13. Kris Blankenship | Bayonet Plumbing, Cooling & Heating

13. Kris Blankenship | Bayonet Plumbing, Cooling & Heating

Robert Blankenship started Bayonet Plumbing in 1977. Today the organization has grown to nearly 1000 employees and hundreds of service trucks on the road. The business is still run by the Blankenship family including Robert's son and daughter-in-law Kris. In this episode, Kris shares the principles that have enabled Bayonet to scale far beyond what most small businesses achieve. She talks about the risks they've taken and the not always easy or obvious choices they made to differentiate Bayonet in the crowded home services vertical. These lessons can be applied to almost any business, large or small.

12. Freddy Williams | Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast

Freddy's first job was cleaning locker rooms at the Boys and Girls Club. "The club saw potential in  me when others saw a challenge." Today, Freddy is the CEO of The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Suncoast, leading and growing the nonprofit to keep up with the needs of our rapidly growing community. In this episode we discuss the challenges facing our youth in a post-pandemic world. Freddy provides his perspective on social media and the potential benefits and risks for young people. He also shares details on some of the innovative new programs his organization is implementing to prepare kids for promising careers in our tech-forward economy.

11. Asif Hakeem | Hakeem Investments

Asif Hakeem and his family have been involved in Tampa real estate since the 1960's. Today, he oversees a portfolio of over 100 properties and is the principal developer of the Reverb Hotel by Hard Rock currently being built adjacent to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. In this interview, Asif shares his thoughts on how and where Tampa will experience the most rapid expansion in the coming decade. We also discuss the issue of housing affordability and if Tampa Bay is destined to become California-like in terms of housing prices. If you are wondering just how much potential the Tampa Bay Area has for additional growth and where it's going to occur, this is the episode for you.

10. Justin Bushko | Concise Engineering

Justin Bushko is founder of Concise Engineering, a medical device engineering firm he started in 2015. In this episode, Justin talks about what it's like to transition from an employee within a larger firm to starting a running a small business. We discuss the technologies driving innovation in the medical device space and how he's thinking about scaling his business. I even made him talk about Elon Musk and Neuralink because I'm fascinated by the concept of brain-to-computer interfaces.

9. Nick Scarsella | Imperium Data

Nick Scarsella and his partner Brian Hill started an IT services company selling networking equipment out of Nick's garage in 2018. Today they have grown to nearly $25MM in revenue and have a laser focus on getting to $100MM. In this interview Nick shares his story of transitioning from a consultant at a big 4 accounting firm to a technology entrepreneur. We discuss how Imperium recruits and scales their sales team, marketing strategy, and how they are carving out a unique position in the crowded world of IT and technology services.