Meet the Alumni

“We’ve already expanded to two new cities. We’ll dominate this state in two years. I never thought in a million years we would.”

“The program showed me – nobody else knows all this stuff either. We’re all asking questions, we’re all trying to figure it out.”

“Ever since the Goldman Sachs program, I have been working on the business instead of working in the business"

“It’s such a beautiful thing to go plant this little seed and then watch it grow. My dad built this giant legacy right here and I’d like to see that continue.”

“10,000 Small Businesses made me very confident. You don’t ever want to have to deal with uncertainty or unexpected change—but I feel like I have the tools to handle it and to predict it too.”

“Everything is happening so fast since completing the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program. It’s time to grow... I love waking up, thinking about the business, thinking about what am I doing, what’s my next step?”

“We live in a time where you cannot just have a business that is transactional, you have to have a business that is part of your community.”

“Going through the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program – you’re with other business owners, and you learn early on that everybody has the same challenges. So you just feel like you’re not alone.”

“We’ve got a network of other business leaders who are inspiring people every day, and who are also kind of fighting the same fight we are.”

“Each module allowed us to think about our business--as a whole. Think about our expansion options, think about our exit strategies, think about our employees... basically how our business is run from soup to nuts.”

“If we don’t take the time out to really focus knowledgably, then we’re not actually working for our business.”

“By opening up new stores and doing our own distribution, we’re going to lower our cost of goods and be able to promote our capabilities on a bigger level.”

“Obstacles, to me, are challenges that I’m going to have every day. The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program helped me to meet those challenges and take them head on.”

“I thought, well, if I could just learn everything about accounting, then the business would be better. But what I actually learned is the way to manage the company is to A) hire the right people and then B) be able to trust, but verify.”