About this episode

In this episode, Patrick Lonergan and Brad Poulos discuss the critical factors that hinder business growth and the right ways to finance it.

What if the biggest thing holding your business back isn't your market, your competition, or your capital, it's you? In this episode of the Vital Wealth Strategies Podcast, host Patrick sits down with seasoned entrepreneur, operator, and professor Brad Poulos to unpack the hard truths about what it actually takes to scale a business and run it well. With 40 years of experience, from growing a wireless company from 4 to 200 employees and taking it public, to teaching entrepreneurship at Toronto Metropolitan University for nearly two decades, Brad brings the kind of battle-tested wisdom that no textbook can replicate. Brad and Patrick dive deep into the real reasons businesses stall, from founders who can't let go, to costly mistakes in how companies are financed and structured. Brad shares why giving employees equity is almost always the wrong move, how to think about debt versus outside investment, what family businesses get catastrophically wrong across generations, and why the best entrepreneurs validate before they ever build. Whether you're running a growing operation and feeling the weight of it, or you're trying to build something that lasts, this conversation is packed…

People in this episode

Host: Patrick Lonergan

Guest: Brad Poulos

Topics covered

• business growth
• entrepreneurship
• leadership
• financing
• scaling challenges

Keywords

• business scaling
• founder challenges
• equity
• debt financing
• entrepreneurial wisdom

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Toronto Metropolitan University

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