Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
I admired the gorgeous Art Deco style at the newly refurbished Rand Tower Hotel in downtown Minneapolis during a visit in June. But more so, I marveled at the bravery of its developers, including Nicholas Peterson of Maven Real Estate Partners. He opened the hotel in December 2020 as COVID-19 raged. Yes, he was “panicked and terrified” but also “hopeful,” he told the Star Tribune at the time.
He’s not the only brave entrepreneur who’s inspiring me these days, those who are fighting the fear the pandemic is still spreading yet venturing forth anyway. Steele Smiley is top of the list. The founder of Steele Fitness, he sold it to Snap Fitness back in 2013 and became an executive at its parent company Lift Brands.
Then he left his comfy corporate job and the fitness industry he knew so well and launched two restaurant chains, the latest in April 2021, using his own money with local restaurant owner and friend Ryan Burnet as minority partner. “I don’t feel the need to have fear in my day-to-day operations when I’m using my own capital to build the companies,” Smiley said when I caught up with him in August. “You’re gambling with your own chips.”
Crisp & Green started in Minnesota in 2016 and now has 90 locations in 12 states, the bulk of those franchise deals signed since COVID-19 crashed the party. Stalk & Spade sells plant-based burgers and chicken sandwiches and such and opened on Earth Day this year. “We opened with 6-, 700 people in line,” he said about Stalk & Spade, and the lines keep coming.
How does he find the courage to grow through troubled times? “It’s what I do. I’ve been doing it for 20 years, and I just don’t carry that with me. You’ll have headwind or tailwind depending on what happens in the world. We can’t control that,” he said.
“But one thing you can control is who you choose to surround yourself with.” If those are people “who can uplift you and make you better, you have a chance to succeed.”
I’ve been traveling the country as a business reporter since June 2020, amazed at the wide range of pandemic responses but inspired by the courageous. Anthony Milton, owner of Tune Up, a men’s grooming concept, sued the state of Texas over pandemic shutdown orders in June 2020. Stratis Morfogen, a restaurateur in New York City, opened his first Brooklyn Dumpling Shop in June 2021, plus inked a sweet deal for a 25,000-square-foot restaurant in Times Square. I could go on.
Upsize salutes these and so many other business owners who choose to act boldly whatever the times. We’ll keep rooting for — and in these pages, contributing to — your chance to succeed.
