Transcript

BUILT, SCALED, SOLD: TURNED GRIT INTO A MID-EIGHT-FIGURE EXIT || LUKE PETERS || EPISODE 073

From Code To Winning · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 45 min · 9,635 words · 113 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "BUILT, SCALED, SOLD: TURNED GRIT INTO A MID-EIGHT-FIGURE EXIT || LUKE PETERS || EPISODE 073", an episode of Code To Winning published January 19, 2026 (45 min, about 9,635 words). It mentions 8 people, works and ideas, including Luke Peters, New Air, Apex CEO, Bloomberg, Amazon.

What this episode is about

Luke Peters shares his entrepreneurial journey from a hazardous waste scientist to founding New Air, which generated over $600 million in sales before achieving a mid-eight-figure exit. He emphasizes the importance of creativity, open-mindedness, and building a strong company culture in reaching success and guiding others toward similar exits.

Key takeaways

  • From hazardous waste to huge wealth: traditional paths aren't the only roads to success.
  • Creative thinking trumps formal education; a paper route can teach lessons that business school might miss.
  • In a saturated market, a unique vision and culture are your secret weapons for attracting the right talent.
  • Timing is everything: post-dot-com bust proved a fertile ground for new startups to thrive.
  • Collaboration with family turned midnight oil into cash flow; entrepreneurship often requires a shared vision and late nights.

Who speaks in this episode?

  • KG (Host) · 18 min speaking
  • Luke Peters (Guest) · 27 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: New Air, Huntington, Luke Peters, Bloomberg
  2. – 10:00: New Air, Amazon
  3. – 20:00: Apex CEO
  4. – 25:00: Bloomberg
  5. – 30:00: Amazon, Instagram
  6. – 35:00: Instagram
  7. – 45:00: Luke Peters, Apex CEO, Home Depot
  8. – 45:22: Luke Peters

Notable quotes from "BUILT, SCALED, SOLD: TURNED GRIT INTO A MID-EIGHT-FIGURE EXIT || LUKE PETERS || EPISODE 073"

  • That was with New Air. What have you learned about the business to reach that level?
    about New Air · at
  • Figure or eight mid exit as well. So without further ado, the man himself has joined us in the studio. We have Luke Peters. How you doing today, sir?
    about Luke Peters · at
  • Internship in New York when I was still in college. I did it with Bloomberg and I managed to meet Michael Bloomberg and I spent about like 30 minutes with him and one of the…
    about Bloomberg · at
  • Get feedback, but you also get somebody else talking about your product. Not just Amazon reviews are great, product reviews are great, blogs are great, but have somebody videoing talking about it.
    about Amazon · at
  • I love that which kind of segus perfectly. I want to talk about Apex CEO. All right. When did you start that?
    about Apex CEO · at
  • I'm trying to get an exit. But I also I look at like stuff like the founder of YouTube and I look at Kevin Stradon, the founder of Instagram. I'm I want to get a big payout cuz…
    about Instagram · at
  • Because we had inventory in both warehouses and we're dealing with large customers, Home Depot and all the big brands and we were miss shipping their orders and some of the…
    about Home Depot · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Luke Peters — Person · Main guest · 3 mentions · first at
    Primary interview subject sharing his entrepreneurial journey founding NewAir, scaling to $600M+ in sales, exiting for ~$50M, and now advising CEOs via Apex CEO on profit growth and exit readiness.

Companies & orgs

Places & events

  • Huntington — Place · 2 mentions · first at
    College. So, it was a government job, fancy title, a long drive from Huntington driving and out to Glendale.

Full transcript with timestamps

wasn't a great student, you know, barely made it through high school. Got excited in college, graduated and I was a hazardous waste scientist, okay, after college. So, it was a government job, you know, fancy title, a long drive from Huntington driving and out to Glendale. Okay. And I did, you know, I thought, you know, I followed the rules, went to college, did all that stuff.

You've made over $600 million in sales. That was with New Air. What have you learned about the business to reach that level?

So many things. I made a lot of mistakes. I didn't have like a business school education. I worked a lot as a kid, you know, I had to paper route and all those things. So we always had jobs. So mainly it was okay. So like the main things I would say is you have to be creative and open-minded. I think most entrepreneurs obviously when they're successful it's cuz they're creative.

How do you get the right people to see the same vision that you have? Okay. Well, I mean that's building a culture. The code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today I actually have a very very good interview and also great guest that's going to be talking a bit more about his journey, his entrepreneurial journey. Uh so I'm going to give you a brief introduction. He started his business from a garage. So it's a garage startup founder and end up like selling his company about 8 figure exit as well over $600 million in sales. And so if you are in the field where you want an exit as well, we're going to be talking about a gentleman who started New Air, selling it off, and currently is um teaching a bunch of CEOs how to get that eight figure or eight mid exit as well. So without further ado, the man himself has joined us in the studio. We have Luke Peters. How you doing today, sir?

Oh, that that was awesome. Thanks, KG. Awesome stuff. No, no, I appreciate that. Um yeah, we love I love love getting guests um talking just about their journey. Um I want to just talk a bit more as well just like where everything started for you. I know you started your company in a garage and stuff like that. Yeah. You know can you just talk a bit more about that?

Yeah. Well ju so just to paint the picture I grew up in a big family. Okay. 12. Okay. So we had anything we wanted we had to go fight and get it and uh went through wasn't a great student you know barely made it through high school. Got excited in college. Graduated and I was a hazardous waste scientist. Okay. After college. So it was a government job you know fancy title. uh a long drive from Huntington driving out to Glendale. Okay. And I did, you know, I thought, you know, I followed the rules, went to college, did all that stuff. My little brother never went to school and was selling stuff online, making a ton of money driving a sports car, and I'm driving a beat up uh Toyota truck, you know, across the five freeway out through LA to work. And he was making a lot of money and I wasn't.

And I thought, "Wow, something's wrong with this picture." I mean, never he never went to school and he was selling stuff online. This is right around 20 uh 2000, right about 2000. Okay. And um so I started looking into it and just you know one thing led to the next and I understood SEO and like oh wow there's this you know obviously people buy electronics but they may also want to buy HVAC stuff and fans and thermostats and all these other products that are not so interesting you know but people still for the ease of it want to buy it online and uh that's where it started really.

Awesome. I love that. And you were born and raised obviously in California, right?

Yeah. Love the state. Love it very much. I I lived in the Bay for about like 5 years,

San Francisco side. But no, that's that's amazing. And so one of the hardest things as well is starting a business obviously with no investors, no funding, and the hardest thing as well is also no safety. Did you have a family at that point in time?

Yeah. Married, two kids. So I I kept working. Okay. But in we burn the midnight oil, so to say, right? So we were, you know, working late at night. My wife, uh, at that time, I think she had just left her job at the second child and then, so she would answer calls during the day as they came in. I built the website at night. She shipped stuff during the day. So we just kind of, you know, put it put her uh team work together and then after about 6 months, we were cash flowing so good that I could leave my job.

Okay. Yeah. But that's that's a big risk and that was in the in the 2000s obviously when this started, right?

Yes. Okay. And that was the the.com bubble, wasn't it called? It was right after the bubble.

Okay, so it's actually a good time when you think about it, right? It's like the bubble happened and that was that may have been even a better time if you think about it. But then there was a then there was a bust. Okay, so that vacuum allowed for opportunity and new startups.

I I love that. I think um one of the this one's not not yet uh uploaded. Matter of fact, we was just over the cell phone interview when I did an internship in in New York um when I was still in college. I did it with with Bloomberg and I I managed to meet Michael Bloomberg and I I spent about like 30 minutes with him and one of the questions I asked him uh was obviously starting like the Bloomberg organization and stuff like that. But what shocked me, he spoke about what you spoke about, he often said in his situation is more luck than anything. He said he was he seized an opportunity at the right time and he was at the right place at the right time. And I think sometimes uh when we speak about this thing, would you say your story was very similar in terms of starting this thing was it opportunist or how would you like define that that moment for you?

It was opportunist but there's always opportunities is that the way I look at it like now there's opportunities. Five years ago there's opportunities there'll be opportunities in five years. Um, but sometimes the opportunity matches your skill set for some people or you know, you just have an open mind and be creative and and you're going to find opportunities everywhere.

And so you've made over $600 million in sales. That was with New Air. Yep. Right. Um, what did you what have you learned about the business um to reach that level? Like what made you reach that level?

Oh jeez. I mean so many things. So we made I made a lot of mistakes. So I didn't have like a business school education. I I worked a lot as a kid, you know, I had the paper route and all those things. So we always had jobs. So mainly it was uh okay so like the main things I would say is you have to be creative and open-minded. I think most entre entrepreneurs obviously when they're successful it's because they're creative. Okay. And then most people that don't get there it's because they're not I think creativity is like the most important. Okay. Because you're constantly having to solve problems. So you may have a great idea but then that you have to iterate or after five or 10 years that idea is not so good anymore and then you got to go somewhere another direction. Right? So, you got to be um you have to have that flexibility in thinking. And then the other thing I learned is um hire the best people who

have already done what you want to do. Okay, that took me a while to figure that one out because those people cost a lot of money. So, but uh yeah, when you hire people who are experienced and they've already been there, you're going to learn from them. So, you want to hire people that, you know, smarter than you, elevate you, and and and if you look around all the big companies, you know, we're here in LA, huge companies, they're all actually like their number one thing is find the best talent, just like a sport, you know, the Lakers across the street. So, it's the same attitude, but a lot of small businesses don't have that attitude because they want to save a few dollars.

What would you say then was your the greatest competitive advantage that your product had that others didn't have?

Okay. Yeah. Well, what what we did is okay, so we're selling a product that is basically it's many of them were refrigerators, ice makers, wine coolers, really fun categories like that that you know like especially wine cigar humidors you could talk you know these things are products that people might hobbyists might be using or they they want to talk about it. Um, early on we sold like portable air conditioners and thermostats, not so interesting to talk about, right? So, it's good to get into a category that people want to talk about, okay? Because then you can leverage it because what you want is you want other people talking about you or your product if you're the one talk.

Like back in the early days, everybody wrote blogs and it was the brand saying, "Look at me. Hear me. Listen to me." But what you really want is you want other people saying, "Hey, look at New Air. Check out New Air. look what they're doing, look at this product, which you we everybody knows now with social media influencing, but they still don't utilize it as much. So, we did, to answer your question, a competitive advantage. We were the only, you know, specialty appliance company using influencers and we started this strategy, you know, eight, nine years ago.

So, that was good because you get and then you learn from them and improve your product, too, because you might have a builder, okay? You might have a designer. They're talking about your product and they're putting it in there and then they give you feedback. So, you get feedback, but you also get somebody else talking about your product. Not just Amazon reviews are great, product reviews are great, blogs are great, but have somebody videoing talking about it. Lifestyle, that's what you want.

Interesting. No, that that's that's pretty awesome. And how much did you sell your company for?

Uh, right around 50. 50 million. Yeah. That Wow. Um the reason I'm asking this um I look at uh multiple different companies especially like from the period of 2007 to about like 2012 um when I look at stuff like MySpace I look at Blockbuster I look at many companies that

may even Nokia Blackberry that may have had perfect exit opportunities and because of just uh latest innovation that fell short of that you know I know my space had an offer to get to get bought out way before Facebook as it was like a big thing then. Would you say you had the perfect exit or do you think you probably could have gotten more had you just waited a little longer?

No, I was I was very fortunate. I was very fortunate. I love the honesty. What makes you say that?

I mean just with the eb and flow of COVID and where the you know the economy and different areas and the demand in certain areas of consumer products has gone. I I was uh it worked out at a very good time for me.

Yep. That that that's And when did you sell it? That was in 2021. Okay. So, just after CO.

Yeah. Literally just kind of almost in the middle of it, right? But it was uh Yeah. CO I think was 2020, right? So maybe 2019, 2020 and then we exited middle of 2021. So yeah, it's been uh you know, five years, four, four years. Yeah.

Time's flying. Time's really flying. um what are the most important key indicators to try and upscale your business for those companies that are currently small business phase where they're currently like plateauing. Yeah. Okay. So what so what happens okay so I work with a lot of companies and what happens is uh the entrepreneur is usually the engine of the company and then after and and they'll grow and scale but then that entrepreneur kind of gets bogged down with a lot of other things okay running the business systems operations finance sometimes finance is a total disaster so I think um a business needs first of all the pro there has to be a focus on the product and that product needs to have a competitive advantage on its offer so whether it's a physical product, a service, whatever it is, you have to have a competitive advantage, something that is so good there's you remove all friction and the buyer would will want

yours versus the competition. So, usually the entrepreneur has it at the beginning and then some competitors come in and they get busy and they, you know, so their business treks up but then it kind of flattens out and they lose that edge. I'll say you so you got to you got to keep your competitive advantage on your product and then you have to um express that, communicate that and that's marketing and branding. Okay? and and that's um usually if companies just do those two things right, they'll be successful. But the third pillar is going to be on the sales side. Okay? How you know if you look at how a company is selling and how they're actually um you know getting their offer out into the marketplace and trying to you know convert change somebody's mind like to buy their service product or service versus another. Most companies um many get too re reliant on just being what I would call farmers. Okay? They're kind

of tending to the fields. You know, they're making sure the fields are nice and clean. What comes their way they're happy with. Not enough are going out and being aggressively uh getting those sales, which you'd call hunters. Okay? So, you got to get out and hunt. That would be the the other thing is have And when you put all that together, you can win. It gives you a few different ways to win. You can win because you've got the best offer. You can win because you're communicating that through branding and marketing. And you can also win because you got somebody every single day calling, talking, get in front of potential customers. So you want to be doing all of those. And a lot of times, you know, after a couple of years, you know, the entrepreneur is like overwhelmed, still doing everything himself or herself and hasn't brought in leaders so that they can kind of scale.

Spot on. One of the things you mentioned earlier on, you said you end up also hiring the right people. Yes. Um, I look at just my different departments on my podcast and I can say, um, often people ask what's the hardest thing personally for us and I love the interviews. I love, um, obviously having a blueprint, but just like I haven't even asked a single question. I probably just won out of the first five, but like just engaging and finding out the success of people cuz I feel like that's what gets my viewers and gets me excited as well.

But the hardest thing, it's not even like the numerous travels. It's getting those that see the same vision as you. Like I want the reals and like the marketing side just to pop up. I want like the videos to be very unique rather than just every other podcast. But it takes I think I had to go through about 25 editors to get the right person say I don't care what your price is, man. I've seen enough of your work.

My point to what I'm asking right now is how can you just create or how do you get the right people to see the same vision that you have? M okay. Well, I mean that that's building a culture. Okay. So, when when you build a culture and everybody has a culture whether they know it or not, every company has a culture. Okay. So, but you want to you want to dictate that culture in a positive way is you you want to direct that culture as the leader of the organization. Okay. So, having a culture, but um the thing is to your question, you you also I would say um maybe conversely maybe a different way to look at it is you want somebody to come in actually and challenge your your vision also. So, you do want the other side of it, okay? Because if it's just all your way, um it's going to be hard to get the talent that that's going to come in and say, "Hey, we can actually do it this way and it's 10 times

better." And what but what you want is someone who's already done that. Okay? Not someone who's just talking the talk. So, so you you want someone who's kind of uh so that that's how I would look at it is hire uh and it depends, you know, on on on the owner's personality. Like for me, you know, we had a very free flowing way of communication. People disagree with me all the time, but it was best idea wins. That that that was that was the way it was. Best idea wins, okay? Um and so I wanted to hear those ideas. And then and the thing is most times the leaders and I made this mistake too early on I wouldn't let those ideas flow, okay?

Because I would maybe shut people down. So you have to learn, you know, don't shut people down, right? Because what what you say as a leader matters way more than you think it matters. M you know you're thinking oh that didn't matter what I said over there at the meeting but the the the team hears everything that the leader of organization says and they may pull back you know and and so you have to be kind of cognizant of that as well.

And then just follow up to that then how do you earn loyalty um obviously from your team not necessarily through fear or or perks but actual through genuine belief. In other words, I don't want people out there just having in the back of their head like if I get something bad, I could leave. But the vision is aligned and they actually believe in the mission.

Yeah. Well, I I think what's going to see the thing is you're going to what I think a lot of entrepreneurs do is they worry too much about well this is a human trait. Okay. We worry too much about what other people think of us. Okay. This is a human trait. Okay. There's a lot of books written on this by the way. Okay. So, I think the quicker and earlier you you don't I mean, that's an important thing because you need to be empathetic of others and understand others, but you can't make your decisions on what other people think of you. Okay? So, the quicker people get to that point in their life, the better for everything in their life, not just business, right? So, when you're leading a business, I think it's a big mistake to sort of worry too much about h how everybody thinks, you know, because you can't make everybody happy.

So, you have to set the vision. You have make sure it's good and bring your team in setting the vision, by the way. Okay? Okay. So, when you're setting the culture, setting the vision, get everybody's kind of buy in, you can do that by by knowing where you want to go. Let's say you're setting your let's say a company's been around for 10 years and they've never actually written out their company culture. They've never written out the vision. Instead of the CEO just going and doing it one weekend, the CEO would could still say, "Hey, I actually want to go here." But they don't need to explicitly say that to their team. And they can say, "Hey, let's have a meeting. I want to know, you know, we need to define our culture. We need to define our future." and they can guide the team go to go there but have the team actually buy in and come up with the idea. So that that's the nuance that you want to do.

Awesome. I'm just very passionate about this hiring and and and and team thing because I feel like it it it's the foundation of a company and and also sets the president of the direction and trajectory every like company would be heading as well

which kind of still goes another question regarding that. um when you were looking at hiring y uh did you necessarily

look at those that were more talented or those that were more hungrier? Yeah. Okay. Well, both. Okay. But depending on the position, but I would say the mistake is when companies don't hire the experience. That that's a mistake. You're always going to want to get, you know, maybe some new upand cominging hungry people that really want and and you you need those and those are your great culture fits, but you need other I would say this. Um, everybody can look around and say, "How many leaders do I have at my company? How many people could can I take off for a month?" And leaders are going to run, not just systems, but there's leaders that can make decisions. The hardest thing to hire is somebody that can make a decision.

Okay. So, um, so that would so I would say that's what I learned later on. And there's a number of ways to do that. Um, and you and it's worth using, um, executive recruiters in a lot of cases, by the way, and paying a lot for them to do it because that's all they do. and they don't make as many mistakes as you might or I might. Yeah.

Interesting. No, that's that's awesome. Um, yeah, I think sometimes when you struggle with people that can't take initiative or actually make a decision and and just like do you think you have a um do you think there's a problem right now of people and and CEOs that are over micromanaging uh people right now? um you know there's a balance because the there's a lot of problems with CEOs who don't know what's going on too.

So so it goes both ways. It's the micromanage and then it's also um and and and I've been there. Everybody's been there, right? So I'm not uh I'm part of I I was part of that problem too. But it's like I've been on both sides of it. So I think there's a balance. I think I think what it is is you have to find a way to communicate to where you show you trust your team,

right? And then you can dig into things. You're not you're not you you you want to come from a place of hey let's understand this together and find the best problem rather than let me dig into your work because I don't trust what you're doing. You see so and and that so I do think it's important actually the CEO's is responsible for the organization. So the CEO needs to know all the lines on the P&L. The CEO needs to understand the operations and understand the the their customer. So they and I and I think most of the time when there's problems the CEO doesn't go deep

almost out of fear sometimes you know fear and also being overwhelmed. So uh yeah there there's a lot to that.

I love that which kind of segus perfectly. I want to talk about Apex CEO. All right. When did you start that?

Uh couple years ago. Yeah. Really really just about a year ago. I sold the business took a little bit of time off and then just uh started about a year ago.

Okay. All right. And can you just talk a bit more about Apex CEO the mission then we can go in detail with it as well.

Sure. Okay. So the mission is uh it's CEO oneonone working directly with CEOs on a performance basis to increase the profits of their business. But the differentiator here is that we are going to get them positioned for an exit.

Okay. So I think most companies um I mean you're young but like eventually most people they they they want to get to an exit. Okay. but they may not even admit it because they they secretly know they're not ready for an exit. There isn't a buyer for their company. Okay? But if there was a buyer at the right price, they people would be happy to exit and move on to the next stage in their life. So, um there's there's a lot of information on how to exit and what the numbers are. But, you know, even back to my newer days, I think most um problem solving is over complicated.

Okay. Okay. I think if I, you know, when I get into a company, I think how I can help the CEOs is make things less complicated, not more complicated like a consultant does. So, so usually it's focusing on margins and focusing on their product and understanding why they can't get the margins, which usually means their product may have an issue or it's not differentiated or they're in like a a red ocean, you know, with so much competition and so they might need to make a little bit of a pivot. So, and and then how they can kind of steer the company to the next chapter of growth to be positioned for an exit. And there's a lot of other things we work on as well, but that's sort of the the different angle I'll take on it. And then when obviously people look at your resume and they can see the exit that you had in terms of getting um you know 50 plus million dollars uh for your company.

What about those that aren't even making that amount and want to try and get an exit like within the like par for like the last 20 plus years as well? Like what's your target market? Which CEOs do you help? Does it vary which company or industry they're currently in? You know, surprisingly it does because I I actually ran a pool service business to pay for my college. So I know service. I know product I I pretty much can, you know, I'm not going to work in like the professional services that that's kind of out of my realm, but uh most um service or technical service or product based businesses um and anything in that area is is something I can um help them out. And and then as far as size, I mean, I get calls from all different sizes. So I, you know, and and sometimes it's a fit. Sometimes companies are too small. they don't need a they don't you know they need to still figure out their

product market fit is what I would say up until you get to a couple million you know you need you need to figure your product market fit um and then I can step in at that point

and so I think one of the things you also touch on is how people can survive 100% or 100 plus% in tariffs as well right

um can you talk a bit more for those obviously there's many definitions um whether you're watching Fox Business Bloomberg whatever it may be of what tariffs are what's your understanding of tariffs and how is it affecting the day-to-day everyday American business.

Well, it's it's a complicated subject. I mean, a tariff is is basically just, you know, the brand that's bringing the product in is going to pay a tax on on the product at the port. So, if if you're if it's a $100 a unit and right now, I think actually I think it just got lowered by 10% uh today.

Uh so now that the Chinese tariff would let's say it could be 45%. There's different things that are tariffed at different rates. It really depends, right? So it could be so your $100 your $100 product is now $145. Um there is a lot of reasoning behind this though because there are some you know a lot of unfair trade practices. And so I think it tariffs is like any other subject. It's it's very nuanced. You know those who just say um and just look at it one-dimensionally and say uh it it's dumb because we're doing this or it's perfect because we're doing this.

There's so much nuance in here. Okay? There isn't free trade in the world. Let's put it that way. I've been all over the world. there isn't free trade. So, we might be saying everybody can trade here for free, but we can't trade elsewhere for free. And I think that's what brought up the tariffs. Um and uh and and then that's not political. I'm just saying on the business side of things. And so, what happens is um it does make it very hard because a lot of players don't play by the rules. That's the hardest part of tariffs. Okay? So, you could have uh international companies who could, in my example, the original invoice price was a hundred.

they could just say, "Well, now we released a new model and it's 50." Okay? And then they're going to be taxed on the 50. So, there's easy ways for some of these um I would say midsize international companies. The big big players, they're going to play by the rules, the public companies. The small American companies are going to play by the rules because they don't want to go to jail. So, there's and and so it does it is it is honestly a big problem. I don't know if the if uh the administration is tackling this, but uh it the problem is with all that being said and understanding why there are tariffs, the problem is the US-based companies who are small to midsize are getting hit hard in a bad way.

Okay, they're they're paying the the price. They don't have enough flexibility to come up with the creative ways to reduce the tariffs like maybe a large international would. uh they don't cheat or you know go into the gray areas like some of the international companies that aren't US-based who now have an advantage over a small and medium-sized US-based company who's going to pay 100% of the tariffs because they don't want to get in trouble and they live here

and this these and these other companies they don't have people here they just ship to a warehouse they don't they they're not worried about they just open up an LLC

and bring it in. So that's um that you know there and there's all different segments of the of the tariffs that have been addressed. So so some of the loopholes are being closed but this one I'm talking about is not and uh maybe it will.

Okay. And you know I like that you mentioned that. I also like talking as well obviously considering the fact of the we know the financial crisis 207 to like 2009 uh the housing crisis the great recession and also co that happened 2020 and we know those are the obviously the most two recent events where many businesses were impacted not necessarily like even like locally but also in a global stance as well. um what are those uh key factors that could help businesses and companies build a recessionproof business? So, so what oh what are the key things I would say diversify your revenue streams diversify your customers okay so a lot of times companies are too beholden to one large customer so for example uh e-commerce and all of your business goes through Amazon

that that's that's a risky proposition so so I think that was great when I ran my business that would be an example right that that was great when I ran my business and now you know at the beginning you could have all D to C then it went from all of your own website it to basically where Amazon dominated and it became 90% Amazon and I think there's a trend now hey how do we diversify that you know maybe pull some more back to or direct to consumer um see what's going to happen with you know different social media Tik Tok shop and all these other smaller players and find other marketplaces and who knows even open AI it may have marketplace in the future because they're disrupting things and so there could be opportunities there but you want to diversify your revenue stream um is first place I'd start Okay.

And so let's say now I'm a I'm a CEO of a bigger company. No, let's probably just say it's probably making about like $2 million a year. Sure.

I'm trying to get an exit. But I also I look at like stuff like the founder of of YouTube and I look at Kevin Stradon, the founder of Instagram. I'm like,

I want to get a big payout cuz there could be future value in this. Um what are the steps that you're going to walk me through and how can we get the most out of like the company that I'm currently in?

Okay. Yeah. So now the first thing is mindset. Okay. So uh 2 million that's one thing but let's say somebody had a little bit of a bigger business. The thing is how much money do you really need? And I don't want to say this in a it's like we all want that huge payout but there's sort of a curve of of uh in in life where you know this is maybe your standard working salary in the city and then you get an exit for like five or 10 million and and your life improves so much and then maybe you got 20 30 40 million and and it improves but at a at a you know what I mean that at a slower rate. So, so you I think that I think um some people hold on too long and blow their opportunity. Okay. And some people think they they all need $100 million exits to be happy. And I think most would be just ecstatic if they just got an exit. Okay. And and they had financial freedom. And so so how do we get there? So couple things you want to

do. So you want to so you have to understand the investor. So the what does the investor want, right? So too many times companies think about what's great about their I mean even companies that make no money want to sell and say well I got a great brand. Well if you had a great brand you would be making money. Okay so you know this is what the market is deciding it's not doing it for the market right now. So the the first thing is what do investors want? They want to derisk a deal. That's the number one thing they want. So when they buy

and they they buy at a multiple of your revenue. So we'll do in your in your case 2 million. Let's say that was 2 million profit. Okay? So they will buy at a multiple of 2 million profit. Five times that 2 million, 10 times that 2 million. So in five times that 2 million, it's a $10 million deal. But you know, the company says it's making 2 million. So they they need to go through financial due diligence. Then they got to look at the risk. It's not just to believe your financials. They have to look forward a couple of years. What are the risks? Uh what what is public opinion on this company? What do the customers say about this company? So that's the first thing is you you look at the ways to derisk your business.

And then where does Apex come into this? Are you the the middleman that connects the buyer and the investor or or are you the one that ends up consulting the like the the seller at the at the

So so where I come in actually is earlier. So I want to come in and get them ready and then I can hand them off to someone who would manage their transaction. Okay. So, so I want to come in and say say they're making a million and get them to 2 million, but get them in a way where get the business tightened up to where everything is buttoned up where an investor is going to come in and not see risk. Oh, the financials are in order. They have customer diversification. Their product market fit is incredible and and more importantly, they have momentum, right? So the the the the investor doesn't want to come in at the end of their, you know, as the company's rolling over. They want to they want there to be some upside. So you have to build, you know, like another uh you know, some storyline there for your upside and where the company's going to be going in the future. But a lot of it is nuts and bolts of running a better

business really is what it is. No, I I like that. And I think I'm glad you touched on on that because um I obviously earlier on I gave a few examples. I gave the Blockbuster, Nokia, Blackberry and and how that went down in my space. And then obviously I gave the YouTube and I gave the the Instagram and those looking today are some of the best investments that were made because it's just been a trajectory stock market. It's over 10fold just increased in terms of valuation and like it's just expanded way bigger than what the actual um founders visioned or even envisioned like previously as well. So um so and h so what's the what's the process like?

Um is it like a few months of consulting? Do you work with with the CEOs? How does the actual process also work like on on that end?

I mean every case is different. I mean a recent case was a short-term one went in cut a million dollars of expenses and then flipped the forecast um from a big loss to a a nice profit and that that that was a shorter stint. Okay. Um, sometimes uh um it's it's month-to-month coaching to grow a business to the next level because they want me along for a longer period of time. So, it can it can work in both ways. And I'm also doing a mastermind as well. But, um, but yeah, sometimes it could be a very specific project or it could be to evaluate a company and the owner is maybe an absentee owner. They have somebody running it and they want to know, hey, you know what? There there's can you evaluate the problem at my company?

Okay, I'm not getting the full picture. and they want me to kind of dive in and and and let them know, you know, an honest picture of where I think they should go.

Now, obviously, you've exited for about six, seven years right now. Uh, what do you miss the most? Like, do you miss the chaos of the climb up or the purpose behind it?

I mean, I I miss the people the most, I would say. So, we we we had softball teams, we had basketball teams, you know, we were doing all those things. Um, but I have a lot of hobbies. So, some owners when they sell, they have like nothing planned in their life. Some of that's why they don't want to sell sometimes. Okay. Literally, like they don't have anything. It's their baby.

It's their baby. No, but I mean, outside of work, you need to have a life, you know. So, uh so uh yeah, and I have a family. So, for me, it wasn't it wasn't uh like a um a personal crisis or anything where I didn't know what to do, you know? I just I was able to surf every morning. So, that was nice. Um, so but I miss uh it's funny because after I sold I never slept better. Okay, you can imagine you know your your stress is gone. So that's a huge improvement, but then after you do that for too long, you're kind of like, okay, I need to make myself useful again, right? So, and I'm glad, you know, you touched on that, which kind of goes, I mean, you sold I you started your company from a garage, you know, you're a garage founder and fast forwarding all those years selling it for $50 million.

What's the thought process like the day after? Is it satisfaction? Is it emptiness? Like what the hell just happened?

Yeah. You know what? It's more honestly, it's more relief. Uh because it's, you know, the process is going to close at that point. And by the way, this this these processes take about a year. Believe it or not, it take about a year. It's crazy.

I can't do that. Patience. I one year. How about you venom me 25 million? I know. But here's why. Here's why. It it doesn't mean that you're interacting with the buyer for a year.

Okay. It's sort of like a like a um you know first you decide you want to go to market then uh and this is after I would work with somebody you know this is this is afterwards they they're now ready to sell they decide they're going to go to market then they work with a banker and the banker kind of creates the marketing materials and understands the business and that can take a month or two and then they go to market and they run what's called a process and and so that's sort of like you're sending it out to all these companies and maybe five or 10 or 15 come back with interest and then you go to the next stage and so it's a it goes on for a while. Now you might be six months into it before you kind of get engaged with your final buyer and then they can start their due diligence. Okay. So it's a process and what happens is um when it closes you're more it's it's a very um it's a very long hour process. Okay. leading up to

it, it's, you know, 15, 16 hour days. You're working till 10, 11:00 at night every day because it's a lot of paperwork. It's lawyers back and forth, expensive lawyers back and forth. And so, it's relief really when that's done. You know, you know it's coming. And also, you don't get that whole check. So, let let's let's just make sure everybody understands this. You don't get California.

You don't get the whole check. You're paying taxes. You're paying your adviserss, which which they've done a great job. you're giving bonuses to your team who has done a amazing job getting you that exit. Okay. And then you also um with private equity usually there's a re a small reinvestment back into the new established company. You see you do you do very well. It's just yeah you with taxes and everything else. So, so you're still feeling great afterwards and um but it's more a relief.

Especially in California, the taxes are extremely high and expensive, but it's it's part of the I mean, if you look at the oceans and the buildings and the beauty of it, like Okay, it's kind of kind of worth it.

Well, it's it's probably not worth I mean, if if you can plan it, it's probably not worth it. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. a after after we sold we went all over the I mean I've been all over the country anyways you know meeting different customers and everything but we went all over and uh you know I like to surf my my wife she and the family they all love it where we live down by the beach and everything and uh I mean Texas is beautiful but it's hot you know and there's you know no taxes Nevada way too hot Florida I we could do it because they have beautiful beaches but there's nothing like California that's the thing there's nothing any I I don't think anywhere in the world there's nothing by California. So, it it is a beautiful state.

Fourth largest economy in the world as well. Only three other countries have got a high economy than it. So, that's crazy.

Um, what's the truth that you've learned about money and success now that you wish you knew in your 20s?

Okay. So, and this is a well-known one, but hire the best people around you. And that doesn't mean your team, just your team. That also means the best adviserss like the best tax accountants, the best tax strategists because it's not just about tax strategy. They're going to it's about financial strategy, what type of investments you you should be making and how that's going to play out in your future. So, um I I would say that one and then I would also say you you need a lot less money than you think you need to be very very happy and comfortable in your life. And now that doesn't mean you strive for less. It just means that you can get there quickly in life and then enjoy things. You don't need to grind it out till you're 80. I I believe we should always work, but it means that you can have flexibility to pursue your passion and what you want to do.

No, that's that's perfect. And then obviously after your exit, like what do you miss the most? Is it the grind or um is it just seeing people progress? And what's the what's the one thing would you say you missed as a founder and a CEO?

See, now I'm back to I'm back to like a partial grind now. So So I'm doing that. So that the grind is good because it keeps us sharp. Okay. I'm I'm uh I just turned 52. So So you know, I mean I don't think anybody should check out that early, right? So you want to be sharp and and and and use your mind. But I think the biggest thing is when you're with an organization, you have the camaraderie and the friends and and and and we still keep in touch and I still keep in touch with with a lot of uh you know team members from the company

but that changes. And now obviously coaching CEOs um right now what's is the blind spot or people that that are plateauing within like that seven figure for like the last 10 years or so where they're just stuck? I mean it really it boils down to that they're not solving the right problem is what I see. Okay. So a lot of times you know every company once they get to a couple million like they're doing something great. You're not going to get to a couple million by by just making mistakes. Right. Exactly. But um usually there's

okay usually they start increasing the number of problems they're trying to solve and that's just normal. They're not thinking that's not what they're thinking. But what's happening is their business gets more complicated. So now from at the beginning they had one problem. How can I sell this service? Right? And they were very good at it because all their attention went into how can I sell this service. Now they have 30 problems. I've got a you know operations person I got to deal with over here. I got HR issue over here. I got accounting, finance, the bank, this and so now all of their attention is diverted into like 20 different areas.

Okay. So what they what you got to do is you got to actually you know reposition yourself and say what do I need to do if let's say they're 2 million they need to go to three what do I have to do to get to three to four and to five okay it's usually your offer and your product okay and then it's the things we talked about earlier you probably don't have uh that outbound sales is that do you have that outbound sales covered and the communication of your product the branding and marketing now a lot of times they were the outbound sales okay they were the sales leader. Now they're doing 20 things and they didn't hire another one of them.

So there's nobody picking up the phones every day or getting in front of the customers every single day. So that that's that and so often what I find is actually very simple to solve some not I didn't say easy because you have to you actually have to execute but the plan is actually pretty simple. It's usually simplifying. Hey,

you know, we have to learn about the business or whatever, but then it's like really actually doing less things, but just keeping your focus on those things.

And now looking back um at that experience, obviously the exit was you felt like it was perfect timing. Um you felt like the value of the company was at the point where it's accumulated so much of revenue and that was what it was worth. What was one of the hardest moment in that journey as an entrepreneur that you look back and you felt like shaped the trajectory of where you were when you exited the company?

Oh, I mean there are so many of them. I I I think uh well the theme I would say is don't take anything for granted. Okay, as we're going up to 10 million, 20 million, 30 million, 40 million and say, you know, and on and on and on, it's just never take it for granted. It's so hard to reach that point. Sometimes you get to 40 and you think, "Oh, you know, 20 is nothing." But that was you have to remember kind of what got you there. Okay. And then um a big uh we had a big issue in um when we moved to warehouses.

This was I would say we might have been mid 20 millions um I think it was about that big. And this is back in say 2014 or 15. We moved from 30,000 square feet to 85. And it was in a new beautiful building. The building wasn't new, but it was a new warehouse for us and had, you know, 10 dock doors and and and because, you know, we're a big warehouse distribution is part of our brand because we're shipping large products and um our software and and I was just heading out on a family trip to Hawaii, okay? and our software was having issues because we had inventory in both warehouses and we're dealing with large customers, you know, Home Depot and all the big brands and we were miss shipping their orders and some of the orders were not even shipping. So, we're missing thousands of shipped orders to these large brands and really that could have significantly damaged or even ended the business because you could lose

contracts right? So, that was a that was a big problem um that that we had to overcome. I mean, I I I had to cancel half of the trip and stay back. And then we just had to figure out and and do a lot of things manually. You know, instead of electronic, we're printing everything out and making sure we got all the labels uh for all of our orders and that we weren't misshipping anything and and that was a a major problem for the company.

Oh, awesome. No, no, I I I appreciate um obviously all the knowledge you shared. It's it's super exciting to see where you started, where you're ending, and what you're currently still doing right now. 52. I thought you were like probably 41 or so. So, you're aging like that's what $50 million can do to make you like look as handsome and happy as you are right now. Right.

I had a quick question. So, obviously the the podcast is called the coach winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. After each episode, we always ask towards the end the guest what the term winning means for them. So, for Luke Peters, with all your experience, accomplishments, and your success,

what is your definition of winning? Well, um, you know, I have I have six kids, so hopefully I mean, at the end, the business, the money, like all that's great and everything, but hopefully, you know, I can be a good dad and and, uh, and just, you know, hopefully lead the kids the right way. So, that that would be winning. So, I think everybody can achieve it. You know, everybody's life is different and everybody has different circumstances. Um, and I I think the other another definition would just be, and this is I mean I try to teach the kids this too, but this is just, you know, whatever your god-given skills are, you need to use those to the best of your ability. So, so we're not winning if we're just, you know, taking it too easy. You you you know, make a dent in the in the universe, whatever that means to you. It doesn't mean you have to, you know, sell a hund00 million business. It could mean that you're you

become a good leader or you're a good parent or um or you build flexibility within your life, okay? So that you're not sort of just beholden to a nineto-five and a bank, right? So you want to create that flexibility. But th those are a few different ways I think to look at uh Winnie.

I love that so much. If you could look at the camera there, let um our viewers know where they could get a hold of you um if they want to try and get consulting, if they want to get in contact with Apex CEO, social media, website, whatever it may be. Can you let our viewers know?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, really simple. Just head over to apexceo.co and uh we have a form there. You can just schedule a 15 20 minute meeting with me and uh happy to talk about your business and help you out.

The coach winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Luke Peters, thank you very much, sir.

Thanks for having me as a guest.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "BUILT, SCALED, SOLD: TURNED GRIT INTO A MID-EIGHT-FIGURE EXIT || LUKE PETERS || EPISODE 073"?

KG (Host), Luke Peters (Guest).

What is "BUILT, SCALED, SOLD: TURNED GRIT INTO A MID-EIGHT-FIGURE EXIT || LUKE PETERS || EPISODE 073" about?

Luke Peters shares his entrepreneurial journey from a hazardous waste scientist to founding New Air, which generated over $600 million in sales before achieving a mid-eight-figure exit. He emphasizes the importance of creativity, open-mindedness, and building a strong company culture in reaching success and guiding others toward similar exits.

What is mentioned in this Code To Winning episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Luke Peters, New Air, Apex CEO, Bloomberg, Amazon, Instagram. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "BUILT, SCALED, SOLD: TURNED GRIT INTO A MID-EIGHT-FIGURE EXIT || LUKE PETERS || EPISODE 073"?

The episode runs 45 min; the transcript is about 9,635 words in 113 timestamped sections.

More from Code To Winning

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.