This episode features a conversation with Bob Eisiminger ‘88, Entrepreneur, and Founder and Former CEO of Knight Point Systems. In this episode of On Point, Bob discusses how his West Point and Army experiences helped him develop his hundred million dollar business, what it’s like to work alongside the United States government, and the importance of surrounding yourself with people that will help make you a better person.
This episode features a conversation with Bob Eisiminger ‘88, Entrepreneur, and Founder and Former CEO of Knight Point Systems. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at Chaminade University of Honolulu and Patriapps Software Venture Studio, and Board of Experts at Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program.
Bob is a serial entrepreneur, an investor in veteran led companies, and a former CEO. In 2005, he founded Knight Point Systems, after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While in the United States Army, Bob was an Air Defense Artillery Platoon Leader/Tactical Control Officer in Germany, a Public Affairs Officer at Fort Bliss in Texas, and an Airborne and Jungle Operations Expert. Bob is a graduate of the Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program, where post-exit entrepreneurs teach business owners how to grow companies for the purpose of acquisition, and is the recipient of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region in the category of Government Services.
In this episode of On Point, Bob discusses how his West Point and Army experiences helped him develop his hundred million dollar business, what it’s like to work alongside the United States government, and the importance of surrounding yourself with people that will help make you a better person. He also talks about what it was like serving in Germany during the cold war and fall of the Berlin Wall, and how giving back to West Point graduates continues the same cycle that ultimately afforded him great success in business.
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"I see my role now as if anyone reaches out to me, I'm going to go meet with them. Young west point graduates, guys getting outta the service, they wanna talk about, you know, whether they should go work for a big or small. I will offer up my time to anybody, because people offered up their time to me. And, I think giving back to the community that you came from, that you grew up in so important." - Bob Eisiminger
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(02:19) Segment: AAR
(04:00) Experience at West Point
(07:00) Mentorship at the academy
(08:40) Experience in the Army
(10:30) Transitioning out of service
(16:00) Starting Knight Point Systems
(20:30) How the military prepared Bob for business
(27:05) Startup tips
(31:10) Segment: SOP
(34:05) Mentorship
(36:30) Segment: Giving Back
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West Point Association of Graduates
[00:00:00] Narrator: Hello and welcome to On Point.
This episode features a conversation with Bob Eisiminger ‘88, Entrepreneur, and Founder and Former CEO of Knight Point Systems. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at Chaminade University of Honolulu and Patriapps Software Venture Studio, and Board of Experts at Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program.
Bob is a serial entrepreneur, an investor in veteran led companies, and a former CEO. He founded Knight Point Systems in 2005. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Bob served in the United States army as an Air Defense Artillery Platoon Leader/Tactical Control Officer in Germany, a Public Affairs Officer at Fort Bliss in Texas, and an Airborne and Jungle Operations Expert. Bob is a graduate of the Birthing of Giants Fellowship Program, where post-exit entrepreneurs teach business owners how to grow companies for the purpose of acquisition, and is the recipient of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region in the category of Government Services.
In this episode of On Point, Bob discusses how his West Point and Army experiences helped him develop his hundred million dollar business, what it’s like to work alongside the United States government, and the importance of surrounding yourself with people that will help make you a better person. He also talks about what it was like serving in Germany during the cold war and fall of the Berlin Wall, and how giving back to West Point graduates continues the same cycle that ultimately afforded him great success in business.
Now, please enjoy this interview between Bob Eisiminger, and your hosts Tim Hsia and Lance Dietz.
[00:02:02] Tim Hsia: Welcome to on point founded by Eddie king west point class of 2008. I'm Tim Shaw, west point class of 2004. And I'm Lance deeds, class of 2008. And today we're joined by Bob Iker from the class of 1988. Bob, how are you
[00:02:16] Bob Eisiminger: doing great. Thanks for having me
[00:02:17] Tim Hsia: on. Awesome. Thanks for joining us really excited about today's podcast episode.
[00:02:22] Tim Hsia: Let's get into our first segment AR or for our non-military listeners after action review. In this segment, we'd like to touch on specifically what other veterans can learn from you, your process, and your journey to start off. Could you please share about your decision to attend west point? Yeah, so
[00:02:38] Bob Eisiminger: I came from a military family and so when I think back to when I actually started thinking about west point, and if that could be the place for me, I was fortunate enough to have a brother who attended four years.
[00:02:48] Bob Eisiminger: And so when he started thinking about it, I guess I started doing the same. Now my father was a, is a retired Lieutenant Colonel. And so I'd be remiss if I didn't think dad had something to do with it, pretty decent [00:03:00] lifestyle. You gotta move around the country. You have tons of friends. And so I saw a lot of going to west point and being part of the military, really from a social standpoint, as a young.
[00:03:09] Bob Eisiminger: And, uh, knew it as a great way of life for my parents to see the world and also for their kids to do the same and get a lot of different experiences.
[00:03:18] Tim Hsia: Your brother, he was a second Lieutenant when you joined as a plea, is that right? That's correct.
[00:03:22] Bob Eisiminger: Yeah. He graduated in 84 in may. I went in, in July and actually, I would say probably one of his first official duties is he had to put it on the uniform right after I graduated high school because I was on.
[00:03:33] Bob Eisiminger: A lot of people don't know this, but I was on the delayed entry program to enlist and I was supposed to be heading to basic training Fort next New Jersey. And I got accepted to west point. And so there was a part of me that thought west point would coordinate with the regular army or the reserves. And then I wanted to have to go to basic training, but I guess the recruiter had a different idea cuz he was calling the house wondering where I was.
[00:03:57] Bob Eisiminger: And so my brother who was then a second Lieutenant, had to go down [00:04:00] to the recruiting station. Clean up the mess that caused when I was down at the beach for celebrating beach week, before going to west point.
[00:04:08] Tim Hsia: And what was your experience like at west point? Did you walk hours? Were you a good cadet? Just generally, what type of cadet were you?
[00:04:14] Bob Eisiminger: Well, you just heard that story right? Until you can kind of answer the question. I definitely walked hours just slightly over a hundred and I wasn't trying to get over a hundred, but somehow I made it the head of a hundred. When I graduated, uh, the majority of those coming during the second semester, Cal year, and we don't need to get into what they're for, but I think all cadets, I was your typical cadet that did a lot of things that were, you know, fringe regulations to have a better cadet experience.
[00:04:39] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, and eventually you get caught, everybody gets caught. And then the one thing that, uh, west point will teach you is, uh, that when you get caught doing something wrong, that there's accountability for it and responsibility and there's consequences. I will tell you that spending time on the area, it does build character.
[00:04:56] Bob Eisiminger: It makes you a little bit tougher. It gives you a little more grit. I will [00:05:00] tell you that being on the area and losing some privileges, my grades were definitely better that semester than others. Uh, going
[00:05:06] Lance Dietz: back to your point about the advice your brother gave, did you get any hours that you thought were
[00:05:11] Bob Eisiminger: complete BS?
[00:05:12] Bob Eisiminger: I got a major slug and that was, that was well deserved as a cow. You're not supposed to go the first E club and I did. And I also happened to be under 21, that one I deserved. And, and it's interesting. I had lunch with, uh, 2010 grad today that kind of serve as unofficial mentor. One of the things that we talked about was area tours.
[00:05:31] Bob Eisiminger: I shared with him that a, uh, a smaller infraction that got me, uh, 20 hours on the area. I got pulled over by the NPS for going 37 in the 25 up Washington road. Now the laws of physics will tell you that that's physically impossible. With a five ton vehicle, especially the ones that we had at west point back in 1987.
[00:05:53] Bob Eisiminger: And I actually appealed, I appealed the 20 hours I got, but was told by the regimental T that I had to walk 'em anyway, [00:06:00] so 20 hours, I really didn't deserve. So interesting enough, you, you take 20 away from 108. You have 88, which is my class year.
[00:06:08] Tim Hsia: I think there's a certain type of prestige associated with being a Centurion.
[00:06:12] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, yeah, a century man. There's there's some honor to that. I guess it shows you're willing to take responsibility for your actions. Um, and you, you learn from it, right? I could tell you, I didn't get an hour as my first year. That's for sure. At
[00:06:25] Lance Dietz: any point during walking hours or when you got hours, did you consider quit?
[00:06:32] Lance Dietz: No.
[00:06:32] Bob Eisiminger: In fact, I, I would tell you that when you're on the area, you have a couple things. You can do one, you can feel sorry for yourself and you can get down and depressed that you don't have problems or two, you can make the most of it. And I can tell you, and I can think of some of the guys that I was on the area with that I probably wouldn't have been friends with otherwise, cuz I was in fourth Ridge barracks over by the gymnasium.
[00:06:54] Bob Eisiminger: And I became with friends with guys in my class, uh, who were in first and second Ridge that I otherwise probably wouldn't [00:07:00] uh, wouldn't have hung out. There's a certain honor for paying the consequences for doing something wrong.
[00:07:06] Tim Hsia: So you turned walking hours into a positive experience, but were there any classes or mentors that were like really helpful with your development as a cadet or person?
[00:07:15] Bob Eisiminger: I could tell you a couple guys stayed down and people always say, who are the professors? You remember? There were a couple of them. One was a Lieutenant Colonel, Fred black, Colonel black was the guy who would talk not only about what was, what was the subject for the class, but as a Vietnam vet era guy, Colonel black would tell you about the arm.
[00:07:33] Bob Eisiminger: And he would tell you a lot about the army and you'd spend parts of probably every class talking about his experience in Vietnam, his experience in an integrated army, you know, experiences in Fort Bragg, anything and everything. And for that, I'll always be grateful to Colonel black, who on occasion, uh, I've seen over the last 35 years, uh, Most recently at ENT chain of command down at Troy air force base in North Carolina.
[00:07:56] Bob Eisiminger: And he's doing great. I can tell you another individual was a guy named [00:08:00] major Belton who taught methodology of research and design class. Uh, and that's a class that I actually reached back to over and over again when I see statistics and, and I want to break down how they got the answer they got to, and I wanna break down what people are faking about when they look at numbers and that's a class that comes back and a professor that comes back to me over and over and.
[00:08:21] Tim Hsia: And at west point, what
was
[00:08:22] Bob Eisiminger: your major? I didn't declare a major. I was the last year that you only had to choose a track. And so you needed to chose, uh, HPE or MSE or HPA. It's a long time ago, but I chose, uh, humanities and public affairs, I think is what it was called at the time. And so I just have a general engineering degree.
[00:08:41] Bob Eisiminger: What branch
[00:08:42] Tim Hsia: did you decide and why? I didn't
[00:08:43] Bob Eisiminger: decide the branch. I decided the. And, uh, backed into everything now, I'm, I'm one of those guys, as you can tell, I had 108 area tours. I finished in the top 90% of my class. And so I really had to take a look at where I wanted to go first. [00:09:00] Right. And so I didn't know if I wanted to make the army a career at the time.
[00:09:03] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, what I did know is that I wanted to be stationed in Germany. Uh, I'd lived there as a kid when my dad was stationed in Frankfurt and I wanted to go back there. And so we had done some straw poles. In terms of branches and locations. And I knew that effort went air defense artillery, that I was almost guaranteed to be stationed in Germany.
[00:09:22] Bob Eisiminger: I had two other branches available to me field artillery, which I probably would've been stationed at Fortilla Oklahoma and infantry, which I cut of saw myself stationed at Fort drum, New York. And as much as I loved west point, I didn't really grow to love it until after I was gone a little. So I really wanted to get out in New York.
[00:09:40] Bob Eisiminger: I did not wanna be station of forts, Oklahoma, and, uh, air defense utility. It seemed like the way to go. And, and it was,
[00:09:46] Tim Hsia: and can you talk us through your experience in Germany and the army overall?
[00:09:50] Bob Eisiminger: Yeah, so Germany, a magical place climate close to Northern Pennsylvania, somewhat night, west point in many ways.
[00:09:57] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, but interesting time for [00:10:00] our military, for our country and for the German people. Now, the cold war was in full force. The Russians were not our friends. Back in the day, the Berlin wall fell. When I was over there, I played on a German soccer team. It was a magical experience. What else happened when I was stationed over there?
[00:10:17] Bob Eisiminger: The first Gulf war happened, uh, certain individuals were cherry picked from the air defense units across Germany, but we also still had a mission in Germany with the cold war. So many of us were left behind during the first Gulf war. I was, uh, on duty in Germany, making sure that the Russians didn't. Can you
[00:10:36] Tim Hsia: share a bit about your decision transitioning from the
[00:10:39] Bob Eisiminger: military?
[00:10:39] Bob Eisiminger: When I left Germany, it was on the heels of the first Gulf war being over. We just talked about, I, I was unable to participate in, and so I kind of looked at my career if you're gonna stand for 20, you know, back in the day, there was always a thought process of war happens every 20, 25 years. And so the way I looked at it was there probably wasn't gonna be the next one.
[00:10:59] Bob Eisiminger: I probably wasn't gonna [00:11:00] be around. After deactivating two Hawk batteries in Germany, it seemed like, uh, like a good time to take a break in service and serve our nation in other ways. And so PCs back from Germany to Fort BLIS, Texas, and, uh, let them know I wasn't going to the advanced course. And, uh, I got assigned to a real crappy job in headquarters battery, where I was in the basement of the headquarters, building of the air defense school, working for a major who wasn't a very happy.
[00:11:28] Bob Eisiminger: After having a conversation with my father about the lack of, you know, professional, um, satisfaction of working one for this individual and two doing the job that I was doing, he said, well, go find another job. I said, give me some more direction on that dad. And he goes, well, get out of the basement, go out the back door, over the headquarters, building and look for other shingles and look for a shingle that has a, a rank higher than major on it.
[00:11:53] Bob Eisiminger: And go tell 'em that you're in the army for another year and you you're looking for some stuff to do. So I did that. I walked out the back door. [00:12:00] I looked to the left and I saw public affairs, Lieutenant Colonel, Dennis Prevo. And I just walked over and I knocked on his office door and I said, I said, sure, you got a few minutes.
[00:12:08] Bob Eisiminger: And uh, told him my story told him I was getting out, told him I'd be a, um, I could be a free resource for him for about a year. If he had the ability to get me assigned to his unit, he made two phone calls and I was no longer working for unhappy. Bob,
[00:12:21] Lance Dietz: as you were transitioning outta the army, can you just give us a brief walkthrough of what you did immediately post-military of the jobs you held and then we'll get to ninth point, which I think is gonna be really exciting, but just a brief overview.
[00:12:33] Lance Dietz: And then we'll dive in from
[00:12:34] Bob Eisiminger: there, back in the early nineties, uh, a good amount of junior officers were, were getting down the military. And there was some boutique firms that serviced those individuals helped them, you know, at job fair weekends, where you could get 10 interviews in over a two day period.
[00:12:48] Bob Eisiminger: I'm sure the same kind of thing happens these days. And so, as I went through that process, it was interesting cuz every everyone wanted, uh, west point graduates to come work for 'em. And so the, the interviews, it was kind like a cattle call. [00:13:00] You interview for 35, 45 minutes to an hour. They may ask you to come back the next.
[00:13:06] Bob Eisiminger: and it, and it was interesting cuz every company I was, I was interested in, I, I got a request to come back and, and talk some more. And it was inter interesting too, because they, they gave you a list of companies they wanted you interviewed for, even if you didn't wanna go to that company, they still asked you to take part in the interview because they thought it would be beneficial, you know, good practice.
[00:13:26] Bob Eisiminger: And so I remember there was one company that I had no desire to work for. It, it was like a mobile home manufacturing company. So I answered everything backwards. It was like a Seinfeld episode, everything, the opposite of the way I would answer it. And the guys, they loved me and they wanted me to come work for.
[00:13:43] Bob Eisiminger: So interesting process. I ended up assigning on with a pharmaceutical company, did sales, sales, leadership, a leadership and management development at the home office and was with them for a while. And in the last job doing leadership and management development, that's where I really decided that I wanted to start my own organization outside [00:14:00] of the industry.
[00:14:00] Bob Eisiminger: I wanted to have the ability to create my own culture, to make sure that people had the right resource. To do the jobs that they were signed up to do to provide a good environment where folks would feel motivated, uh, have passion for what they do and feel like they were part of a. Bob just taking
a
[00:14:16] Lance Dietz: step back.
[00:14:16] Lance Dietz: I think this is so interesting when you started at west point, did you have any thoughts of staying in the military for
[00:14:23] Bob Eisiminger: a career
[00:14:24] Lance Dietz: like your father? Did, did you know that you would likely get out, you know, before that, like go to corporate America, but what was going through your head, I guess throughout west point and throughout the army, thinking about the future
[00:14:37] Bob Eisiminger: of your career.
[00:14:39] Bob Eisiminger: That's a great question, because I think many people who go to west point were like myself, you want 'em to serve the army seemed like a great place to do that. You had visions of serving a long time in the military. And I think originally when I went there, I thought I'd do 20 years. Like my dad, cuz everyone wants to be like their dad.
[00:14:55] Bob Eisiminger: At least if they have a good dad, right. My dad was phenomenal, phenomenal human [00:15:00] being. I, I loved that, man. I respected that man. And he did everything he could to, to make sure his family had what they needed. I wanted to be. I think I originally started with a plan to graduate from west point and make it a career.
[00:15:12] Bob Eisiminger: And then life happens. Right. Air defense is an interesting branch. There was the thought process back in the day that air defense eats their young. I worked with the Hawk missile system. And depending on who you talk to the acronym, H w K and then husband and wife killer, then holiday and weekend killer.
[00:15:28] Bob Eisiminger: And so, you know, a lot of people give us air defenders are hard time, but I would tell you, uh, we were guys who put in a lot of hours and pulled a lot of duty, especially back in the days where the cold war was, uh, was reality. And people worried about the, the Soviet union and. And Russians come in, you know, we had a real mission think back 30, 35 years ago, you know, we had like 350,000 soldiers in Germany.
[00:15:53] Bob Eisiminger: It's not that way anymore. I mean, they've well, there's more there now, but couple years ago, I think they've maxed out at about 35,000. [00:16:00] So it was a different world back then. So you get out,
[00:16:03] Lance Dietz: you take this advice, you go work in corporate America for a bit, and then decide to start your own company. You know, today there's tons of resources for someone to be an entrepreneur, a founder of a company at that point.
[00:16:16] Lance Dietz: Like how did you navigate that? Who'd you turn to, to help
[00:16:19] Bob Eisiminger: you start this company? Yeah, it's interesting. It turned to some buddies. One of the first guys was, uh, the younger brother of my roommate from time in the army and fellow army soccer player, his younger brother, who'd been doing federal sales and software and hardware for years.
[00:16:34] Bob Eisiminger: That's where I started over a beer thinking about, Hey, what could we build? Uh, and then we got a couple other guys involved. We were bus sales guys in two different ways, and we knew that we needed someone technical. So someone who was a brilliant technologist and we found that guy, his brother came along with him and his brothers was a kind of a brilliant strategic.
[00:16:53] Bob Eisiminger: Kind of guy. It was interesting too, because every person that came and built the original team, it was a collegiate athlete. Right? [00:17:00] That was, I think part of the thing too is, uh, and it helped me when I looked for other people that I was gonna bring within the organization. I looked for collegiate athletes who had good experience, good head on their shoulders.
[00:17:09] Bob Eisiminger: Cuz for me, those were folks who wanted to win. Those were folks who were competitive and most importantly, those were folks who didn't like losing. It's such an interesting
[00:17:17] Lance Dietz: point. Like there have been a handful of guests that we've had on and this thread of the intersection. Military experience sports background and entrepreneurship seems to be common for a lot of people that have gone on to be pretty successful.
[00:17:33] Lance Dietz: Yeah,
[00:17:33] Bob Eisiminger: it's crazy. So I'll tell you this, you know, just in the Washington DC area, there are, um, there's no less than five army soccer players that have started businesses in the Washington DC area in, in technology. And so there's an ecosystem and there's a huge ecosystem of west point graduates, especially around the Washington DC that have entrepreneurial skills, a mindset.
[00:17:55] Bob Eisiminger: We are different than the other academies. And we're totally different because [00:18:00] they don't have the same thing I will run into. Or I used to run into meetings in the DC area, GovCon practices, I'd run into west pointers all the time. Air force guys. I think the majority of 'em don't land in the DC region for whatever reason, you know, a lot of those guys are pilots.
[00:18:17] Bob Eisiminger: I can think of two air force graduate. That are predominant that are around the space in Washington, DC in the, in the small business mid-size business area. And those guys are rock stars, right? Naval academy, guys. Very few very. Yeah. I
[00:18:32] Lance Dietz: mean, it's a big thread that we hear a lot. So in 2005, you start night point systems, you know, punchline, 15 years later, I think it's like 500 or so employees you sell or 250 million.
[00:18:44] Lance Dietz: It's a lot to cover in there. My first question is just, I mean, that's an incredible outcome when you guys were starting this in your minds, did you have any idea that this is what it would become.
[00:18:54] Bob Eisiminger: So I'll tell you. Yes and no. We were a purposely build company. We originally started out as a [00:19:00] VAR, trying to get some service to value, added reseller, trying to get some services.
[00:19:03] Bob Eisiminger: And we realized very quickly within the first, probably 12 months that, that we could be a really good VAR and, you know, have a great life, but there would never be like a, a great exit at the end. Right. Because you just don't have the recurring, recurring revenue for the most part. As we were growing. And as we were growing with, you know, lower margins as a reseller four, five, 6%, you know, one of the things that we decided to do was to shed that part of the business and really focus on services.
[00:19:32] Bob Eisiminger: It was within a couple years that we no longer did value outta reselling. We focused on services and we made a few very pivotal hires over the next few years, that would help us. Really kind of morphed the business and changed directions. And so one of 'em, um, another army vet, an enlisted guy who was had incredible relationships and skill set around infrastructure and had built, uh, incredible relationships.
[00:19:56] Bob Eisiminger: And so he was, he was one of our first hires, as we decided [00:20:00] to get in the infrastructure business. The great thing was back then, the president had signed data center consolidation initiative, really trying to reduce the footprint of the federal government and the amount of data centers that they. And we all of a sudden became a very good infrastructure company that focused on data center migration data center consolidation.
[00:20:20] Bob Eisiminger: And when we were really, really good at it, you start getting a good reputation within a niche. Uh, and we had that for data center consolidation and moves. I'm
[00:20:30] Lance Dietz: curious, like kind of, as you were building the company, I mean, how much of your experience in the military dictated how you built the team, the processes you used, the culture you established, et
[00:20:40] Bob Eisiminger: cetera.
[00:20:41] Bob Eisiminger: My experience at west point and then in the military, it really helped in a lot of ways, one, it helped with. You know, if you just throw a bunch of people together, you don't have any process. You soon will find a bunch of people who are frustrated. And part of that process is the accountability and responsibility for people to take certain roles.
[00:20:57] Bob Eisiminger: And within our organization, we really wanted to make sure [00:21:00] that people were doing jobs. One, that they were technically competent, but two ones that they were confident and even overconfident, that they knew exactly what they were doing, that they had the right resources, the right experience, the right certifications, so that they could perform at a high.
[00:21:16] Bob Eisiminger: You take a couple of those things. And to me, that's what the military's all about. Right? You take a bunch of people, you pull 'em together, you put some processes in place. You make people responsible, you keep people accountable for what they're supposed to do. Then you create a super team. And so at nine point systems, we started with a super team.
[00:21:34] Bob Eisiminger: A great technologist is our CTO, amazing sales folks. Our CEO was incredible strategic tactician, and all these guys have had great careers elsewhere in software hardware, sales company. Uh, but they also knew the services business. The other key thing is we always looked to hire a players who would be added into the team and there would be some synergistic effect that would make the team and the company that much.
[00:21:57] Lance Dietz: Any particular like challenging [00:22:00] experiences that you had to navigate through. I'm curious if you could share like one or two, if any of those happened,
[00:22:05] Bob Eisiminger: there were some personality differences you have to sometimes, uh, work through. We had two brothers that were part of the senior leadership team and sometimes two brothers working together is not always the best thing.
[00:22:16] Bob Eisiminger: And so there were some challenges there, but at the end of the day, these guys knew that they had to work out their challenges and do what was best for the organization in terms of getting along during business hours. And eventually it all works, works out. Right. So I would say that was, that was challenging.
[00:22:30] Bob Eisiminger: We had some, uh, some challenging situations with one of our customers on an occasion. The customer didn't really understand the contract that we were working under the customer. Also didn't understand that the reason we were having people leave that contract wasn't because of the culture of nine point systems.
[00:22:46] Bob Eisiminger: It was because the culture of that government organization, that he was the principal driver of the culture and that I could do everything I could to create a culture under my folks. When he would come in from the sides [00:23:00] with toxicity, it just didn't work. And it was interesting. We had lost a few people where we were still accomplishing the mission, getting the job done.
[00:23:06] Bob Eisiminger: He called a weekly meeting. He wanted me there as a CEO. I went there probably nine weeks in a row on a Thursday afternoon at four o'clock downtown DC. And at a certain point, I just said to him, I said, no, sir. I said, you could be part of the problem where you can be part of the solution right now. You're part of the problem.
[00:23:22] Bob Eisiminger: He wasn't happy initially, but I think he finally took ownership of it and realized that, that he was part of the problem. We eventually lost that work. I knew I was gonna miss the people. Some people were able to bring over and put 'em on different contracts, but I wasn't happy not to be working for that customer.
[00:23:38] Bob Eisiminger: I wanna
[00:23:38] Tim Hsia: zoom out a bit for a lot of military veteran entrepreneurs these days, they think of, I think, broadly tech and they also think a lot about dual use. Whereas Bob, you built night point to be very much a company that serves the government. And so I'm curious, would you recommend that. Area or [00:24:00] sector for veterans who are transitioning or would you say it's just a lot of luck and a lot of bureaucracy,
[00:24:05] Bob Eisiminger: I would recommend anybody go to work for the government.
[00:24:08] Bob Eisiminger: And let me tell you why, because if you can be successful. In working through some of the bureaucracy, the government pays their bills. I talked to buddies of mine that are entrepreneurs and, you know, small business construction companies, you know, small business painting companies, you name it. These guys, the biggest problem they have is a small business is getting paid.
[00:24:28] Bob Eisiminger: Right? So cash flow is always an issue when you work for the federal government. The one thing that does happen, especially if you're a small business, is if you submit a proper invoice and your invoice is correct, you'll get. Almost immediately, you wanna remove the biggest headache of being an entrepreneur, go and do business with a place that will pay you right away.
[00:24:48] Bob Eisiminger: I've heard nightmares of waiting 60 days, 90 days to get paid, uh, other companies using your work as like an interest free loan government. Doesn't do that.
[00:24:58] Tim Hsia: In terms of [00:25:00] going back and doing another startup, do you think you have the appetite for working to do another rodeo or you're like actually, you know, I'm interested in pursuing other areas and so would love to hear kind of like what's evolved since nine point solutions and how you're thinking about
[00:25:15] Bob Eisiminger: opportunities now.
[00:25:16] Bob Eisiminger: So I will tell you when I left nine point systems, when I sold, I tried to get a job with the company that bought us. And that was the first time I've ever tried to get a job where they didn't. So, you know, little humble pie, but I get it. You don't need a couple CEOs. I did some consulting work for the company that bought us for a little bit and then COVID hit.
[00:25:35] Bob Eisiminger: It just seemed like the world slowed down a little bit. And so I woke up one day in July and said, I think I'll just go back to grad school and kind of looked around and said, all right, well, where can I get in where I don't have to take a test where I don't have to write a really long essay? Where do I know fellow west point graduate?
[00:25:53] Bob Eisiminger: Who is serving in some capacity in either a business school or, uh, is a professor at the college. And so that narrowed it down, [00:26:00] uh, to a few places. And so I eventually got accepted to Auburn after spending literally, uh, you know, 48 hours trying to do everything I could to make sure I was set up for the right place, getting a lettered recommendation from, uh, a fellow army soccer player who was working at.
[00:26:14] Bob Eisiminger: Auburn school of business, taking part in an interview with a person who had a PhD in organizational psychology, who I really enjoyed having a conversation with them about the Auburn experience about coming back and actually about how much I would get out of it, but also what I might be able to help put into the program.
[00:26:32] Bob Eisiminger: I also looked at North Carolina, I looked at Syracuse. And at the end of the day, I wanted to go to a place that had a good football team. I wanted to go to a place that, uh, one day I may wanna retire to that town and, you know, become like a college sports, uh, fanatic. Not that I'm not already, but, you know, looking for some place that could be part of, part of my next life.
[00:26:51] Bob Eisiminger: I will tell you, my, my wife also went to Auburn, so she was pushing me to get my graduate degree at Auburn. And so that worked out pretty good.
[00:26:57] Tim Hsia: Amazing before we go to the next [00:27:00] segment. Any general, broad startup tips you have given your work at night point?
[00:27:06] Bob Eisiminger: I think a couple things. One starting a company is, uh, tough.
[00:27:10] Bob Eisiminger: I recommend to everybody find someone who you enjoy spending time with not necessarily your brother or your dad or your spouse, but find someone you enjoy spending time with and, and start a company with someone else. Your network immediately becomes twice as big. Or, you know, 1.5 times as big, depending if you're both west point graduates.
[00:27:28] Bob Eisiminger: But I think the entrepreneurial journey is a lot more fun when you're taking the journey with someone. I had a few business partners and every single one of 'em provided some kind of unique ability to the organization that would help drive us further. And so it wasn't one plus one equals two is one plus one equals three, one plus one plus one plus one equals like seven or eight and we were all good at very different things.
[00:27:51] Bob Eisiminger: And we all enjoyed doing different parts of the. That whole thing was synergistic hire the right people, right? Pay 'em. Well, [00:28:00] last thing you wanna do, if you look at some of the statistics of how much does it cost to replace someone who leaves your organization. And it typically, you know, if you're trying to save, you know, X amount of dollars, if that person leaves and they were really good and they fit within your organization were good for your culture, it's gonna cost you their salary.
[00:28:16] Bob Eisiminger: And then some, in many instances to replace that same talent. Don't be afraid to take the journey with someone don't be afraid to like slice off a little, some equity to get the right person to join. Now don't give, don't give stuff away. We made this mistake of doing that. We brought in a couple investors in the beginning and we gave away a couple points for not a lot of money.
[00:28:36] Bob Eisiminger: We should have never done that. Cause it ended costing us more money that was worth, but take the journey with.
[00:28:43] Tim Hsia: One last point that I wanna round out is you said Westpoint entrepreneurs are different. And we actually have some Naval academy, air force, coast guard listeners. And so not to offend them, but I'm curious for our Westpoint listeners, how are Westpoint [00:29:00] operators, startup, founders, different
[00:29:02] Bob Eisiminger: and nothing against any of those other services.
[00:29:04] Bob Eisiminger: Those guys are all great, except except the one thing I will tell you is. The west point experience and the army experiences. There's a little more suck. It's different. You know, we don't eat off of plates in many instances when, when we're doing our jobs, we don't always get to go home every night. When you talk about going to the field in the army, you're going to the field.
[00:29:25] Bob Eisiminger: It's just a different environment. I think that the bonds seem to be a little bit closer. People tend to pull together a little bit more and I'll tell you this, this comes from one of my really good friends. Who's a, uh, air force academy. Grad runs a very successful company in Washington, DC area, incredibly talented individual.
[00:29:40] Bob Eisiminger: And he would tell you that the west point guys stick together, take care of each other, look out for each other more than anybody else. I had a retired Navy captain that worked for me D said the same thing. He said, you know what? You, west point guys. The way you look out for each other, the way you help each other, the way you share best practices across business.[00:30:00]
[00:30:00] Bob Eisiminger: He goes it's, it's amazing. He, he said he wished more Naval academy. Guys did that for others. You know, I think one of the questions, um, that we talked about was mentorship and there's, uh, tons of older academy grads that, that gave back when I was growing my company some almost 20 years ago now. And I see my role now, as if anyone reaches out to me, I'm gonna go meet with them.
[00:30:22] Bob Eisiminger: Young west point graduates, guys getting outta the service. They wanna talk about, you know, whether she go work for a big or. I will offer up my time to anybody cuz people offered up their time to me. And I think giving back to the community that you came from, that you grew up in is so I.
[00:30:37] Tim Hsia: I can attest to that.
[00:30:38] Tim Hsia: You took a cold email from me and here we are on this podcast. Your note on west point reminds me of this quote that, um, I have mixed thoughts about, but I think it's a powerful one, which is hard times. Create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men and weak men create hard times and the whole notion.
[00:30:58] Tim Hsia: [00:31:00] Sacrifice actually being something that can be beneficial to one. So I think that's pretty interesting. Let's move on to our next segment, the SOP, our standard operating procedure in this segment, we're going to talk about the personal routines habits and words to live by that have been instrumental to our guest success.
[00:31:15] Tim Hsia: What routines or habits did you have in the military at west point that you still adhere to?
[00:31:20] Bob Eisiminger: Number one, get up. It's amazing how much you, you can accomplish. Why the rest of the world is still asleep. I learned that when I was a kid from my father, he used to drop me off about a mile and a half from my house at the edge of my paper route started when I was in about seventh grade and he would drop me off at four o'clock in the morning when he was on his way to work.
[00:31:37] Bob Eisiminger: Now, a lot of times my papers weren't even there. So I'd just tend to sit there on the corner and wait, but get up early. You do that. And it's a force multiplier. The one thing too, that I see with a lot of military folks that is not ingrained in everybody, else's a work. You work until the job's done much to my wife's chagrin.
[00:31:54] Bob Eisiminger: I used to spend a lot of time at the office because I had folks that I worked with that had spent a lot of time in the office. [00:32:00] And so I typically was the first one there. I wasn't always the last one to leave. And as a leader, I don't think you wanna be the last one to leave because then people think that they need to stay until you go.
[00:32:10] Bob Eisiminger: And so I used to push people out of the office at a decent time and tell 'em to get home to their families. I used to get my best work done on Saturday mornings. Get up early on Saturday morning. I could have four hours of non interrupted time. And that's the time typically when I always get the stuff done that if you didn't do it, no one would ever notice.
[00:32:28] Bob Eisiminger: I think the other thing that I learned a long time ago was that, uh, you need to block off time for thanking. I see people who have their schedules full from, you know, seven 30 to five 30 at night. It's like, all right, well, when are you going? When are you gonna think about all that stuff that you're having these great meetings about?
[00:32:45] Bob Eisiminger: You need to block off blocks of two hours, three hours just for yourself. So you have time to think about the things that will bring value to your business. Instead of just doing the transactional check, the box type stuff, it just doesn't work. I will tell you all all through by [00:33:00] career, I'll go back to the work ethic, right?
[00:33:02] Bob Eisiminger: So you can have people who are good at their jobs. You can have people that are great at their jobs. You can have people that are salespeople that have excellent sales skills, excellent knowledge, and you can have people that are just average. So what's the multiplier. What makes one better than the other, the people who are outwork, the other people you gave me someone who wants to put in a full effort, eight to 10 hours, a.
[00:33:23] Bob Eisiminger: I'll take them over a superstar who only wants to work, you know, show up for three or four hours a day all day, every day. Love it.
[00:33:30] Tim Hsia: I really resonate with all your advice, especially the Saturday mornings. I feel like those are the times where you can not just like, think about 50 meter targets and have to be reactionary, but start thinking, um, a bit further out.
[00:33:43] Tim Hsia: There's just no substitute for work. Um, I know that, so. We celebrate work too much. Everyone's bright in this world. And so if there's, uh, if there's something to differentiate, you gotta just, uh, outwork sometimes. Are there any particular people who have served as [00:34:00] mentors beyond the military, so into your civilian career and how did you cultivate those relationships?
[00:34:05] Bob Eisiminger: So it's interesting. Um, I, I have a bunch of folks and I actually call it my cabinet and I have a cabinet of typically five people. And those people sometimes will rotate. As I have that cabinet. I tell people that they're in it. You're a person that I wanna be able to reach out to. I want, I want to be able to have conversations that are a hundred percent real.
[00:34:25] Bob Eisiminger: I want you to, to provide whole honesty and I'm gonna provide whole transparency, uh, back and forth. And, and I've had folks, uh, throughout my careers, they've moved around. Uh, my CFO was always one of those guys, uh, super talented individual who had 25 plus years of experience, uh, doing M and. uh, and there were, there were so many things over the years that Scott would tell me about the right way to do things in business, to make things easier later, simple things like don't mix like, uh, country club [00:35:00] memberships into your business.
[00:35:02] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, and, and especially if it comes difficult, if you have four or five people who have certain percentages of ownerships, just don't do it, you know, keep your finances as clean as possible business expenses or business expense. Even though, some people can think, well, it's country club and I'm gonna take, you know, clients out there.
[00:35:18] Bob Eisiminger: Well, if you're a government contract, you don't have any clients you're gonna take out. And so just keep everything clean. I had experts in leadership that I met when I took, uh, my team up to the, their leadership development group. I, at west point there was one guy that became part of my, part of my cabinet, an amazing individual and, and, and had a thought process completely.
[00:35:38] Bob Eisiminger: Mine in many instances would made interesting. Um, I reached out to guys that, that I thought, uh, down the road would be good guys to have as parts of my network, uh, an M and a guy, uh, who, by the way, we ended up going with a different company to sell, just because, um, we saw some things that, uh, we liked better in the other organization.
[00:35:56] Bob Eisiminger: Right. Had a lawyer, uh, who was part of that group. I have a [00:36:00] retired two star general who was part of that group, uh, who remains part of that. My brother has been part of their group for years. And, um, and, and I, and I think every, everyone should have it and should be people from outside of, outside of your business for the most.
[00:36:15] Bob Eisiminger: This is a great, uh,
[00:36:16] Lance Dietz: transition or segue into our last segment, which is called giving back a lot of listeners here, grads some aren't grads, a lot of people, you know, considering, you know, I guess different transitions from the military to the business world in the business world, et cetera, you are doing a lot.
[00:36:33] Lance Dietz: Now. It seems like as a director on boards, um, you've done a. With the various sort of nonprofits doing stuff with the Johnny Mac soldier fund, the wounded warrior softball team. Like, can you talk a little bit just about your, how you are giving back now and what that means to you?
[00:36:52] Bob Eisiminger: So I'll tell you this, I have an eight month old home, which is, you know, kind of random, cuz I'm not the youngest guy in the world, but, uh, we were blessed with the little [00:37:00] baby boy about eight months ago.
[00:37:02] Bob Eisiminger: And I will tell you what that has taught me is that. My most valuable thing that I have is my time. Right. And so I offer up my time, uh, to anybody who wants it. I just don't want 'em to waste it the last three years. I've, I've spent more time with, uh, with younger grads getting out, getting out, starting companies, senior guys, uh, full bird, colonels, getting out, want, wanting to know what their options are and, and, uh, should they go over for a big, should they work for a small, um, And, and I find those conversations so rewarding and sometimes, uh, they go, wow, your viewpoint's very different than someone else.
[00:37:41] Bob Eisiminger: And I'm like, well, I, I come from a different, different vantage point, right. I ran a small company and I, with the help of others turning it into a mid-size company. And so my viewpoint's a little bit different. Doesn't make it right or wrong. Right. Everybody has different opinions. And, and I think you can learn from having conversations with, uh, just a [00:38:00] plethora of different people who have.
[00:38:02] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, vantage points, uh, and backgrounds. So I love giving back by spending time with, with, uh, younger grads who are getting out, uh, mentorship, friendship, whatever they need, you know, sometimes, sometimes people just need to vent a little bit and by all means, I'll talk to, I'll talk to those folks too. I will, I will tell you, one of, one of my passions is giving back the nonprofits.
[00:38:22] Bob Eisiminger: I support a ton of them. With my time and, and my financial re resources, uh, the one I spend probably the most time and I'm most passionate about is the Johnny Mac soldiers fund, uh, which is named after, at, uh, a 1986 grad, who was the goalie for the soccer team, um, who was killed in Afghanistan and left, uh, five kids at home.
[00:38:45] Bob Eisiminger: Now, his classmates did a great job of pulling together and making sure those kids were taken care of. Uh, and there were, there were then a few, few gentlemen from the class of 86, uh, who got together and said, Hey, we've made a difference here. Let's keep making a [00:39:00] difference. Now for me, it's personal cuz cuz Johnny Mack was one of the guys at west point, uh, who took care of me.
[00:39:07] Bob Eisiminger: Uh, he, he was one company over, he was always stopping by, Hey, how you doing? Um, so he's one of the reasons I made it through west. uh, the other thing is, uh, and this goes back to coming from a, a long line of military service. My grandfather was killed in world war II, uh, right before the battle, the bulge, uh, and he left behind a 10 year old daughter, uh, eight to 10 year old daughter who, uh, who then would, would go on, uh, and go to college under the programs that were available back for, for world war II vets, but they ran outta money.
[00:39:43] Bob Eisiminger: Right. And so, so my mom. Never graduated college because there wasn't, it's not that there wasn't a will. There wasn't a funding. And my grandmother who worked at Sears, certain certainly wasn't the person who was gonna be able to put her daughter through college. Uh, so the Johnny max soldiers fund is an organization that [00:40:00] makes up the difference.
[00:40:01] Bob Eisiminger: From what the federal government will provide through GI bill benefits, uh, for those, those sons and daughters of our soldier sale sailors, airmen, Marines, uh, coast guard, folks who have passed in service. And, and there's always a little bit of a gap. And so for me, I'm passionate about it because, because of two very well connected people to, to my family.
[00:40:22] Bob Eisiminger: And I see the difference that it makes for, for these kids who have the ability to go to college and, and, uh, improve their lives. Bob,
[00:40:30] Lance Dietz: unfortunately, this is all the time that we have for this episode. We'll have to have you back for two, I think. Um, but absolutely incredible to hear about your story as an entrepreneur.
[00:40:39] Lance Dietz: What you're doing now to give back is just remarkable. So thanks again for making time for us. Congrats on the eight month old and yeah, this is just a blast.
[00:40:49] Bob Eisiminger: Appreciate it. I'll say you this in closing and I'll be. This world's what you make it, but you gotta make it. And other people are always part of that.
[00:40:56] Bob Eisiminger: Right? And so relationships are so important. [00:41:00] Uh, the folks that you're gonna spend your time with those are the folks will, who will help create you and make you who you are. Uh, so choose wisely. That's it amazing. Cool. That was awesome. Yeah, thanks, Bob. This has
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