008: When to Bring In Partners and How To Do It with Lee Mandel

As your business grows, you’re all but guaranteed to reach a point in your career where you simply can’t keep doing everything yourself.

What you do at this crossroads, however, isn’t always clear: do you sell the company entirely and move on to your next project? Do you continue to run the show on your own at the expense of growth, or do you bring in outside partners to help you make day to day operations easier so you can focus on doing what you do best?

Lee Mandel chose the latter. He’s the CEO of IntraLogic Solutions, a national leader in security technology, rapid incident response, video, analytics, and AI for school districts. A serial entrepreneur, his company has made Inc.’s 5000 fastest growing companies six times in a row, and he’s found a sweet spot in which he can work with outside partners while continuing to lead the business he founded.

Today, Lee joins the podcast to talk about his first businesses and the exits he should’ve taken along the way, how he took those lessons to heart as he built IntraLogic, and how he recapitalized his business without sacrificing what he loves about it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How Lee’s parents - both accountants - inspired an entrepreneurial spirit in him and gave him a strong sense of money from an early age.
• Why Lee missed an opportunity to exit one of his early companies at the top - and what he learned from this mistake.
• Why putting customers first is the secret sauce to continuous growth.
• The moment Lee realized he needed to make changes to keep IntraLogic growing and thriving - and why he chose to work with Post Capital over other private equity firms.
• The one book on business and leadership Lee recommends above all others.

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