Bearcats Mean Business podcast

Grant Freking: (00:00)
What does real world success in business actually look like? Welcome the Bearcats Mean Business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, where inspiring career stories, honest lessons, and fresh business perspectives from the people building impact in the real world. Come together, tune in for inspiration, practical business insights, and forward-looking thought leadership on how ambition turns into action. And now for today's episode.

Grant Freking: (00:30)
Alright, Hamsa, thank you for being here on Bearcats Mean Business journeying down from Mason, Ohio. Appreciate it. Yeah,

Hamsa Tadpatri: (00:37)
I'm super excited to be here.

Grant Freking: (00:38)
Awesome. So let's start with some basic background stuff. Um, where are you from? What brought you to Lindner? Everyone's got a story, everyone's got an origin story, so what was the, the process that kind of brought you to Lindner and where do you hail from?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (00:51)
Yeah, so, um, I've been living in Mason, uh, for about, I would say seven, eight years now. And I knew that I wanted to stay definitely kind of close to home. So I think a lot of people that come to uc know that that's gonna look like, you know, right here or Miami or OSU, kind of like, you know, staying close to home, I guess. And I ended up, you know, doing a little tour here, uh, and I got to see, you know, the business school and then also actually do, um, like the college closeup. Uh, didn't know it was called that, but yeah, got to experience that firsthand and honestly just fell in love right away. And later on, I, I remember end of senior year I got an invitation to come to Empowerment Day, which is an event that the LE Women in Business, um, host. And just going there as well, I was just like, honestly, I just knew that this was the place for me. Uh, like I think that's something that a lot of people that come here kind of go through. They see the building all the opportunities that LE has to offer, and I just knew that I wanted to, you know, come here and experience college life. So, yeah.

Grant Freking: (01:54)
Yeah. Was, um, when you were looking for a college, or even like, I guess like a business school environment, how far high on the list was like feeling welcomed or feeling at home related to like, academics and everything like that? Did you want to feel like you kind of had like a second home when you were kind of moving on to the next experience? Oh,

Hamsa Tadpatri: (02:11)
100%. Um, I think that's something that was very like, top of the list for me. Uh, I think once I came, did, you know, a lot of these visits at different universities, I think the first thing that I looked for was, did I feel welcomed? Um, and then once, you know, like you experienced that firsthand and I felt like I did here at uc, um, I just knew that, you know, I wanted to come here, so

Grant Freking: (02:33)
Yeah. Yeah, the vibe's gotta be right.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (02:34)
Exactly. Yeah.

Grant Freking: (02:35)
. So who or, and or what has most influenced, I guess, your path to this point and where you are in your college career at this sport? Who, who, who were the things, what are the principles maybe that have guided you so far?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (02:48)
Yeah. Um, I think so far, like at uc, it's definitely been the support system that I've found here, obviously. Um, me being close to home, that's a bonus. So I mean, having family like right, like so close by. Um, honestly, yeah, that's obviously like a huge support system. But then outside of, uh, just family, I think it's the friends. And then also just like the faculty support, um, that I've been able to experience has been amazing. Um, so I think that's definitely been something that I've been able to close, you know, been able to really hone into. So, yeah.

Grant Freking: (03:20)
Sure. Yeah. So when you were looking for colleges, did you have like a, or I guess even maybe when you entered entered uc, did you have like a kind of a written out plan or a sort of a jotted out plan to like what you wanted to accomplish?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (03:33)
Yeah. Um, honestly, yes, I would say so. So I think, uh, right after I graduated, um, you know, high school and then also knew that I wanted to come to uc, of course, uh, I think I definitely made a list of, um, you know, probably like orgs that I wanted to be a part of mm-hmm . Uh, I knew that was like something that I would really be engaged in here, uh, specifically at Lindner. Um, and I think I was able to, you know, actually accomplish that as well. So, uh, I know like even just on our website, we have a ton of, you know, different like opportunities kind of just listed on there, um, to like get involved in right off the bat. Uh, and then also before classes started, we have like, kind of like a orientation situation, um, where you can kind of just come in and also experience all like the, um, you know, orgs that we have, uh, on campus, not just within Lindner. So, um, you know, just experience that, like involvement fair was honestly a great experience for me personally. And then kind of talking to people sh like, you know, people sharing their experiences in different orgs was definitely very helpful.

Grant Freking: (04:33)
Yeah. Um, my follow up to that is, okay, you had your plan and you said it was very thorough. How did it, how has that changed now that you're, what, two years in? Yes. How, how has that changed and guessing maybe in like some of the specifics, but also kind of like in the scope of what you expect for yourself?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (04:48)
Oh, for sure. Um, I mean, like I said, definitely had kind of like an idea of what I was looking for, I would say as far as, you know, orgs and involvements. Um, but I think once I got here I did see kind of like, uh, a little bit of a space where I could potentially give back in a way. So, uh, that kind of looked like, uh, me, you know, me starting my own orgs as well. Right. Um, so I think, uh, that was huge. So even just like right off the bat when I, you know, my freshman year itself, um, I saw that there were, there was room for, um, you know, me being able to give back and that looked like, you know, starting two orgs. Um, so for me personally, uh, that was, uh, FBLA and then Hindu Yuva. Um, I think both orgs, uh, even previously, even in high school I was very involved in. Um, so I knew that I wanted to bring that here at uc. Um, so I think that's how it started. And then I slowly developed into, um, you know, kind of, uh, getting involved in other things as well. So, yeah.

Grant Freking: (05:43)
Yeah. Let's, let's dig deeper into that because when we spoke, um, ahead of the podcast recording, I noted how just how much involved and passionate you were about the student orgs, which comes across here too. Yeah. What I guess is like your kind of inner purpose, um, is it a mix of personal and professional? Like what do you, are you trying, are you seeing a gap that needs to be filled for students like you? What's sort of your rationale for being so involved with multiple organizations founding a couple, being a part of other ones being in leadership positions as well? Yeah, yeah.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (06:12)
Yeah. Um, I think for me personally, uh, it comes down to me wanting to be involved. Uh, I think that's something, uh, that's really stemmed my interest in, you know, all of these, uh, you know, organizations kind of like giving back in that sense. Yeah. Uh, so I think that's how it started. Uh, and then also me seeing that, um, progress, uh, of me kind of growing as, you know, not just a student, but as a leader on campus. Uh, I think I've really seen that just these past few years. Uh, I mean, obviously starting an org, I would say it's probably one of the most challenging stuff that like I honestly had to experience just because it's finding, you know, the right group of people. Uh, and then also that support system from, you know, a faculty member as well, you know, to find that advisor.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (06:55)
Uh, and then also on top of that, it's also finding people that are interested in joining the org as well. 'cause obviously it has to resonate with you in some sense. So I think all of that in all definitely was a process. Um, but I mean, obviously we were able to, you know, get through that and then also find kind of a solid base of people that are really interested, willing to give back and also come back, uh, you know, to our meetings every other week. So I think it's been a really great experience for sure.

Grant Freking: (07:23)
Yeah, that sounds amazing. What have you found out about yourself as a student leader that maybe you didn't know when you first entered college?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (07:31)
Yeah. Um, I think one of the biggest things is I, I would say even beginning of high school I guess, uh, I was somebody that was very shy. Mm-hmm . Um, so I think, uh, kind of breaking out of that shell was me putting myself out there in these organizations. I think that's kind of, uh, what I've seen in myself. And then even just in college, I think, uh, I mean, high school and college is such a big difference for sure. Um, you know, like the amount of people, um, and then even just the communities that you get to be a part of, just very different, I would say. So I think, um, me being able to push myself out there, I think that's something that I've able to learn a lot about myself. Um, you know, just, uh, yeah, just I guess, yeah, me just putting myself out there.

Grant Freking: (08:14)
Right. Yeah. And what have you, have you, um, learned how to manage people? You know, some, it's probably a little tough sometimes 'cause I'm sure some of these people that are in these organizations or your friends too, and Yeah. Have you had any, have any hard conversations about like, Hey, maybe I need to step it up or maybe I need more out of you. Yeah. How have you sort of handled those conversations as you develop into a never growing responsibility of a student leader?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (08:36)
Yeah. Uh, I think that's definitely a huge part. I think communication, um, with your like, you know, peers and then also when you have an exec board, I think that kind of very much differs mm-hmm . And I think kind of finding that balance between, you know, friendship. 'cause there are, you're so right. 'cause there are quite a few friends, uh, of mine who are part of these organizations and even a few that are on, you know, leadership with me. Uh, so I think finding that balance is, uh, it was definitely kind of hard, I would say, to navigate. Um, but I think, uh, I'm getting better at it, uh, you know, day by day for sure. Um, but I think there have been definitely a few, um, times where I've had to kind of sit down and kind of figure out like what their role specifically looks like. Um, 'cause sometimes, you know, life gets busy, like honestly, I completely understand. Um, so some people aren't able to, you know, give back to the degree that they might've, you know, kept on or kind of signed up for. Um, so I think kind of having those tough conversations definitely learn a lot through that. Uh, 'cause sometimes it's how you approach those conversations and stuff like that, uh, that really do matter, obviously to keep those relationships. Yeah. So I think that's definitely been something that I've had to navigate for

Grant Freking: (09:44)
Sure. Yeah. Well, that'll serve you well, definitely in the professional environment for sure. Yeah. In a few years. Um, let's switch to switch to your academics. Um, three majors is a lot. Sounds like a lot. Yeah. So tell me about the combination you have. You have business, you're studying business analytics, finance and operations management. What's your rationale for the those select three?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (10:03)
Yeah. Um, uh, so it first started just with business analytics, me coming in. Uh, and I would say that kind of came in, uh, through some of my experiences with analytics and kind of having some, uh, like hands-on experience. I guess just working with, um, you know, data specifically. Uh, and then kind of, uh, making, kind of telling a story with it, I guess. Kind of making sure that people that aren't as hands-on are able to understand it in a way. Um, that's kind of just like easy to comprehend for like, pretty much just like a everyday person, you know? Yeah. Like that might not know like how these numbers really work.

Grant Freking: (10:37)
Yeah. Making it digestible.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (10:38)
Yes, exactly. Um, so I think just making it, uh, you know, like visually easy to understand all of that, like, as you said, digestible for pretty much anybody to really comprehend. Um, that was something that I knew I wanted to like hone in on. Um, so I think that started off, you know, of course with business analytics and I knew that I wanted to pursue that. Um, and then that's slowly kind of translated into me also adding operations management later on. And I think I see myself, uh, you know, down the line having some kind of a managerial role, um, like, you know, some sometime in the future, uh, like that, that was, uh, that kind of prompted me to add operations management. And I also think understanding the behind the scenes of, you know, any kind of operation business is very important. Um, like just fundamentally just to know. Uh, and then, uh, later on I also kind of chose to add finance as well. Uh, I actually joined, um, an work called Women in Finance. Okay. Uh, and that kind of really helped me hone in on like, you know, me wanting to actually pursue that as well. I think all three of those, um, are, you know, like a very cool, um, like mixture of different majors that we have to offer. Uh, and I think it'll definitely serve me Right. You know, even in the future, so. Yeah. Yeah.

Grant Freking: (11:53)
Absolutely. So, um, let's transition to talk about co-op a little bit. What type of co-op experiences have you had so far?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (12:00)
Yeah. Um, so I've, uh, it kinda started, uh, during high school for me. Um, so I was able to experience, uh, like a finance and accounting internship, um, with GMI companies. Um, and that was definitely I think my first leeway into, um, you know, the business world. Uh, I guess, uh, and then later on I was able to actually also get an experience with, um, a financial planning firm. Um, and I think that was definitely something that really I think, I guess opened my eyes to like the finance world specifically. Mm. Um, I was able to do some analytics work with them as well. So I think, um, kind of honing in on those skills, I knew that I wanted to, you know, pursue that in the future as well. Um, and then, uh, later on as well, I was actually, uh, offered an opportunity actually through a professor here at uc. Oh. Um, which was, uh, it's called, um, little Fork Child Advocacy Center. Um, so, uh, I think in a way it's giving back, uh, to the community in a way as well. And I think, uh, being able to work with kind of like a nonprofit as well, definitely very rewarding, uh, in my opinion. So I think experiencing those different opportunities have definitely, uh, you know, strengthened not just my skills, but, um, you know, also just me as, you know, a young, like, you know, developing professional. So,

Grant Freking: (13:17)
Yeah. And co-op experiences come in all shapes and sizes too, so not, not just sort of the, sort of the traditional one too. So it's cool to hear your perspective on that for sure. On, in terms of like the soft skills maybe you've acquired, what have you, what surprised you the most? Or what have you learned about working in professional environments that you kind of, you just couldn't pick up on in classrooms because it's just not there?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (13:39)
Oh, yeah. Um, I think it sometimes, uh, in classrooms, uh, there's a lot of like collaborative work that you do, at least, um, that's kind of what I've noticed. Um, and, you know, the classes that I've taken so far, um, I think sometimes even, um, I mean, when you're kind of working like a desk job, I would say, uh, you do obviously hop onto meetings and stuff like that, have a little bit of collaborative environment, but there's a lot of kind of just, uh, hands down time where it's just like, you're, you, you just have to focus on your specific tasks that you're given. Um, yeah. So I think that was definitely a little bit of an adjustment. It's something new that I had to learn when I, you know, started taking on these internships. Um, like obviously, you know, that you have like this project to work on, but I think that collaborative environment, uh, I'm very used to that at uc, you know, when you're involved, uh, even just with classes, working on projects with a lot of people.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (14:27)
Um, so I think that was definitely something that I was able to experience, uh, that was, uh, new. Um, and then I think as far as like soft skills, um, I think that's something that you learn as you, you know, kind of like experience, um, you know, co-ops, like, you know, being in a professional environment. Um, but I think, uh, uc like definitely prepared me so well for those experiences. I would say, um, when you are part of organizations and also leadership, I think you have to keep yourself in a professional, conduct yourself in a professional manner for sure. Um, so I think taking, um, those bits and pieces of experience that I'm able to, um, you know, hone onto, like I was able to for sure, you know, utilize in these experiences.

Grant Freking: (15:10)
What would you say has been the biggest challenge that you've encountered? You know, in college? Could be academically, could be in on a co-op. Yeah. What's like been the biggest challenge that you can remember so far?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (15:21)
I think, uh, for me, uh, I, I feel like I've been able to slowly navigate through this, but it's definitely like the time management aspect. Hmm. Um, you know, I feel like we have a lot of students who are such huge, um, like overachievers, even some, so it's just like, I think balancing not just, you know, the academics, the extracurriculars, and then some people managing, you know, multiple jobs as well. Um, like I think for me personally, um, like finding that balance was definitely, um, a bit challenging in the beginning. Um, but I think we are able, we get so many resources, um, specifically, um, you know, the career coaches, academic advisors, uh, I think that extra support that I was able to kind of lean on, um, made the biggest difference for me personally at least. So I think just talking to them, having other conversations on, you know, what classes to take.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (16:10)
Um, you know, I think even just figuring out what orgs, uh, are, you know, kind of worth, you know, investing like my full energy in, I guess in time. Yeah. Um, I think figuring that out was definitely the biggest challenge. Um, 'cause sometimes, uh, like at least for me personally, I just wanted to be part of really like everything honestly. Um, so it was just, uh, kind of honing in on like, you know, those specific works that, you know, you wanna give back to and you know, you're gonna get, um, you know, a ton out of as well experience wise. Um, and then also I think the first and foremost thing is obviously doing well in classes as well, so being able to balance that. Uh, I think that was definitely something, uh, that was definitely, um, an adjustment curve for me, but I think, you know, it's going well so far, so Yeah.

Grant Freking: (16:54)
Yeah. Don't want to extend yourself too much. Exactly. Gotta remember that you're a college student too. Yeah. Even though if you want to do all these professional pursuits. Yeah. Um, let's talk to like the, the, the future a little bit and sort of where you want to position yourself in your field. What sort of business trends are you paying attention to that most relate, I guess, to your career field and or trends that could affect your career field as you look into the full-time job pool in a couple of years?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (17:19)
Yeah. Um, I think for me personally, um, for like full-time specifically right now, um, I know for a fact that I would probably wanna go into something, um, with analytics, um, or even with, you know, the operations management, even something with, um, you know, a supply chain, um, kind of like, uh, structure as well, I guess. Yeah. Um, so I think for me personally, I think it's, uh, really figuring out, um, like obviously what you wanna pursue specifically. Uh, I think I was able to kind of understand that through like, you know, the co-op experiences. Um, and I think now I'm able to like hone in on like the analytics aspect now. So I think I would probably wanna look into opportunities, um, that are able to, you know, I'm able to do a lot of hands-on analytics work, so I think that's what I see myself, um, doing in the next couple years full time, so. Right.

Grant Freking: (18:12)
What excites you the most about, I guess specifically the analytics field? Um, and I guess what keeps you kind of staying interested in it? Um, what is it, is it specific, specific subsets or what is it that excites you about the, the field of analytics? Yeah.

Hamsa Tadpatri: (18:25)
Um, I think for me personally, uh, it's the fact that it's constantly changing, honestly. Um, uh, I think with, you know, like AI being so huge now, um, you're able to use so many different tools, um, to make, uh, you know, this data kind of like comprehendible, um, for like anybody like we were talking about earlier. Yeah. Um, but I think that's something that really like, personally excites me. Um, and yeah, I think just having that experience is definitely gonna be super helpful.

Grant Freking: (18:54)
All right. Let's close with some, some advice. Um, and maybe some look back. Where would you tell your first year self, if you're walking through the doors of Wonder Hall for the first time, your first day of class Yeah. Freshman year. What would you tell young Hamsa?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (19:09)
Yeah. I think for me, uh, it's keeping an open mind. Uh, I think I had kind of this outlook on like how I wanted, you know, my college experience to look like. And there's obviously nothing wrong with that. Um, but I think for me personally, um, just leave the door open. Um, you know, take in the opportunities that you've, you've been given. Um, I think, uh, I think that's the biggest thing. 'cause even, um, you know, in college, I think a lot of people are so busy with everything that they do, but I think it's taking time also for yourself. Um, I think that's something that I've able to learn. Um, it took me a little bit, not just freshman year Yeah. But, uh, it definitely took me all my sophomore year to like kind of like figure that out as well. Um, but it, it's just kind of finding time for yourself as well. Uh, 'cause that's obviously very important. Um, so like, you know, keeping yourself not just busy with, you know, like your academics and like extracurriculars, but also time for yourself. Um, and that can, obviously for some people, uh, I think that just looks like just working out for some people, reading or even just kind of hanging out with friends. Um, so I think that's something that I would definitely tell myself, um, like freshman year myself, so, yeah.

Grant Freking: (20:18)
Yeah. What do you think or what do you hope you'll be most proud of 30 years from now when you're a successful business person? What do you think you'll be most proud of when you look back on your Lindner experience 30 years from now?

Hamsa Tadpatri: (20:31)
Um, I think for me personally, I would definitely be, um, very proud of the fact that I was able to kind of establish something, um, here at uc. Uh, I hope that obviously it's able to, you know, continue, um, you know, throughout, uh, you know, after, after like, you know, I graduate, graduate

Grant Freking: (20:50)
Of

Hamsa Tadpatri: (20:50)
Course. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I think, uh, you know, starting these organizations, I feel like I'm very proud of, you know, how they've been able to, you know, shape not just my journey, but uh, also the people that are involved in it as well. Um, so I think that's something that I will look back at and feel definitely, um, proud that I was able to accomplish that. 'cause I, I obviously know like how much time, you know, was spent on it. Yeah. Um, the people that really supported me through that, you know, like journey of, you know, establishing it as well. Um, so I think that's something that I will look back at, um, and definitely feel proud of.

Grant Freking: (21:24)
Yeah. Hamsa, thank you for your time today. Thank you for making the trip down rom Mason. Um, we're certainly glad you're here at Lindner and we really value, especially as a student leader, influencing other students in a positive manner. So thank you for coming on Bearcats Mean Business. Thank

Hamsa Tadpatri: (21:37)
You so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Grant Freking: (21:39)
Thank you for listening to this episode of Bearcats Mean Business. If today's episode sparked a new idea, challenged your thinking or helped you see your path a little more clearly, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share the episode with someone in your network. Thanks for being part of the conversation. And remember, real world success begins here at Lindner.

Grant Freking: (00:00)
What does real world success in business actually look like? Welcome the Bearcats mean business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati's, Carl h Lindner College of Business, where inspiring career stories, honest lessons, and fresh business perspectives from the people building impact in the real world. Come together, tune in for inspiration, practical business insights, and forward-looking thought leadership on how ambition turns into action. And now for today's episode,

Marianne Lewis: (00:31)
Dan, it's such a pleasure to have you here today. Thank you.

Dan Schimberg: (00:34)
You're welcome. I'm excited.

Marianne Lewis: (00:36)
I think this is a great opportunity from for us all to, to learn from your experience, your role model. I mean, I think your, personally, I think your career journey is fascinating as an entrepreneur and as a leader. And I wondered if we could just dive in there, because you started rehabbing a single property near uc, the University of Cincinnati, and it was, I think in the 1980s. What did you see that others overlooked and right our backyard?

Dan Schimberg: (01:03)
Well, I was a student at uc, and it was back in the, when the, when the, uh, movie animal house was filmed. And honestly, you could not find a nice place to live. And I'm not talking about granite countertops. I'm I, I'm really referring to windows that operated, maybe central air conditioning, off street parking, just normal, uh, middle class regular people who want a nice place to live. And uc was, was emerging from a, from really a commuter school to, to a university, um, where people wanted to live there and they just couldn't find good housing. And so what I wanted to do was create housing units that really didn't exist and safe, clean, good, good working windows, functional, maybe a dishwasher. And I remember the other landlord saying, I don't know why you're fixing it up. You don't need to do that. They'll rent it anyway. And it was at a time long before the internet, of course. And, and so there was no reputational harm that other landlords had by treating their residents poorly. Mm-hmm . And I didn't care about that. I wanted to provide a product that didn't exist.

Marianne Lewis: (02:30)
It strikes me that because you were a student at uc, you also knew how much it mattered to those who were actually living in those facilities. I mean, it was personal as well as professional.

Dan Schimberg: (02:40)
I was never able to stay in one of my housing units for more than one year because they were so poorly maintained and the landlords were, were not respectful of their residents. Um, and I really wanted to change that.

Marianne Lewis: (02:58)
I, I think, I think, think it's remarkable how much you and your efforts have changed our, our region all around the campus. And thinking of you as an entrepreneur, because it's always about taking risks and managing uncertainty, but you were making bets on neighborhoods that a lot of people were avoiding at the time. Um, how did you develop the confidence to keep investing when the outcome was so uncertain? 'cause that's such part of the process.

Dan Schimberg: (03:25)
Ignorance. It's bliss. Yeah. There, uh, had I, it was, it was more difficult than I thought it would be. Um, entrepreneurs by nature are extremely optimistic human beings. Um, I really planted a flag in Corryville mm-hmm . At the time. And Corryville was a, an outright dangerous neighborhood. Um, but so perfectly located between what was then General Hospital, which is now uc Health and the University of Cincinnati. And it was just, it, it's a pretty small neighborhood. It, it's really only four blocks. Mm-hmm . By about five blocks. And it just didn't seem like a massive task to start rehabbing houses. And they were so beautifully located. Yeah. Um, but the crime kept popping up. Mm-hmm . Uh, I remember once we were rehabbing a multi-family building in Corryville, and the kids in the neighborhood kept throwing rocks through our new windows. And so I got a bunch of the kids together and I said, every Thursday the ice cream truck's gonna come. I'm buying all the kids in the neighborhood ice cream from the ice cream truck if there are no broken windows this week. And that's ultimately how that's beautiful. We built, got the kids in the neighborhood to start behaving, and I just had an open wallet at the ice cream truck that came down, Corryville and all the kids lined up and I bought 'em all ice cream every Thursday. .

Marianne Lewis: (05:01)
Okay. I love that. It's, it's, it's a different version of the Broken Windows Theory for Right. New York City. I like it. It's the ice cream version of it. Yeah.

Dan Schimberg: (05:10)
It's great.

Marianne Lewis: (05:10)
Um, we've been talking about your entrepreneurial capabilities and, and how you started with your risk taking. I wanna move to leadership, but before I do, I think it would be helpful for others to understand how you grew. I mean, can you talk a little bit about your scale? 'cause we said you started with one property, but I think before we go to the leadership, it's helpful for people to understand you now run a big organization and that scale is really impressive.

Dan Schimberg: (05:38)
Yeah. It, it, um, uh, when you start a little company, you never imagine it being a big company. Mm-hmm . And it really happens organically for most people. Um, and, and so we really, I was a one man show. Uh, I would go see a banker and then I'd show an apartment, and then I would fix a dishwasher, and then I would paint, and then I would go look for another house to buy. And so, and what happens is in small organizations is you, you only have so many hours in a day. And so the only way you're gonna grow an organization is begin to lever your time mm-hmm . And by levering your time, you take off one hat at a time, um, and you give it to someone else. You, you hire a leasing agent and, and now they're out. And you have to trust that they're doing what they say they're gonna do.

Dan Schimberg: (06:37)
And, and one of my, uh, core values is, uh, hire the people you trust and trust the people you hire. Um, I, I've always given our employees a lot of autonomy, and I tell them to bring their brains to work mm-hmm . And I expect that. Um, but really it was, it was a slow, slow crawl. Uh, in the beginning. I really wanted to be a big fish in a small pond, basically own all the buildings myself, and do whatever I could do within the capacity of my own ability to finance those. That turned out to be a, a decision that slowed my growth for really 15 years until I had to go out and embrace and find investors, give up slices of the pie, and become a smaller fish in a bigger pond, which ultimately allowed, uh, us to accelerate our growth over time.

Marianne Lewis: (07:43)
And it is such a challenge with, with entrepreneurs with scaling because it, it, you're trading off some of the control, but you're doing that through trust, as you said, through partnerships. Yeah. How did your leadership change? I mean, you talked about a little bit how you scaled, right? With handing off the hats. I love that I can picture the in Yeah. That metaphor, but how did your leadership style?

Dan Schimberg: (08:06)
I had to get used to people, um, bringing problems to me. Um, when you're doing it by yourself, you're really, you're the problem solver. Mm-hmm . And, and to lead, you're really asking your team to continually identify problems, finding solutions. Um, and, and, and getting out of the weeds was very difficult for me because I was the guy doing all the weeding for a long time. Um, but it was really building that core group of what now is almost our executive team. Mm-hmm . Uh, because they've been there for 20 years, many of 'em, um, and really allowing them to run with the ball. They understand the core values of the company, and I would hold them a accountable, uh, to, to, to lead, uh mm-hmm . For me and with me. And, and I think, you know, my leadership style is one that is, was rather unstructured in the beginning, I will admit mm-hmm . Um, and, but I really leaned on them to, to find the solutions and, and drive the company to our core values that we all agree on. Mm-hmm . We also, um, uh, quickly moved to having kind of annual, uh, retreats to make sure that the communication interdepartmentally was done. It, it, it, it's one of the bigger challenges as you're growing an organization, that everyone knows what people are doing. Yeah. Why they're doing it, how, when, and so interdepartmental communication, uh, has always been a, a focus of ours.

Marianne Lewis: (10:08)
And it sounds like you've, you've, even, as you've, you've grown and been more hands off, you're still very hands on. And maybe it's in the conceptual pieces, and you think about how, how all the puzzle pieces are fitting together. So, well, one of the things that we've talked about, I mean, you work so closely with our, our uc Center for Real Estate, and I, I've come to deeply value that group. I mean, I, I'm, I'm not in real estate, I'm in management, but it is so interdisciplinary, and it's something I valued with Gary Painter coming in and thinking about our work with engineering and with dap. I'm gonna ask you to put a little bit more of your urban planner hat on, because I love, when I hear you, you, you talk and think aloud. You do think, like, very much like an urban planner, even though you're very much a, a investor. And you think about the finance side, which is more what we think is maybe a typical real estate approach. Um, but you, you seem to balance in, I think, in exceptional ways, the realities of business growth and the investments and partners that come in there with the responsibility of shaping neighborhoods. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you manage that balancing act there.

Dan Schimberg: (11:19)
I care deeply about the neighborhoods, especially in the neighborhoods of the uptown. Um, they're critically important to the university thriving. Mm-hmm . Um, in the late nineties, short Vine as an example, really fell into deep despair, and there was a lot of serious crime homicides. And we gathered the University of Cincinnati, the city of Cincinnati, a couple major stakeholders along with us, and we did an urban renewal plan. And I had never been involved in an urban renewal plan before. And, and it created a roadmap. And many of these urban renewal plans go, go into a drawer somewhere mm-hmm . And it's a, and it's a big wish. Um, and, and we took that urban renewal plan and carried it around with us and went into the Corryville Community Council and said, this is what they said we had to do. And continued to drive that. I'd go to the city, I'd go to the university.

Dan Schimberg: (12:24)
This is the plan we all agreed on. And I kept pulling it out. That plan was the 2004 Corryville Urban Development Plan. And if you look at that plan today, we have, we have completed that plan. Okay. That's impressive. And that plan called for 2000 people to be new residents, to be living on short vine, for example. Big, one of the big challenges in doing this is dragging the investors along because investors, they may not care about the neighborhood. They are only returns, they're only looking at returns. Mm-hmm . And, and so we have a passionate group of investors who are willing to follow me into these neighborhoods. That's fantastic. And, and I think it's critically important. Mm-hmm. And it has paid big dividends because when you are successful, you are part of the renaissance of a neighborhood, and you do get those returns. And so, um, yeah.

Dan Schimberg: (13:24)
There's a, there's a writ high risk there, but there is a reward there of mm-hmm . Being in Corryville 20 years earlier than others. And in Mount Auburn. Um, and, and I'll tell you one of the best examples is we bought an acre of land in Corryville where the Eden sits today, and it was auctioned off by the city of Cincinnati in the early 1990s. And they started at a dollar, and I bid a dollar, and I bought it for a dollar. No one else bid on that in the middle of a real slum, uh, where crime was very, very high. And so that's, that's the reward side of it. That's the risk side of being able to see a neighborhood, being able to see something around the corner before it's developed mm-hmm . And, and then relying on your instincts to, to take it there and understand the risk reward of that.

Dan Schimberg: (14:25)
Mount Auburn is another prime, prime example mm-hmm . Where everyone was talking about connecting up to town and downtown. Yet there had been no private investment in Mount Auburn in almost 60 years other than Christ Hospital. No. Investors were going in there, building housing, building apartments, building infrastructure, remodeling the parks. And we identified that 60 years, the message when everyone was talking about Right. Connecting uptown and downtown Uhhuh . And so we, we assembled the land for Wellington Alto. So we went into Mount Auburn, found investors who were willing to spend a hundred million dollars in Mount Auburn, and now Mount Auburn has taken root.

Marianne Lewis: (15:07)
I I love hearing you, Dan, because I can, I can picture in my mind, I mean, you are such a developer. I mean, yes, there's the physical development, there's the neighborhood development, but there's very much the human development. I mean, and you see these working synergistically Yeah. And you, you clearly are able to share that vision effectively with investors, whether or not they, not or not, they really wanna lean into the really big pictures It is gonna pay off Yeah. As

Dan Schimberg: (15:30)
Well. And the, and you have to bring the neighborhood along. You have to, I mean, especially to

Marianne Lewis: (15:35)
Sustain

Dan Schimberg: (15:36)
The fact that Hollister Street is a two-way street now, which allows people to cut up to Mount Auburn from Vine Street, which used to be one way down. Mm-hmm. Right. It, it takes ambulance traffic away. It helps. Right. But you have to be able to bring these ideas to the neighborhood, to the city, and marshal them through. And there is no return on investment for us to do that other than get to see the neighborhood flourish mm-hmm . And ultimately all boats rise with the tide.

Marianne Lewis: (16:06)
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think in that, in that developer mindset, let's go a little bit more into the human side because it strikes me that you've always taken your, taken your role as a role model and a mentor. Seriously. And when it comes to young and rising leaders, I'd be interested in what qualities you're looking for in, in young professionals entering real estate or entrepreneurs today that you see, oh, I see that spark. What are you looking for?

Dan Schimberg: (16:35)
Um, you know, it, it's a great question. First of all, when I meet my mentees, um, I always meet them e either seven 30 or eight in the morning for coffee. So the first thing I look for is someone who shows up on time. Mm-hmm . Absolutely. And I also look for people who aren't so worried about making a lot of money early on. Um, so I'm looking for people who are trying to develop the craft. Okay. Um, and, and understand that a lot of people come and they say, I want to be a developer. There is no major for developers. There is no, a, a, a developer is someone who has suburban, suburban planning mm-hmm . Some architects, some finance, some, and a lot of different pieces that are put together. Um, and so what I look for in mentees who come and ask for advice is, where should I jump in?

Dan Schimberg: (17:38)
What do I need to be learning? They're not asking, how do I go make the most amount of money tomorrow? Mm-hmm . Um, it's really what do I need to learn? Where do I go to get that? How can I be involved? Can I watch, you know, something I learned, uh, through a process is people only learn through three different ways. Experience, exposure, and formal education. Mm-hmm . The three E's mm-hmm . And how people pursue that is, is very, very important. College MBAs very important educationally. Mm-hmm . But then it's, are you gonna go swim? Are you gonna go watch someone learn how to swim and, and are you gonna take these plans down to the permit desk mm-hmm . Or are you going to send someone else? And getting that experience and exposure is really how you ultimately become a developer. And so I look for, I, I look for kids especially who are prompt and want to understand how they need to learn the craft. Mm-hmm

Marianne Lewis: (18:45)
. I love that. Three pronged. I mean, they're all ease. They are. And we, we invented cooperative education here because we believe that they can work together really well.

Dan Schimberg: (18:56)
They need to.

Marianne Lewis: (18:57)
I, I mean, if you can build that synergistic Yeah. The exposure, the experience, and the formal education, it's a win-win. And you've worked with uc and Lindner a long time. I mean, you have quite a pipeline of Bearcats in your office. I wonder what, how you might describe our students if you were talking to other employers as we, we build out our pipeline for partners, co-op, co-op employers in the future. Is there, is there something that you see of the work that we do and, and what can we learn from your experience? Well,

Dan Schimberg: (19:30)
The co-op program is, is unmatched, uh, as far as I know. Um, and I encourage so many employers to take advantage of it because it's really the other, the other two E's. Yeah. Um, it's the experiencing, the exposure, exposure that, that, uh, co-op students are getting. And, and you need all three to learn to understand, um, and to succeed. Mm-hmm . Um, the students coming outta uc, especially in the co-op program we've had, we've had so many. Our vice president of property management, who's on our executive team, started as a part-time leasing agent, and then co-op, and then ultimately has worked, uh, his way all the way through the ranks. But we love our uc co-ops.

Marianne Lewis: (20:20)
I, and I love to hear that, Dan, very much, I mean, you were once in their shoes, right? You were a student. If you were looking back and, and talking to yourself then, is, is there any particular lesson or lessons you'd really want us to be instilling in the student today to help them on this journey?

Dan Schimberg: (20:41)
That's a, that's a great question. Um, you know, we, I'm thinking about our co-ops that, that we've hired. We often try to get co-ops in six month tranches instead of three months. Mm-hmm . Um, we found that they, three months, by the time the onboarding, the training, um, it, it felt too short to us because there's so much to learn. We found that our, our six month co-ops were very, very successful. And so we would kind of seek our six month co-ops. Um, but it's, uh, I, I told my son, uh, uh, who's in Chicago working for a real estate company. I said, Jake, do not worry if the, if you need to go get your boss a cup of coffee. Absolutely. That's fine. You're in the room, you're learning, you're getting experience, you're getting exposure. And, um, so it's really, don't worry about if you're sweeping a floor or you're preparing a spreadsheet or you're getting coffee, or you get called into the executive team meeting to help, uh, present something. It's all part of the, it's all part of the final cake that you're building. Yeah. It's all, they're all ingredients. Um, and you have to, you have to be willing, uh, to do all of it. You do to, to bake a cake. You can't just put, you know, you can't forget the flour or the eggs or the, or the vanilla. Um, you really need all the ingredients to become a, a young professional.

Marianne Lewis: (22:14)
You know, don't

Dan Schimberg: (22:15)
Be too proud.

Marianne Lewis: (22:16)
Don't be too proud, and don't be too inflexible. Because the one, one piece I heard you saying, it was something we thought so much about when we were moving the college to mandatory, um, co-op, which engineering and DAP have been, since it's the onset, certainly engineering from the onset, we realized we needed to have a more flexible program because different employers want different things. And I think the sixth month is a wonderful example of something we could lean into more. Yeah. Because I agree the ups and downs of, of startup and, and ramp down, there's a whole value to every, the way you just said it. We could use you as an example for others. So thank you for that.

Dan Schimberg: (22:54)
You touched on real estate being interdisciplinary mm-hmm . And I remember speaking with, uh, Dr. Ono Santa Ono mm-hmm . And he, and he really pushed kind of the interdisciplinary piece to it, because real estate is, it's architecture, it's urban planning, it's finance, and, um, it's sales. It's, it's, it's every piece. And so the interdisciplinary approach to it is, is critically important to be teaching and for the students when they're considering co-ops, uh, to explore and understand, even though they have their eyes set on finance or their eyes set because mm-hmm . That experiential learning, uh, helps, helps you when you're putting your assumptions in the spreadsheet mm-hmm .

Marianne Lewis: (23:45)
Absolutely. And look, learn how to work with others from different disciplines Right. Into that bigger model. I, the, the other piece that's a little different from interdisciplinary is, is almost inter level. And what I mean by that is you think about the community in a really beautiful way, and I have found in, in my line of work that the greatest leaders think about their jobs well beyond their organizations. You think about Cincinnati, you've always thought about Cincinnati, and you, it shows in your volunteer work Yeah. As an example that goes well beyond, I mean, into healthcare and research and community organizations. I, I would love you to share a bit why you take the time to do that, because I'd love the students in particular to understand there's a, there's a bigger world out there than your job, and your job matters a great deal, but you've, you've leaned into volunteerism in some really impactful ways. Why,

Dan Schimberg: (24:39)
Um, I get enormous satisfaction from, uh, seeing a problem and being part of the solution. Mm-hmm . Uh, and that core satisfaction, uh, runs through my professional life and my non-professional life, and no different than I saw a problem of not being able to find decent housing as a student and wanting to be part of that solution is the same when I see elderly people and they're unable to care for their yard. And I got involved with people working cooperatively, and I could see how this helped. I could see when I walk down to over the Rhine and there's, and I'm stepping over litter on my three mile walk to Findlay market to understand that we have a trash problem in Cincinnati and getting involved in Keep Cincinnati beautiful. I get enormous personal satisfaction and professional satisfaction out of seeing and identifying a problem and being part of a team that finds a solution to it. Mm-hmm . And it really will be my next chapter when I hang up my developer hat. Um, I want to lean into that. I want to be part of the solution as problems come up. Cincinnati has been a great city. It's a five generation city for our family, and, uh, I really want to make it as good as it can possibly be, and we'll do what I can, what I'm able to contribute,

Marianne Lewis: (26:27)
Which we've already seen, is enormous. Thank what you can contribute. I mean, I, I sometimes feel for the students today in that and, and, and debate how to show them how much this area has transformed. This is not the same place it was when I got here in 97. You've been here since 80, and it, it continues. What do you see as the future? You look in your crystal ball, I mean, where you just shared where you're gonna go. Yeah. You're really gonna lean in more to the community. What do you see as the opportunities for Cincinnati and particularly the area around campus?

Dan Schimberg: (27:03)
Uh, I, I love the urban core. Mm-hmm . Uh, in Cincinnati and other urban cores. I, I'm, I'm so interested in the lifestyle of living the urban core versus suburban. Mm-hmm . Um, uptown is really the second largest economic engine in the city. Um, I guess you could consider the greater Cincinnati airport as, as, as a, a big economic engine also. Mm-hmm . When you really look at it as downtown and uptown, the, the, uh, interchange at Martin Luther King and the innovation corridor, uh, still remains really the biggest untapped urban resource in Cincinnati, uh, by far mm-hmm . Uh, the biggest opportunity. There's, there's a billion dollars of development still to happen, and the connectivity of all of the jobs up here at Children's Hospital, uc, health University of Cincinnati, the ho, you know, the other hospitals, Christ Hospital, and the proximity to downtown, the, the proximity to the highways, the, uh, the, the corporate, uh, integration that you see is, is managing through their 18, 19 hub.

Dan Schimberg: (28:23)
Um, I think there's just enormous, enormous upside, uh, in the uptown still. Mm-hmm . Still laughed. I, I think, you know, we've seen a a, a, we've seen a great recovery from, from the blight of the eighties and nineties and really early two thousands. Um, we have repopulated the neighborhoods, uh, I think working on, uh, the pedestrian connectivity mm-hmm . Is gonna be critically important. It's gonna be very, very interesting as ai, autonomous vehicles and all these other pieces continue to, um, emerge. It's obviously going to change the trajectory, but I think it's quite, um, I think, I think we're well on our way, but there's a lot of rope left in these neighborhoods.

Marianne Lewis: (29:14)
I think that's very exciting. Yeah. Because there is more potential. Excuse me. We'll cut that out. Mm-hmm . Um, it, it's exciting because there is such potential ongoing, I mean, we're gonna continue to watch it transform, and I hope it continues to make you proud. It certainly makes me proud and energized of what's possible ahead.

Dan Schimberg: (29:35)
And you see the university, I mean, practically weekly, they're announcing new buildings, new initiatives, new uh, programs, how they're, how they're rolling things out, how it's growing. Um, I mean, the, this university is not sitting on its hands and

Marianne Lewis: (29:51)
It stands for under construction.

Dan Schimberg: (29:52)
That's right. Um, but, but I mean, it's, it's been extraordinary. Mm-hmm . And our growth and the neighborhood's growth is only but for the growth of Children's Hospital, uc Health, the University of Cincinnati, their surrounding institutions we're really, um, part of it. But it it's the institutions that need to continue to thrive and create the jobs and create the platforms for the students to want to come here and stay here.

Marianne Lewis: (30:23)
Yeah. Oh, make it a magnet. Yeah. I mean, a attractor and

Dan Schimberg: (30:27)
Retention and retain Yeah.

Marianne Lewis: (30:28)
Both. I, I absolutely agree. Um, this has been such a wonderful conversation because it is, it epitomizes why you're being recognized at our major event for the uc Real Estate Center, and I'm really excited about that. Thank you. And I wondered if you'd just share why and how you've been working with the, the Center over these years, because we so appreciate you.

Dan Schimberg: (30:54)
Thank you. Um, it was really interesting. We were doing a lot of work in Tallahassee, Florida at the same time. We were doing a lot of work here, um, about really, if you go back 10 years, um, and I was already really involved in the real estate school here, a BEARE member. Mm-hmm . And then you had asked about leadership and employees. We had several employees really step up. Craig Kaufman in our office, um, really stepped up into a, a leadership role at the, at the school. And I think it's just critically important. Um, development and real estate are just, are just so important to a city and mm-hmm . Supporting the real estate school like we were doing at Florida State University that has an extraordinary real estate school. Um, it, it, it's brought us a lot of joy and a lot of success and we've been able to watch these kids grow out of this program into real, real estate professionals Oh, absolutely. In the city. And I have a lot of friends who run companies in town that, uh, came out of the co-op program and came out of the real estate school specifically, uh, that are thriving. And it's been really very, very rewarding to watch and see.

Marianne Lewis: (32:13)
I love to hear that. Thank you for helping us develop the future professionals of development of real estate, but also for continuing to help this, this region thrive. Great. It is such a pleasure, Dan.

Dan Schimberg: (32:24)
Thank you. My pleasure. This has been fun.

Grant Freking: (32:27)
Thank you for listening to this episode of Bearcats Mean Business. If today's episode sparked a new idea, challenge your thinking or helped you see your path a little more clearly, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share the episode with someone in your network. Thanks for being part of the conversation. And remember, real world success begins here at Lender.

Grant Freking: (00:00)
What does real world success in business actually look like? Welcome the Bearcats Mean Business, the official podcast of the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, where inspiring career stories, honest lessons, and fresh business perspectives from the people building impact in the real world. Come together, tune in for inspiration, practical business insights, and forward-looking thought leadership on how ambition turns into action. And now for today's episode.

Grant Freking: (00:30)
Welcome Finn. Welcome Bowen. Thanks you both for being here. Um, let's start at the beginning. Your upbringing. Would you guys say your upbringing was defined by brotherly love or brotherly shoves?

Finn Alexy: (00:43)
So definitely brotherly love. I think at this point in our careers, you can't really have the high amount of output and results at this point without it being brotherly love. Like it kind of speaks for itself with the results. Um, I just think that my relationship with Bo and I've described this publicly as well, that it's almost like I'm wearing a suit of armor and it feels like I can't lose because I have this super strong relationship. And even if everything went south, even if all our business business ventures failed, I would always be able to fall back on the fact that I have the best brotherhood and best relationship with my brother in the world. Nice. Hmm. Awesome.

Bowen Alexy: (01:19)
And yeah, exactly the same on this side as well. Uh, Finn and I have grown up together. We've done almost everything together since we were little kids. Um, we have a very similar story, very similar background. And just to be able to do this with him and so much together, it's just been a dream come true, honestly. So

Grant Freking: (01:36)
Was the goal always to get in the business together?

Bowen Alexy: (01:39)
Um, no. Honestly, we, you know, it's Bo in capital was something that kind of just happened. Um, when we were in New York City and we talked to Steven Wang and formed that first kind of handshake deal, um, we needed an LLC to run that transfer through and make that first investment. So Finn and I, forming that together was not something we initially planned long term, but something that we just developed on the fly and then something we just kind of ran with and took off.

Finn Alexy: (02:04)
And in regards to our family's company, it never felt like something that we could fall back on. Mm-hmm . Like even sophomore, junior year of college, it was still like in, its up in its upbringing, I should say. Yeah. And we, we never thought that like, oh, this is the plan post grad. Uh, but then right before graduation and post COVID, it did take off and then we were like, this is the best possible decision we can make.

Finn Alexy: (02:29)
Not only for our family, but for our personal careers and just moving forward. Uh, 'cause our dad needed help, our mom needed help. And then it's, it's really just we want to support them as much as we possibly can. 'cause you see these stories of like, there's no succession plan, uh, founder of a company's work until he is 60 or 70 years old. Right. And we didn't want that to have to be our parents. Like if they wanna work, obviously yes. And we could absolutely use their help, but we didn't want to feel or have them feel forced to kind of work into their late sixties or seventies.

Grant Freking: (02:59)
Yeah. So then the integration to the family business felt more natural for you guys. You never felt like, all right, even after we graduate, we have to do this. It's more like, we want to do this. Yes. Yep.

Finn Alexy: (03:06)
Absolutely. Yep.

Grant Freking: (03:07)
Cool. So what, what was your first like, business or like entrepreneurial memory from when you're younger?

Finn Alexy: (03:12)
So first entrepreneurial memory actually comes from our dad. Mm-hmm . Uh, when we were like 10 and 12 years old. And Alexy Metals first got founded, he actually took a home equity line of credit out on our house and pretty much risked everything and leveraged everything in his own entrepreneurial path. And he bought a skid of braised scrap. And what braising scrap is, I can get an a braising a little bit. It's basically a process like welding where you're connecting two parts in a manufacturing process. But instead of, instead of fusing those parts together, you're applying a precious metal filler alloy. So like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. And this skid that he bought happened to be gold and there was a gold bra ring in between a ceramic and a metal joint. And then he knew that the gold was in there because at his former job, he had sold that gold bra ring into that component.

Finn Alexy: (04:03)
So he took the risk, bought the skid with no plan on how to get the gold out, which was very risky at the time, especially our, especially for our family. Mm-hmm . Uh, and then he ultimately did figure out how to chemically refine it back out into pure gold, like pure gold bars, pure gold grain. And that is basically the origin story of Alexy Metals. And Bo and I being 10 and 12 years old as he's going on this entrepreneurial path and entrepreneurial journey, uh, we were coming home from school and like crushing up these components in our basement, trying to expose the gold braze alloy to later refine back out and be pure. So we just kind of grew up around entrepreneurship. We grew up around our dad having these like serious ambitions. Yep. Uh, he's been a huge inspiration for us.

Grant Freking: (04:46)
What are like the overall kind of leadership lessons that you've kind of gotten from your father over the years that you maybe you could distill, distill down to like just a couple of them that you kind of take with you and you kind of need something to fall back on?

Bowen Alexy: (04:58)
Sure. Yeah. There's so many, you know, we've watched him for years and we've been around the business from when it first started in our basement, all the way to what it is now, which is roughly a $20 million company. So to kind of see that and kind of grow with him and see the steps he took has just been incredible. Um, and one of my key takeaways since Finn and I manage a lot of the day to day at Alexy Metals is, um, you know, be hard on problems, be soft on people, kind of thing. Like there will be problems, there will be things that come up, you will get frustrated. But it's important to remember not to take out those frustrations on the team. And remember that the problems are what are causing all these frustrations and rifts, you know, it's not the people. So you just gotta be easier on your people. And um, that's something he taught us really early on because these people are working for you and they're here to help you. So to treat them poorly is just not a good thing to do. Right.

Grant Freking: (05:45)
Yeah. Treat 'em all as part of the solution, right? Mm-hmm . Yep. Now Northeast Ohio is not too, too far from Cincinnati, but it's not exactly close. How did you guys end up at Lender and uc? Mm-hmm .

Bowen Alexy: (05:54)
Cool. Yeah. I, uh, answer this one. Sure. Yep. My, um, when I was a senior, um, kind of, I didn't really know where I wanted to go to college. I didn't know what I wanted to study. I was like, is college even for me kind of thing. Yeah. Um, so what I did is I did a big Ohio tour. So I went to Ken Bowling Green, I went to Miami, Ohio State. I went to Cincinnati, I went to ou. I did all the big Ohio schools 'cause I wanted to stay in state kind of thing, uh, in-state tuition and whatnot. Mm. Um, and I toured all these schools and I didn't like bg, I didn't like Miami. Ohio State was like, yeah, we'll let you in, but you gotta spend a semester at our Mansfield campus. And I was like, well, no. Came to uc.

Bowen Alexy: (06:34)
And I was like, wow, this is incredible. I'm like, the campus is amazing, the people are amazing. Everyone I talked to was really nice. And they really sold this vision of like, this is the school for the future. Like next truly does live here. And the people that come through here leave this place and bring something valuable not only to their workplaces, but to the world as well. And, you know, I'm a big fan of red, white, and black, or those are my colors. So it was a really natural fit. And from the second I came here my first day in August, 2020 to when I left, I had a blast. And all the lessons and friendships I forged here are always with me by heart. So,

Grant Freking: (07:07)
Yeah. And the two years since you guys graduated, what have, what have you, what were your main takeaways? I think that what are like the main Lindner lessons, I guess, that you would, you guys that stick with you in your day-to-day dealings?

Finn Alexy: (07:19)
Sure. I would say, and we've actually pitched this and like kind of shared this with some uc classes already. When we're guest speaking, I have two really strong examples, but the first one would be like, I think you can go in upward spirals in your life very quickly. And that's what happened to Beau and I, like, we graduated, we got a article in the News Herald because we were like these brothers that graduated at the same time, like, how did a 22-year-old and a 20-year-old graduate at the same time? How did they start at their family's business? So we did get like an article feature coming right outta college, which is very rare. And then that article feature was actually read by a state senator named Jerry c Serino, and he issued us citations as Ohio's fine as citizens. Mm-hmm . And then because we were named Ohio's fine as citizens, it was this pressure of like, how do we live up to this award?

Finn Alexy: (08:07)
How do we live up to this honor? And then that was the origin of BowFin Capital and the origin of like, how can we justify this achievement? And that's when we reached out to DUB and ultimately became like podcast guest speakers and economists there in the short term while we were speaking on their podcast mm-hmm . And then ultimately angel investors in the company. So it's like, it's crazy how you can just go on an upward spiral very quickly, but that doesn't happen if you're not working as hard as you possibly can every single day. Keeping your mind open to opportunities and also trying to provide value to other people is like my main takeaway from the whole thing. Uh, with our dub example, uh, we basically reached out to them and it was a pitch deck that I had done in Lindner for Derek Schumann's class, uh, digital entrepreneurship where I was like, literally week before graduation, I was scrolling through Instagram reels, like just procrastinating doing an assignment.

Finn Alexy: (09:02)
And I came across this ad for a real startup company and my project in the class was to do a pitch deck on a real startup company. So the company was called Dub mm-hmm . Uh, they were like a innovative stock trading brokerage app where you can copy portfolios of other people or famous investors or famous politicians. So I took them, I did the project for 'em, got an A plus, got a 4.0 GPA in my last semester. And then fast forward to like post Ohio's fine as citizens citations, I was scrolling through my MacBook and like literally just deleting files, like deleting Spanish syllabuses and just stuff I didn't need from undergrad. And I came across that pitch deck and I was like, maybe I should try to send it to someone at dub, send it to 'em for free. And I was like, Hey, this is a college project that I got a a plus on, like if you guys could use this to get venture funding.

Finn Alexy: (09:51)
Absolutely. Me and my brother also have this precious metals background in the brazing and industrial side of precious metals. And one of their portfolios was based around precious metals, and that's how we got the invite to New York City and ultimately the handshake deal to become angel investors. And then when we came back to Cleveland from New York City, our lives were kind of forever changed. Mm-hmm . So yeah, it's just like you can go on these crazy upward spirals and if you provide value to people first, like our dub example where, hey, here's a free pitch deck, here's a social media content, here's venture funding from us, here's unlimited amounts of promotional value, then it's insane how it's reciprocated and it's insane how these things kind of come back to you in a multitude of ways.

Grant Freking: (10:35)
Yep. Yeah. Let's translate that to like maybe like almost like a mentorship thing for like current students. How would you talk to current students or or phrase discussion about like risk and failure and experimentation mm-hmm . Given your journey, your father's journey, and sort of box that into something that would be digestible for like current lit students if you were maybe in your next next guest lecture for them.

Bowen Alexy: (10:57)
Sure. Yeah. We always, when we're given those presentations, uh, end it with like some key takeaways that we've learned. Um, and one of the things that we've learned and what we pitch to students in these classes is that you have to lead with value. Like you have to come in and provide something. Like not just a service, but provide some insights, provide something like maybe they're not seeing, not just in addition to capital. So you gotta form almost like a partnership and provide further value than just, Hey, we're gonna give you some money and then we're gonna be hands off. Like when Finn and I got involved with all of our angel investments, it's, it comes with a strategic partnership aspect and we talk with the founders, give our ideas. If they run with 'em, great. If not, um, it's like, well, you know, just let us know if you need help or if you wanna bounce some ideas kind of thing. But, um, we always say lead with value, you gotta make yourself stand out and that's a great way to do it. Yeah.

Finn Alexy: (11:46)
I would just say the same kind of like upward spiral example. Like everybody in their last semester of college is go going through the motions. So like, the grades really don't matter. I have a job lined up post grad, like they, they don't really care. And I would just tell everybody in class like, start putting your best foot forward now because it's unbelievable how fast you can rise and how fast you can move through the ranks. Mm-hmm . And I would just say like, as much as you could put into something is what you should be doing. Like our prime example, when it was our last semester, I didn't have to get a straight a semester. Like we had a job lined up at our family's company, we didn't have to get good grades, but it was that decision to get a 4.0 GPA in my last semester.

Finn Alexy: (12:27)
That led to me trying on the Derek Shewmon project, which ultimately led to dub mm-hmm . So I would say these school projects and these school examples can turn into real world examples if you put your best foot forward and work as hard as you can. Yep. And Derek Shewmon was one of the classes that we actually guest spoke in, so I was like pointing at a chair and I was like, I literally sat in that chair less than a year ago mm-hmm . And we've turned this story into all of these successes. So you can do the same if you just try as hard as you possibly can, work hard and do the right thing.

Grant Freking: (12:59)
You just never know do you,

Finn Alexy: (13:00)
You just dunno. No, it's

Grant Freking: (13:01)
Crazy. Let's go back to the family business for a second. How do you resolve disagreements and keep things business and not personal when operating the family business?

Finn Alexy: (13:10)
In terms of like, interacting with our employees or Yeah. The family dynamic.

Grant Freking: (13:14)
Yeah. Well, let's touch on that then, the family dynamic after that. Yeah, sure, sure,

Bowen Alexy: (13:17)
Sure. Um, yeah, again, uh, kinda what I said earlier, what Grayson's quote and one of his big lessons is hard on problems, soft on people. Yeah. So, you know, we've had a, a couple of those scenarios where people are having problems or people are frustrated, you know, the work isn't allocated properly. So they've raised those concerns. And what Finn and I have tried to build in our tenure as a culture of collaboration and teamwork, like we're all just helping each other out. If we see someone's overload with work, we step in and help. You know, we make sure everybody's helping. There's no one like, just kind of sitting around while someone's doing all the work. So we've kind of created a culture where, you know, communication is key. If someone's having a problem, we've had a few of these, they can talk to us whenever, call, text, or we can sit down on a one-on-one, we will work together with them and we will identify the problem and help them find a solution. And we've done that a couple times successfully. And a lot of the times it's just, Hey man, you know, I'm working really hard and, you know, so and so isn't doing that much and I kinda need some more help. It's like, all right, we'll talk to 'em, we'll spread the work out kind of thing. So, um, just a real culture of collaboration, teamwork, helping each other out.

Grant Freking: (14:19)
Do you feel like the employees at this point now are comfortable coming to you guys for, for issues like that? For sure.

Finn Alexy: (14:24)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Grant Freking: (14:25)
Mm-hmm . Yeah. And so is there anything, um, I'm wondering about past experiences or was it just growing up in the company or other past experiences that kind of helped you guys get to that point of being able to resolve, you know, disagreements like that? I guess like, you know, peacefully not to say like anyone, anyone doing crazy, but sort of like smoothly and kind of like professionally. Sure.

Finn Alexy: (14:42)
I, I think it's more about just earning the respect of the people that have worked there for longer than Bo and I have mm-hmm . Like, especially coming into the company like immediately after graduation, we were putting ex in executive roles. 'cause it's our family's company, we understand the inner workings of it, but some of these people who were say on the production floor are like, oh, those guys don't know what they're doing. Those guys haven't seen the rapid growth. Those guys don't understand how we do this specific job, for example mm-hmm . But me and Bo coming into it knew that we couldn't change too many things at the same time. Like, we were going to make changes and everybody knew that, but we wanted to do it slow and we wanted to respect the processes and the things that they were already doing mm-hmm . And then we approached that by basically being like, Hey, this is how we currently do it.

Finn Alexy: (15:24)
We understand it and we respect that this is how you do it, but how can we troubleshoot it and do it better moving forward. Mm-hmm . So that was kind of the logic there. Uh, we did have to earn our respect too, just based on work ethic as from not only the employees at the company, but also the industry as a whole. Uh, we did work like 14 hour days coming outta college. We worked a 36 hour long shift where a machine went down critical machine. And then once it got turned back on, uh, there was a pile of production jobs that we had to get done and it was sun up to sunrise until they were all done. So that earned a lot of respect there as well. Mm-hmm . And then just our own ventures in BowFin capital and some of the things that we're doing on the side is very easy for people to be like, okay, these guys are serious not only about their career at Alexy Metals, but their career in general.

Grant Freking: (16:10)
Mm-hmm . Yeah. My next question is actually, and you kind of answered it there was like, did you feel the need to prove yourselves, but it sounded like you didn't even need to, you just showed up and instead of just telling them that you're gonna do it, you just show up and do it. Especially when there's a critical situation

Finn Alexy: (16:21)
Happening, and that's the, that's the right way to do it too. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you just start talking, then nobody takes you serious. Yeah. But it's all about getting your, rolling up your sleeves and doing the work yourself. Yeah. Right.

Grant Freking: (16:30)
Let's, let's expand the scope of the conversation a little bit. What innovations and disruptions, I guess maybe to your, maybe your industry or maybe just business in general mm-hmm . Sort of excite you guys or maybe even concern you a little bit about what's happening in the business world. Sure.

Finn Alexy: (16:43)
So our industry is very traditional manufacturing. It's slow moving. All of our competitors are multi, multi-million dollar companies, hundreds of millions dollar companies or billion dollar companies. So while they are innovating, they're innovating very slowly and they don't feel the need to implement modern technologies into their current manufacturing processes or into how they sell these brazing alloys to their customers. Mm-hmm . So that's really where we've come in and where our data's come in in a lot of ways. Uh, like Bo can touch on some of the innovations with the website and some, some things like that.

Bowen Alexy: (17:17)
Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, in 2020, Grayson and his team at the time launched an initiative to form the first e-commerce platform in our industry where customers can buy product braise alloys, um, even gold and silver we offered at one point, we don't do that anymore, but you could just buy like your shopping on Amazon, you add it to your cart and check out and it's tied to the precious metal markets.

Finn Alexy: (17:39)
Yep. Which was an innovation that has never been done in our industry before. Yep, yep. And there's never been anyone who's experimented with e-commerce either, but it's a very successful, very profitable revenue stream for the company.

Bowen Alexy: (17:50)
Oh yeah. And not too much work. We just have to update the pricings that make sure the inventory's up to date and, you know, but we're gonna really dial that in. That's a big plan of our future expansion and end of 2026 and even 2027, we're gonna get that up and going have it be one of our chief revenue builders. So

Grant Freking: (18:07)
When you guys, uh, do talk to students and, and building, I guess kind of like you tell 'em about the sort of new things that are going on your company with the, the, uh, both in capital mm-hmm . What are some of the questions you guys get in return from them about if they wanna sort of emulate your path or just general advice about kind of like, what's like step one? Um, what are some of like the, I guess the more common responses from like, I guess the current students or like the even people that may reach out to you online or whatever it is.

Finn Alexy: (18:33)
Sure. Like there's a lot of questions about people's, like self-doubt, whether that's starting a company or whether that's like failing at something. Yeah. And our advice to them in, if they're in those moments where they're down is like, okay, in, in those moments you have to flip your thinking mm-hmm . And be like, what if I can pull this off? And then it changes the whole conversation of like, oh, I'm down. I can't figure this out, I can't do this, I can't do that. Yep. But then you flip it and you're like, what if I'm the guy that can figure this out? And then it's just nothing but up from there. It starts one of those upward spirals of thinking and actual momentum like I was talking about earlier. Yep.

Bowen Alexy: (19:11)
And I would say too, like I was involved with a couple clubs and they did goals where you set like, you know, there's, there's an acronym out there I'm forgetting right now mm-hmm . But you do little goals. You don't just say, all right, I'm gonna run this marathon. And you say, all right, I'm gonna start by running one mile today, tomorrow I'll run, maybe try to do two or three. So you start small and I kind of, what I would say is, don't say I have to be here. Just say, I'm gonna do this today. I'm gonna learn this, I'm gonna execute on this. Start small. And little wins contribute to big wins.

Grant Freking: (19:40)
Right. Do you guys recall any like, sort of, I guess, hard truth moments from mentors? Whether it was, you know, an, an instructor here, you mentioned, you just mentioned clubs. Yep. You know, from, maybe it's from your dad or someone in the business about, you know, learning from like hard truth moments. Like, hey, maybe sort saw someone sat you down like, Hey, I need you to fix this and here's what I want you to do. And like, how did you kind of respond to that and sort of take the next step?

Finn Alexy: (20:03)
Sure. Interesting question. Uh, unfortunately no, like there's never been like a monumental mentorship moment. Just a bunch of like little bits and pieces of knowledge that we've strung together into this story. Um, but yeah, it's almost now like we, we don't have any mentors 'cause we've rapidly rose to the level of mentorship ourselves, whether that be giving back to students or like this podcast for example mm-hmm . So it's hard to be asking other people for the answers when you're supposed to be the person with the answers. So I, I would always recommend mentorship and recommend you go find somebody in a more successful position than yourself. But even like career-wise, we've rose to the level of our current mentors. So it's very hard and that there's never been like a wake up call kind of thing for many of these people because it's like we've always found the right steps forward and we've always figured out how to do the right thing and work very hard along the process.

Bowen Alexy: (20:57)
Yep. And, you know, we'd be foolish to not say like, guys in our industry who have been doing it for like 30 years, like our dad, for example, we're not ever gonna not take his advice or not ask him about a situation. So of course he'll be a mentor in a lot of capacities. And even our sales manager, shout out Mr. Craig Chastin wanted to get him in there. Yes, sir. Um, was, you know, they have over 35 years of industry experience. So to not take advantage of that would just be foolish on our end. So

Grant Freking: (21:23)
Yeah. Let's, let's end this with a pitch Sure. For students, um, that are thinking about, um, you know, maybe they're 17, 16 years old and the sim maybe a similar, uh, position where you were, they're taking their tour of Ohio and they're Yep. Trying to figure out what school to lock into mm-hmm . What, what is it about lender that kind of, um, is like the piece, just the piece of your guys', um, journey that you think has helped you? And then what would you say to students that are thinking about maybe duplicating that?

Bowen Alexy: (21:50)
Sure. Yeah. Um, well, when I was a senior too, I remember I took the a ACT couple times and I did some training where I had to rewire my brain to be more academically focused and figure out how to solve problems. And I remember coming to Lindner that really clicked with what I did that prior, that previous summer. Mm-hmm. So when I came in, I had that mindset to just succeed and do well. And Lindner gave me the tools and the chance, uh, to make that happen. Whereas like Ohio State was like, yeah, you're gonna have to go spend a semester at, um, Mansfield campus when uc was like, no, get in here. Do what you wanna do, we're gonna make it happen. And I said, all right. So this was definitely the school. This was the fit. This is the place where, you know, it's on, it's all, it's on all the posters Next does live here and this is where next is gonna thrive.

Finn Alexy: (22:38)
I just going off of like the next steps mm-hmm . Like for, even for the state of Ohio. Sure. Uh, I just think Lindner itself in the college business and uc in general is like a rapidly up and coming university. Yeah. It's probably going to be the biggest university in the state of Ohio in a couple of years. It's gonna overtake Ohio State is what I would predict. Absolutely. And I think Lindner's a huge part of that. Mm-hmm . And just to, for me and Bo to kind of be a part of that like promotion and be a part of something bigger than ourselves is what drew me to Lindner. And that's what kind of inspired us to come back and promote as much as possible. 'cause we did get an immense amount of value from professors here, from students here, uh, from our actual uc education.

Finn Alexy: (23:18)
Yep. Like if you go BO was, uh, marketing major mm-hmm . Minor professional sales, and I was a major in entrepreneurship mm-hmm . And when you combine those two things, you literally have our playbook or blueprint for BO in capital where I can identify startup companies and basically do a valuation on 'em. Mm-hmm . And Bo can provide marketing and customer service and relationships Yeah. After we book an angel investment. So it's like this perfect combination for us to kinda showcase our skills we learned at Lindner, our skills we learned in our family's business and our skills that we learned before. Yep. So I would, you know, obviously stand behind the Lindner College of Business and promote as much as possible. Yep.

Grant Freking: (23:59)
Well, I appreciate you guys making the trip down here today. Thank you for both being on Bearcats Mean Business.

Finn Alexy: (24:05)
Absolutely. Thank you for having us.

Grant Freking: (24:06)
Thank you for listening to this episode of Bearcats Mean Business. If today's episode sparked a new idea, challenge your thinking or helped you see your path a little more clearly, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share the episode with someone in your network. Thanks for being part of the conversation. And remember, real world success begins here at Lindner.