We build and steward businesses with an entrepreneurial spirit and a calm spine, where freedom meets responsibility without theatrics. We start and acquire promising ventures, then grow them by investing capital, time, talent, and technology.
As a holding company, we know when to lean in and when to step back. That balance gives operators room to move while keeping the mission clear and the risks contained. The result is focused momentum that compounds quietly and keeps teams proud of the work.
We believe autonomy is the oxygen of progress. Owners and operators who can make decisions quickly, ship work, and learn from customers tend to win. Oversight, in contrast, is the gravity that keeps everyone from drifting into chaos. Neither force should dominate. If autonomy smothers oversight, you get bravado and brittle results.
If oversight smothers autonomy, you get committees, confusion, and slow motion mistakes. The sweet spot sits in an energetic middle where accountable leaders move fast, and clear guardrails keep effort aligned.
Autonomy begins with clear mandates. Every business gets a compact mission, a simple strategy, and a defined budget. Operators choose tools, pace, and local priorities within those boundaries. The goal is to let expertise surface at the edge, not to centralize every choice at headquarters.
We encourage teams to write short plans, commit to measurable outcomes, and review them in open forums. When people know what they are driving toward, they can act with courage. When they see that their choices are visible, they tend to raise their own bar.
We map decision rights so no one has to guess who can say yes. Product leaders own roadmaps and quality. Sales leaders own pricing within guidelines. Finance owns liquidity and runway protection. People leaders own hiring bars. The central team owns exceptions that touch cross-company risk. Everyone can propose ideas, yet the decision maker is single-threaded. This removes the fog that wastes cycles and frays trust.
Oversight is often caricatured as sticky notes and surprise meetings. Our version is different. We focus on risk, rhythm, and resources. Risk means we pay special attention to anything that can harm customers, employees, or capital. Rhythm means we keep a predictable drumbeat of reviews so nothing festers in silence. Resources means we move talent and tools to the places where they will change the trajectory. Good oversight should feel like a wind at your back, not a hand on your shoulder.
We keep standards thin and strong. Security, data privacy, financial controls, brand usage, and hiring practices live in short documents that are easy to read and impossible to ignore. Breaches trigger immediate fixes and, when needed, changes in who holds a given decision right. Teams retain freedom on everything that does not touch those standards. That simplicity lowers anxiety and raises performance.
Healthy systems rely on rhythm. We use a steady cadence so everyone can plan their work. Quarterly planning sets three to five outcomes that matter most, along with the leading indicators that signal progress. Monthly reviews check the signals and the stories behind them.
Weekly syncs exist only for the few cross-functional initiatives that truly benefit from them. In between, people are free to get real work done. If a meeting does not change a decision, we cut it. The result is focus with room to breathe. Time is precious, so we guard it.
Escalations are normal, not a sign of failure. We teach managers to surface issues early, frame options, and ask for the smallest useful decision. Most escalations resolve in one conversation because the preparatory work is good. The tone matters. We assume positive intent, we separate facts from interpretations, and we choose clarity over cleverness. The point is not to win an argument, it is to speed up learning.
Autonomy collapses when information gets stuck. We make reporting simple and visual so anyone can see the state of play. Operators publish a brief narrative, a dashboard of indicators, and a list of risks with owners. The central team publishes shared benchmarks and marketplace observations so local leaders can calibrate their expectations. When information moves both ways, we avoid the trap of top-down guessing and bottom-up surprise.
Metrics are lenses, not verdicts. We favor a small set per business unit, chosen for their power to predict health. Typical examples include unit economics, customer retention, cycle time from idea to live change, defect rates, and time to cash. We compare these to past performance and peer patterns, then ask the only question that matters: is this turning into a strong, durable business? The goal is not to impress with charts, it is to illuminate choices.
Structure only works when people are trusted to use it well. We hire leaders who value clarity and candor. We reward managers who develop talent and who treat feedback as a gift. We teach a handful of principles that travel across industries, serve customers well, measure what matters, and keep commitments. Habits like these change outcomes more than any policy manual. They help us keep autonomy meaningful and oversight humane.
When something wobbles, our first instinct is to coach. Maybe a team is shipping slowly. Maybe costs are outrunning revenue. We pair operators with mentors who have faced similar puzzles, and we agree on the next test to run. If progress stalls, we tighten the loop with more frequent check-ins. If results turn around, we widen the aperture again. Policing may be necessary in rare cases, but coaching preserves dignity and accelerates improvement.
Not everything should be measured at the same altitude. Some pursuits thrive under precise targets, like cash conversion or uptime. Others need generous room, like brand voice, product taste, or long-range research. We protect creative work by setting intent and feedback moments rather than rigid quotas. This keeps imagination from becoming a spreadsheet exercise, while still tying it to real customers and real timelines.
Before the central team intervenes, we ask three checks. First, is there a material risk to people, customers, or capital. Second, is the team missing critical information that we can supply. Third, is the path back to health reasonably clear. If the first answer is yes, we act immediately. If the second or third answer is yes, we assist and then get out of the way. If none apply, we hold our nerve, offer encouragement, and let the team learn.
Intervention should feel rare and necessary. We save it for moments that determine the arc of a business. A hiring decision that sets the culture. A financing choice that changes the runway. A product launch that will define the brand. In these pivotal times we stand shoulder to shoulder with the operators, not in front of them. In the many moments between, we cheer loudly, ask good questions, and protect the quiet needed to build.
Balancing autonomy with oversight is not a magic trick, it is a daily choice. Give people room to move, then make sure the room is well lit. Set a rhythm that makes progress visible, then stay curious about what the numbers mean. Offer coaching before control, and protect creativity without letting it drift from reality.
Do these things with patience and good humor, and you get organizations that are brave, disciplined, and resilient. That is the kind of enterprise that compounds quietly, delights customers, and keeps talent engaged.
Ryan Schwab serves as Chief Revenue Officer at HOLD.co, where he leads all revenue generation, business development, and growth strategy efforts. With a proven track record in scaling technology, media, and services businesses, Ryan focuses on driving top-line performance across HOLD.co’s portfolio through disciplined sales systems, strategic partnerships, and AI-driven marketing automation. Prior to joining HOLD.co, Ryan held senior leadership roles in high-growth companies, where he built and led revenue teams, developed go-to-market strategies, and spearheaded digital transformation initiatives. His approach blends data-driven decision-making with deep market insight to fuel sustainable, scalable growth.
