In this episode, we dive into the entrepreneurial journeys and strategic partnerships that drive Dynamic Connections, with insights from CEO Steve Frenkiel and partners Jonas Beallor and Lynden Hennessy. Steve discusses his transition from a naive entrepreneur to the leader of a rapidly growing logistics company, and the pivotal decision to partner with Shore Capital. Jonas and Lynden provide perspectives on why they chose to team up with Dynamic, sharing their goals for growth and maintaining strong customer service. They also reflect on their journeys and the importance of preserving company culture.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:51 Steve's Entrepreneurial Journey
• 08:25 Jonas Beallor's Perspective
• 11:35 Lynden Hennessey's Legacy
• 15:52 Misconceptions About Private Equity
• 17:18 Future Vision for Dynamic Connections

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Microcap Moments episodes, alongside our series Everyday Heroes and Bigger. Stronger. Faster., highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore Capital University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

Michael Burcham: 00:00:18

Welcome to Microcap Moments, a podcast from Shore Capital Partners that highlights the stories of founders, investors, and leaders who have taken on the challenge of transforming ideas in small companies into high growth organizations.

Michael Burcham: 00:00:32

The journey of building and scaling a business takes one down many unexpected paths.

Michael Burcham: 00:00:37

It's a journey where we learn from our mistakes, fall down often, but have the entrepreneurial grit to pick ourselves up and persevere.

Michael Burcham: 00:00:44

Within this series, we will share these stories of success and failure, of the challenges and the rewards faced by those who dare to dream big.

Michael Burcham: 00:00:53

And through their lessons learned, we hope to inspire others in their careers.

Michael Burcham: 00:00:56

who are on a similar journey of becoming, growing, and leading.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:01

In this episode, I talk with Steve Frenkiel, Jonas Beallor, and Lynden Hennessy of Dynamic Connections.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:07

Steve shares his entrepreneurial journey in third party logistics and some insights around his experience as the CEO of Dynamic Connections and his decision to bring on a financial partner.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:17

Jonas and Lynden, founders of Boomer Logistics and North American Logistics Services, respectively, offer two unique journeys and circumstances.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:24

That brought them to partner with Steve and Dynamic Connections.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:27

From unlocking growth potential for the business to thinking through legacy and opportunities for your team, reasons for partnership can vary widely.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:35

As Steve makes clear, however, the keys to a great partner are their continued belief and drive to grow their business, their commitment to outstanding customer service, and the desire to build something special together that they couldn't build alone.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:48

I start the conversation with Steve.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:01:51

Steve Frenkiel, I'm the CEO of Dynamic Connections.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:01:55

We're an asset light, third party logistics company headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Anderson Williams: 00:02:00

And will you tell us a little bit about how you got to Dynamic and your entrepreneurial journey leading up to that point?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:07

Sure, my journey, like every entrepreneur's journey, is unique.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:10

It started about 10 years ago.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:12

I was what I call a naive entrepreneur.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:14

I was looking to go and buy my way into entrepreneurship.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:18

I had worked in the professional world for a bunch of years, always knew in the back of my mind that I was going to be an entrepreneur.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:24

Saved up a bunch of money and got the okay from my wife to go spend all that money on buying a business and making that my um, career dream.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:33

So I did that.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:33

I spent almost two years looking for a good business to buy and invest myself both financially and call it emotionally in.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:41

Specifically ended up looking for an asset light logistics company.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:46

I loved this concept of being a service business where I could overwhelm my customers with almost sheer hustle.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:53

I loved the size of the industry.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:02:55

It was enormous, that big ocean I was fishing in, and I loved that it was technology enabled.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:00

I was really comfortable with technology.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:02

I was an engineer by training originally, and I loved finding a business that could help service companies with the help of technology.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:08

So specifically looked for an asset light logistics business, went on the hunt, cold called every business I could find in this industry, found a good little business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:16

It's like $10M of revenue, a good little business with an owner who was happy to sell me his business and give me his job.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:22

And lo and behold, I became the owner and president of Dynamic Connections about 10 years ago.

Anderson Williams: 00:03:27

And talk a little bit about what you built after that point and how you grew.

Anderson Williams: 00:03:32

And then as you built that successful business, what was it that made you start thinking about potentially taking on a financial partner?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:40

Yeah.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:40

So listen, I dove in, I had no idea what I was doing.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:42

I was a sort of young, naive kid who just wanted to be an entrepreneur, run and own a business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:49

I'd never even been a manager, a real effective manager of other people.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:52

And I'd never been in freight.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:53

I'd never been in transportation, but I was a sort of a gritty, ostensibly smart kid.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:57

And I thought I could figure it out.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:03:59

In the end, that was true.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:00

It was just a little bit more painful than I thought it would be.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:02

My war story, and I say this so many times, but it really framed who I am.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:05

In my first year out of sheer bad luck and really nothing else, I lost my biggest customer and I had no way out.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:11

I didn't even have a good handle on the business yet, but like the expression goes, diamonds get built under pressure.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:16

And that's what happened.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:17

We had a ton of pressure.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:17

I had a ton of personal pressure, hardest year of my life, but it shaped who I am.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:22

It made me obsessed with customer retention.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:24

It actually helped frame the strategy of the business going forward.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:27

And we grew every year since.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:29

Really with no magic, it was no like one silver bullet.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:32

It was a whole bunch of plays in the playbook to build a good company where customers love working with us.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:38

Where we treat people well, we empower them, where we use technology to make our customers lives better, our people's lives better, and we try and have some fun doing it in a really big wide ocean.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:48

And so I blocked and tackled my way from call it $10M of revenue to about a little over $30M of revenue in the ensuing years.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:04:56

And in the end, figured out how to both be an entrepreneur, a manager, and a logistics professional.

Anderson Williams: 00:05:02

And at what point did you decide or start thinking about taking on a financial partner or looking for a financial partner?

Anderson Williams: 00:05:08

And what was it that triggered that from the business owner and entrepreneurial perspective?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:13

Anderson, that's a really, really good question.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:15

And it's a very personal one.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:16

The answer is very, very personal.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:17

It's very unique to sort of my, to my history.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:19

So picture this kid who buys this business, invest everything I had, including my house.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:24

My wife was okay with it.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:25

She's like, Steve, you'll be fine.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:26

But I did that.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:27

And in that first year, I felt like, whoa, did I just do that?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:30

Did I just bet everything and it may not work out.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:33

So I sort of had this like trauma of buying a business and potentially seeing it not go well.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:39

And that's okay.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:39

That trauma sort of fueled the ensuing years and ensuing years.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:42

I just sort of sheer hustle, did what we had to do was very strategic and build a good business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:47

But it got to a point, call it five years later.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:50

Where I was in financially really good spot.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:52

I had all my loans paid back.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:53

When I bought the business, I'd take out a bunch of loans to make it happen.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:56

I put all my money in and it took out a bunch of loans.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:58

I had all my loans paid back.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:05:59

I owned the business stream clear 100 percent of myself, which is, and these businesses are profitable business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:04

I was doing really well.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:05

But I still had a little bit of that trauma of like, whoa, seeing how close it felt from losing it all.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:11

So I got to the point at this 5, 6 year mark where I was starting to listen and think about that more proactively.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:17

Like.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:17

I didn't know what it would look like.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:18

I still thought it was a good business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:19

I knew what private equity was, but I didn't think it really existed in our world.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:23

Like we were too small until I ended up meeting Shore at a conference.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:27

I actually met them haphazardly at a freight conference.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:30

I was there because I go to conferences just to mostly follow technology and network and meet people and get smart.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:35

And they were there poking around, getting smart about the industry, right?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:38

That's what they do.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:39

Is there trying to learn about the industry?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:40

So we, and I actually take credit for this.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:42

I ended up reaching out to them just by fluke.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:44

I was sitting at the bar on the app and I was just looking for people to connect with, and I see a finance guy.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:50

I'm like, Oh, finance guys are smart.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:51

Let's see, like, let's see what this guy has to say.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:53

So I reached out to Matt.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:54

I actually, it's a funny note cause I called him Mike by accident at the time, but his name was Matt.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:06:58

And I just started to get to know him and I really mostly was just picking his brain about the industry and then start to learn about their model about like, yeah, we invest in small companies and we invest a whole budget, time, resources, and energy to try and supercharge their growth to take them from X to Y.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:11

And like, this is the starting point and this is the adventure.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:13

And I'm like, Oh, interesting.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:15

I'm like, Oh, that could work.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:16

So I'll take some chips off the table, but I'll.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:19

still be a partner in this adventure to supercharge this company that I still believe was a good company.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:24

And I got to know them a ton.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:25

I did a bunch of research, met a bunch of their partners, their investors, really sort of understood their playbook, the depth.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:30

I got to make sure that the depth that they indicated was real and it certainly was.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:33

And it was a perfect partnership for me.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:34

It was an ability to both take some chips off, but continue on the adventure of trying to scale and scale my business in a way that I would have never been able to do by myself.

Anderson Williams: 00:07:41

And given that partnership, describe for us a little bit about where Dynamic is going in terms of your strategy and your growth trajectory now with this partnership in place.

Anderson Williams: 00:07:52

What does that look like over the next, let's just say three to five years?

Anderson Williams: 00:07:55

What are you looking out at?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:07:57

Yeah, listen, like I said, so when I did my transaction with Shore, we were probably a $30-35M company this year, this is year two of the partnership, we will for sure break a $100M because we did two partnerships along the way and by the end of this adventure, we'll be a probably a $300-400M company that will be still incredibly responsive and accountable to our customers, provide a great service in different vertical, different areas and a certain level of scale that I think we'll get to areas I would have never been able to on my own.

Anderson Williams: 00:08:25

This belief in building something meaningful with others that he couldn't build alone is fundamental to the way Steve and Dynamic Connections think about partnership.

Anderson Williams: 00:08:33

So I wanted to hear from one of those partners about their why, their decision, and see how things have played out so far.

Anderson Williams: 00:08:39

Here is Jonas Beallor.

Jonas Beallor: 00:08:41

Jamie and I sat down and we sort of reflected on our partnership and we reflected on the business.

Jonas Beallor: 00:08:46

And we were very happy with the growth we had made.

Jonas Beallor: 00:08:49

But at the end of that fiscal year, we talked about what was doing well.

Jonas Beallor: 00:08:52

And where we would like to go with the business.

Jonas Beallor: 00:08:54

And we came to the conclusion that we wanted to pursue a partner in the space.

Jonas Beallor: 00:08:59

And so what were those sort of objectives that we set out?

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:02

One is, did the two of us want to continue to work together?

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:05

And the answer to that was yes.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:06

The second questions were, what were we good at and what were we not?

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:10

And there were a couple things that we felt we weren't good at.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:13

One of them was recruitment.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:14

We found it very hard hiring the right people for the right roles.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:18

Um, the second was we wanted to invest in technology.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:21

Now, we had the capital among ourselves to invest, but what we weren't willing to do was put in the capital without the expertise.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:29

And I think meeting the team here, meeting Steve, enabled us to see a vision for how we could grow the company the way we were thinking.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:35

And then the last part I would share is the alignment and thought are a common North Star, which really is, you know, we're not saving lives, but at the same time, we are a customer service company that happens to be in logistics.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:47

And that was really important to us.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:49

And we felt there was a common understanding of that North Star.

Jonas Beallor: 00:09:52

And that's what brought us together.

Anderson Williams: 00:09:53

And I have to consider, given your entrepreneurial, this is your business you've been building.

Anderson Williams: 00:09:58

Thinking about that opportunity for partnership and growth.

Anderson Williams: 00:10:01

How did you think about your own personal growth?

Anderson Williams: 00:10:04

Once you step out of the sort of lead entrepreneur role and into this larger company, how did you think about it just as an individual?

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:11

Yeah, so I think my situation would be a little bit different than my partner situation.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:15

So my business partner situation is he's been in logistics his whole life.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:19

This is what he does and this is what he knows.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:21

So, you know, when you go and you do these partnerships, you really need to make sure it's a good fit.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:25

And I think just quickly for him, it was making sure that he stayed still have the autonomy to make decisions that he was still going to be able to provide value and that they were willing to understand that they were acquiring a company that specialized in different niches and that we would have the capital and the leadership in place to help that continue to grow based on our discussions.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:44

I think for me to answer your question is.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:47

This is my second exit.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:48

I am, again, as I said, an accountant by trade.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:51

I'm an entrepreneur.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:52

For me personally, I needed to know that there was an opportunity beyond what I had signed up to do with Jamie.

Jonas Beallor: 00:10:58

And in this situation that worked out really well.

Jonas Beallor: 00:11:00

So I've actually joined the corporate side of Dynamic and my new role is VP of strategic partnerships.

Jonas Beallor: 00:11:06

And so there I get to utilize my skills that I've had on my journey through my career.

Jonas Beallor: 00:11:11

And so I think it's really important, you know, it's important that when you're finding the right partner, that you also find your identity and your role moving forward.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:19

This is incredible advice.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:21

Jonas shows it's not just about knowing why you want to partner in the short term, but how you see yourself and your role and your contribution evolving over the next several years through the partnership.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:31

Jonas is still in the prime of his career, so his answer is a little different than Lynden Hennessey's.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:35

Lynden is in the latter part of his career and has been running his company since 1997.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:41

He's thinking about legacy and fundamental to that, how he takes care of his team even as he plans his exit from the company.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:11:48

At this stage of my life, I wanted to slow down, take a slowly exit from the company.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:11:54

I've created a great management team four or five years ago, allowing me to do that.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:11:59

I still have a lot to offer to the company and want to the company to grow, but I do want to step back from the day to day operations.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:06

The legacy is very important to me.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:08

Company is 27 years old.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:10

I've been in the logistics business for 40 years now.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:13

I poured everything into the company and I wanted to preserve the culture and name that we created.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:18

We are an industry leader in this space and Dynamic was the perfect partner to maintain that legacy and to scale the business and allow me to reach my exit plans and goals.

Anderson Williams: 00:12:28

And as you thought about this, given that legacy and given the team you've built and given the brand you've built, did you have concerns and did your employees have concerns about this kind of a partnership?

Anderson Williams: 00:12:40

And if so, what were they and how did you address those?

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:43

Yeah, my employees and management team are incredible.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:46

They're very loyal.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:48

I would have never got to where I am today without them.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:50

I have five employees that have been with me over 15 years.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:55

Four of them have been with me over 20 years.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:12:57

So I made the decision, and I remember sitting down with the team, my management team, and telling them that I was looking at selling the company.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:03

They were very happy for me, but I wanted to ensure that the whole team would be kept in place.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:08

And to this day they are, and I've been insured they are.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:12

I wanted to see each employee have an opportunity to advance themselves in their career and play a major role in the growth of the bigger company now.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:19

An important thing to me was the investment in training and technology for my staff.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:23

It's very important and what Dynamic brings to the table on those two aspects is very important.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:28

It makes them more efficient and it makes their tasks easier., With a company like Dynamic, this will happen.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:34

Every couple of months an interesting thing is, uh, you know, it's just been a recent transaction, but they have a town hall at my office.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:41

They come in and meet with the staff, the very informative session for all.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:45

It's an open forum for the employees, a Dynamic Shore team to share new ideas, keep staff informed and updated.

Lynden Hennessy: 00:13:52

Overall it's been a seamless transaction for my staff and a very positive experience.

Anderson Williams: 00:13:58

Here again is Steve.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:00

You know, we've done two partnerships to date, and you've spoken to Jonas and you've spoken to Lynden, and both are really, really different.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:05

Jonas and his partner Jamie were pretty young guys who had built a good little business, but got to a point where they didn't really know how to scale it.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:14

They were not good at technology and they sort of hated it and even though they knew that was the way of the future and they were really not good at both sales management and HR.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:23

By the way, almost every little company we meet is not good at sales and sales management.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:27

It's actually one of the reasons we've invested so much in sales execution that we can help bring that to our partners.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:32

So these were young guys who still still had some hunger in the belly but had realized they were only gonna grow their business so much on their own so it was a perfect fit of like, Oh, hey, let's join forces with someone who has some of that expertise.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:43

Lynden, on the other hand, was totally different.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:45

Lynden is in his sixties, in his call it early to mid sixties, and he's realized he has succession planning.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:51

You know, he can't be doing this forever.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:53

He has to do the right thing for his estate and his family, and he has to do the right thing himself for his career.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:14:57

As much as he actually still loves his business that he's been running for 27 years, and he found it from nothing from with him and his partner who actually passed away five years ago from a heart attack.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:06

You know, that also gave him some pause.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:07

He was in a different situation.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:09

It's like, I need to do something the right thing for the business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:11

So he had to sell his business as both succession and estate planning was the right thing for him.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:16

But he was looking for a good home for his business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:18

And so he keeps saying to me, Steve, I wish I was 20 years younger.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:21

I'd be like on this ride with you guys.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:23

You guys are like unstoppable.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:24

You're going to take over the world.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:25

But we were a good home from his business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:26

And to his credit, he had a legitimate second layer of management that is now taking over the business from him.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:32

And he remains a really active shareholder.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:34

And it's still really hadn't stopped working yet, even though that was the point, because he's still trying to help us grow this business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:38

So like.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:38

We can fit for different profiles.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:40

You know, we can fit with different seller profiles and partner profiles.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:15:44

As long as they still believe in their business, they want to be a partner in this, whether an operating partner or at least a shareholder partner in this invention, they still believe in the potential for their business.

Anderson Williams: 00:15:52

So when you think about your approach at Dynamic to growth and the opportunities that have come with being private equity backed, what do you think are some of the misconceptions about private equity, maybe specific to your industry, maybe not, but.

Anderson Williams: 00:16:07

What do you see as misperceptions, misconceptions about what it means to join a partnership like this?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:13

Yeah, there are definitely some very, very common ones.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:16

And probably the most common one is the concept of cutting.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:18

And cutting people, cutting jobs, and cutting stuff.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:22

in pursuit of profits.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:23

And so a lot of times when we meet entrepreneurs or even management teams, and they hear the word private equity, they all start talking about jobs and cutting.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:31

And it's so incredibly not how we think about it, and how Shore thinks about it, and how even remotely relevant for this industry.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:39

Like in my industry, it's all people business.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:41

Like it's all about people.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:43

We've hyper focused on making sure no one leave, not about cutting.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:16:46

We never talk about who we're So I think the common misconception is that private equity is going to cut their way to success.

Anderson Williams: 00:16:52

Yeah, it's it really is.

Anderson Williams: 00:16:53

The misperception is completely the opposite of the microcap and Shore's approach to investing in small companies.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:01

I mean, it is the polar opposite.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:02

It's the polar opposite.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:03

There's nothing to cut in microcap.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:04

Like it's such small, leanly run organizations.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:08

There is no way to cut your way to success.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:11

And we haven't.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:12

Every partnership we've done, we've added people we haven't cut.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:15

So, it's all part of the playbook.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:18

Since we had talked so much about growth, both in terms of new partners and new team members, I wanted Steve to share his vision for the future of Dynamic Connections.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:26

I think if we've done our job, we've combined a number of organizations that share an obsession over customer experience and customer service.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:34

I'm really an obsession, which means that they have organizationally will do whatever it takes for their customers.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:39

We do our secret sauce.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:41

Uh, currently is we operate in areas of logistics world that we call high cost of failure, where our customers are doing something important.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:50

The freight they're moving is important.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:51

There's something really valuable.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:52

It's really timely.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:53

It's really delicate.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:54

Something hard, which means someone needs to be really good at their job to do it well.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:17:59

We work really hard and have great tools to do that well, and in turn, retain our customers for life.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:05

And that's a great playbook in an industry that is huge and an industry where it's so easy to switch from one to the other where you find areas where they value the service and therefore they stay with you.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:14

So that's the ML of the organization since day one and it continues to be as we find partners who share that obsession with customer experience and customer service in areas that are hard.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:23

If they're too easy, then customers don't value it.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:25

So you can bang your head against the wall still, you know, it doesn't matter.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:28

But in areas that are hard and they do a really great job and you actually it's amazing because then you have these cultures that like share these Similar philosophies.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:35

Like the last partnership we did, we presented our mission, a vision, and values, and I said, Hey, these are our, this is Dynamic, but like, we're going to grow and evolve, and we went through each one and I said, how does this feel?

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:45

They're like, sounds like real, something really familiar.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:48

So once you share some of that DNA or over service and customer experience, You can put some really good players together and build ultimately what we look to be is like an all star team.

Steve Frenkiel: 00:18:55

We were, you know, one team tried to build an all star team, which would still be a small player in the industry but getting to $300-400M in freight is still a tiny player, but I think we can build a very strategically significant, relevant, entrepreneurial and service focused organization.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:16

If you enjoyed this Microcap Moments episode, be sure and check out our interview with Rob Goldberg of FirmaPak about their founding story, early partnerships, and vision for growth.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:25

You can find this and all of our episodes at www.shorecp.university/podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:33

There you will also find our Everyday Heroes and Bigger.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:35

Stronger.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:36

Faster.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:36

series, each highlighting the people and processes that make the microcap space unique.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:41

This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners with story and narration by Anderson Williams.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:46

Recording by Austin Johnson, editing by Reel Audiobooks, sound design, mixing, and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:54

Special thanks to Steve Frenkiel, Jonas Beallor, and Lynden Hennessey.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:58

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC.

Anderson Williams: 00:20:01

None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security.

Anderson Williams: 00:20:09

See the terms of use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.