Dave Will is CEO and Co-founder of PropFuel, a software platform that helps associations with valuable content, products, and services to offer but are struggling to connect the solutions with the right individuals at scale. They make it easy for associations to capture, analyze, and take action on member feedback to drive revenue and deeper member engagement.
Dave is also the host of the EO 360° Podcast, a podcast by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization that explores entrepreneurship. Dave started, scaled, and sold Peach New Media, a learning platform software company. Peach New Media was launched in 2001 and sold in 2015. The company at the time was at 40 employees when he received an offer from a private equity group.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Dave Will talks about his passion for entrepreneurship
- Why Dave has his grandmother’s cash register and its significance for him
- The story behind Dave’s core value to “walk slow, smile more”
- Why you need to enjoy your entrepreneurial journey
- What Dave thought he would do before he sold his first company and what selling it meant to him
- Dave talks about the transition struggle from selling his company to working for a company
- What Dave wishes he did differently after selling his company
- How Walmart’s Retail Link opened a new channel of business for Dave back in the early days of Peach New Media
- How PropFuel has morphed over the years
- Dave talks about how companies are using PropFuel
- How Dave’s 10-year-old son is building his own business, Kona Brand
- Dave talks about the Mets Game and shares the story about the lizard
In this episode…
Have you ever wondered what the end of your entrepreneurial journey will look like? Do you imagine it’d be a massive amount of money in the bank, a beach house, and with virtually nothing left to worry about? As an entrepreneur, it’s already a given that you will have an end game. Whether that endgame is to sell your company, start a new venture, or to never work again in your life, how things will turn out will always come a little different from what you’re expecting.
Dave Will, the Co-founder and CEO of PropFuel, has had a taste of what the endgame of an entrepreneur is like. He shares that while it can be gratifying, it also brings with it a lot of lessons, realizations, and new perspectives. But more importantly, the endgame of one enterprise could be the building block for an even better exit on your next business venture.
tells the story of when he sold his first company, Peach New Media, and the transition struggle, what he wishes he did differently in his new venture, and more.
Share in Dave Will’s entrepreneurial journey on this Inspired Insider podcast episode with Dr. Jeremy Weisz. Tune in as Dave talks about selling his company, Peach New Media and the transition struggles and challenges that came with it, and how he came up with new ideas and eventually started his current company, PropFuel. He also discusses some of his core values, why he is so passionate with what he is currently doing with PropFuel, the importance of enjoying the entrepreneurial journey, and he also shares how his ten-year-old son is building his own business.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Special Mentions:
Books Mentioned:
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
Related Episodes:
Sponsor for this episode
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Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
Jeremy Weisz 0:19
Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Before I introduce you to Dave Will from PropFuel Dave I always like to mention past episodes that people should check out. There’s some interesting ones. And based on the research I did on you Kevin McArdle of Sureswift Capital, and you could hear how he vets companies, how he evaluates companies. And you can also check out Jimmy Zollo, of Collaborata and he were talking about your son’s company, which will definitely give a shout out to us because people could buy hats and Hawaiian shirts. Was it the Kona brand?
Dave Will 1:03
Yeah, The Kona Brand Kona, right away, there was a year old is, is making Hawaiian flannel is pretty damn cool idea. But um, and you know what, anybody right now that’s dealing with money, we’re raising some some money for PropFuel on. So that’s something I’m interested in knowing more about is what you what you said or how you value companies. And you know that, I’m assuming if this guy’s a money, man, he’s he’s probably evaluating a lot of companies and their pitches.
Jeremy Weisz 1:33
Yeah, I’ve had a bunch of private equity and venture capital people on and it’s really interesting to hear what they look for, and how they evaluate these companies, right. And eventually, people are going to either sell their company or raise money, right. So I figured it’d be really powerful to have those episodes on the podcast. So check out those you can go to InspiredInsider.com you can search venture capital in the search bar and pull up, anyone can pull up any of the ones that I’ve done, and they’re all different types of spaces, or CPG, or service professional. So software, check it out. And I am going to introduce it Dave Will, before I do this episode is brought to you by Rise25 and Rise25 we help businesses connect to their dream 100 relationships. And we help them by helping you run your podcast. And for me on Dave, relationships are the number one thing in my life, I’m always looking at ways to give my best relationships, a profile of people I admire out in the world, what they do their companies and over the past over a decade, I’ve found no better way to do it than podcasting. I get to have someone like Dave Will who’s built a company sold it and started a new company is building that up, talk about his journey and educate all of us on what that looks like. So if you have questions, you’ve thought about starting a podcast, and Dave has a podcast, which I’m going to mention in a second. You can go to Rise25.com. And you know, with no further ado, Dave Will is, CEO and Co-founder of PropFuel. And PropFuel is a software platform that helps associations who have valuable content, products and services to offer but maybe struggle with connecting the solutions of the right individuals at scale. He also has a host of EO 360° podcast, which is a podcast by the entrepreneurs organization. You’ve had some amazing guests. By the way, Dave, on your podcast, I was checking it out the other day.
Dave Will 3:25
That’s the best part. Do you talked about what a great the thing doing podcasts are for relationships? I’ll tell you what even if there was no audience, like zero audience, I would still do this because it is just so cool to talk to some of the guests we had on you know, you met some amazing guests on this show. In fact, when you asked me be on the show, I’m like, you want me or you want me to introduce you to some like cool guests. Like what you’re modest.
