Winsupply and My First Lessons of Entrepreneurship

Some of my earliest memories were of sitting at a table at Dapsco’s headquarters on a Saturday, coloring while my dad finished some work related to the monthly financials or some human resources issue that had sprung up at a Winnelson branch.

In looking back, I had an inside view to one of America’s great stories of entrepreneurship. I was lucky to see Winsupply — and have such an “in-the-flesh” view of the spirit of entrepreneurship and the good it creates.

Winsupply was founded in 1956 by a group of investors who saw an opportunity to acquire a small location of the plumbing supply company, N.O. Nelson, in Pueblo, Colorado after a fire tragically struck it. The location had been struggling and N.O. Nelson’s management was glad to be rid of it. Thankfully, the investors pulled together financing and a new location to operate out of. The business was back up and running in very short order. Over time, the operations continued to improve and employees expressed their own interest in growing this business by opening new branches — having seen the success in Pueblo. Winsupply, then and now, operated in a way that shared the risk of business ownership with headquarters and the local Company president. As time progressed, more and more people saw Winsupply’s model and viewed it as a tremendous way to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit without having to have all of the questions answered because the partnership each new location represented — to other entrepreneurs and headquarters.

Winsupply grew from that initial location over the last 61 years from only providing plumbing supplies to all number of basic materials, adding HVAC, electrical, industrial supplies, fasteners, and other supplies essential to contracts building much of the America we know today across the nation. The business evolved over the years and has had a variety of names — very often all variations on the positive notion of “winning.” Winsupply certainly did execute against that winning notion with all of its Local Companies — as it grew to be a multibillion dollar company yet retaining a small-business mentality with over 580 locations today.

My dad joined the firm’s headquarters operations in Dayton, Ohio in 1977 (July 17th as he called out to me… not that he was counting!) as an accountant with no relations to the original investors; just a college grad with an accounting degree, working at a paintshop … as a painter, not an accountant. Spurred on by his soon-to-be wife he applied for and earned a job at DAPSCO — helping the field entrepreneurs at local locations handle the hassle of accounting, payroll and other services shared amongst the group. Headquarters is a bit of a misnomer; Winsupply has always been an organization built on the back of its numerous local companies — not a central headquarters with “good ideas” pushed down to the field, ignoring the realities of the numerous markets the individual locations operate within.

“Local Company” is a pretty generic term, and yet has a profound meaning and degree of respect at Winsupply. Each Local Company has a president with up to a 49% ownership in that location. He or she isn’t executing against a plan offered from Winsupply, HQ; it’s up to him or her to use the advantages a large organization affords to develop the best strategy and execution for his or her individual market. The beauty of the process is created in the shared sense of accountability — the headquarters sees its responsibility to enable the local companies and the local companies are empowered to go into their markets and compete to win. Winsupply practices what it preaches throughout its organization, with every service which headquarters provided to the local companies operating as a profit center — not simply allocating costs down and eating into the hard work that the local company entrepreneurs accomplished.

Today there’s substantial academic research behind just how critical it is to have alignment between employees and employers in the form of equity to produce results — and yet rarely do firms truly embrace the concept of equity partnership that Winsupply has pioneered. In the past few years I think an overemphasis has been placed on “Unicorns” like Amazon and Uber; don’t get me wrong — I think those firms have delivered some incredible innovations and markets have rightfully acknowledged the changes they brought to breaking up the monopoly that cab companies had on transportation (in Uber’s case) and on the difficulty of shopping online for staples and hard-to-find items that Amazon delivers. In my mind, though, Amazon are just “bigger” examples of the success story that is the entrepreneurial spirit; problems exist in the world and those who are willing to take a chance to address those problems will always have customers and have the chance to create value.

I’m proud I had the chance to be so close Winsupply growing up. It has so wholeheartedly pursued success in business not through trying to capture more than its fair share of the pie, but by recognizing that, fundamentally, everyone in the world will always be in search of better solutions and if smart, hard-working individuals work at serving customers — there remain huge opportunities to create value. My dad retired two years ago after 40 years with Winsupply, retiring as the CEO, having invested substantial time, effort, and love into the firm.

I’ll finish with some direct quotations I found from Winsupply Local Company Presidents. I find the humble optimism in these quotations heartening for my own pursuits:

“We wanted a piece of the pie. I was with a national company for a while. You could get to be a manager, but there were never any ownership opportunities.”

Harry Miller, President, Casper Winlectric

“I used to be the guy driving the truck to the supply house. I would see the guy standing behind the counter and he was in his t-shirt and it was 20 below zero outside. It looked real cushy to me. I was all bundled up trying to dig a ditch in the ice. I thought, ‘I would like that guy’s job.’”

Roger Glanz, President, Fort Collins Winlectric

“I have to have the challenge. Complacency is not something that excites me. I enjoy training people. I enjoy fixing things.”

Joe Verow, President, Lewisville Winlectric

“My goal is to continue to open other companies and give people the opportunity that was given me.”

Gary Reese, President, Lincoln Winlectric

“I have been with the organization for 16 years… I would like to get a couple of companies going.”

Terry Bryant, President, Louisville Winlectric

“It’s amazing to me the opportunities out there. You can sell and do the things you like to do.”

Kent O’Neil, President, Poplar Bluff Winlectric

“For just a little bit of money, I have a $1.5 million company. I couldn’t get this opportunity from anyone else.”

Bob Massey, President, Carterville Winlectric

“I was a lighting rep, and opened up in Hinesville in 1994.”

Chip Abbott, President, Hinesville Winlectric

“What appealed to me about the organization is that they were willing to invest in me.”

Dennis Hutchens, President, Fayetteville Winlectric