Building Startup Success on Fundamentals With Brian Herr
- Quik! News Team
- 7 hours ago
- 27 min read
Brian Herr is the Founder and CEO of StartingBlocks and Managing Partner at HHI Advisory Group, where he helps startups, scale-ups, and portfolio companies accelerate growth, particularly in cybersecurity and regulated industries. With over 30 years of experience, he has guided companies through successful scaling, advised organizations from scrappy startups to $1.5 billion scale-ups, and is a sought-after keynote speaker. Brian is known for a hands-on, no-nonsense approach, bringing founders, executives, and technologists together to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems, especially in underserved regions like the Midwest.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[2:46] Brian Herr discusses how StartingBlocks and HHI Advisory help startups and scale-ups succeed
[6:49] AI and technology lowering barriers for entrepreneurs of all ages
[10:48] The customer lifecycle as part of the complete product experience
[16:02] Personal growth and adaptability as essential traits for entrepreneurs
[18:25] Brian talks about building customer trust through transparency when mistakes happen
[21:42] When startups should bootstrap versus raise outside capital
[29:39] Why entrepreneurs should delay investment until they’re ready to accelerate
[31:37] How StartingBlocks connects founders, funders, technologists, and executive advisors
In this episode…
Building a technology product has never been easier, but turning that product into a sustainable business remains difficult. Entrepreneurs still need to understand their customers, create an effective customer experience, earn trust, and determine when outside capital will actually help them grow. How can founders cut through the noise and build businesses that customers genuinely value?
Brian Herr, a technology and cybersecurity veteran with expertise in startup growth, customer success, and secure AI adoption, recommends getting back to fundamental business principles. He emphasizes treating the entire customer journey — including onboarding, feedback, service, and relationships — as part of the product, while actively seeking candid customer feedback and learning from mistakes. Brian also advises founders to validate ideas with paying customers, explore non-dilutive funding, and delay outside investment until they have a viable business and are ready to use capital to accelerate growth.
In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Brian Herr, Founder and CEO of StartingBlocks and Managing Partner at HHI Advisory Group, about building successful startups in the AI era. Brian discusses customer feedback, raising capital, and building trust through transparency.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
"Building the Future of Private Markets Technology With Gareth Lewis" on The Customer Wins
"Transforming IT Buying: Authentic Matches With Tonya Turrell" on The Customer Wins
"Transforming Cloud Marketplace Sales With AI With Trunal Bhanse" on The Customer Wins
"Building Trust-Driven Tech Partnerships With Brian Hyman" on The Customer Wins
Quotable Moments:
“Customer service never goes out of style. And I think now more than ever, it's important.”
“The best tech doesn't always win. It's the right solution to the right problem.”
“You earn credibility, pennies at a time when things go bump or horribly awry.”
“Take investment when you're ready for the acceleration, not because you're trying to figure things out.”
“Companies ultimately are just people with a purpose. Make sure you fulfill that purpose.”
Action Steps:
Facilitate open dialogue within your team: Encouraging honest discussions about perceptions of colleagues can reveal unrecognized talent and areas of improvement.
Regularly measure and review biases: By identifying inherent biases within performance evaluations, organizations can work toward more fair and accurate assessments.
Implement organizational network analyses: This approach can help recognize employee impact, particularly the vital contributions of quieter, less visible staff.
Calibrate performance ratings across the organization: Standardizing the assessment criteria ensures fairness and clarity in employee performance appraisals and compensation.
Look beyond traditional evaluation methods: Being open to new performance management techniques can lead to a more motivated, aligned, and productive workforce.
Sponsor for this episode...
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Episode Transcript:
Intro: 00:02
Welcome to The Customer Wins podcast, where business leaders discuss their secrets and techniques for helping their customers succeed and in turn, grow their business.
Richard Walker: 00:16
Hi, I'm Rich Walker, the host of The Customer Wins, where I talk to business leaders about how they help their customers win and how they're focused on customer experience leads to growth. Some of my past guests have included Gareth Lewis at Helm, Tonya Turrell at TechnologyMatch and Trunal Bhanse at Clazar. Today, I'm speaking with Brian Herr, founder and CEO at StartingBlocks and HHI Advisory. And today's episode is brought to you by Quik!, the leader in enterprise forms processing. When your business relies upon processing forms, don't waste your team's valuable time manually reviewing the forms.
Instead, get Quik! using Quik!. You'll be able to generate completed forms and get back clean, context rich data that reduces manual reviews to only one out of 1000 submissions. Visit quickforms.com to get started. All right, before I introduce today's guest in full, I want to give a big thank you to Brian Hyman of High Meadow Solutions. Go check out Brian's episode from a few weeks back, and also his website at solutions.com to learn more about wealth management, intelligence, and what we're doing together to introduce the Quik! for Salesforce app.
All right, Brian Herr is a technology and cybersecurity veteran with more than 30 years of experience helping startups scale ups and portfolio companies scale. Having worked every side of the table as operator, executive advisor, investor, and even scout, he's the founder and CEO of StartingBlocks and managing partner at HHI Advisory Group, where he provides fractional CXO services and leads on secure AI adoption for regulated industries. Following an operator career that spans Bond Desk Group secure 24 cipher and cortex. So he's also a sold out keynote speaker. And his core thesis is simple AI is not the most data distribution and trust.
So we're going to talk about that. Brian welcome to The Customer Wins.
Brian Herr: 02:14
It's a pleasure. Oh it's so good to be here.
Richard Walker: 02:18
Thank you for being here today. I, ever since I met you, I've been excited to talk to you every single time. So for my guests, I hope they get a great, great show today. So if you haven't heard my podcast before, I talk with business leaders about what they're doing to help their customers win, how they built and deliver a great customer experience and the challenges of growing their own company. So Brian, let's understand your businesses a lot better.
How does your company help people?
Brian Herr: 02:46
So the best way to think about it is over the last 30 years, I've worked, I've worked with many startups, I've worked in scale ups, I've worked in service providers, and I've had the privilege of learning how those businesses work. How do you build and measure and deliver on success, you know, especially in the managed services space when you get into the technology. And over time, I've found that as we have changed technology, especially now with the adoption of AI in all of its iterations, it's almost harder for some companies to get back to the fundamentals of supporting your clients, understanding their needs and desires, the basic fundamentals of business. So what I did was a few years ago, I went and became an independent consultant, working with startups and scale ups, working with various venture capital and private equity funds. So both sides of the equation to help them really take all that experience, I've learned, funnel it back into these teams because I remember those days.
I remember being that scrappy small company that you're trying to find your way, and you just need that nugget of truth that that beam of light in the distance that tells you this is the way to go. There's so much noise out there. So that's what I've done with HHI. If you want me to help you with those pieces, that's where I'm at. But then I discovered there was this gap, especially when you get into the Midwest, you get to the East Coast and West Coast.
There's a lot of resources and people and hubbub around startups, scale ups. But you get into the Midwest, it's kind of dark. It's very siloed. So I've been working with funds, accelerators, a lot of founders, as well as people like me who built some of these companies in the past. We bring all those groups together to make it so that we can help the next generation of entrepreneurs and technologists, make a better impact.
Do the thing that makes all of us better so they can realize their dreams. It's easier said than done, and it takes a lot, especially since it's so lonely and it's just scary. So that's what we're doing. I'm helping on the professional side, but we've also built this community of people that are really ingrained in the success of Midwest startups. And what's really important, I think, is it gets back to what some of the things we've talked about previous to the session. There's a lot of technology out there and everyone's reading the same tea leaves.
So what's the thing that would help really get these companies moving, get them successful? Go back to the basics. You're building a company around solving problems, educating your clients, delivering a service, an experience, not just partnering lip service, but being that guiding light in solving their problem in a way that everyone has a mutual benefit, right? Customer service never goes out of style. And I think now more than ever, it's important that we go back to those fundamentals.
Richard Walker: 06:08
So I love that you're talking.
Richard Walker: 06:09
About it as fundamentals. And that's got to be the motif of StartingBlocks right? That's the whole idea is like get the cornerstones in place, build it all out. And I would say in the age of AI, everybody who has an idea can go execute on that idea. Like it's never been easier to build a product.
But I have been building products for 30 years now. What I've recognized is that it's easy to build a product. It's hard to sell a product. It's hard to market, it's hard to support, it's hard to publish, etc.. So I love that you're focused on these fundamentals. What are the age ranges that people are attracted to StartingBlocks?
Is it everybody? Is it the youth that's in this starting gate? What is it?
Brian Herr: 06:49
It is. It's very interesting to me that I mean, I see we have some founders that are in their teens just barely out of high school, but they're, they're kicking the tires. They want some of the help. And I see people that are in their 50s and 60s who 've already made it through corporate life, and now they want to try that entrepreneurial spirit. Where it really takes off is when you get the blending, where you get a few founders of different age groups and experience, but they come together on a fundamental idea and really work out.
I'm responsible for these pieces. You're responsible for these pieces. And all of us are working together on this vision to solve this problem. And that's really interesting to me because we've almost started to see where age isn't. You know, it used to be, oh, this person's age is an indicator of how successful.
Oh, they're too old. They're too young. They don't have enough experience with technology and access to data and information and knowledge, and especially getting involved in like a StartingBlocks community or, or any other community like it. We're at a time where because of the advancements of AI and technology, those barriers to success are peeling away. They're becoming moot.
And I'm seeing entrepreneurs that maybe ten years ago would have never tried their hand at it, give it a shot. Now, the downside is we've got a lot of people that are jumping in with both feet, but they don't have the knowledge and experience. So it makes a very crowded landscape. There's a lot of noise because, you know, we can all sit down with a cloud code session and whip up an application. It doesn't mean that is something that would be marketable or solving a big problem that would warrant a full Business.
And that's the hard part, is the technology's gotten easier. The fundamentals of business stay the same. But I don't always see people executing it correctly. It's funny how many books I recommend. They're not new.
No. But human behavior isn't new. Businesses serve a need, and your customers are what ultimately decide what company and service they buy. Right. And so I always go back to building a relationship and that needs to be in your customer journey or customer success.
That's why some companies make it and some don't. Some are pure tech. It's the coolest tech ever, but they don't know how to do that. That client journey, that education, that partnership. Because as you grow and change, so do their needs and the technology and you need to be able to grow together.
Otherwise you divorce and you lose clients and things go awry.
Richard Walker: 09:48
I was on earlier with a new friend that I made whose startup is really cool, very cool tech. I'm gonna leave him nameless for the moment because I don't want to say anything embarrassing about it, but I went through the onboarding experience and I was like, man, it's so technical. I don't understand it. And I'm a technologist. You haven't driven this from a user experience yet.
You've driven it from a technology that is cool that you built and you understand inherently. And it's like, how do you get away from your own thinking and see what customers see? And that was the purpose of the call, frankly. They want to hear what I see or don't see so they can improve upon their product. The other thing I want to remark on is like right now, in the last couple of years has felt like the.com boom of the 90s.
Everybody's jumping in. Everybody can have a website, anybody can have an AI product. But do you have a business model? Do you know how to serve the client? Do you know how to get to the client?
So how many, how many people have you seen that? Come ask for help who have no idea how to get in front of their customer.
Brian Herr: 10:48
I would say the vast majority, because most of them are used to being in operations, back office, or if they're in a sales role, they were more on the I do the relationship. I don't do the full life cycle of a client. So putting those pieces together, I'm seeing now where. Companies that are going to make it into the future. They're really getting focused on that client life cycle, that onboarding, that feedback loop as part of their product management and product.
A lot of people think the product is a technology widget. That's not it. Your product is your solution. And all the people, processes, technology, your onboarding, client success, the whole experience is your product. And until you figure that out, you're just another tech company like everyone else.
Richard Walker: 11:49
Yeah. How do you advise startups to actually contact their customers and get that feedback and navigate? I mean, there's a lot of fear and trepidation. Like, well, what do I do? Just call them? Do I just email?
What should I do? How do you advise them?
Brian Herr: 12:04
Most of the time you'll know who your friends are. Welcome it, you know, hey, reach out, be a human being first. And people, if you're very frank with, you know, we're trying to do the following things. We value your feedback as a partner and you put some incentives so both parties win. People are more than happy to do it.
If someone is too busy, that's valid. But don't shy away from those that you know will give you negative feedback that is worth more than ten people giving you the positive feedback.
Richard Walker: 12:39
Yeah.
Brian Herr: 12:39
You know, and sometimes you're going to have to have those tough conversations. I've got, I've got one right now. We went through an onboarding process. We got to the end and I said, listen, we're going to have to walk through this again because I see some things we did not accomplish. What I would say is a quintessential milestone of a successful relationship building as part of this onboarding.
And oh, it went off the rails because of all these reasons. I said, okay, that's great. We know these reasons will pop up again. This is a learning experience. This person was gracious enough to give us their time and the feedback, let's do something with it.
Let's make it worthwhile, you know, and, and people we all have, no one wants to be criticized. It's not meant to be criticized.
Richard Walker: 13:33
Right?
Brian Herr: 13:33
We are trying to make this the best version of us and what we're doing so that this client and everyone after gets a better and better experience because that's what people are going to come back to you. At the end of the day, when people pay you, they're investing in you, your business, your processes, your relationship. It's an investment. If you treat that money like an investment, not just dues owed because you did things, you'll grow. And that's, I think that hands off idea of a relationship is what many people expect, especially if they come from operations or tech background.
Know the best. Tech doesn't always win. It's the right solution to the right problem with the company you know, trust and want to work with, and you're willing to invest your time and money into. Because when I pay you, it's an investment. Getting people to understand that it's harder than it ever has been before.
That's why shows like this, where people can walk through their experience and share it and educate through stories and shared, you know, shared background history. I think people start to click because everyone can read the tea leaves. Success comes from delivering in a way that people want to do more business. They want to invest and they want to refer you because when people like it, they'll tell everyone else they know with the same problem, go here. I enjoyed the experience enough that I am recommending it.
Richard Walker: 15:06
I think a lot of this is branding. Like you want to feel an affinity, right? Why do people wear the jersey of their favorite team? It's like it's part of who they are. And our favorite products become part of who we are as well.
But how does that happen? Is it just the product or is it also the experience they get from the product and the people in that company and the life, lifestyle and culture of that company? I think this all plays into it, but I also want to go back to something that you said almost subtly, and I'm going to bring it back up to the front here that you as an entrepreneur, have to be willing to personally grow if you're not willing to hear this feedback, If you're not willing to say, what would it take to become better? Not just product wise, but experience and how you relate to people and how you communicate and what you say. And when you say it, or when you shut up and listen more.
If you, as an entrepreneur, aren't willing to personally grow, how is your company going to grow? It is a direct reflection of you, isn't it?
Brian Herr: 16:02
It is. And one thing I always try to explain to people, listen, I make mistakes and I have a good team that's willing to give me the little nudges to get me in the right direction, or put up an absolute blocker to say, listen, we need to fix this now. And that comes with trust and a mutual understanding of what we're trying to accomplish. This goes back to that culture discussion and having that team. But as the leader, if you're the entrepreneur, you set the tone for how we handle issues, how we grow, how we learn, how we interact with each other, how we have that, that client or customer first attitude that we can make it better.
I'd rather be a little wrong in the right direction than never start at all or completely wrong, but feel right because that's never the case. So that's one of those things. And right. You're you've been doing this as long as I have. I'm sure you have stories where the right team, the right fit or the right feedback made all the difference.
There's that turning point 100%.
Richard Walker: 17:12
Oh my gosh. And honestly, that's what my call earlier today was. The feedback I was giving was because they were so receptive. They wanted it, they were asking for it, and they were willing to put people in the call to listen and hear me and, and show me, etc.. And I love that attitude.
It's fun. It's fun and engaging to work in that manner. With that style, I'm going to share one of my own things that I've learned the hard way, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs have this fear of transparency and honesty, especially if they make a mistake or their company fails to deliver. I have found that when you own up to the problem and you tell people this is what happened, maybe not every gory detail, you don't want to hear about the fat finger mistake, that somebody was just stupid. But if you just be transparent about what you did and what you're working towards, to make it never happen again, customers can appreciate that.
They actually love to deal with facts over perception and it may not make them happy. I, it doesn't, it's not like it's going to calm down their nerves, but they stay in the relationship with me because they see we're really trying, we're really thinking hard about how to fix this. And I'm sure that a lot of people are not doing that. I, I don't know if you've had that experience or not.
Brian Herr: 18:25
Absolutely. There's something to be said about building up trust and rapport, but that means you have to be able to communicate when you're in the good times, and especially when things go wrong, because partnership, the strength of the partnership will be shown when there's mistakes being made. And the biggest thing is being able to communicate in a way that doesn't involve blame storming or passing fault. If it's you, approach it in a way that you get to the root of the problem with the clear stated purpose of making sure you solve the problem. Do right by any of the parties affected and that you're going to.
You are genuinely going to learn from it and be able to provide receipts. We all work in business. We know things happen, but doing those things and then being able to show that not only is it fixed, but it stays fixed, and you acknowledge that builds confidence, that builds rapport. Because when you do things right, You earn credibility, pennies at a time when things go bump or horribly awry. You pay for it in a fistful of dollars, but you still have to pay for it.
If you're not willing to fess up and say, listen, here's what it is, and for your benefit and the mutual benefit of this relationship, we're going to make it better. When entrepreneurs, a lot of times entrepreneurs tend to be better at it than everyone else, but they can instill that in their whole culture and everyone that works with them. The client experience levels up. You get clients that are more understanding. You're always going to get some difficult ones.
It happens sometimes. They're actually your best clients at the end of the day because they will tell you where the sore spots are. But if you handle it correctly. You will get better, you will grow, but you have to be willing to accept growth. And growth always comes with stress.
Pain. You know, nothing comes easy. That's worthwhile.
Richard Walker: 20:37
No, no it doesn't. Man. Brian, there were some points in my company's history where we had a year of our servers going down every single month, and we had a three month period where it went down like eight times in three months. It was so embarrassing and so difficult. And you're right.
I mean, those were massive withdrawals of trust. And so you think, oh, I've been alive for 90 days without an interruption. That's good enough. No it's not. Try 18 months.
Try 24 months before you really start earning that back. So you're right, you have to be able to prove you truly fix the problem and then have that consistency to build up the account over and over again over a longer period of time. But I think that's a real commitment that you have to make to yourself and to your team and to your customers to do that. I want to ask a slightly different question now, because you're working with so many startups and it's become easier and easier to start something today. How much do you think success depends on raising capital or getting injections of capital?
And maybe it's totally dependent on the kind of company. But I mean, what are you seeing right now?
Brian Herr: 21:42
It is partly dependent on the industry. With that said it you can start a company for so much less money than you used to be able to. There's so many more people that are able to bootstrap. There's a lot of programs out there. It's called Non-dilutive funding.
Ultimately, what it wraps into is there's money out there through grants and incubators and startup programs and state programs and like the list goes on. There's hundreds of places where you can get capital. The biggest thing I would tell you, though, most people try to get capital sooner than they should because they haven't actually refined their Other idea. Because right now, in the age of AI, like I can do small pressure tests, small snippets, I can get direct feedback on a model of what this could look like. And if it's not a good product direction, solution, whatever, scrap it and go adjacent.
Go next. Be willing to pivot. During that idea, I see people they run with a half baked idea so far, and then they get into funding, but now they're kind of strapped to what that is. They're burning someone else's money, and then things sour and go south. There's something to be said about knowing where to when does it make sense to get third party funding?
When does it make sense to bootstrap and grow organically? Maybe getting some of these additional little non-dilutive bumps? You know, I tell people your startup, there's money out there that you won't have to pay back. Use that money first and then work back into it and make sure you have a product. Right.
And I define that big idea of a product. It's not just a little bit of technology, it's your business product. What is it you're solving? Do you have some potential clients that you've lined up? Maybe get a few design partners?
It's just a fancy way of saying to your first clients that are friendly to give you feedback, get through that, have some viability, then work with someone who's already been through the process to see, do I have a viable business because investors invest in the people, your solution and your business? And people seem to forget that if you don't have what looks like a credible business, funding is going to be hard to get. And if you're dependent on it, it goes south quickly. The other piece is, you know, so I work with a lot of startups, but part of my practice I work with many of the scale ups. These are the guys that have already made it through lots of rounds of funding.
Now they are a standalone company. Maybe they've been acquired by a bigger company or they're private equity backed. These are the 25 million to 1.5 billion companies that have made it. And if you look at them, the thing that that really was kind of an indicator of their success is that they were willing to build and hire and create into the pain. So in other words, they waited until the need was there to address it instead of trying to get a bunch of money and burn it for all what could be, they focused on what should be, shall be, and what is right now.
That way you have a viable business and you don't just burn a lot of capital with not a lot of impact. We've all seen it. Some of these startups have a big flash in the pan and then you never hear from them again. But then you get other companies like, look, let's take quick as an example, who's systematically built the product, the client base, you know, kept moving up market, moving to the right clients, figuring out how do I, how do I handle the customer journey? How do I continue to get that evolution of my product back from my clients?
Quik! spin around for a long time and it's continued to evolve. That's the kind of thing in StartingBlocks. One of my favorite things is getting someone like you to talk to some of these new entrepreneurs. And when it comes from you, someone who's already done it, it sinks in because you've had to do it. You've had those peanut butter and jelly days.
You've had those times where you're wondering, is this going to work out?
Richard Walker: 26:22
Yeah.
Brian Herr: 26:23
And it can work, but you have to focus on the customer. You have to focus on the solution. Those are the things that are fundamental, once you have that working and you can show it and how you're going to grow, then that's the time to go to get additional third party capital like venture or angels or whatever, so they can invest in growth. You've already built out that you have something viable. There's something here.
You have the right team. You get the right market. There's something here. It's not just cool, it's viable. And people want to buy this product, right?
This thing that you've created, that's when you go get capital and then definitely talk to someone who understands that investment because some people will shark you, right? We've all seen Shark Tank where some of those deals, you're like, that doesn't make sense. And they still took it. It's like, I wouldn't have done that.
Richard Walker: 27:21
I have been telling people who have considered, should I be an entrepreneur or not? For a long time? And I love encouraging people to try it at least once. It's not for everybody, but we need more entrepreneurs. But I always tell them, look, your first idea is not your best idea.
It's the one that gets you out of bed. It makes you get started and there's going to be something that comes around. Maybe it's in month two, maybe it's in year 20, I don't know. That became the better idea for your business. And so when you talk about people who have gone out and raised capital early, they burn through that capital and only then realize there's a better product to pursue.
And they have no capital to do it with. And they burned all the trust to get more capital at that point, right? Because they didn't prove they could use capital in the way to grow their business. So it's really, really challenging. And I agree, I mean, quick.
So was my mom and I, and we just didn't know better. We were just like, we're going to be the bumblebee that shouldn't fly and figure it out. Anyway, we decided everything should be proven by revenue. So when you think about friends and family and people are like, oh, great idea, I'd buy that and they don't buy it. I would prefer to go to a customer, even if it's a small amount of money, and get them to pay for it, because then I know they have a value against it.
It's not just free, there's actual dollars being transacted, and then you feel like you have a customer relationship, and then you feel like you have a sale and now you see value in your business. So that's kind of my philosophy to prove it. And I think you've echoed some of that.
Brian Herr: 28:47
So really quick, what I would say is that last little. That last little blurb is probably one of the most useful and important nuggets I would snip out and give to everybody. That's an entrepreneur, right? Is how that starts. And then prove it with revenue.
If more people did that, I would say we'd have a much higher success rate in startups that make it through future rounds.
Richard Walker: 29:14
Yeah, yeah. Because I've always looked at it as, would I take on money, am I? My answer has always been only if I know I can apply money to go faster with sales and grow revenue. If it's about building more products, if I haven't proven the sales model, I'm just taking a huge risk and I don't want more risk. It's risky enough to start a business.
Brian Herr: 29:39
Exactly. There's. So one of the things that I try to remind entrepreneurs, you hit on it, you're building a trust with someone that could invest other people's money into your company, into your future. There's a lot of trust that has to be there. You also have to make sure you pick whoever you're leading with.
That's a good fit because some people think, oh, I've been invested in, I've made it. Oh no, you've just started because now you are beholden and under the scrutiny of a third party that is expecting you to go really fast because they have to report how that's going to their investors downstream. If you can push that off and be able to focus on your company longer. I would tell people, stay there. Like you said, take investment when you're ready for the acceleration, not because you're trying to figure things out.
Richard Walker: 30:39
I have this whole mental movie playing in my head based on this now, because I also feel like a lot of people take money to get out of the pressure. They think it's going to relieve the pressure of startup, it's saving them. And it's kind of like if you're swimming against the tide, against a whirlpool, trying to suck you down and you get a life ring and start floating, if you're not out of that whirlpool, you're just going to get sucked in it faster. So if you take the money before you need it, it's going to push you down the drain versus accelerate you out and help you do more. So I try to tell people, resist the urge to take money until you absolutely have to.
Don't hire until you absolutely have to. Don't even get off the space until you absolutely have to. Brian. I love talking about entrepreneur stuff and I'm excited for StartingBlocks. I presume that being a member there is peer mentoring and helping each other.
It's not just top down.
Brian Herr: 31:37
Correct. So we bring together basically four different groups. We've got founders on the back end, we have funders, and then we also have technologists and people that have built other startups and companies. And then we have the last group is the executive advisors. These are people that would be your potential, you know, customers or maybe potentially join your organization.
We bring them together in a way so that we kind of educate everyone and then we get feedback. So sometimes these founders, they're doing an MVP or an alpha stage, and they want some help from the executives like, hey, would you buy this? Give us some feedback for, you know, I'll use healthcare in the healthcare industry. What do you need to see? Or hey, we're about to go for funding.
Are we ready? Are we ready to go? We do a lot of workshops and cohorts where we give some, some absolute we call it Gen X style, tough love feedback of you're ready, you're not ready. Here's what you need to address. Your mileage may vary, but we help them because we're all invested in their success.
So sometimes we're going to have to be a little bit of tough love. I love the startup community, I love the energy, but sometimes some groups, they're all rah rah, rah rah. Cheers, cheers, cheers. You're amazing. But you're not, it's not helping.
Right. And that's one of those things you have to do, you have to do the balance. But we're sharing that knowledge. You know, I've got a few startups that are like, hey, we're at the point we need to bring on some very technology focused people that still understand what it's like to work at a startup, to be an entrepreneur, to just be part of a team focused, get it done, because that that is different. Not everyone is cut out for that.
You know, you mentioned earlier, some people look at, oh, I got money, we're safe. You're never safe. It's always building. But there's a certain mentality that you get the right people, the right community. You have a much better chance because companies ultimately are just they're people and people with a purpose.
Make sure you fulfill that purpose.
Richard Walker: 33:58
As one of my best friends and mentors says, iron sharpens iron. We have to be iron for each other and help each other through these processes. I could keep talking all day. I've got to wrap up the show, and before I get to my very last question, what is the best way for people to find and connect with you, Brian?
Brian Herr: 34:17
There's a lot of best ways the best. Some people are very comfortable with LinkedIn. Find me on LinkedIn. I'm more than happy to help people ask questions. You know, I will find you.
We'll get answers back. So LinkedIn is good or, you know, you find me via email, it's brian.herr@hhiadvisory.com. If you're looking for more of that consulting advice, or if you want to be part of the StartingBlocks community, it's Brian.herr@startingblocks.io.
Richard Walker: 34:45
Okay, we'll post that in the show notes so everybody can find it as well on the podcast page. All right. I get to ask this question. It's one of my favorite questions to ask. Who has had the biggest impact on your leadership style and how you approach your role today?
Brian Herr: 35:00
That's an amazing question. I tell people that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for some amazing mentors that they could see who I could become, not who I was today. And, and having that vision and confidence and a lot of times, patience to help me get there has been fundamental. And they've all, in one way or another said, okay, once you've continued to progress, you need to pass that on. You know, so, you know, early in my career, Fred Mommersteeg was just an amazing influence.
He's an amazing man, and there's so many leaders out there that can look back. And we were built from that, that crew, that startup, and then more recently Mike Jennings. You know, we came together at another scale up. We built an amazing team. We found the right people.
We gave the right great opportunities. You know, there were some hard lessons. And he was very he had the grace and the ability to help educate and help me grow. And, and it's a little weird. We talk about mentors, but I do want to call out a mentee because I loved working with this gentleman.
His name is Jason Lee. To this day, I think he's outpaced me in how he works and his knowledge. But what really impresses me is he took that mantra just like I, I spend a lot of time passing on what I've learned, you know, learned from my mistakes. So you don't have to. And then learn from what I've done well and do it better.
He's gone on to do the same thing where he's mentoring people and he's become just an absolute juggernaut in the industry. And he himself is the quintessential entrepreneur. I love working with him. And if you ever have a chance, definitely reach out to, you know, Fred, Mike or especially Jason Lee. They're great people.
And if there's other people like that in your life, take the time to thank them because they make you better.
Richard Walker: 37:13
Yeah. Oh, I love this is why I love asking this question, hearing about this. All right. I gotta give a huge thank you to Brian Herr, founder and CEO of StartingBlocks and managing partner at HHI Advisory Group, for being on this episode of The Customer Wins. Go check out their websites, startingblocks.io and hhiadvisory.com.
And don't forget to check out Quik! at quickforms.com, where we make processing forms easier. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. We'll click the like button, share this with someone, and subscribe to our channel for future episodes of The Customer Wins. Brian, thank you so much for joining me today.
Brian Herr: 37:50
My pleasure, I appreciate it.
Outro: 37:53
Thanks for listening to The Customer Wins podcast. We'll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.
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