Lance Barnard, EWMBA 21 - Finding Success in Bringing Companies from 1 to 10

OneHaas

We brought Lance Barnard to the show today to talk about his unique journey into entrepreneurship. Lance is CEO at Ward Road Pharmacy, a pharmaceuticals company that provides the convenience of a "one-stop-shop" for prescriptions and homecare supplies, expert advice, friendly service, and individualized solutions. He acquired it through a self-funded search, where an entrepreneur embarks on the journey of searching for a company without funding or an installed base of investors, opting instead to secure their funding once they've found their company.

Lance grew up in New Jersey but wanted something different when it was time to go to college. So, he went to Southern Methodist University in Texas for his undergrad and studied business, which had always been his interest.

In this episode, Lance shared his career experiences at Goldman-Sachs and Samsung Electronics, how he adapted to different company cultures, and coming to the Bay area to pursue his MBA at Haas, which has its own set of cultures.

Lance also talked about how he was introduced to search funds, why self-funded search appeals to him more than traditional search, and his journey into acquiring Ward Road Pharmacy.

Episode Quotes:

On the time he spent in Texas

“Overall, I enjoyed my time there. I think I got a really good education, learned a lot more just about the energy industry, which I never would have if I had gone elsewhere, got to experience a different perspective, and live in a different part of the country. I think that it did a good job exposing me to a lot of new things.”

On starting with a finance career as a young professional

“I was straddling between do I want to go do a career in finance, maybe go into banking and go into private equity, or did I want to do something more entrepreneurial? In the back of my mind, I probably knew the answer to that, but I thought, at the very least, starting my career in finance would be the best way to gain the core set of skills to be successful in business later in life.”

Why he got into search funds

“It's a bigger version of what I had previously done, buying my Amazon business, but stepping in. And it resonated with me because I don't think I've ever—unfortunately, just never had that spark to bring something from zero to one. I like to tell people I think I'm better suited to bring something from one to 10 than zero to one. I'm just really good at optimizing processes, improving things, efficiency, and having the resources to do big implementations or take some risks. And that's not something I necessarily get to do if I was starting from the ground up with limited resources. So, that model just resonated with me.”

One piece of advice that had a positive impact on his life

“Just not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. And always be comfortable being uncomfortable. I think that's probably a borrowed phrase. I don't know who to attribute it to, but my previous manager told me that. It's something that stuck with me. If you're totally comfortable, you're probably not pushing yourself harder enough.”

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Ward Road Pharmacy

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