Bob Carr was the Founder and CEO of Heatland Payment Systems, one of the largest payment processors in the United States, which he sold in 2016 for over 4 billion dollars. He is now the CEO and Chairman of the Board for Beyond Inc. which strives to simplify operations, reduce costs and streamline payments for owners of small and mid-size businesses across the country.
We talk about:
- What’s it like to sell a company for over 4 billion dollars?
- How did the CEO impact on individual employees change as the company grew from 10, 100, 1000 employees?
- How should one think about life, and what they do?
Connect with Bob Carr
Website https://www.getbeyond.com
Website: https://www.giveback.ngo/
CONNECT WITH SHAWN
https://linktr.ee/ShawnflynnSV
- Shawn Flynn’s LinkedIn Account
- Silicon Valley LinkedIn Group Account
- Shawn Flynn’s Facebook Account
- Email Shawn@thesiliconvalleypodcast.com
Announcer 00:00
You’re listening to the Silicon Valley podcast,
Shawn Flynn 00:02
we sit down with Bob Carr, who is the founder and CEO of Heartland Payment Systems, one of the largest payment processors in the United States, which he sold in 2016 for over $4 billion. He’s now the CEO and chairman of the board for beyond Inc, which strives to simplify operations, reduce costs, and streamline payments for owners of small and mid-sized businesses across the country. on station we talk about what’s it like to sell a company for over $4 billion? How did the CEO impact on individual employees change as a company grew from 10 employees to 100 and 1000? How should one think about life and what they do? This is much more and remember, please subscribe, write a review on iTunes and share with your network to encourage us to create great content like this. All right, now let’s start the show. Enjoy.
Bob Carr 00:58
Welcome to the Silicon Valley podcast with your host, Shawn Flynn, who interviews famous entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and leaders in tech, learn their secrets and see tomorrow’s world today.
Shawn Flynn 01:15
Bob, thank you for taking the time today to be on the Silicon Valley podcast. Now. I’m super excited for this interview, I was introduced by a great friend, Elena at provisors, who now works with you what she told me what I’ve seen online, all the research that I’ve done, this interview is going to be exceptional. And it’s going to actually cover a lot of topics that most of our listeners may not have heard in the past around family around roles, responsibilities around more than just a company. To begin with. Bob, just to give our listeners a little background, you sold a company for over $4 billion. What was that experience like?
Bob Carr 01:54
Well, there’s a lot of parts to that question. The short answer is it was one of the more depressing times of my life. And the reason for that is because so many of we had 4460 employees at that time. And they were all pretty disappointed that the company was so and it was very difficult for me to get to them to talk about it much of anything, because the buyer pretty much set me aside and wanted me to stay out of the way because they were going to change our business model. And I think a lot of the employees sensed that that was going to happen, and there was not a darn thing I could do. So I think that’s a surprising answer for you. But I will say this, the run up to that was exhilarating in every way. It was a long run up. I was 70 years old when the company was sold. And every time I would get close to reaching a goal, I would be creating a hire girl. And it just worked out that way. It just was a natural part of the evolution of my efforts. My goal was to be a $2 billion company that our employees could own half of and Wall Street on the other half. It didn’t work out that way. We got to four, we went from two to 4 billion in like 18 months. It took like 50 years to get the first half in about 18 months to get to the second half. And I learned a lot in that process.
Shawn Flynn 03:35
Okay, let’s go even further back then. Can you tell our audience a little bit about your career from the very beginning up to what you’re doing right now?
Bob Carr 03:45
I had an unbelievable start. In my business in my professional career. I was a kid who grew up out in the country. I was a B plus student in high school and got married when I was 19. And I grew up in some difficult circumstances like most of America and most of the world and when I got out of the house, I grew up in a house with nine people in two bedrooms. I literally did not have a bedroom or a bed to sleep. I always slept on them my brother and I on the couch. And my father was very abusive, and did not want me to go to college. My older brother went to the Coast Guard Academy and so I went off the age of 17 to the University of Illinois, and I was scared to death that I was going to flunk out and one of my neighbors flunked out a couple others and I was told that 40% of the freshmen at Illinois flunked out and turned out to be true. Since I didn’t want to flunk out and have to go back to the house I grew up in. I just worked really hard and I was awarded a membership in the phi a sigma which is a fraternity for the top 2% of the freshman class, so I got that I was shocked. I think a lot of my teachers were shocked. And I went on to graduate in three years. And so I graduated from college at the age of 20. And I stayed on my fourth year to get my master’s degree. And this is where I got really lucky in life, these things called computers where we’re getting more and more powerful and common place and a brand-new community college was opening up after I got my bachelor’s, my master’s degree from Illinois and computer science. And at the age of 21, I’m hired as a faculty member of this brand-new community college where none of the teachers knew anybody else. And then I had a friend who ran around and talked to the faculty and got me elected to become president of the faculty. Well, I was 22 years old. And I was one of their only six of us in the master’s degree program for computer science. And the very first year, the very first program we were told in the country. And so I went off to Parkland College, head of the computer department and president of the faculty in life was good. And a couple years later, I was approached by the Bank of Illinois, and they wanted to set up a computer department in the bank and set up a computer department a for profit business. And I told the president of the bank, he says, Look, if I take this job, I’m gonna get drafted. And he said, No, no, you can keep your draft deferment, because I’ve already talked to the president of the college. And he said, it’d be fine with him if you took this job. And so I work two jobs, I was making over $30,000 a year. And as a 23-year-old kid, I started my business, the day that I couldn’t get drafted anymore, which was my 26th birthday. So it’s a really rapid rise. And I went into business. And that’s when things turned the other way, is a really difficult time, making it, it was a struggle, but I made a lot of mistakes didn’t really have any background in being in business. And over the years, I picked up a lot of it, and it worked out pretty well.
Shawn Flynn 07:22
So what were some of the key lessons that you learned in those early days of business?
Bob Carr 07:28
Well, I was a pretty cocky young man. It was not hard for me to get through college and do pretty well with it. And I just felt like I could conquer the world. But I took no business classes at all. In college, I was going to be a math professor. And it wasn’t until I was, you know, maybe 20, or 23 or 24 years old, that I really decided that I wanted to go into my in business and my parents hated their jobs. They hated capitalists. And they believe that blue collar workers were swindled out of their hard work and not paid fairly by their rich people. And that’s the environment I grew up. And it took a lot of reading, and I changed my mind about can you be an ethical person, and also be successful financially, I changed my view of that in my early 20s. And decided you could be very ethical and be in business do good for the world. And being more prepared, being more open to other thoughts, other ideas and the experiences of successful people was really important. And probably the number one thing I learned is 80% of the people in this world, are good people and will do the right thing. As long as that they feel like they’re part of the group that they’re respectful of. But there are people who are evil. There are people who thrive in love and luxuriate in the idea of bringing down others. And that surprised me a lot. And it’s something that it’s just true. There’s just some evil people out there. There’s some people on the other side completely, who will do anything to help anybody with all their might inability. So we have a lot of people I don’t think really learn how bad some folks can get when people think you’re a billionaire, which I’m not. They can be pretty, they can do bad things or try to do bad things to you. I wish my kids don’t really quite get that. To this day. They don’t get that they’ve been taken advantage of in some ways that they shouldn’t have been. So those are a couple of things I learned
Shawn Flynn 09:48
Talking about toxic people there. Did you encounter more when you are starting your business or as the business get more and more successful?
Bob Carr 09:58
When people think that you’re going to make a lot of money. I think that’s one when it happened. Pretty much. I had this idea that my plan was to become a millionaire. By the time I was 30. Well, I got to be 30, I was completely broke, nobody bothered me then when something started to work, then the whole lot of folks became very interested. In my future, I was told so many times of what a great future I had a golden boy and I sort of was all American boy in my early 20s. But I became disabused of that is I learned how the struggle of financial success requires some good fortune and work that I never did in advance.
Shawn Flynn 10:48
as you’re encountering more toxic people, how did you kind of guard or protect yourself or stay strong and to continue going forward and grow your company?
Bob Carr 11:02
Like a lot, a lot of people I got in trouble financially, fairly quickly, I had $10,000 in the bank, when I started my business, which I thought was an awful lot of money. And I had three children at the time. So the way I dealt with the toxic situations is for many years, I, I felt like I’m not going to go into this. But there were three really big mistakes that I made in my 20s and 30s. And in every case, did something that I knew was going to be a problem. But I had, I was cocky enough to think that I could overcome it. And growing up the way I grew up in the house that I grew up in. If you could survive growing up with instead of remaining alive with my father, you could accomplish a whole lot right there. The three things the three biggest mistakes I ever made, every single time it was because I knew I was doing something that wasn’t a good idea. But I didn’t have the determination to stand up for what I believed in. And I learned that the hard way. And I think that’s been part of the reason I’ve been much more successful the last 30 years of my career than the first 20 or 30 years of my career.
Shawn Flynn 12:18
So as your company grew, and was becoming more and more successful, did the work culture or anything changed? Was it the same when there were 10 employees when there was 100, when there were 1000 employees? Or was it different?
Bob Carr 12:33
running a company with 10 employees is a whole different thing than running in a company with 4000 employees. It gives me and people who are entrepreneurs or want to be entrepreneurs should be really feel good about this comment is when you have 10 employees, you can really make a big difference with each of those employees, be a leader and deal with their issues and their concerns and pay really close attention to everything they say about how the business can be better, save money and make more money, etc. And the bigger you get, the more and more distant you get from that. At one point for many years, I knew all my customers and all my employees, my employees, it just makes sense, right? If you’re running a $4 billion company, there’s no way you can go talk to all the employees and get to know them. And the thing I’m most proud of in my career is that 87% of my employees, my company was a great place to work. I’m like, Wow, my dad hated his job. My mom was a waitress, and she was always tired, because they were working the night shift all the time. And so to have 87% of your employees anonymously, say, you have a great company, that’s really terrific. And it’s good for your ego and say this is working really well. We weren’t meeting the needs for attention and give everybody a chance to make a big contribution. And we weren’t able to do that as much as we got bigger. So entrepreneurs, the bigger guy, you have it better than the big guys, even though you have fewer resources, because you have yourself and you’re going to be able to have yourself diluted less by having fewer employees. And the bigger and more successful you get. Now you’re dependent upon other people for that, as well as yourself. It’s one thing to manage people directly. It’s another thing to manage the managers of the people, and then the managers of the managers or the managers of the people. And it’s just common sense, I think and that’s that was my experience.
Shawn Flynn 14:43
As the company was growing, how are you taking in this new knowledge or changing or adapted to be the one that instead of manages the small team that manages the managers or managers, the managers of the managers?
Bob Carr 14:58
Well, it was all completely on the job training, I have this pretty narrow view of what ethics and how things should be. And it’s more important way more important to me, how do we make our money and then how much money do we make. But when you become a bigger company, and you have outside investors, who are looking to make a big profit, based on what you’re doing, and they don’t want to hear things, like, it’s more important to me how I earn my money than how much money I make, because investor doesn’t care. And this is one of the problems with capitalism is that the people who are creating the values, what’s the value, the value is based upon? What investors think the future growth of the company is going to be, because future growth of the company means increases in the value of the shares of the company, I stuck with my belief the entire way, all the way. And as we got bigger and bigger, we became a public company. And there’s a board of directors elected by the stockholders. And instead of owning half the company, now you own 2% of the company, and you’re 70 years old, and it gets a lot harder to deal with Wall Street people. It’s a one-track mind of investors and directors. And that one track mind is how do you get the company to grow faster and be more profitable. And that’s not the same thing as is making your money in an honest, ethical way. And people are rewarded for the growth and that for the way they get that growth.
Shawn Flynn 16:37
And your company was going to go public, the exit? What are some things that happen in that process? Or that were going on that? Maybe the average person here has no idea about?
Bob Carr 16:52
Well, first of all, we are going public was not an exit for us. We went public in 2005, at a valuation of about $600 million. And then we sold out in 2015. And 4.3 billion, what people don’t know. Yes, I was. Every board meeting, we had a board that never had a anything but a unanimous vote in those 10 years as a public company. Because we wouldn’t have disagreements. But at the end of the day, everybody was polite, and voted with whoever whichever side was going to win. It bothered me a lot, is that I was always I knew that if I had a new idea that came on, that was not obviously something that would cause us to have immediate growth. I was being criticized. So over and over again, I would say things like, maybe the next CEO of this company will do that. But I’m not going to do it. I did. And that wasn’t something that everybody appreciated. And I probably felt that more than my board even knew that I did. And then you know, when I turned 55, and then 57, and then 60. And it’s obvious, and we’re all going to move on and move out of this life. At some point, having a successor and a succession plan is a really big deal. And over the years, it’s a constant topic of discussion at every board meeting, and four or five different people over those years as my number two who could inherit my position on board didn’t like me. I liked all of them. But the board was never happy with my ideas about succession planning. And quite frankly, I had turned 70 and in 2015. And I knew that was my I was out of rope. At that point, there was no way that I was going to be able to the board was ready to sell. They thought, okay, we’re at the top of the mountain and let’s sell this thing out, let’s cash out. Bob, you’re you know, you’re a young 70-year-old, so you’ll have a great life ahead of you. And it’s time for us to take our money and get out. And I knew I couldn’t overcome that. That was it. That was the battle I could not win. And so I just went along with it and sold the company. You know, we sold the company, but it wasn’t a happy time for me.
Shawn Flynn 19:23
And then, while this was going on why you’re building this company and your kids were also growing up, can you share some advice on your experience with raising a family at the exact same time as growing this company?
Bob Carr 19:37
Well, I think a lot of people do a really good job of managing that. I am not a person who is an expert on a balanced life style. But here’s the number one answer to that. And I’m surprised that I’m saying this but it’s really true. My kids knew how much how important it was for them. To do business in a right way, is at least what I thought was the right way. I also did a lot of charity work, putting disadvantaged kids through college, and my kids, they love the fact that I loved this so much. And when they were little, or I would never miss a dinner, I mean, I would travel and obviously I wouldn’t be home, then I travel maybe one or two days a week when they were little, or I would always I would never come to work and stay over at work during dinner time. So I always had dinner with my kids when I was not traveling, and just naturally wanted to do things with them and did a we took a lot of trips together. And so I did, I do what felt natural to me. And I knew that I was making a choice of what to do. And it was more important for me to spend time with my kids. And after all these years, my oldest child is 50 years old. Now, my youngest is 30. So they’ve all grown up, they have been very kind to me that I was a pretty good father. So that makes me feel really good.
Shawn Flynn 21:08
So with that many parents shelter their kids from business and business activities, how much knowledge or engagement, would you recommend a parent encourage their children to have? How much of your business did they know about growing up?
Bob Carr 21:22
Well, they knew a lot about it, because I was in business from the age of 26. on. So they knew about the business it was, you know, my family and my business. That was my life. And as my kids got older, and I was my business and my charity, I lead a pretty intense life, I think, to this day, and I feel very fortunate to be in good enough health to do that. My oldest child, Cory and I both worked for the company. At one point, we had five employees, and they were two of them. And I was one of them. And my wife was another one and one salesperson in North Carolina. And that was the company for a while, my son, my next oldest child, and he never really wanted to work in the business. He was a very dynamic superstar member of his fraternity. And to this day, he his fraternity friends are like a second family to him, and he didn’t want to be in the business world. He told me that I don’t want to have to work as hard as you can. And then my other kids really haven’t wanted to work in the business. But they know all about the business, because we talk about it all the time. And when we got to the point where we were pretty successful, I set up trust funds, you know, for them. And now they have the burden of being a trust fund baby, which is a real issue, by the way for the for these kids. I hope that answers that question.
Shawn Flynn 22:54
trust fund children. Just wondering, was there any worries that you had, when newfound wealth suddenly appeared after you sold your company? Were there any concerns about that? How people might change?
Bob Carr 23:07
There were? And that’s a really good question. Let me say this in 2001, I sold half of the company to some investors for $40 million. And when I did that, I set up funds for my kids. And said, Yeah, I think you’re going to have a lot of money with the company success of this company. But dad is not giving you I’m going to put you through college. And here’s money that’s going in your trust fund in the form of shares of the company. And if we’re successful, you’re not going to ever see another penny from dear old dad, because I’m going to give it all to give back Foundation, which is the foundation I set up. And we’re going to put as many disadvantaged kids through college as possible. And that’s what we did. And one thing that I did right was, for each one of my kids, they were not able to draw down any money out of their trust fund until they turned 35 years old. And when they were 35, they could take one third of the money out and spend it however they wanted 25 they got the first third, and 35 they got the next third and they got the rest of it at age 50. And that was worked out perfectly with all six of my kids, then great stewards of their money, and they have not thrown it away. Or you know, they’ve used it very, very well, because they know they’re dead. So this company for $4.3 billion. And they’re approached by people who want to be their friends and all that and I think they’ve handled it very, very well.
Shawn Flynn 24:42
I got to ask that. You’re 70 you’re well off. You can just retire on the beach and sip lemonade for the rest of your days. But instead you decide to start another company. Why
Bob Carr 24:57
I started this scholarship program back in 2000. In three years to pay back scholarship that I had received, when I graduated from high school and our ship for $250. From the local Women’s Club, my picture was on the front page of the Joliet Herald news, I had no idea why I was chosen. I didn’t apply for anything. But it just made me feel really good. I got a plaque and all this. And when I went off to college, I’m like, you know, I’m gonna pay that money back to them someday. And so it took a long time. But when I sold the half of the company for $40 million, I sent them a check for $5,000. And I said, I know it’s been a long time, but I just wanted to give you this money back to give you this money with interest and to help other kids in the future. And that was I was done with it. A few weeks later, I get this note card from this woman who says, Bob, you don’t remember me. I’m Mrs. Latour. And you were the crossing guard for my three daughters in sixth grade A lot of school. I’m like, oh, my goodness, I can’t believe it. And she said, You’re the first person in 53 years that’s ever given us money back scholarship recipients. And we would love for you to come to our annual meeting and talk to us. So I went to the annual meeting. And I had just sold. Like I said, I had that big, bought a lot of money. And they told me that was our hundredth anniversary. And I’m like, you’re kidding. I said, Let’s, I’ll tell you what, let me make that 5000 100,000. And let’s pick five kids and help them get through college. And so that’s what happened. And we worked with the local high school where I went to high school. And we did that. And every year it works. So Well, the first year, we did it again, I this point, we have 1350 kids, either in college, graduated from college, or in high school on their way to college, as we’ve gotten bigger and bigger in the scholarship program, and seeing the impact, and it’s amazing the impact that we’ve made on these families, not just these kids with their families. And I figured out a way that we could we have 30 university partners. And we’ve been able to put kids through college was $20,000 per kid, four years of college. And we do that by taking kids who are very disadvantaged foster children and children of incarcerated parents, homeless kids, these kids are all eligible for Pell Grants and state grants. So we’ve worked with universities to take those grants, plus our money and put these kids through college. And if you can put a kid through college for $20,000 or go drink martinis, I’m just going to help these kids because I it’s better for me, I love doing it. It’s so much appreciated, and we’re doing good stuff. And the people in the company, I started a company, why, so we could get make more and more $20,000 and put more and more kids through college. And I think we have a program as we keep making it better and better, and helping more and more disadvantaged kids, and we’re gonna be able to put 10s of thousands of kids through college with this new company. I mean, just think about that. So that’s why it’s a pretty easy answer for me. By the way, I don’t like martinis. But I do like Bahama mamas. And I do go on vacations.
Shawn Flynn 28:32
I should have had that drink in the question. But with that, Okay, so now you started a new company, you’re mission driven, you’re helping thousands and you’re gonna help 10s of thousands? And what were all the lessons you learned from that first company that you’re able to implement in this new this second company?
Bob Carr 28:53
Well, that’s an easy answer for me. And that is that Trust is everything. Absolutely everything. If people trust you and believe that you’re an honest person, it’s a whole different world than if people distrust you or think you’re a bad person. So that’s number one. Number two, is be intellectually honest. Like I said it earlier. The three biggest mistakes in my I made in my life was where I knew I was doing something that I shouldn’t be doing. And I did it anyway, feeling I was so smart. I could get out of any mess. I created. What I got out of it, but it was very painful along the way.
Shawn Flynn 29:35
And then with this new company, I mean, you had mentioned helping 10s of thousands of people for the mission of the company. What about the company itself? Are you planning on taking this public as well or selling it, getting it acquired, what’s kind of the goals that are going to happen to this company?
Bob Carr 29:54
goals for this company to be very successful for me to find a new leader? The sooner the better to become head of it. And for us to go public and become worth, you know, big, big number, and have that money go to help, do what we’re doing, and maybe even internationally, not just in the US, but there’s a tremendous need for what we’re doing. And we change people’s lives for the better, and they always appreciate it.
Shawn Flynn 30:22
And with this current company, or your past company, anything in your entire business career, can you share with us one or two stories of where you learned the lesson?
Bob Carr 30:33
One of those three things. And that was in high school, I broke up with my girlfriend, or she dumped me for I was on the swimming team. And I was a backstroker. And the guy who beat me on the swimming team in backstroke, you dumped me out for him. And then he dumped her. And one day I go into high school, and all of my books are back in her locker. And I knew I should never go back. And I did and it didn’t work out in the long run. So there’s an example. I knew I was doing the dumb thing. Bob, is there a successful individual in business that you admire and why? There is absolutely someone in business that I admire. And that’s Bill Gates, back in the late 70s. And the early 80s. I was writing software, the operating system that at the time was called CPM. It was a terrible operating system. But we all suffered through it did the best we could. And then this guy gates comes along with DOS, a disk operating system, and it changed my life and the life of most it people. And then he goes on to build this multi-billion-dollar company now. And what’s he do? He spends a lot of his time helping people in Africa and not getting malaria and helping all over the country with his charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were both brilliant. Bill Gates was not successful because he stole Apple software from Steve Jobs, he was successful beyond successful in his own right. And he’s doing what all I believe in the philosophy of Milton Hershey of the Hershey chocolate company, Milton Hershey said it is a sin for a rich man to die. For a man to die rich, and Bill Gates is going to probably he can’t help. But for me, my goal is to die when my last dollar is spent on everybody possible is going to benefited from our charity work.
Shawn Flynn 32:47
And with that, how should one think about life and what they do?
Bob Carr 32:52
I believe you go back to the core principles to me, in all of life, what’s the single most important decision you have to make? And this is my way I look at it. You know, at the age of 13, when I was going through confirmation, are the minister at the Congregational Church was very clear. He says, are you going to devote your life to the Bible says or are you not in if you’re going to, then you need to do it honestly and completely and follow the rules of the Bible. And when I went off to college, I realized, you know, I didn’t believe in an afterlife, and therefore, I’m not going to spend all my time trying to live the way the Bible says I believe in the principles and all that everlasting life. But being a math guy is everlasting is a long time. So if you’re going to have everlasting life, why wouldn’t that be the best thing possible for you for everybody to really have? I just got came to the point where I didn’t believe in it. What’s the next thing? And in ethics class philosophy 102, at the University of Illinois, I formed the opinion at that time that doing the most good for the most people is the highest priority. That’s John Stuart Mill and his way of saying it, Transcendentalism, I think is the name of it. Do the most good you can for the most people and Carlos Casto, ADA was another person to take care of yourself. And then if you have extra leftover, take care of your family. And then if you have extra leftover, take care of your extended family, and then wider and wider and help as many people as you can, in the best possible way. And it’s really simple. I can’t think of a better thing to do than to take an underprivileged kid and help them get through college. that’s, to me the best value I can do with my resources and my time. And so that’s the way I look at like, every person in this world is better off than a lot of other people. And you don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be handling billions of dollars. All of us can do more to help people who need our help and some of our talents.
Shawn Flynn 35:07
And with all the charity work you’re involved in with selling a company for over 4 billion and your new company, what type of legacy? Do you want to leave behind?
Bob Carr 35:20
One of the proud moments of my life when I was introduced in a big group as a speaker, it was introduced as the most authentic CEO in America. I don’t know if that’s true. But if I could put one word on a gravestone, it would be authentic.
Shawn Flynn 35:37
And also, I’ve heard that you’ve extensively traveled to us, can you share a bit about these adventures with our audience?
Bob Carr 35:47
In my 20s, and 30s, I decided, first of all, I’m going to go to a baseball stadium and every baseball in every Stadium in the country, there’s 30 baseball teams. And I’ve been to 47 stadiums, because 17 of the stadiums I saw in the past have been torn down. And then I decided I wanted to go visit every state capitol in America. And so I did that. And there’s 50 states, obviously, there’s 50 state capitals. It is a heck of a lot of fun running around the country, and going spending some time in every state capitol building, which I’ve done. And then I decided I want to go visit every birthplace and burial ground of famous people. And I chose the presidents. And so I went and visited up until Ronald Reagan, I think I got all the Presidents birthplaces and burial grounds. And I stopped doing that after a while. I haven’t seen one since then. So that’s how I got to see the country. And I’ve seen a lot of the country and there are 3450 counties in America, which means there’s 3040 or 50 county seats. At one time, I was going to try to get to every county seat in America, but I’ve gave up on that a long time ago.
Shawn Flynn 37:09
Well, if you ever come out to Silicon Valley on your next trip, or that please let me know. And with that, Bob, I have to thank you for this amazing interview. If anyone wants to find out more about you, your company, your charity, what’s the best way to go about doing it?
Bob Carr 37:25
Thank you for asking is to go to get beyond.com, which is our website for the company. And give back at NGO, which is our website for the give something back to charity.
Shawn Flynn 37:42
Great, all that information will be in the show notes. And Bob, I have to say thank you again for being on the Silicon Valley podcast and for our audience out there. Please write a review on iTunes share with your network. This encouraged us to create more great content like this. And once again, Bob, thank you for taking the time to be on the Silicon Valley podcast
Bob Carr 38:02
Thank you so much. I appreciate all the great questions. Thank you.
Announcer 38:08
Thank you for listening to the Silicon Valley podcast. To access our resources, visit us at the Silicon Valley podcast.com and follow our hosts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn at Shawn Flynn SV. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decisions, consult a professional.
