We were lucky to catch up with Andrew Tull recently and have shared our conversation below.
Andrew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?
First boss out of college…. With Procter & Gamble. Bronwyn Morgan Myers. Very strong and amazing Black woman who was only a few years older. Great leader and amazing person. Learned an incredible amount from her and stay in touch to this day.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am one of four partners for Tailwind Business Ventures, a custom software development company. We are all strong in our faith and overlap quite well in terms of personalities as well as those areas in which we excel. We have a unique value proposition in that we leverage something called Software As A Relationship (SAAR) with all of our clients. For each of us, this isn’t just a business, it’s personal.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I had left Johnson and Johnson and gone to work, right after Y2K for a start up. I was a new husband as well as a new dad and a new homeowner. The funding for the start up dried up eight months after I got there, having left a very stable and highly upward job career with JNJ. Went at least three months without a paycheck….wound up doing odd jobs and consulting to feed my family. Eventually came back with the business and through quite a bit of hard work, was able to sell it less than 18 months later. Quite a remarkable experience.
Conversations about M&A are often focused on multibillion dollar transactions – but M&A can be an important part of a small or medium business owner’s journey. We’d love to hear about your experience with selling businesses.
I have had the chance to see four businesses. As well as have two go into bankruptcy. Learned more from the two then I did the four…. When you have the right people at the right time, with the right motivation as well as a decent amount of luck, it’s amazing what can happen. Being able to be flexible, never ever take no for an answer and realize that some degree of pivoting will be necessary are mandatory. Also, be kind and always always ask how to help others. Not only is it the right thing to do, but you can learn a ton from others life experiences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.tailwindsw.com
- Linkedin: https://LinkedIn.com/andrewtull
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