Charlotte Angel Connection Episode 079: Bill D'Alessandro Founder and CEO of Element Brands

Today on the Charlotte Angel Connection, we are fortunate to have Bill D'Alessandro join us. Bill is the founder and CEO of Elements Brands which is a consumer products company he started while he was in Colorado and brought back to Charlotte to grow and evolve. Bill wants to make Elements Brands the home for consumer products companies. By 2025, Elements Brands wants to be in a place where they are doing 12 acquisitions per year. By 2050, they want to be the Proctor and Gamble of consumer product businesses. Those aren't small goals. And Bill isn't going to back down from them. Bill raised money in 2016 when he made the decision to go for it and really work to growing to a large company.  He used a great quote from a friend of his when talking about his decision - "you can only coast downhill."  He raised money from a small group of 5 investors who also serve on his board.  He didn't want to raise institutional capital because of the typical demands that comes with that type of money.  Instead Bill - not surprisingly - was very intentional about how and from whom he raised money.  His investors have a broad array of skills they bring to the company in helping Bill grow to their goal of being the Proctor and Gamble of 2050. Yet Bill has a keen focus on the culture of his company and takes great pride in the fact no employee has voluntarily left the company since Bill brought it back to Charlotte.  They've also been highlighted as a "Best Place to Work" for several years now and I'd be surprised if they don't keep that streak alive for quite some time.  When I asked Bill where the nap room was he had a great response - "People think that culture is ping pong tables but ping pong tables are the result of good culture." The recent acquisition - the Natural Dog Company - will look more familiar to those who follow Elements Brands going forward.  This acquisition brought in 7 employees to the company and became its second largest brand upon acquisition.  Bill has spent nearly 8 years working on the business getting it ready to scale and absorb consumer product companies.  The size and value of future acquisitions will increase as their capacity does but also as founders see what a great place their company can land when they sell to Bill and his team at Elements Brands. Bill stated mid-way through the interview that Elements Brands has a results based culture.  I think those results are going to be pretty dang good in the next 10 to 20 years.  Enjoy today's show and don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues so they can learn more about Bill and his team too. Local Note and Thoughts: Seed the South - which happened January 9, 2018 - was a big success.  Lots of really good startup companies were there promoting what they are doing.  Sam and her team with Collective Hustle did a fantastic job and I expect we will have another Seed the South and more events like these going forward right here in Charlotte. StartCharlotte is having their annual StartCharlotte Live event on Tuesday January 22. They will have awards for various things such as startup of the year, innovation award, investor of the year and servant leader award.  Please vote for those awards by clicking here.  You can register for the StartCharlotte Live event here. Finsiders is also having their annual awards on Wednesday January 23 (click here to register).  You can vote for their awards by clicking here. QC Fintech is also in the process of interviewing for their spring class and after speaking with Dan recently they are seeing some really good companies.  Be on the lookout for announcements for the spring class and the opportunities you will have to meet them and ultimately support them as they come to Charlotte for 12 weeks to incubate their ideas and companies.   William Bissett is an Investment Advisor Representative with Secrest Blakey & Associates, a Registered Investment Adviser.