00:56:37 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:56:37] S0: Yeah. Alright. So kind of switching gears on the back half of the podcast here, really kind of going more on the personal side with you, if I may. We won't go too personal. We'll save that for, dinner tonight off the off the mic and recording. But as as you've... I... I've always said this to you, and, you know, I'll never forget. I've told you this story a million times. You know, we were we were in Broken Bow, my wife and I, our family, and it's funny being from the South. Ironically, we just had a massive snowstorm. But ironically, from the South, you... Oftentimes your kids are like, I just wanna see snow. So long story short, we go up to Broken Bow, which is Oklahoma, a little north we saw the weather pattern coming across. Fast forward the story, you know, this was probably three, four years ago, and four, five years ago, because it was pre COVID and, you know, we're on vacation, cabins icing over, major group of all of our friends, and we're like, we got to get back home, like, because we don't know how to drive in ice and snow, And I remember you and I were having a conversation. It was kind of the first company, and we won't go into detail here, but it was one of the first companies that were very interested in acquiring Vistar. And I just remember telling you, I'm like, Michael, you have a legacy to leave. There's so much more left. Do you remember this conversation? [00:57:54] S1: I remember you saying. Yes. Yeah.
00:57:54 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[00:57:54] S1: I remember you saying. Yes. Yeah. [00:57:56] S0: Yeah. What what... It it obviously wasn't me that swayed you, but what's made you continue to kind of push? And I know for you it's not, you know, well, I want to get paid a check. For you, it was... It truly was a legacy. And I wasn't trying to, like, poke at the at the... But, like, what... Why is that is so important for you to make sure the acquisition of a company fit... It fit with the people, but most importantly, for you, I want you to be a little, you know, bloviated here about yourself a bit, but, like, a legacy that you've left in the space.
00:58:27 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[00:58:27] S1: Yeah. Look, there's definitely self... Some selfish pride, of course, in, legacy, right? It's that opportunity to say, made this mark somewhere and then, you know, you you fast forward twenty years, is it still there? Right? And I I think the answer will be yes. I think some version of Vistar will still be there in twenty years and same with invite, you know, nearly twenty years later, it is still DV360 is what powers, you know, one of the biggest ad buying platforms in the world. So I got... I'm very proud of that as an individual. But I'll I'll reflect it back to the to the rest of the people. You know, I don't build these companies by myself. I'm surrounded by For sure. Awesome team of people. I I I just kind of guide it for the most part. Most of people do all the real work. And so at the end of the day, like for everyone else, it's their legacy too. Like they were a part of that team to your point. Those are all household first names that the industry knows now across the board, the Vistar team. I think that's, you know, obviously big for everyone else's pride and and their self worth, right? And then also for their future careers of now everyone knows what they're capable of and those individuals could go on to do great things. [00:59:33] S0: And I'd be remiss, you need to give a shout out to your co founder because he is definitely the the quiet human in the... [00:59:39] S1: Mark Chadwick's a beast. Yeah. He's the next level. [00:59:41] S0: Yeah. Mark Chadwick, shout out to you.
00:59:41 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:59:41] S0: Yeah. Mark Chadwick, shout out to you. [00:59:43] S1: Yeah. He's the tech genius. He's, funny enough, you know, Mark, people always kind of corner him as a tech guy, but like, she knows he knows advertising better than us people you'll meet. Yeah. Because he's he's been doing it since the invite days. [00:59:56] S0: If you may, I'd love for you to tell the story when when he when Mark first started with you. [01:00:00] S1: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So we were in Philly and, just starting, early days of invite. And I remember his first day of work, he came in. He's the only guy who's ever done this in my life. He showed up with, two monitors, one under each arm, carrying them into the office. And I was like, did you, like, did you steal those? What are doing with these? And he's like, like, I thought this was a startup. I thought you got to bring your own shit. And we were like, cool. Yeah, they're yours. Bring them in. But he was like, I was like, man, this guy's awesome. This guy's like real into it. Like, he's in the startup life. We were so young at the time too. So yeah. And he was I don't if maybe it's three years older than me, maybe. But like at the time, I think we were 20. So I was like, oh man, this guy's a real real man, like, come in here with his with his own monitors. [01:00:46] S0: I love that story. That's one of my favorite. So, you know, the Vistar legacy and the out of home space, it's... I mean, that's a that's a massive when you talk about like a prideful thing, like this is, you know... [01:00:58] S1: It's nuts.
01:00:58 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[01:00:58] S1: It's nuts. [01:00:59] S0: This is a rough industry. Like, this is like a... You go down a dark alley industry type of thing when you say... [01:01:05] S1: Haven't been on that alley yet, so I'll watch for the next [01:01:08] S0: extra play. I guess what I'm saying is is accepting people, new people into the space is a... It's a very difficult thing. And now for you guys to leave, not only the name of Vistar, but now to your point, like, yeah, programmatic advertising. It... It's conversations that happen on every major, you know, publicly traded out of home company. It's the conversation that investors are talking about. Yeah. You know, that that has to make you extremely proud.
01:01:08 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[01:01:08] S0: extra play. I guess what I'm saying is is accepting people, new people into the space is a... It's a very difficult thing. And now for you guys to leave, not only the name of Vistar, but now to your point, like, yeah, programmatic advertising. It... It's conversations that happen on every major, you know, publicly traded out of home company. It's the conversation that investors are talking about. Yeah. You know, that that has to make you extremely proud. [01:01:33] S1: Yeah. I feel... I mean, it feels an excellent and you feel it every time you go to an event. We talk... Excuse me. We talk about this all the time. Like, you go to an event as a Vistar employee, you feel important, you feel special, and that's exciting. It's motivating for a lot of new people. And I think it's nice to see like, you know, if I go back ten years even, I mean, the general layout of just the diversity of the people at these events now is so different than it used to be. Yeah. The average age has shifted probably by fifteen to twenty years. And these are all people again who are hungry to do something, to work hard, to build something, and I think that's really motivating, exciting. And I don't want to say the out of home space was specifically difficult or something. I think any space like, I mean, say like where I'm from in Texas, like we try to get in an oil and natural gas, right? [01:02:22] S0: Like, [01:02:22] S1: I'm sure that experience, you'd probably be met with similar legacy and similar like, okay, you've you've got to listen, you've got to prove yourself.