Centimillionaire Fireside Chat: Scaling from 0 to 150+ T-Mobile Stores with $600M in Revenue

Key takeaways

• Heiner credits working smart with finding people whose financial and operating skills complemented his own.
• He gave his two partners equal decision-making power, even though he held most of the business, and allowed them to acquire equity.
• His family office emphasizes relationships that can lead to off-market deals, a win-win outlook, and above-average returns alongside quality of life.
• He recommends recognizing that downturns have historically been followed by recoveries, while evaluating opportunities carefully.
• His team chose to run Express Locations with zero debt, preferring to answer to themselves rather than lenders.
• After signing with T-Mobile in 2009, the business grew to 100 stores by 2012. Heiner said the new CEO's Un-carrier strategy helped create a surge in customers the company was prepared to serve.
• The founders initially aimed to open 75 stores, then reset their goal to 200 as new opportunities emerged. They reached 150 before deciding to sell after T-Mobile changed its distributor model.
• The company was largely self-funded, with two minority investors. Heiner said those investors received a 28x return when the business sold.
• Heiner says he makes decisions quickly and adjusts when needed, and learned to spend more time finding strong hires for senior and key leadership roles.
• In his family office, he values patience: he says some of his best business partners were people he had known for 10 years before working with them. He also stresses enjoying family and travel along the way rather than waiting for a final payoff.