Derik has been a serial entrepreneur for over 20 years. He started his venture capital firm 3F Management in 2002. During that time, he has built and sold over 30 companies.; all of which he exited in the 7, 8, and 9-figure exit ranges. He was born into poverty, had no one to help him, dropped out of college after one semester, and simply "failed" his way to the top!  In addition to building his own brands, he invests his money, time, and resources into promising young entrepreneurs and companies to assist in their growth cycles. Cultivating all of his business operations and culture to support the goal of accelerating growth, and targeted, unprecedented exit strategy multiples for all partnered brands allows each new partner to plug into our eco-system for immediate and accelerated growth. Having employed over 20,000 employees and managing over a billion dollars in revenues on an ongoing basis, coupled with his unique, out-of-the-box, leverage-based approach to all strategies, provides a “learning curve” to all partnered brands that money cannot buy. The "simple" goal for each new and all current portfolio partner is to fine-tune,  scale, maximize profitability,  and exit in a 3-5 year period of time. Although "legacy brands" do exist and last ten years more, they do not begin with that as a projected course. In this episode, Brad and Derik talk about creating value within a new business, how to set yourself up for success when selling, when to go public, and most importantly, what it means to have a real exit strategy Go to https://blackrhinoequity.com to see how to qualify and how to work with Brad and Derik on your next exit strategy. .