people-first
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Nine People, Eight Million Dollars, and a Bet on Small Business
Two bankers with 38 years between them walked out of a big bank in 2001, opened Venture Bank in a Bloomington office park, and spent the next 17 years signing up more than 5,000 Twin Cities companies - until Choice Financial bought the whole thing.
The Private-Equity Firm That Hires the CEO Before It Buys the Company
Alpine Investors built an $18.5 billion private-equity firm around an unusual wager: in a business obsessed with deals, the scarce asset is the person who can lead what comes next.
Ted Sprinkle
Ted Sprinkle, DVM, is a Cornell-trained veterinarian turned serial entrepreneur who has spent the second half of his career building veterinary consolidators that buy community animal hospitals while leaving their culture intact. He co-founded Encore Vet Group in 2018 with his son Lance and Bo Iler, and led it as CEO through a growth run to roughly 2,200 employees before transitioning to executive chairman in late 2025. Before Encore he founded Healthy Pet Corp. (sold to VCA in 2007) and Pet Partners, and earlier ran a leading thoroughbred operation. His pitch is unusually simple for an acquirer: put people first and the medicine, the clients and the numbers follow.