Driven By with Sam Coates

My guest today is PGA Tour Champions Golfer Doug Barron. Doug turned pro on the PGA Tour in 1992, played for nine years, and then was out of the game professionally for seven years. In 2019, when everyone thought he was crazy, Doug flew to Europe, qualified, and finished 5th at the Senior British Open. Since then, he has won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in 2019 and The Shaw Charity Classic in 20...

My guest today is Will Chase. Will is the former CEO of Triumph Bank.  Triumph Bank was started right before the Financial crisis of 2008 with just a few million dollars and sold for over 130 million dollars. The number of new banks opening around the United States has drastically changed since the 2008 financial crisis, and I wanted to find out why. This episode will give you much more than that...

My guest today is Steve Glenn. Steve is an entrepreneur and CEO of Plant Prefab. After closing its series B round at $30 Million, Plant Prefab is locked in on changing the game of how homes are built...   Plant Prefab is backed by high-profile investors, including Amazon, Asahi Kasei, Gerdau Paris Ventures, and Obvious Ventures. They recognize the massive market opportunity that Plant Prefab is ca...

Who says crowdfunding has to be sketchy? There's a new way to access investment opportunities since  the jobs act of 2012 , and this real estate family is bringing direct access to the marketplace. My guest today is Adam Kaufman. Adam is the co-founder of ArborCrowd. Based out of New York City, ArborCrowd is the only commercial real estate crowdfunding platform backed by a publicly-traded mortgage...

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off 2022 than with an interview like this! My guest today is Mason George. Mason is an entrepreneur and business executive with IMC Companies. IMC Companies was started by his Father, Mark George, 40 years ago with just one driver. Today, it is one of the top Intermodal Carriers in the United States. At close to a billion dollars in revenue, it’s quite the...

My Guest today is Garrott McClintock. Garrott is the COO of AcreTrader. AcreTrader is a hot new start-up out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, that recently finished a series its 12 Million Dollar funding round. AcreTrader matches investors with farmland while giving Farmers the land they need to grow their operation.    Did you know that In 1935, there were 7 million farms, and now there are only 2 mill...

My Guest today is Gary Wunderlich. Gary is an entrepreneur and investor. At the age of 26, Gary founded Wunderlich Securities and he and his team turned Wunderlich into a national full service and investment banking firm. 400+ employees and two decades later, Wunderlich Securities sold to B. Riley for 67 Million Dollars.  In 2020, Gary Co-Founded Live Oak Merchant Partners. Since the founding Live...

Before we get started, I want to share a few things about the value with this week's episode. Over the last 20+ months, the world has been in a unique place. There's been a record number of people quitting their jobs, and our country's supply chain has been challenged in extreme ways. Even with these challenges, there are men and women across the United States committed to buckling down and produc...

My guest today is Sam Sawyer. Not many would leave their career at the top of their field to launch a startup disrupting the space they once built their career in. After leaving Dallas, Texas, and working for Silicon Valley Based ZeroDown Sam launched Archetape, where he is Founder and CEO. After an early-stage investment round by Mucker Capital, Sam is building out Archetape and growing it throug...

My guests today are Patrice and Jerry Thompson. Patrice and her family own and operate the legendary Four Way Restaurant out of Memphis, TN. The Four Way attracts visitors from all over the world. In addition to being known for its famous soul food, the Four Way is also a place with rich history and significance. In this interview, you’ll hear how Martin Luther King spent a lot of time at the Four...

My Guest today is Harry Smith. Harry is an author, former public accountant, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Can you imagine moving to a new city at the age of 37 and taking over one of the largest private companies in that city while it’s facing chapter 7 bankruptcy? After growing up in Florence, Alabama, Harry was recruited to Memphis, TN, to take over Schilling enterprises. As of 19...

My guest today is Andy Cates. Andy is an entrepreneur, investor, and community activist. Here’s a little about Andy... - Founder and CEO of RVC Outdoor Destinations - Managing Member of the Value Acquisition Fund - Founding Chairman and President of the Memphis Fourth Estate (Daily Memphian) - Founding Chairman of the Soulsville Revitalization Project (one of the largest inner-city revitalization...

My guest today is Karen Carrier. Karen is an artist, chef, and entrepreneur. Karen began her career in New York City after dropping out of college and enrolling in culinary school. She got her start working with Chef Susan Trilling, and the rest is history. Karen is nationally recognized by publications such as New York Times, Food and Wine, National Geographic, Garden and Gun, and more. Karen has...

My Guest today is Hilliard Crews. Hilliard is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Hilliard left his family's business and started MCR safety in 1974. As of 2019, MCR had sales of 255 Million dollars worth of Personal Protective Equipment. You may not know that Hilliard's first year in business, he made just $3,000 and got a job working at night at a truck line to supplement his families...

My Guest today is Scott Sauls from Nashville, TN. Scott is the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Prior to moving to Nashville, Scott served on staff under Tim Keller in New York City at Redeemer Church . You may ask, what prompted me to ask a pastor for the first time on this podcast? I wanted to have Scott on this podcast because I heard that when he moved from New York Ci...

My guest today is Steve Nash. Steve is the founder of Advance Memphis. Advance Memphis was founded over 20 years ago when Steve had it on his heart to help men and women find financial stability through work. There was no elaborate plan, and Steve’s work started when he left his job and drove his grandmother’s Toyota Camry picking up people and driving them around the City of Memphis to find work....

Hey Everybody, I’m doing a re-release this week. I am going to air one of the episodes I have heard the most feedback from since this one was released on the last day of 2020. My Guest today is Jean McGhee. Jean and her Husband Shawn acquired Hollywood Feed in 2005, and it is the fastest-growing pet retail store in the Country with 106 stores. As you know, the Covid pandemic caused many changes, b...

My guest today is James Maclin. James is out of Memphis, TN, where he is the founder of M&M Enterprise, a multi-family real estate company. Before founding M&M Enterprise, James spent 20+ years working for the extremely successful Mid America Apartment Communities. Mid America was founded by Memphian George Cates and is an incredible success story.  On this episode with James, you’ll hear:...

My Guest today is Garrott McClintock. Garrott is the COO of AcreTrader. AcreTrader is a hot new start-up out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, that recently finished a series its 12 Million Dollar funding round. AcreTrader matches investors with farmland while giving Farmers the land they need to grow their operation.   Did you know that In 1935, there were 7 million farms, and now there are only 2 milli...

My guest today is Brent Beshore. If you haven’t heard of Brent before, I bet you’ll be impressed with his story. After starting and acquiring companies in his 20’s, he now is CEO of Permanent Equity, where he and his team currently own 11 plus companies and oversee the deployment of 300 million dollars in capital. Brent and his team believe in owning companies for the long run hence the name Perma...

My guest today is Dr. Dennis Black. Dr. Black is one of a kind. I heard of Dr. Black from a listener to this podcast, and once I heard how established he is as an accomplished researcher and award-winning physician while also being an avid fan of Bonnaroo- I couldn’t resist asking him to be on the show. I had a great time with Dr. Black where we cover: The time when he wanted to be a mad scientist...

My guest today is Ken Masterson. You may know Ken from FedEx, where he built the legal department and was the General Counsel for FedEx from 1979 - 2005. Ken tells a one-of-a-kind story when Fred Smith wanted him to build a value-added legal department. But Ken didn’t stop there; when Ken retired in 2005, he founded Masterson Farms, where he and his team are dedicated to breeding, raising, and dev...

Over the last several weeks, my team and I have had the pleasure of taking my podcast and using it to come alongside and help organizations tell their story to their own people through their own private podcast channel. By creating an exclusive podcast channel for the organization and all of its associates, we help them build further engagement.   This work has been a ton where I prepare by unders...

My guest this week is Kat Gordon. In her mid 20’s, Kat opened Muddy’s Bake Shop thinking it likely wouldn’t make it. Thirteen years later, Muddy’s is one of the top bakeries in the United States.   This pandemic has been incredibly difficult for businesses across the country, and Muddy’s is no exception. Muddy’s completely shut its doors for several weeks before reopening one of its locations, but...