Seven years ago, Travis was introduced to the CEO Nexus Roundtable Program. He became a founding member of the first roundtable group in Melbourne.
“Having the opportunity to interact with other owners that are going through similar things I’m facing brings a lot of value to my business. The roundtable groups are made up of peers from non-competing industries, but there’s a significant overlap of issues second-stage business owners face across all fields. You have access to a group of peers that aren’t biased to your organization and you can have open, honest discussions about the decisions you’re considering,” Travis shared.
“We all have different levels of professional education in business. Many of us have degrees in our fields of expertise, but having the opportunity to hear perspectives from people in different industries and listening to the experts CEO Nexus brings in for a variety of topics including cash flow matters, succession planning and business operating systems is helpful.”
Travis knows firsthand what CEO Nexus brings to members, but he also recognizes the impact it has in the community. The program is creating an economic ecosystem across Florida and beyond, providing resources for second-stage business owners, which, in turn, help them better serve their local communities by boosting economic growth and creating job opportunities.
CEO Nexus has had long-standing relationships with Rollins College, the University of Central Florida and other colleges throughout the state, so it was natural for the program to develop a relationship with Florida Tech to offer valuable resources and educational opportunities for business leaders throughout Brevard County.
In addition to fostering educational growth, Florida Tech has a significant history supporting local business owners. Its weVENTURE program, run by Executive Director Kathryn Rudloff, specializes in empowering women entrepreneurs who lead first-stage businesses.
“Now that CEO Nexus has a strong foundation with several CEO groups in Melbourne, it made sense for the program to start having a broader visibility here on the Space Coast. Florida Tech has initiatives such as our weVENTURE program that focuses on first-stage companies and we do quite a bit of work with the enterprise organizations,” Travis explained. “There’s some work happening with the stage-two companies, but I think this is an opportunity for the university to also be more active in the community in figuring out ways to help those stage-two companies grow and be successful.”
“CEO Nexus knows how to interact and help stage-two companies, so I think it’s a nice marriage of what the university has to be able to bring to the table and what CEO Nexus can do to really benefit our business community.”
CEO Nexus now hosts its Melbourne roundtables on campus at Florida Tech. In addition, the university will cohost select events with CEO Nexus such as collaborative workshops and CEO Forums, specifically designed for second-stage businesses in the region. During these events, business owners will have the opportunity to network, hear informative presentations and gain insights from CEO peers that relate directly to the issues they face as business owners.
“The fundamental strength of what CEO Nexus does is the network of movers and shakers it connects. It’s made up of the people that are doing it and who have done it. The network includes people from the university side who are researchers, hold patents and who’ve solved really challenging technical problems. It also includes people from business side who have founded businesses, sold businesses and have done an excellent job growing and scaling organizations.”
Travis continued, “What the CEO Nexus network does, especially when it joins forces with the university, is pull together in one room an incredible amount of knowledge, talent and experience that the individuals in that room than have the opportunity to leverage when solving problems that would be virtually impossible to get access to by yourself, on a one-off basis.”
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