Chris Van Dusen on Building & Selling 3 Businesses, Scaling a CBD Brand to 120 Employees, Managing $400M+ Investments & the Biggest Lessons on Consistency, Capital, Leadership and Growth for Entrepreneurs Worldwide. (Episode 778 - Chris Van Dusen)

In this episode of the Grow A Small Business Podcast host Troy Trewin interviews Chris Van Dusen from Solyco Capital shares his journey from being unexpectedly laid off in 2009 to building and selling three successful businesses. He reveals how he scaled a CBD company to over 120 employees, navigated the pressures of rapid growth and business exits, and now helps deploy more than $400M in investments through Solico Capital. Chris also breaks down the importance of consistency, leadership, culture, and having enough capital to survive tough business phases. The conversation is packed with real-world lessons on entrepreneurship, resilience, AI, scaling teams, and preparing a company for acquisition.

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Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice.

And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions:

1. What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business?

Chris Van Dusen shares that the hardest thing in growing a small business is maintaining consistent output while managing capital wisely, as many business owners underestimate how much funding and sustained effort it truly takes to keep a business growing long term.

2. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most?

Chris Van Dusen shares that some of the business books that have helped him the most are Principles by Ray Dalio, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and Loonshots, which helped him think differently about innovation, negotiation, and finding asymmetrical opportunities in business.

3. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business?

Chris Van Dusen recommends listening to podcasts like The Diary of a CEO for valuable business insights and leadership perspectives. He also shares that platforms like TikTok can be surprisingly useful for discovering short clips from business podcasts, helping entrepreneurs find new ideas, guests, and strategies before diving deeper into full episodes and long-form learning content.

4. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business?

Chris Van Dusen recommends using Anthropic’s Claude and other AI tools to help grow a small business, explaining that AI can act like additional team members by improving efficiency, automating repetitive tasks, analyzing customer data, and helping business owners make faster and smarter operational decisions.

5. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business?

Chris Van Dusen advises that if he could go back to day one of starting out in business, he would tell himself to embrace the hardship, lean into difficult challenges instead of avoiding them, and trust that the tough moments are part of the journey that ultimately leads to growth and success.

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Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest:

Never underestimate how much capital it's going to take to get you where you need to go – Chris Van Dusen

Find asymmetrical areas of growth – don't compete just like everyone else does – Chris Van Dusen

Money doesn't buy you happiness, it buys you freedom – Chris Van Dusen