Neal Cobb's Entrepreneurial Adventures
This past week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Neal Cobb here at Das Greenhaus. Neal, who currently serves as the head of business development at EquityX, has a rich history of entrepreneurship and business building. Having co-founded successful businesses in multiple industries and sectors, Neal gave wonderful insights into his past experiences while also providing advice for others interested in entrepreneurship. My conversation with Neal and his answers to my questions will be outlined in the following sections.
To kick off the interview, I asked Neal to share some details on his role at EquityX. Neal explained that he originally began as the CEO of Herencia Co., the Latin American sister company of EquityX. However, due to some complications with the market, they made the decision to focus solely on the US market for the next year or two in order to get their feet wet and gain some experience in the industry. So, Neal made the switch over to EquityX.
Neal then explained the mission of EquityX and the services they provide. As a co-founder, Neal and his partners noticed a gap in the market for retiring business owners who need a succession plan. Many times, the “second generation of a family doesn’t have the same passion for a company that their parents did, causing some businesses to fail after being passed on.” Since around 70% of small business owners don’t have any sort of succession plan or strategy, EquityX helps them with this transition. By providing the capital to purchase the business and setting up a 20-year plan to increase employee ownership with a new president in place, EquityX aims to maintain the legacy of these small businesses while promoting their further economic success. Neal serves as the boots on the ground for EquityX in America, and he is looking to keep expanding the influence its model has on retiring business owners.
Throughout his career, Neal has founded and run businesses across multiple industries. I asked him what some of the skills were that applied to every startup, regardless of industry. Neal said that no matter what, you need “grit and determination.” He explained how you need to be able to get stuff done when it needs to get done—even if it isn’t your job. Across any business, you also need to be able to weather the storms that brew up. Troubles will arise and you will always be near failure, but through hard work and determination, you will put yourself in a position to succeed. Neal further elaborated that a big part of running a business in any industry is the relationships. By building your network over time, you can help to set yourself up for success, because “it’s not always what you know, but who you know.”
Neal was also the co-founder and COO of Skipcart, a last-mile delivery service formed in 2018. After running and growing the startup for multiple years, Neal and his team were acquired by 7-Eleven in 2021. While this was a successful transition, I asked Neal what the switch was like between working at a startup to being employed by a multibillion dollar company. Neal explained how one of the main differences was the freedom to easily pivot and make changes in the company.
While running a startup, if something is not working, you can quickly change directions and try something else. When working for a heavily structured company, decisions must go through a sort of bureaucracy of approval. Neal described how there are “so many hands in the cookie jar” when it comes to decision making processes at major companies, and ultimately the decision that is made is the one that is best for the parent company. Even with these obstacles, he explained that by working for 7-Eleven he was able to “learn how to structure and manage a large team.” This was a very unique experience, especially as the team continued to grow. It allowed him to gain experiences that he didn’t previously have from his startups.
After hearing about Neal’s past experiences and ventures, I asked him what inspired him to become the entrepreneur he is today. Neal described that ever since he was young, he has had a hyper-competitive personality; always wanting to win and be the best at what he does. He “built up a work ethic from a young age at his dad’s small town pharmacy,” and as a kid, he was always looking for ways to go and make money. As he has grown and gone through his life experiences, he has looked for opportunities to create a more positive impact on his community. When entering college, he had aspirations to become a lawyer after getting a degree in biomedical engineering, however, after only a semester of school, he realized that this didn’t fully align with his future goals of being a family man, so he switched to a pre-pharmacy track. However, once more, he made a final switch and decided to become a chiropractor. Neal landed on this decision after
working at a chiropractor clinic for a year and a half while attending school, where he loved it. After chiropractic school, Neal worked for a clinic in San Antonio for 2 years before leaving to start his practice in Fredericksburg. While this was a huge success for Neal, he saw a ceiling in his potential with this practice, so he had many side hustles while he ran his clinic. These ranged from a crawfish business to an online Amazon store to selling 18-wheelers to oilfield companies. Neal then co-founded Skipcart and decided to go all in on it, selling his practice and working full-time to make his new startup a success. Neal has always had strong aspirations for himself, and combined with his competitive spirit and ability to act on ideas, he has found himself at the head of many successful entrepreneurship ventures.
While Neal was sharing advice throughout the interview, I asked him if he had any specific advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. He responded by saying the number one thing he would tell young entrepreneurs is to “take risks early in life.” The older you get, the more responsibilities you gain, and the less tolerance you have for taking risks. When you’re young, you have more freedom and fewer responsibilities, making it a perfect time to get out there and make a new startup your top priority. Neal also explained that entrepreneurs should “never stop building their network.” Even a genius with great ideas must know the right people to create a successful business. This also comes with being around people who will challenge and grow you. It is important to have a good support system behind you when taking major risks. He then gave a piece of advice that stuck heavily with me—”don’t fear failure, fear regret.” Every entrepreneur fails, even a successful one like Neal, but if you are scared of failing then you will never achieve your top potential.
You can’t quit just because you fail, rather, you have to keep working at the next opportunity. Neal also mentioned that entrepreneurs need to be decisive. It is important to “do your homework, but don’t take too long to come to a conclusion.” Neal then quoted Jeff Bezos, saying most decisions should be made with around 70% of the information you wish you had. It is important not to be too cautious and to make the right decision when the time comes. Neal’s last bit of advice was to understand the difference between one and two-way doors. What he means by this is that some opportunities you take don’t allow you the chance to revert back or turn around if things go wrong, so you need to be aware of this when making decisions. It is necessary to “pick your one-way doors very diligently,” as they can make or break your business in times of trouble.
Finally, I asked Neal what he looks for in a business and their leaders from the perspective of an investor. Neal said the first thing he considers in a business is the “market opportunity” and “size of the market” they are looking to do business in. He says they must have done a true assessment of their potential customer base and future revenue sources. Neal says they must also “stand out in the market.” Without a unique value proposition, it is hard for an investor to see the value in a startup. Neal also likes to see a risk assessment. Businesses need to see their potential failures and holes in the market so they are prepared for every scenario that might come their way. Finally, Neal looks at the upside of a business. If it is a risky play, he needs to be able to “see a massive upside.” Having the chance to sit down with and talk to Neal was an amazing opportunity. I took a lot away from this interview. Neal has many great stories and experiences, with valuable lessons learned from each. I am looking forward to staying in touch and seeing what he accomplishes in his future adventures.
LOCOAL : Developing Environmental Sustainability in Boerne, Texas
LOCOAL is a veteran-owned and operated environmental sustainability company right here in Boerne, Texas. Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Miles Murray, the CEO and co-founder of LOCOAL. “We move at the speed of trust, in a way that is rare and uncanny in the start-up world.” Meaning that the company operates in a way where each person’s experience and knowledge are valued, and there is not one “boss” or leader who makes every decision for everyone.
Miles Murray is the co-founder and CEO of LOCOAL Charcoal Company (LOCOAL) with professional experience ranging from building schools and bridges in foreign combat zones to transforming numerous technology systems at a Fortune 100 financial company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Environmental Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, an MBA from the University of Texas in San Antonio, and a Master of Technology Commercialization (MSTC) from the University of Texas in Austin.
I asked Miles how LOCOAL got started and to my surprise, he explained how his co-founder Matt “Petey” Peterson, actually started the business as a lump charcoal service company. Petey would divert from the landfill and convert pecan wood waste and turn it into charcoal using and-made barrel systems. The process would “cook” the materials without oxygen so the wood wouldn’t burn and turn to ash. Petey would then sell the product to local restaurants. Miles and Petey met at UT-Austin in grad school where Petey shared with Miles his idea of creating technology to repurpose waste into new positive impact, including revenues.
Miles and Petey bonded over their enthusiasm for environmental entrepreneurship and re-envisioned how Petey was sequestering carbon out of undervalued materials during the graduate program. And the new co-products have both economic and environmental value. As an environmental engineer, Miles saw what Petey was doing as a solution for climate adaptation. Miles stated, “It’s conservation, we are withdrawing more carbon than we’re depositing, shifting the natural water systems.” Miles explained how the natural world is not recovering as fast, so LOCOAL is taking advanced mitigation measures by taking the residual waste materials that would end up in landfills and extracting the molecular value out of them. “I heat things up and cool them down so they change phase state”, stated Miles, an example he mentioned was taking rubber waste and changing it into crude oil.
LOCOAL created “Rainmaker”, an intelligent hardware system that is built and designed to cause a positive economic and environmental impact. It is a hardware system with A.I. that fits in a container and does all the things that a biomass energy generation plant would do, in terms of creating energy, yet it does this without having to touch it. “I grew up with an R.C. controller, I’m not gonna go manually create carbon, I’m gonna figure out how to turn it into a video game,” Miles stated about how Rainmaker came to be. Stacking technologies and pointing them to a purpose, while ignoring all the political hype around it and focusing on the actual impact.
I asked Miles to describe some challenges LOCOAL has faced as a company. The first challenge he mentioned was how they were rebuilt out of the pandemic, with half the team moving across the country away from their families. And this destination point was West Texas in the summer. “It’s gonna be hot, and everybody is freaked out, chaotic out there, and we can’t rely on any supply lines,” Miles recalls pitching the idea to the seven veterans team members. Without hesitation, everyone was on board. They spent the summer of 2021 building the prototype of Rainmaker. The challenges they faced during this time were trying to get molded and metal parts while also having to fabricate parts that were normally readily available at Walmart. Miles had this to say about the guys on his team, “Luckily I had amazing tradesmen, who were like, yeah, give me a block of steel and I’ll figure it out.” He also mentions the collapse of the bank in Silicon Valley, and how that impacted the company in getting financing.
Even with this challenge Miles is lucky to have a team of diehards who would show up with random pieces of metal to help combat the financial setback. Once the Rainmaker technology was running smoothly, the money started to come in, and the United States Air Force stepped in and helped fund LOCOAL’s technology advancement in environmental conservation. Miles states that the greatest challenge in all of this is not actually getting the technology to work, but rather being able to demonstrate the impact to people who do not want to change.
I asked Miles how he and the LOCOAL military veterans had used their wartime experience to build LOCOAL into what it is today. He talks about how today’s business world is focused on computers, office space, and conferences. LOCOAL just does not have an industrialized supportive base and instead, they are remanufacturing and reinvigorating the trades. “To me, it’s bringing in military guys that had field experience. They know what it means to work incredibly enduring hours”, Miles said, “I’m the CEO, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw me standing around my guys working. The guy in charge is the guy that knows the most about what’s going on”. When Miles makes a call as CEO, he knows that he won’t be scrutinized behind his back, by back-door whispers. He knows that if someone has a problem, they will say it right then and there. As a team, they will handle concerns on-the-spot, and move forward quickly as a unit. “We encourage blue-collar workers, military members, and grit. They all fall in the same category of awesome”, Miles stated.
My final question for Miles was asking him how he would explain what LOCOAL does to a room of 5-year-olds. He said, “We eliminate the need for landfills in your future”. He talks about how the trash we throw away every day, ends up in piles and after time with enough rain ends up in our water systems.”75% of our soil has more salt in it than it should”, states Miles, “One of our driving co-products is biochar which can help repair our topsoil and remediate the salt built up”. LOCOAL is finding a way to stop the flow of microplastics into our water, identifying the source of the problem where possible without infringing on industries. LOCOAL’s technology is adaptable, unique, and scalable enough to help combat pollution and environmental issues worldwide.
Miles wanted to add why he is located at Das Greenhaus, “I believe in Justin’s core mission of growing technology in the Hill Country”. LOCOAL is raising 24 million dollars, building a laboratory right here in Boerne soon, and hoping to work with Texas A&M and the local county extension office on a research collaboration in the near future. LOCOAL’s goal is to bring new technology into the Hill Country, while also growing an industrial base that focuses on real and sustainable conservation. LOCOAL is one of the most prominent and fast-rising environmental impact technology-focused companies, and they look forward to working with as many local partners as they can.
