DURHAM –  Tim Oakley grew up in Durham when downtown was built around tobacco, not technology.  Oakley’s grandfather worked for four decades at American Tobacco and his father worked for four decades at Leggett & Meyers, and as a boy, Oakley would shop at Baldwins department store and participate in the commerce of the tobacco town.

Years later, Oakley would work out of an office on the top floor of the PowerPlant, the building at the heart of the American Tobacco Campus, hired by Appia’s leadership team as the chief financial officer in advance of a $100 million exit for the company.

It was the third Triangle-area startup that would be acquired under Oakley’s financial guidance.

Now, in partnership with fellow Durham native Vance Brown, Oakley runs the Thrivers Integrative Mentoring Program to help six mid-growth startups in the Triangle scale their business while building a thriving company and personal life.

Thrivers

“I have seen up close and personal how leaders are chasing business success at the cost of relationships and personal dreams,” said Oakley in an interview. “You can have both with a trusted guide who has been there and done that and can identify all of the pitfalls to avoid.”

The first cohort launched in January—six companies, all of whom have annual revenues of at least $1 million, are now at the midway point in a 15-month program based on mentoring executive teams, developing collaborative insight, and individual integrated business and personal coaching.

“In the Triangle, there are a number of mentoring programs to consider but Thrivers has bottled something unique because they are really addressing the entire package of executive needs in their process,” said Mitch Heath, chief growth officer of Teamworks, who participates in the program, in a statement. “Obviously, business success is a key goal, but execs also want to be physically fit, mentally strong, spiritually attuned and enjoying healthy relationships with their family and friends.”

Oakley and Brown are already planning for their second cohort, which will launch in February 2019, and have made plans for a third cohort to launch February of 2020.

Key differentiators

Companies typically pay for participation in the program, in a combination of cash or stock, said Oakley.  This is one of the differentiators between the Thrivers model and other mentoring models like CED’s Venture Mentoring Service, SCALE, and the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network.

The main difference, he explained, is the combination of professional and personal coaching. The integrated model allows for executives to develop expertise in all areas of their lives, said Oakley, and also allows for collaboration and learning due to the boutique group experience that company executives have with their peers.

“We guide leaders to live with integrity,” said Oakley. “Executing in the marketplace competitively and with great passion and conviction while connecting meaningfully with those people that matter most to you.”

What it takes to grow a company beyond $1M

Mentorship can help individuals, and it can benefit their companies, Oakley believes. Leveraging his experience and credentials—Oakley is a CPA, earned an MBA and master’s degree in psychological counseling, and completed a certificate program in executive coaching—he designed a mentorship program that seeks to benefit individuals that are most at risk of sacrificing personal development for company growth.

It takes a lot of work—and luck—to grow a company beyond $1 million in revenue. “First and foremost, you must have an idea that fills a customer need and you have to have a large enough market to build meaningful revenue,” said Oakley.

Then, the entrepreneur’s main job is to sell—and serve. If you can’t sell your product, service, or company to the right customer at the right time to solve the right problem, said Oakley, you don’t get the opportunity to build a great company or to construct a great and authentic story.

“Hiring the right leadership and building an environment of trust,” said Oakley, is just as important as having a meaningful product offering and establishing or capturing a qualified, scalable market. “You need to have the mentality of a servant, to be a genuine, authentic leader that shapes the landscape of reality for the team.”