Season 2 Episode 40
Entrepreneurship at Work with Tim Wise
Tim Wise is a serial entrepreneur, USC alumnus, and founding member of the Advisory Council for the Faber Entrepreneurship Center at the Darla Moore School of Business. A third-generation Gamecock with degrees in Finance, Real Estate, and Law, Tim began his career at Nelson Mullins before launching into entrepreneurship. In 2001, he co-founded Advocate, a technology business management firm built through disciplined bootstrapping, customer focus, and sustainable growth, leading to successful exits first to private equity and later to Accenture. Now devoted to giving back, Tim leverages his decades of entrepreneurial experience to inspire and guide USC students, encouraging them to embrace risk, resilience, and creativity as they pursue their own entrepreneurial journeys.
Topics include:
To learn more about Tim Wise, click here.
To learn more about the Faber Entrepreneurship Center, click here.
Photo Courtesy: Dreamix
Kasie Whitener (00:04):
Good morning. Happy Tuesday to you, and welcome into our Veterans Day version of the Darla Moore School of Businesses Moore Impact show. My name is Kasie Whitener, and I'm your host and live in the studio with me today, Tim Wise, one of our alumni and a business owner and entrepreneur. And a new member, actually the, the founding member and organizing member of the Advisory Council for the Faber Entrepreneurship Center. Welcome, Tim. I'm glad you're here.
Tim Wise (00:28):
Yeah, thanks Kasie. Uh, excited to be here. And, uh, before we get started, just a, a shout out to all the veterans. Unfortunately, I was not someone who served, but, uh, just have complete admiration and respect. My father served, my grandfather served, so, uh, it's a special day and, and need to recognize all those veterans who've, uh, made a difference for our country over the years.
Kasie Whitener (00:50):
I'm with you. My father served and my grandfather served as well, and my dad used to say that he went to the Naval Academy, so I wouldn't have to
Tim Wise (01:24):
Yeah. Maybe, Uh, let's go back just a little bit. So, uh, grew up in, uh, in Charleston, South Carolina, and, uh, graduated Wando High School, 1987.
Kasie Whitener (01:34):
Our nephew went to Wando.
Tim Wise (01:35):
Yeah, go Warriors,
Kasie Whitener (01:58):
Right.
Tim Wise (01:58):
Uh, having two sons of my own and, uh, through that just, uh, had, both my parents went to South Carolina and my grandmother went to South Carolina, so I was third generation, which was, uh, unusual and of course grew up coming to, uh, Carolina Gamecock games, uh, ever since I was, that I can remember. Probably, uh, five or six years old. But anyway, uh, so showed up in Columbia here in 1987 with just a, an excitement and a passion to be a, to be a gamecock. And so, uh, you know, began that journey. Um, ended up in the Darla Moore School of Business. Um, got a finance degree and a real estate major as well. And, uh, had a father who was, uh, very much, um, a promoter of, of being an entrepreneur. He was a, uh, a lawyer. He, um, you know, graduated South Carolina Law School. He was a successful lawyer, but he, it kind of pounded into me and my little brother. Uh, but since I was the oldest, he was like, you don't want be a lawyer, it's a, it's a terrible way to make a living. So, uh, you know, to all you lawyers out there, forgive me, but, uh, um, and, but I had a, a business school professor, uh, Dr. Oliver Wood.
Kasie Whitener (03:12):
Okay.
Tim Wise (03:12):
Uh, who was somewhat of a infamous, uh, professor here at the Darla Moore School of Business who said, Tim, go get a law degree. It'll help you more in business than getting an MBA, not, not a knock on the MBA program. But that was, uh, that was really, um, good advice. And so, uh, I did that. And, uh,
Kasie Whitener (03:32):
So against your dad's advice, you took the business professor's advice and went and got a law degree.
Tim Wise (03:37):
Exactly. Now I did have a little bit of fun. I graduated in three and a half years.
Kasie Whitener (03:42):
Okay.
Tim Wise (03:42):
So I would encourage, uh, any of your current students who can accelerate. 'cause I used that six months that spring semester and went and lived in Aspen, Colorado.
Kasie Whitener (03:52):
Oh, that's fun.
Tim Wise (03:52):
For six months, so,
Kasie Whitener (03:53):
Sure. Back in the, uh, when would this have been? Early nineties.
Tim Wise (03:56):
91.
Kasie Whitener (03:56):
Yeah.
Tim Wise (03:57):
Uh, so it was the, the spring of 91. And that was just a great, um, you know, little, little gap, so to speak.
Kasie Whitener (04:03):
Sure.
Tim Wise (04:04):
I gave myself a gap semester and, and that was just an incredible experience. Fortunately, I was, uh, already admitted to law school, so I knew what I was doing next. Uh, I did have one friend who stayed there, um, and has been very successful, uh, coming out of Aspen. But that's probably more the exception than the rule.
Kasie Whitener (04:21):
Right, right. Well, that, that six months off after graduation, uh, you know, whether it's the summer after graduation or whatever, that little bit of time that you need to try to figure out, get your bearings, where are you gonna go before you really sink into adulthood? I think, uh, I'd encourage our students that have the opportunity to do that. If you have the luxury to take a little bit of time off after. Especially if you went like you and I did right outta high school into undergrad. I mean, you've been in school for 16 years. It's, you know, it's finally time to kinda be free on your own for a little bit.
Tim Wise (04:51):
Yeah. Basically, at that point your entire life.
Kasie Whitener (04:53):
Right.
Tim Wise (04:53):
Or at least the life you can remember.
Kasie Whitener (04:55):
Sure.
Tim Wise (04:56):
Um, and, and kind of fast forward, I've, I've got two daughters, so I've got triplets, um, a boy and two girls, but the two girls, um, they graduated, uh, a semester early a year ago. One from South Carolina, the other from Auburn. And they went and spent, uh, two months around Europe. Um, and they've begun their careers now. So, and one of 'em, uh, uh, this was two months ago, calls me and like, you know, daddy, it's really hard and, and it's forever.
Kasie Whitener (05:22):
Tim Wise (05:23):
It's forever
Kasie Whitener (05:28):
This adult life
Tim Wise (05:29):
Turns up to be thankful for that time in Europe. Like, It's forever.
Kasie Whitener (05:32):
Here's this adult life that turns out to be, you know, a life sentence. Yeah. That's a, that's really funny. It's forever. Uh, alright. So when you finish with law school. You get into industry, you get into start. When did you start building businesses? Like walk us through that career piece.
Tim Wise (05:48):
Well, uh, so my first entrepreneurial journey, um, really came out out of, uh, coming back from Aspen, Colorado. Um, had a friend who, uh, who was entrepreneurial as well, and we came up with this crazy idea to sell shrimp out on the Isle of Palms.
Kasie Whitener (06:06):
Okay.
Tim Wise (06:06):
So during the summer, you have lots of people coming on to the All of Palms. While Dunes is there, there's, it's not even, you know, today it's even crazier the amount of tourists that come to Isle of Palms in the summer. And of course, everybody wants low country shrimp. And so we came up with this crazy idea secured a, um, basically an out, you know, storage shed. But it was right there on Palm Boulevard, um, uh, that we could go and, um, we buy Shrimp wholesale from McClellanville, from, uh, Shem Creek or down south, a place called Bennetts Point. We bring that up in a cooler and, you know, we're buying it at $2 and selling it at six. So that was really the first entrepreneurial experience. And, and what was so beautiful about that, we paid our younger siblings $5 an hour to sit out in that heat
Kasie Whitener (07:07):
Right.
Tim Wise (07:08):
Um, so anyway, uh, came outta law school, had got the dream job. Uh, Nelson Mullins offered me a job as a young attorney down in Charleston. I did that for three years, which was a great experience. 'cause the one thing that law school and being a lawyer teaches you is, is oral and written communications.
Kasie Whitener (07:27):
Sure.
Tim Wise (07:27):
As well as analytical reasoning and, and logic. And you have to be able to argue both sides of any point. Uh, but, uh, my father had, uh, invested in a, um, uh, at the time an international long distance business. So most of the young people out there don't even understand what long distance is that, you know, back in the day, if you call from Columbia to Charleston, you had to pay, you know, per minute.
Kasie Whitener (07:54):
Sure.
Tim Wise (07:55):
Um, it might have been, you know, 20 or 25 cents. And then of course to call to, uh, California, it was another rate. And then to call international, it was pretty much like.
Kasie Whitener (08:04):
Extraordinary. Yeah.
Tim Wise (08:05):
It was outrageous. And it was a company at the time, so this is 1997. Um, the US was a deregulated market, and the rest of the world was still a regulated market where they controlled the pricing of telecommunications. And so another entrepreneur created a technology where if you were sitting in Germany, uh, you could call the US, let it ring and then hang up. But what that ring did was it triggered a switch to then call you back and gave you US dial time.
Kasie Whitener (08:40):
This is the first entrepreneurial journey with our visit with Tim Wise. We're gonna get through all of it, I promise. It's Moore Impact. Kasie, don't go away. We'll be right back.
Kasie Whitener (09:03):
Welcome back to Moore Impact. This is our weekly show where the Darla Moore School of Business invites our scholars, our practitioners, and our alumni and entrepreneurs into the studio to share what Darla Moore School of Business has in terms of impact on our local community, on our state, on our nation, really on the world. And today we're visiting with entrepreneur and Darla Moore School alum, Tim Wise, who has also become a member of the Faber Entrepreneurship Center's Advisory Council. Alumni Advisory Council. And we're gonna eventually get to that piece, talk about building this alumni council and what we're looking for outta that. But right now, we're, I'm enjoying the story of Tim Wise's entrepreneurial journey, and we had just gotten to the place where your dad has invested in this telecommunications company right. About the time that we're switching over into digital communications. And, and you shared with us that this German technology would enable somebody in Europe to call you and say, Hey, by the way, call me back. Basically, it's almost like those collect calls where you'd be like, collect call from, come pick us up. And you know what I mean?
Tim Wise (10:08):
Yeah. So it was, uh, it was complete arbitrage. So if you called, uh, from the US to Germany, let's say it was 50 cents a minute, but if you called from Germany to the US it was a dollar 50 a minute. And so this was just an arbitrage. So it was a business that the name of that business was called Rapid Link. Um, and it would basically, you know, give you, uh, the opportunity if you were in Germany to instead of pay a dollar 50, you could pay 75 cents. And, uh, ultimately for us, that became a business where one of the big, um, markets for us was the US military. Um, it wasn't the government itself, but all the dependents around the US military and what most people don't realize, that we still in the nineties and even today, have huge u US military presence in Germany, in Italy, in Japan.
Kasie Whitener (10:57):
Sure. Mm-hmm
Tim Wise (10:58):
All those countries out of, uh, world War ii. And so, uh, that business just, uh, began to, you know, explode. And my father, uh, decided at that time, Hey, I'm gonna leave my law practice. He was a very successful lawyer. Uh, my brother had recently graduated from the Citadel. He was actually the first to join Rapid Link. And, and then he is like, you know, Tim, do you wanna come along on the journey? Of course. Uh, that was, uh, all I needed to hear to jump in on, on that first or second entrepreneurial stint, so to speak.
Kasie Whitener (11:29):
So you guys build Rapid link and, uh, but you didn't stay there. What happened next?
Tim Wise (11:33):
So, uh, Rapid Link occurred during a very unique time. It somewhat feels like today. Uh, today, obviously it's all the ai, but back then it was really, uh, uh, the internet or .com boom. At the time, you know, the internet was a new technology. Everybody was putting a www or .com on, on their business or company name. And for us, uh, it was just, you know, the stock market was going up 25% a year. We grew that business, um, to ultimately about 60 million in revenue. Uh, we were on the Inc 500 in 1999. We were number 407. Um, but we came into an inflection point, um, around 1998. It was either, you know, have this company that was growing but profitable, uh, or hit the accelerator, take all that profit and drive growth. So we went from 22 to 60 million in less than three years.
Kasie Whitener (12:30):
Wow.
Tim Wise (12:30):
So, tripled the company, but we also went from making money to losing money. And then, as you may recall, Kasie, uh, peak Nasdaq was, uh, about 5,200, which occurred in early March of 2000.
Kasie Whitener (12:43):
Right.
Tim Wise (12:44):
30 days later. First thousand point drop on the nasdaq. That then led by the end of that year, the NASDAQ was down over 50%. So all public capital drive dried up, but even before that, all private capital dried up. And if you're losing money and you can't raise more money, um, that ends up, uh, in a very difficult situation. So ultimately, that led for us leaving Rapid Link in February, 2001, which was, of course, a difficult decision. Uh, but it also created a new opening for me along with my brother as well. But that's where I went on a journey where, you know, for me, I began by reaching out to mentors. And I had a mentor who at the time, um, really, uh, I'd just say kind of punched me in the face about what I was thinking. So,
Kasie Whitener (13:33):
Metaphorically,
Tim Wise (13:34):
Yes. Uh, so I was a, I was a good student. Um, and, uh, so naturally it was like, okay, coming out of this amazing opportunity, let's go get another degree. So I was like, always had an interest in getting an MBA studied, took the GMAT, started applying to schools, and this mentor's like, what are you doing
Kasie Whitener (14:01):
Right.
Tim Wise (14:01):
You've gotta finance degree, you've got a law degree. You do not need any more education.
Kasie Whitener (14:09):
Nice.
Tim Wise (14:09):
And I was like, well, what, what business am I gonna start?
Tim Wise (14:13):
And, and I really define that as kind of the, the inventor obstacle mindset. So most people who think about being an entrepreneur believe they have to invent something. And this mentor of mine said, no. Like, let's just talk about ICE for a minute. Um, so Tim, you and I can make ice, right? You can put water in a tray, put it in the freezer, wait 24 hours, and you've made ice. You can then take that ice, drop it in a plastic bag, and then on a hot summer day, probably go up to a street corner and sell it to somebody. I have a friend that didn't invent ice, didn't invent ice distribution, but happens to be the largest ice distributor today in Southern California.
Kasie Whitener (14:56):
Nice.
Tim Wise (14:57):
How did he do that? He just did it better than everyone else.
Kasie Whitener (15:00):
Nice.
Tim Wise (15:01):
And his point was like, just find something that you can do better than anyone else, or better than the nearest competitor.
Kasie Whitener (15:10):
Just find something that you can do better.
Tim Wise (15:12):
And, and, and he was like, the most important part of the ice story is that ice melts.
Kasie Whitener (15:18):
Right.
Tim Wise (15:18):
You wanna find something that you can continually sell to a customer versus something like, I've got a dear friend who's a excellent custom home builder, but he's gonna build someone a home once or twice in a lifetime.
Kasie Whitener (15:29):
And it's their, that's their forever home. They're gonna build a custom home.
Tim Wise (15:32):
Right. Versus ice. Especially here in a place like Columbia, South Carolina in August, you can sell a heck of a lot of ice.
Kasie Whitener (15:38):
Sure.
Tim Wise (15:39):
Um, and so that really hit me. I stopped the whole process of, uh, applying to MBA schools. Um, and, uh, ended up reconnecting with a, a friend of mine, a colleague from Rapid Link. His name was Scott Fogle. Um, we started talking about things we could do together and came up with the idea for Advocate.
Kasie Whitener (16:00):
Tell us a little bit about Advocate. I think this is the most recent, uh, venture that you had been part of. Yeah.
Tim Wise (16:05):
Yeah. So it was a, it was a 24 year journey. Um, we founded Advocate as 50 50 partners in, uh, on July 31st, 2001. Each put in a hundred thousand dollars. Um, and, uh, and then literally 45 days later, September 11th happened.
Kasie Whitener (16:22):
Wow.
Tim Wise (16:23):
So not only were you kind of coming off the.com bust, but then you had September 11th happen, and at least for that following month, everything in the country really stopped. 'cause.
Kasie Whitener (16:34):
It did. Yeah.
Tim Wise (16:35):
Yeah. Everybody was worried, you know, what's the, the next building that's gonna hit by a plane? Or what's the next kind of terrorist activity? Thankfully, none of that ever happened. Um, but it was a very difficult time to start a business. But it, and at the time, we, we had one idea, one business plan, um, that we quickly pivoted from because we're like, we gotta create cash flow.
Kasie Whitener (16:57):
Sure.
Tim Wise (16:58):
Um, and I would tell all entrepreneurs, get to dollar one as fast as you can. And, uh, for us, that was, uh, being consultants around at the time Telecom.
Kasie Whitener (17:08):
Sure.
Tim Wise (17:08):
And that was some,
Kasie Whitener (17:09):
'cause you had both been involved with Rapid Link.
Tim Wise (17:10):
Correct. Um, and, uh, and so that was something where we could go engage with clients. We could generally get them. And, and the whole pitch was, we're gonna lower your telecommunications cost.
Kasie Whitener (17:23):
Right.
Tim Wise (17:23):
And the technology behind it was changing where it was a easy proposition for us to sell. And you, you had, uh, companies that were at the time buying from a AT&T or a Bell South that were effectively still somewhat regulated, had that old school mentality where prices were dropping with all the new competition in the market. And so we could just help clients, you know, understand those new competitors and, and move to those technology providers or telecom providers. So, um, we started that journey. Uh, we got profitable in month 11 on a monthly basis, got cumulatively profitable in month 18. And that's the other piece, like, you know, coming out of the Rapid Link experience, never wanted to be in that situation again, where didn't have a profitable business. Um, where, you know, we could pay our bills month to month where we could continue to invest in the business, uh, month over month. And, uh, so we started that journey, and then, um, 18 months later ended up having triplets. So when started the business, had a son, so my wife and I went from double income, no kids to no income, one kid, and then ended up, uh, with a startup business and four children under the age of two. So I share that simply that failure was not an option.
Kasie Whitener (18:43):
Right.
Tim Wise (18:44):
Yes. I know in business school, we teach you to fail fast and, and recover. And certainly I can think of, uh, points in our journey where that happened, but more broadly, failure was not an option.
Kasie Whitener (18:56):
No, no. I mean, your wife obviously had her hands full raising four small children. So there's not a career path there. There's not, you know, income coming in on that side of the household. It's all on you, man.
Tim Wise (19:05):
That's right. And most people think, you know, being an entrepreneur, it's all kind of Pollyanna. It's all wonderful, but everybody has life happening too. And, uh, so we, we kept just plotting along kind of, uh, full bootstrap. And that's, uh, another thing I'm passionate about. While, you know, you hear about all these companies that raise a lot of capital and, and, uh, have the VC community behind them, which certainly can create success. But I think for the entrepreneurial, certainly early, if you can bootstrap, number one, you retain a hundred percent of your equity.
Kasie Whitener (19:38):
Right.
Tim Wise (19:38):
And that is the most valuable component of your business. And then number two, while it might be slower, I think it gives you the opportunity to really listen or react to the market. Um, so we started that journey. Um, we were back on the Inc 500 at that time had gone to think 5,000. So it helped us, so made think 5,000 for the first time again in 2005, and did that for 11 straight years.
Kasie Whitener (20:03):
So what I love about the, there's a, there's some significant nuggets in here from a learning perspective. I mean, we talk about this in our classrooms all the time, Dr. Graybeal and me, where it is, look, you gotta sell something. You gotta bring the cash in the door. If you are running your business on the cash that you're earning, then you're always gonna be ahead of the game. And if you are borrowing or you're accepting capital, you're accepting, you know, investment, you're always gonna owe somebody as you're building that business. So, really, I love the idea that Advocate decided, Hey, we're, we're gonna be ahead of the game the whole time. We're only gonna spend the money that we're bringing in. We're gonna create products that we know we can sell. We're gonna bring in customers that we know that we can keep. And, and we're gonna stay ahead of that, of that red line as much as we can.
Tim Wise (20:44):
That's right. Like Rapid Link was the, you know, step to the plate and try and swing for the Grand Slam. The Advocate was like, let's just hit a single.
Kasie Whitener (20:52):
Right.
Tim Wise (20:52):
That ultimately advanced to a double just
Kasie Whitener (20:54):
Get on base. Yeah.
Tim Wise (20:55):
That advanced to a double the, you know, then, you know, got the third base. And ultimately, I'll, I'll share later about how we got, uh, fully around and back to home plate. But, you know, uh, on that point, Kasie, 'cause you know, what happened to us is something totally beyond our control. The Great recession.
Kasie Whitener (21:12):
Sure.
Tim Wise (21:12):
So, you know, that's bubbling in 2008, fully explodes In 2009, our business took a 30% hit to revenue. Um, you know, we, we did end up staying profitable at the time. We were probably 35 people. Um, so we had to lay off a few, but stay profitable. And, and we'll talk about the journey after that.
Kasie Whitener (21:32):
I'm, so, I'm fascinated, I'm just captivated by this story, this entrepreneurship journey, Tim Wise joining me here on Moore Impact. Don't Go away.
Kasie Whitener (21:51):
Welcome back. It's Moore Impact, Kasie Whitener, your host here, where we bring the Darla Moore School of Business into our studio on Millwood Avenue in Columbia, South Carolina, and also to our Moore Impact podcast all across the world. And share what our scholars, our practitioners, and our alumni are doing to impact the world today with me, Tim Wise, serial entrepreneur, dad, and, uh,
Tim Wise (22:48):
So we, uh, we had to adjust, um, our team, uh, but only slightly. Um, and what's, uh, what's kind of unbelievable when you look back at that time, like we just got even more maniacally focused with our customer and our service and driving outcomes for them. And of course, at that time, you know, cost savings was front and center. So it was a, a much easier initial conversation to have. 'cause everybody's looking for cost savings. 'cause, uh, you know, cross almost the entire economy, uh, every company was dealing with the revenue being down, profits being down. And so what do you do? You manage cost. Um, but when you look back at it, and you basically, the four quarters, uh, basically call it fourth quarter of 2008, all the way to fourth quarter of 2009, the business did a V-shaped, uh, drop. So it dropped like a rock. Uh, but starting really in the fourth quarter of 2009, then coming out, if I could show you a graph, we did basically like a V. Went straight down and then went straight back up. And the growth rate, like if you draw Drew a straight line, just went straight. So, you know, the whole point of that is like, stay focused on your customer, certainly be in a stable financial condition. And then, you know, the growth will come back as the economy came back. And for us, that became, you know, kind of a pivot point at the time, you know, the iPhone had just got introduced in, uh, 2007. Uh, most people don't realize the iPhone wasn't prolifically deployed in corporations at that time. It was something called the Blackberry.
Kasie Whitener (24:24):
Right.
Tim Wise (24:24):
Remember the Blackberry?
Kasie Whitener (24:26):
I do remember the Blackberry. I remember the most important people in our company had Blackberries.
Tim Wise (24:30):
That's right. And so, uh.
Kasie Whitener (24:31):
You could reach them anytime.
Tim Wise (24:33):
And it's, it's one of the, the worst trades that I missed, even though it was right in front of me. Um, March of 2010, what happened, apple introduces the iPad. And that then is when we were managing mobile devices for our clients. And we had, uh, many of our corporate clients going, Hey, we want to order iPads, what you wanna order iPads for? Because the perception by CIOs at the time was the, the Blackberry was highly secure and the iPhone was not. Um, but obviously the user experience and the capability of the Apple platform was superior. And we started having clients order these iPads, and they first started with the board. So if the board could have, you know, to do board presentations, the CEO, and then the next thing, the CEO, the executive team wanted iPhones. And then the next thing, everybody wanted iPhone.
Kasie Whitener (25:25):
Right.
Tim Wise (25:26):
And if you could have, at the time, Blackberry was at like $90 a share. Apple was at 35. If I could have had, you know, the Kahunas go all in Apple and short, Blackberry, and maybe I could make even a, a bigger donation to the University of South Carolina. But, you know, coming out of that, technology was changing. So that was also data centers were getting beginning to get built. Um, networks were fundamentally changing. And so for us, we, we evolved from really being focused on telecom or telecommunications to really all, uh, technology infrastructure. So think networks, compute, storage, and really helping clients both architect those from a cost perspective, um, and a performance perspective with driving, you know, the highest performance for the lowest cost.
Kasie Whitener (26:17):
So we have a company that is, I now maybe taking the, the lessons from Rapid Link and, and applying them. When you go to Advocate, building Advocate up, getting advocate to a place where you are, uh, leading in your marketplace. And then it becomes a time to sell, a time to say, Hey, it's, uh, we've done what we wanna do here. We've built the company we wanted to build, and I'm ready to move on to something else. Tell us about deciding to sell Advocate.
Tim Wise (26:42):
Yeah. So that was a journey as well. Um, probably the first, um, inquiry we had was 2011, 2012. We were probably 10 million in revenue company, uh, approached us like, Hey, would y'all be interested in selling? And, you know, like any entrepreneur, you're like, Hey, always open to listening. And at that time, that just wasn't the right fit. Um, and so we, we said, thank you, uh, uh, but no thanks, and kept growing the business. Then again, in 2015, this time got approached by two different companies, actually with one signed an LOI, um, but, uh,
Kasie Whitener (27:21):
LOI, letter of intent. Letter of intent.
Tim Wise (27:22):
Yeah. That means like we're gonna start doing due diligence. We're gonna work towards what's called a purchase agreement.
Kasie Whitener (27:28):
Sure.
Tim Wise (27:28):
That ultimately, uh, that formalizes the sale of your business. They then had some leadership change that said, Hey, we're gonna pull back. And that was really a blessing in disguise. Um, that would've been a phenomenal exit at the time. Um, but it also forced us to, is two, um, shareholders. Uh, while we had, you know, given some phantom equity to our team, it's just two of us. The, the equity is to go through a process. So we hired a consultant that came in and helped us. And it really started first with like, shareholder aspirations. So my business partner's five years older than I am. And, but for both of us, you know, for any entrepreneur, like, what's your number? Um, and then secondly like, what is it that you want for the business? How long do you want to operate it? And they took us through this exercise that said, Hey, you know, when do you want to exit? We both kinda came around 2020, 2021. Uh, we had our, our numbers that were basically, you know, in, in, in a similar zip code. And as a part of that, they were like, I think you need to shift the strategy of the business. Which at that time, you know, we went, we were kind of really known for cost savings. We went into this area called technology business management. So at its core, it's really helping CIOs manage their technology budgets aligned to business value, to business outcomes. So, you know, today companies spend literally, you know, it can be anywhere from five to 20% of their underlying cost on technology.
Kasie Whitener (28:59):
Right.
Tim Wise (28:59):
Now it's transforming the business, but the business people are like, well, what's that doing for me? And, and the, there was a upstart software provider called Apptio. So we became a part of the Apptio ecosystem. Uh, we got recognized by Gartner as one of the top entrants, uh, in that space. And so we, we did that full pivot in 2017, uh, rebranding the company, uh, and, and going through lots of efforts to begin the journey to position ourselves for sale. Um, so fast forward now to 2019. We start a process to select investment bankers. We start a process to identify transactional lawyer. We kick off the process August of 2019, we develop our, our management deck, what's called a teaser for the investment bankers. They start marketing advocate in November of 2019. Uh, we end up with, uh, 10 IOIs, uh, seven LOIs go through a process in January and February. We wanted to go meet. 'cause we're like, Hey, you're gonna be, we're gonna become partners. Right? And you really wanted to make sure you connected with these people who were getting ready to invest in your business. And, um, ultimately selected, uh, a private equity firm called Spire Capital. Uh, signed a definitive LOI on February 20th, March 5th. They come in, they do, uh, their financial diligence, gives us the thumbs up. We're like, Hey, we're gonna probably close here in 30 days.
Kasie Whitener (30:30):
Right.
Tim Wise (30:30):
Like, this is gonna be, you know, the culmination of, uh, you know, 20 plus years of work and what happened, COVID, COVID,
Kasie Whitener (30:45):
Right.
Tim Wise (30:46):
Um, Spire was great. They said like, Hey, y'all just go do what you need to do. Nobody knew what was gonna happen. Um, and ultimately we came back together and, and, uh, closed a transaction with them in August of 2020. Um, and, uh, we're really excited about that, our team. And we had told our team all along the journey, like, you know, for us to continue to scale, we're gonna need financial partners, et cetera. Um, and so he had started the journey with Spire part of any private equity firm. We were gonna be their platform company looking for acquisitions. Um, and I'm on LinkedIn and I get a message from a, uh, what's called a senior managing director. Gentleman ran the technology services business, uh, and advisory business for, uh, for Accenture. He, uh, sends me a LinkedIn message, not an email, not a text, just on me on Messenger. Said, Hey, would you be interested in, uh, meeting with me for lunch? I'm like, sure. 'cause I just had an attitude. Always open to relationships.
Kasie Whitener (31:47):
Sure.
Tim Wise (31:48):
And, uh, we go and have lunch on March 31, uh, and let's shout out to Keith Boone. He, he knows the story well, and we're 10 minutes into that lunch. He's like, would y'all be interested in, uh, we, you know, like, Accenture would like to buy Advocate. It's like, well, this would've been a lot easier nine months ago.
Kasie Whitener (32:06):
Right.
Tim Wise (32:06):
You know, we just did a private equity deal.
Kasie Whitener (32:08):
Right.
Tim Wise (32:09):
Uh, he's basically like, well, we know, um, you think they'd sell. I'm like, they're like, I'm sure for the right price. Um, anyway, 14 months later, uh, we consummated that transaction with Accenture. Um, and, uh, that was, you know, just a game changer for our team, for me and my partner personally, um, just to, to be acquired by a company like Accenture. I mean, they're truly, you know, the, one of the premier, if not the premier consulting professional services around technology company in the world. Um, you know, almost 70 billion in revenue today, um, with a track record of just tremendous success. So, um, you know, got to that point and, uh, started our Accenture journey in, in June of 2022.
Kasie Whitener (32:55):
And then you were done.
Tim Wise (32:58):
Well, not quite
Kasie Whitener (33:00):
Well, at some point. So you stayed working for Accenture for a while?
Tim Wise (33:03):
Yeah. So, uh, Accenture, you know, when they acquire a company, what's really important is they, they wanna retain all the talent. And, and that includes, uh, you know, the founders, which that was Scott and I. But, uh, equally or probably even more important, everybody else on the team. So that's kind of part of the transaction. Scott and I both stayed for three years. Um, we did a, a great job with Accenture. We, uh, um, basically you achieved the objectives they asked us to. And, and then, uh, on August 8th, earlier this year, decided that I wanted to leave. Not again. Accenture was phenomenal. It's just I wanted to go explore other things.
Kasie Whitener (33:42):
Well, like I said, serial entrepreneur, which means there's going to be something always on the horizon. And before that, we hit engaged you with the Favor Entrepreneurship Center and offered you this, what I consider to be, you know, a relatively modest challenge, comparatively speaking. So, on the other side of our break here on Moore Impact, we're gonna talk to Tim about what's next for him and that horizon with the Faber Entrepreneurship Center. We'll be right back.
Kasie Whitener (34:21):
Welcome back to Moore Impact. This is our Tuesday program from the Darla Moore School of Business, bringing our scholars, our practitioners, our alumni out to the studio here at 100.7, The Point, and on MakethePointradio.com. And then, of course, packaging up this episode as a podcast. So in a couple weeks, you'll see it posted in that podcast space, um, with me today, Tim Wise, who's a, uh, Darla Moore school alum, serial entrepreneur, dad, and now philanthropist as he moves into this next horizon of his career. And, uh, we engaged you, uh, back in the spring to come and speak to our Darla Moore School of Business students through the Faber Entrepreneurship Center. And you got to tell us the story that you've just shared with me, um, over the first three segments of the show, which was your entrepreneurial journey. And that Speaker Series event kind of lit something in you like, Hey, I feel like I wanna be around young people. Of course, you have young people in your life, you've got four grown children. So when you think about, okay, this is the natural place for me is to be part of education, and then of course, as a Carolina alum wanting to get back to the school. So talk just a little bit about this philanthropy and how you kind of got bit by that bug and, and what some of the things you're doing at the University of South Carolina.
Tim Wise (35:28):
Yeah. And so, uh, 10 years ago I had another mentor, different mentor, not the same ice mentor, but, uh, so 45 at the time. And we're just talking about life. He's like, you know, as you think about your impact in, in, in your life, like, you gotta get it down to three things. And so for me, that became number one, my family, which I think that's very normal or natural for almost everyone. Um, number two was scouting. I'm an Eagle Scout. Uh, love to give back for scouting. And, and number three was entrepreneurship. I'm a fundamental believer that entrepreneurship is what makes America exceptional. Um, you know, the ability to, to innovate, the ability to, um, really have success in the world, um, based on meritocracy and your ability to create. And so this whole entrepreneurship pillar for me, um, what a better, I couldn't think of a better place to start than the University of South Carolina. And so reaching out to, to you approximately a year ago and connecting with Jeff, um, gave me the opportunity to reconnect, um, for lack of a better word, share my story a couple times, be involved in the EY, um, case event. That was phenomenal. I was blown away by the young people. And, uh, so, you know, for me, this is, uh, just kind the perfect platform to do that. And then this opportunity to be a part of the advisory board. Um, got to interact with Tim Faber, uh, a month or so ago. He was the, obviously the foundation for the Faber Entrepreneur Center. Um, super excited of, of really trying to take it to the next level here at the University of South Carolina. And more broadly for our students in our state.
Kasie Whitener (37:13):
When we think about, uh, so the Faber Center, I came in in 2017 and we had the Proving Ground, which is a sort of our one marquee event that we do every spring. And then as ge you mentioned Jeff, Jeff Savage, uh, came in. Jeff and I took over the Faber Center. We started doing these speaker series events. We got some money from the South Carolina Department of Commerce. We started doing opportunity workshops. Jeffrey Graybeal joined the team and came in. So now we've got three of us. Um, we've always had Joel Stevenson, he's been a fantastic member of our team as an assistant director as well. So the four of us are all sort of here trying to, uh, supplement and compliment the entrepreneurship education inside the School of Business. And so we've got entrepreneurial type learning happening in management science and in supply chain and those kinds of things. But the management concentration of entrepreneurship is where people take four classes in a row of sequence of classes. And then we have these, as I said, the speaker series and these other events to kind of compliment that. And so what we're looking for with our advisory council is alum who have built businesses to help us, you know, consider different kind of programming, to bring even more people into the school, to interact with our students, give our students real world experience, a chance to go out there and work with entrepreneurs beyond the classroom, um, and get that opportunity to either intern for them or maybe go and work for them, you know, and work study and things like that. So there's a lot of opportunity for us to grow that Faber center. And, and two, fostering current business owners in the school. We have students that own their own businesses. We have, they have loan landscaping businesses and hair braiding businesses, and house cleaning businesses. And so we've got Carolina Ventures that we're trying to build out as well, where we're helping those students to build those businesses into something that they could maybe eventually sell to somebody else and create some, some revenue for themselves in that way. So all of those things kind of swirling around at the Faber Center. Like, we have all these things, but we really could use some advice, we could use some guidance, we could use, um, a group of alum that have been there, done that to come and share that with us. So we asked you if you would do this, and you said, yeah, sure. And I was like, sweet. And then I just let you do it. Like, I have not in any way asked you about it since I've been like, oh yeah, you should reach out to Tim, that'll be great. And like, go do the thing. Um, so what's it been like reaching out to other entrepreneurs or other alum to ask them how they wanna be engaged?
Tim Wise (39:27):
Well, first, and, and to just kind of set the table for, for all the current students. You know, 35 years ago when I was at the university in the business school, there was really no type of educational opportunity in, in entrepreneurship. Um, you know, you had all the traditional disciplines and, and majors. Um, I think it's just, uh, so awesome that now we have the Faber center. We have a specific focus on entrepreneurship. Um, and to me that that begins to help these students really knock down that, uh, inventor obstacle. And, and hopefully find their ice.
Kasie Whitener (40:04):
Sure.
Tim Wise (40:05):
And, and I think as a part of the advisory council, from my standpoint, while we can provide advice, um, and, and we can, um, you know, give you guys, uh, thoughts on, on programming or how we educate, um, our students, I think most importantly, it's just giving them examples. Uh, being real live examples, uh, to these students of here's how you can go on a journey to be an entrepreneur. And it's generally, it's pretty messy. Um, but it's, it's a journey that starts with one step and then leads to many steps along the way. And so is, I think about how we go and, and build out our council. I think there's many, many, many Tim Wises out there that exist that, uh, just weren't a part of an entrepreneur center 'cause it didn't exist.
Kasie Whitener (40:57):
Right.
Tim Wise (40:57):
But they were finance majors, marketing majors, management majors that if we can go pull them in, that then subsequently became phenomenal entrepreneurs. Um, if we can then pull them in as a part of this advisory council to not only take the center to the next level, but also to, uh, really inspire our students that, you know, they've got this great potential. And if you put that against the backdrop of the whole state of South Carolina is, is BoomTown right now. I mean, it's absolute BoomTown. And, uh, you know, if we can keep fostering that entrepreneurial culture and, and instill that in our young people, you know, we, we've got lots of, uh, great times ahead.
Kasie Whitener (41:41):
There's so much room here. And it's interesting. I think we have a, a bigger challenge than we have had in previous generations from an entrepreneurship mindset perspective, because we have a generation of, of young people that have been raised with some pretty tight controls from, you know, everything from rubrics to this sort of, um, creeping in of authority, you know, and, and I think COVID kind of created an even more tight controls over things. And so, entrepreneurship, as you said, is messy. It's unpredictable. It, it has risk to it, but it also has this tremendous opportunity for rewards. And how do you convince some, some young people who maybe have been really focused on safety, security predictability, that like, you don't wanna go work for that. Like, what you wanna do is jump off this diving board and like, maybe there's water below you. Um, it, it's a hard, it's a hard journey to try to get these, these young people to consider themselves as entrepreneurs.
Tim Wise (42:36):
Yeah. As a general rule, I put people into one of two categories. Rule followers are risk takers, rule followers. And again, I have four children, a 25-year-old son and 23-year-old triplets, another boy and two girls. Um, so I've got risk takers and rule followers. It is amazing to parent rule followers,
Kasie Whitener (43:05):
Your're gonna follow somebody else's journey.
Tim Wise (43:06):
You're not gonna change the world.
Kasie Whitener (43:08):
Sure.
Tim Wise (43:08):
Now, the risk takers are extremely difficult to parent. Um, you know, they're, they're breaking the rules.
Kasie Whitener (43:15):
They're impulsive.
Tim Wise (43:16):
They're not doing what you expect. Um, but those are the ones that are gonna change the world. And as I like to say, I've got one out there who's a full risk taker. I'm either, I'm like, you're either changing the world or you're gonna live under, under a bridge,
Kasie Whitener (43:58):
Right. Well,
Tim Wise (44:40):
And I would ask them to reflect on something about, um, really kind of their childhood. So I had the opportunity in 2012 to go do an executive education at Stanford. And it's, you know, basically associated with the business school. You did the D school and all of that. And, um, since I had such a passion for entrepreneurship, I asked the professor like, what makes a great entrepreneur? And he goes, believe it or not, it's the kids that got to play a lot.
Kasie Whitener (45:08):
Yep.
Tim Wise (45:08):
Unstructured playtime. And I was like, wow. Like, you would think the exact, like, how is that academic? Right. And it's not. But it, it was, and certainly I grew up in, and we grew up in a different time where it's like, you know, just show back up at dark, um, you know, go.
Kasie Whitener (45:26):
It's amazing, the, the connection between liberty and entrepreneurship. I mean, it really is.
Tim Wise (45:33):
Well, I'm, I'm a self admitted quasi helicopter parent,
Kasie Whitener (45:40):
Thank you so much for being here, Tim. I appreciate you.
Tim Wise (45:43):
Thank you, Kasie.
Kasie Whitener (45:44):
This has been a great interview. This has been more impact. When you learn more, you know more, when you know more, you do more. Thanks for listening.