspoken. I've been bad at that at times where it's like I'm grinding, I assume everyone knows I'm grinding. Like, well, you gotta have that conversation. Like your wife needs to know this is a season of for whatever reason. Like, let's also talk about the why. You know, like you need to know why we're doing this. It's not just uh work a lot of hours, it's because here's the opportunity in front of us and why it's important for you know, not just me, but the family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think uh that's that's absolutely correct. The travel I'm a big believer in as well. I've I've done one-on-one trips with my kids probably since they were about 12, 13. I do each of the kids once a year. Uh and it could be a two-day trip somewhere local, or it might be a week away somewhere further to find. But um, I've done one-on-one trips with the kids. I love I love that time with them.
SPEAKER_01Yes. They look forward to it. I look forward to it. Like the bond you build, even in just a couple days when you're like dedicated. And it's also, I don't know if you've done this, but it's one of the best opportunities for me to challenge them and go, like, you're figuring this out. Whatever the thing is, like, you know, I did a trip with my son this summer and he didn't know at all what we were doing. We got in the car and I handed him an atlas, told him what it was, and I said, Here's our destination. Put your phone away. You've got to figure out how to get us there. And he learned how to navigate and got us to our destination using an atlas. And it was just like, it's a really cool challenge. And we get to the location, I'm like, here's what we're doing. You go figure out how to check in, where we need to go. Like, you're gonna you go figure this stuff out. Like you're you're not a boy anymore, you're not yet a man, you're at this in-between, but we're gonna push you, we're gonna make you, you know, grow up a little bit on this trip. And I think travel is a good opportunity to do those kind of things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's cool. I love that. What has been a pivotal moment in your life?
SPEAKER_01Committing to following Jesus was one of the more pivotal ones early on. This that happened as a young adult. I got introduced to Christianity and faith like when I was 19. I had a really good boss who was also became a good friend and a good mentor. He just like wanted to work on me being a better human being and just saw something in me and built into me from a work sense, absolutely. And that actually opened the door for him to start to talk to me about faith as well. So he led me on a journey to getting to know Christ, which um has meant this kind of transformation in my life. I I always talk about kind of two seasons. One is the first part of my life was like my parents were awesome. They raised me to work hard, be good, do the right thing. And then that season, I kind of learned this. Like, I was a first generation college student. Um, I didn't start playing basketball until I was in the seventh grade and like all these different things. I kind of learned if I just outwork people, I can accomplish things that, you know, others might not. And so I had this like, if it is to be, it's up to me mentality of like, I'm gonna, my parents can't afford college. I'm gonna get a scholarship, I'm gonna figure this thing out. And so I think it was like this pull yourself up by the bootstraps, outwork, and um, and that worked fairly well for me, uh honestly. And then as I came to know Christ, I had this kind of realization of like, man, there's all that stuff was just like teed up by him. Like he kind of put me in the right positions, gave me the right tools, gave me the right mentality, gave me work ethic and and some abilities. And I stepped into those and took advantage of those for sure. But the the kind of next part of my life has been not on my power, not to my glory, has become sort of my rallying cry and tattoo on my arm that just reminds me, like, yes, I'm gonna work hard, but if not for him, none of this stuff would be possible anyway. So I'm gonna try not to take credit and and you know become self-absorbed and filled with pride. I'm gonna kind of point glory somewhere else. So that was the first one. The next one was I met a girl at a bar in Mexico, and turns out we were both from Cincinnati, and I was wearing a Cincinnati Bengals hat and she yelled hoodie, and six months later we were engaged. And we've been on this just fantastic partnership of you know, marriage ever since years now. And Christy's been just a rock in my life through the highs and the lows. It's like one of those things where you just at some point realize, like, you know, everything else could go away, but if we're still together, we'll figure it out through whatever. And then every one of my kids, you know, like having kids, as you know, is just like this, it just changes your mentality and your outlook on life. And the blessing of four after some really hard challenges to have our first. And then, you know, by the grace of God, we ended up having four pretty quickly after having a lot of problems just having one. It was just like just felt like this immense blessing of multiple children was was such such a cool, each one of them such a cool moment for me. You know, being dad has been um definitely the coolest role I've had throughout my journey. And, you know, I'm not perfect at it by any stretch, but prioritizing getting better at it, I'm just grateful for even the desire to want to be, you know, a good, present, a loving father.
SPEAKER_00I think there's no being perfect. It's just about being present, as you just said there. And what's one piece of advice you'd give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_01Work with the right people. I mean, my as I look at anything I've done early on, I think I was just really kind of fortunate and lucky and blessed to be put in front of people that ended up being great mentors and great to work with. And then over time, you know, as I've built multiple companies, it's like I realized pretty early on the value of team. And so I think there's just so many things I'm not good at, honestly, that left to my own devices. Like the ceiling on what I'm gonna build is is is pretty low. And so understanding my strengths and weaknesses, being pretty open and honest about those, and then you know, augmenting those with great co-founders and great early employees around the table, like man, it has been it is the only reason I've had any level of success is the people who've been around me. You know, I think it's one of the skills that is talked about a lot. You hear a lot about building a great team. I think it's actually really hard to do that because number one, it's hard to know what you're not good at and admit that. Number two, it's really hard to actually hand over roles and responsibilities to people who are better at it and let them actually thrive. And I think that's one of the things I've been pretty uniquely good at is understanding where I need help, giving people an opportunity to step in and actually own those things and being able to kind of cast enough vision to attract the right level of talent. Like that's it's such a game changer. If you can attract, you know, world-class talent at the earliest stages of your business, it changes your trajectory massively. Um, and not every company has that opportunity. Like oftentimes you've got to kind of prove yourself and get to a certain level before you can really start to attract that talent. I think if you can focus on building the right network early on so that you'll be able to recruit and attract great co-founders and employees early on in the journey. And that means way more than I think I would have given credit to, you know, in my early 20s for sure, where I just felt like, I'll just keep working harder, right? I'll figure it out. I'll learn it. And there's something to that as well. But you can spend a lot of time trying to learn a skill versus bringing in someone who's uniquely it's one of their superpowers.
SPEAKER_00And how can people find you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So look me up there. Tim Messer on LinkedIn and uh Tim at firo dot IO is my email address and try and respond to most of those as well. So those are the easiest ways.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thanks for having me, Leo. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00And thanks for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, tell your friends, and please leave a review.