Marc Vinson started what would become Run Success in 2011 to help small business owners achieve their big business goals.
His very first client paid $50 to learn how to use a piece of financial software, and it has been "come on, let's go" ever since.
After ten years of studying businesses, streamlining operations, restructuring departments, building teams, and creating financial transformations, Marc is now building a portfolio of amazing companies led by impressive leaders and training founders on how to get things done with human-centric, purpose-driven leadership.
How did we get here? Over the years, we grew as our clients grew…
-
From the very beginning, Marc has worked with nonprofit and for-profit companies across dozens of industries, including product manufacturing, digital and e-commerce sales, personal and professional services, philanthropy, education, and more.
He managed employees and contractors on four continents simultaneously.
He brought to life production operations in two countries, including leading the development of custom machinery to mechanize a process to mass-produce products that were once only producible by hand.
He tackled international sourcing from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Jordan, and Taiwan and led operations that touched lives on six continents through sourcing, product fabrication, logistics, and end-consumer consumption.
He handled land, sea, and air logistics and international import/export operations between the United States, Canada, Ethiopia, Djibouti, South Africa, Kuwait, Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh.
He has worked, traveled, studied, or lived in 19 countries so far.
Marc used these life experiences to leverage Run Success beyond consulting and into developing businesses we own.
One of the first of those ventures was a factory in Ethiopia where we hired and managed nearly 500 employees and dozens of contractors while maintaining global corporate partnerships and collaborating with several of the country's government and business leaders.
Every single one of these experiences shaped Marc's ability to cut through the noise, motivate people, and get stuff done on time the right way.
Now we buy businesses, start new ones with exciting people, and teach founders about business development and personal finance through our newsletter and academy.
Marc brings inspiration and unshakable confidence to Run Success and the businesses we own, and the founders we teach. He feels ready for whatever comes his way, and he inspires his teams to think, feel, and be similar.
Culture shock when stepping onto the runway of a new country where you don't speak the language, look completely different, and don't yet understand the norms? This team has no time for that.
Imposter syndrome when standing before 400 workers whose current livelihoods depend on you? Nope — Marc always says to own any room you walk into because you belong there.
Struggle to raise capital in the early days? Instead of getting defeated, keep asking until you get a yes or find some way to earn so much you don't need the investment, and then watch the capital pour in from banks, governments, and investors.
Whatever adversity Marc has faced leading Run Success, his guiding philosophies steered him toward a successful resolution.
Those guiding philosophies come from his background, specifically in these four areas:
Consulting
Entrepreneurship
Education
Upbringing — or like his grandma used to say, "home-training"
1
A decade as a consultant
Ten years as a management consultant to founders helped Marc hone successful business management strategies across a diverse set of industries. He knows how to identify top-notch industry talent and empower them to do what they do without the shackles of all the stuff business requires that they don't dig doing.
2
A career of entrepreneurship
As a fellow founder, Marc knows how to meet other founders where they are. He knows you want to:
Build a business, not just a job.
Build a team that you can pay well with benefits.
Leave the mom-and-pop mentality behind and scale.
Drop cancerous relationships with cofounders or investors that were maybe what you needed before but not what you need now.
And, of course, get paid!
Marc has dealt with all of these situations head-on, and he knows how to put measures in place for you to achieve the same.
3
A butt-kicking education
We live in a world that romanticizes unconventional success. We laud those who drop out of college and go on to achieve great things. Many drool at the feet of powerful influencers, more concerned about their fame than their subject matter expertise. Education is important. It's not everything, but it's valuable. Coming at business, investing, organizational management, and corporate finance from a strong basis of education in writing (English major), handling people and groups (Sociology major), and business management (MBA with a concentration in financial management) helps Marc take his acquisitions to higher levels without founders needing to have that background. It is important to us that founders have the opportunity to focus on their best skill sets. You can't do that if you don't have someone in the room who understands how to handle business metrics, build a growing corporate team, and translate essential and complex thoughts to your core bases. Because we can, we can help you lead a team that can, even if you don't get down with that.
4
An inspired upbringing
Marc's life experiences are an equally important aspect that informs his approach to business and other founders. He was born in a small town to a single woman and raised by his whole family. With a grandma who was the matriarch, aunties who were mothers, uncles who were fathers, and his birth mother, Marc had a whole lot of strong leadership.
Marc's family wasn't wealthy by any financial measure, but everyone shared the financial responsibility of raising two fast-growing boys. Marc's unconventional journey growing up a minority in the south and educated in a low-performing public school system in one of the most economically distressed counties in his state, to a self-driven admission to boarding school, to a top-10 private liberal arts college, to studying at Oxford University, to a successful MBA graduate who went on to advise, coach, and consult around the globe has given him a unique vantage point and ability to connect with founders from any walk of life.
Marc knows how to hustle with a little or a lot, and he knows how to cut through the noise and perform. Marc believes that our lives start with the hand we are dealt but quickly develop into the stuff we get to control and forge into the person we want to become. He took his starting ingredients and produced a collection of gems he gets to share with the people he loves.
Marc's story is not without those words many of us often hear—"oh, you can't do that." Those words were there, along with many harsher ones—all part of the diamond-forming pressure that made him who he is. And he had to succeed. One of only two children born to a loving family of mamas and daddies, he needed to cross financial hurdles and get on his feet fast enough to take care of the people who took care of him. Based on this upbringing, Marc's background informs every business move just as profoundly as his education, consulting experience, and time as an entrepreneur. It motivates him to find more people like him who have it in them to achieve what they set out to achieve and welcome them to be a part of his legacy as they create their own.
Our portfolio is a perfect blend between business acquisitions and internally developed brands.
Our investments are currently driven solely by our own money.
We stand by that decision, even in the face of investors who want in. Of course, we rely on great thought leaders and teams of individuals who help with research, analytics, contracts, financial management, and more, but it's all us when it comes to dollars for acquisitions and startups.
Why have we decided this in a world where getting investor dollars for successful portfolios takes only a few calls? Investing our own money allows us to define the success metrics we're looking for in a business beyond just the dollars and cents.
We certainly expect to generate profits, but unlike some other comparable holding companies, deriving profit will never be the singular goal. How we treat people should be just as important as how we pay our CEOs. How we offer benefits needs to be measured earlier than in late-stage days when employee rebellion or legislation eventually forces companies to cave and support their workers. If we build businesses with customers and employees at the front of our minds, not as afterthoughts, we can achieve greatness, even if the runway to massive profits is longer and lift-off takes more time.
When it comes to raising capital, sometimes you have to make concessions to get a "yes." The quest for a 10X profit becomes the driver, and that's not all that defines us. We get at least one unsolicited offer a month to invest in Run Success or buy one of its assets. We're always open to conversations, but our answer so far has been a consistent "not at this time."
Often, the more you need to raise, the more concessions you need to make to get a yes. At this time, we're unwilling to concede any points for our businesses. And until we've established that core so greatly that bringing in outside capital partners carries no chance of compromising the ultimate direction of our portfolio, we'll gladly use our own money.
For fellow founders, that means that every dollar we invest puts us deeply in the game with you. When we come, we're investing hard-earned capital in something that we believe in, and we're just as committed to the success of your business as you were the day you decided to go all-in and turn a part of your life over to building something magnificent.
Diversity and inclusion are part of who we are, not an afterthought
We know diversity means surrounding yourself with people who look like you AND people who DON'T look like you. True diversity requires both.
Acquiring or starting exciting brands with solid and diverse people is a passion and a mission. As human beings, we love working with other wonderful human beings.
We love when we get the pleasure of engaging with diversity of every sort, from immigrants and the American-born, as we help advance an inclusive community of founders. Our brands and total employee base include every element of diversity across several spectrums, including race and ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, political preference, and education.
If you're intelligent, talented, confident, and prepared, NOTHING else about you matters. So however you're packaged, own it and bring excellence.
Warren Buffett once said…
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
The only way to build wealth is to find a way to make money while you sleep. Our mission is to help as many others do that as possible. That mindset offers the gateway to building wealth and inspires us to bring as many founders to this mindset as possible.
The bedrock to solid working relationships:
No BS
Never waste anyone's time. Be direct, clear, and open. Buzzwords and fluffy language don't move us.
Value culture
Celebrate each company's unique culture. When it works, we don't mess with it.
Be real.
Faking it until you make it is a failing strategy. We can't fill a gap we don't know about, so own your weaknesses just as much as you own your strengths.
Do good.
Good business metrics and solid ethical practices can coexist. We require both.
We don't have to agree on everything.
We buy great companies and start unique businesses with brilliant leaders. We won't always agree, but we trust our faith in you.
Know what you know.
Walking with confidence in the skills you've mastered is the first half of the knowledge battle.
Know what you don't know.
Becoming aware of the skills that aren't your strengths is the second half of the knowledge battle.
Never give anyone power over your emotions.
Your emotions are yours. We don't consider ourselves therapists, but we firmly believe that you should never give anyone the power to control your emotional responses.
Socially conscious businesses rock.
Long-term growth and sustainability are everything.