What does it take to buy and scale a company in a foreign country, with your spouse, right before a global pandemic?

In this episode of CEOs Unscripted, host Jane Gentry sits down with Corbin Butcher, Managing Director of Beire Exhibitions in the Czech Republic, for a raw, unfiltered conversation about entrepreneurship through acquisition, cross-cultural leadership, and what it really means to evolve from a 1.0 to a 3.0 company.

Corbin shares how a military career, a "mediocre" stint in investment banking, and a Kellogg MBA led him and his wife Evona to buy a Czech exhibition company, armed with a shoebox full of business cards as their CRM, and turn it into a thriving, scaling business with 80 employees and 2.5x revenue growth.

Whether you're leading a $10M or $100M business, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons on scaling systems, building partnerships, managing culture across borders, and knowing when to evolve as a leader before your company outgrows you.

Episode Timestamps

00:00 — Cold open: No backup plan, just make it work

01:07 — Welcome to CEOs Unscripted: Jane's intro & what the show is about

02:46 — Meet Corbin Butcher: From Chicago to the Czech Republic

04:18 — Corbin's background: Army officer, Iraq tours, Kellogg MBA

06:06 — Why investment banking wasn't the fit — and what was

07:07 — The search fund model: Buying a business with your spouse

08:18 — The challenge of being a European company trying to break into the US market

10:51 — How to vet a strategic partner (and why face-to-face is non-negotiable)

13:44 — The qualities that make or break a partnership under pressure

15:08 — American work ethic vs. European work culture: The real clash

17:08 — How Corbin built a high-performance culture within European labor laws

20:31 — The pros and cons of being an American CEO leading a European company

21:50 — Running a business with your spouse: The investor who called it "marital risk"

24:38 — How Corbin and Evona divide roles and break ties

25:36 — First-time CEO with no safety net: How do you learn on the fly?

28:59 — The shock of COVID hitting an 85% leveraged company in year two

31:40 — Biere 1.0 vs. 2.0 vs. 3.0: The lifecycle framework every CEO needs to understand

33:13 — Sales in 1.0: A shoebox of business cards as a "CRM"

36:53 — Operations in 1.0: When everything depends on one person

38:18 — Why promoting your best operator to supervisor is often a mistake

41:30 — What changed in 2.0: Systems, structure, and elevating internal talent

43:05 — The power of vision: Can every employee in your company articulate where you're going?

46:01 — How Corbin had to change as a leader from 1.0 to 2.0

49:46 — How strategic planning evolves at each stage of company growth

52:54 — Honest reflection: Some parts of Bira are still in 1.0 — and that's okay

54:01 — Rapid fire: Who's the smartest person in your phone?

55:36 — Best book of the last 12 months: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

57:09 — What Corbin does when he feels stuck

58:27 — Closing thoughts and where to find more

Key Topics Covered

Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) and the search fund model
Scaling a mid-market company from 1.0 to 3.0
Cross-cultural leadership and managing European vs. American work culture
Building and vetting strategic partnerships in international markets
Why founder-dependent businesses are fragile — and how to fix it
Running a business with your spouse without losing your marriage
Leading through COVID with zero revenue and high leverage
The danger of promoting your best individual contributors into management
Why communicating vision is the #1 job of a scaling CEO

About CEOs Unscripted

Hosted by Jane Gentry, CEO advisor, Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial MBA mentor, and consultant to mid-market leaders for over 20 years, CEOs Unscripted is a bi-weekly podcast featuring unfiltered conversations with founders and executives who've been where you are. No fluff. No jargon. Just real talk that drives real growth.

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