#18 - Running a $100MM Company Won’t Make You Successful (But Being Ousted From It Might) with Ted Eveleth

What would you do if you were pushed out of the company you built? In today’s episode, host Marcus Arredondo welcomes Ted Eveleth, a serial entrepreneur who has raised millions, faced gut-wrenching setbacks, and still chooses to build. He shares the raw reality of getting ousted from his startup, the risks of raising money from friends and family, and why rejection is part of the game. Now, as CEO of AvantGuard, he’s leading a breakthrough in antimicrobial technology that could change medicine as we know it. If you’ve ever wondered what keeps an entrepreneur coming back despite failure, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.Ted Eveleth is an experienced entrepreneur who has been CEO, COO, CFO, and Chairman in companies covering various technologies, including medical devices, life science molecular tools, waste heat to energy conversion, new materials, and MEMS devices. Ted received a three-year BA in Economics Phi Beta Kappa from Union College and an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University.Connect with Ted Eveleth:Website: https://www.avantguardinc.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avantguardinc/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avantguard-inc/ Episode highlights:(2:05) Losing his CEO role & lessons learned(7:20) Why entrepreneurs keep coming back(9:18) The pain of investor behavior, rejection, and fundraising strategies(13:19) AvantGuard’s origins and revolutionary antimicrobial technology(19:30) How COVID shaped the company’s growth(22:04) The value of grant funding Vs. Investor capital(26:50) Leveraging non-dilutive funding and technology(29:01) Intellectual property and the importance of patents(31:25) The science behind long-lasting antiseptics(41:41) Strategic partnerships & market positioning(43:10) Lessons learned from waste-to-energy and past ventures(46:14) How to push forward when everything seems to fail(48:05) OutroConnect with Marcus Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-arredondo/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/cus Scales of Success Website: scalesofsuccesspodcast.com X (Twitter): https://x.com/scalesofsuccess Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scalesofsuccesspod/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scalesofsuccess Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ScalesofSuccess —-- Leave a Review If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we’d love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scales-of-success-podcast/id1773864140 Get in Touch You can also Tweet @cus with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you’ve learnt from the episodes and we can thank you personally for tuning in.