Founder, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author, Firefighter, Investor, Real Estate Nut & Obsessed with Construction
Ted Strzelecki has had unique success contracting and is highly regarded as the one of the best hyper-scalers in business that doesn't need lenders. Spanning the United States Ted has worked on a structure, a business, or helped an organization in almost every state. He has won multiple awards for business including being the founder of the INC 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies award. A well known insomniac, Ted uses his inability to sleep to maximum benefit and has written several books for those in the blue collar world of contracting. Less focused on the physical side and more so on the sales and operations side these days Always approachable, if you see Ted in the airport - never without his workboots - stop and say hi.
Early Years
Growing up the son of an entrepreneur sounds like a head start, until you meet Ted's father. A tireless workhorse, that had a huge inspiration to begin Ted's work obsession that he carries still today. "What was different about me? I wasn't special. I noticed at a young age was that I always watched people. Their patterns, their behavior, how they spoke. Super observant"
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Ted's life changed in 1989 when his parent's home burnt. Soon after, his dad started a crane operating business and as the child of any business owner knows, whether you want to or not, you're working. After being introduced to construction at that age, that was it. Hooked. Construction was all there was or would be.
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An unexpected turn happened when his father stopped running his crane business and began a fire truck repair company. Flash forward a few years. A mechanic. Not Ted's favorite thing to do in comparison to contracting but a challenge and learning curve all the same. Around this time Ted's mother who was working in the office always knew Ted is a numbers person. So, with school summer break and weeks in the office it was clear, business operations was addictive. Seeing the numbers and making the changes in the office then watching it play out in the garage was as fulfilling as construction. But there was something missing and causing resentment.
Real Estate, Firefighting, & Construction
At 18 Ted joined the local fire department. Shortly after graduation, at 20 years old, Ted bought his first multi family home. Abruptly in having a father & son disagreement Ted left his dad's company and spitefully started his own business. The 2000s in construction finally and the wind at his back Ted grew his construction business and began spending more time in real estate investing. Buying heavy equipment and building right up until the Global Financial Crisis. One hell of a learning experience.
For those who live the life of a founder you know that once you finally go all in, there is no other way anymore. There is no "job" or working for anyone ever again. After bouncing around a few places residential contractor, a civil engineering contractor, a utility / excavation company but getting fired from almost every place due to his employer not wanting to grow or not growing fast enough, Ted had all he could take.
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Over the last few decades Ted has either founded or sat on advisory boards for companies that have increased their revenues to over $100,000,000.
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Perhaps Ted's most notable run was beginning a company with $4,500 and a makeshift desk built into a closet with a laptop and turning it into an 8 figure national company, winning the coveted INC 500 fastest growing companies in America award in just a few years.
The Hard Shit "You have to do an autopsy on your failures. One of the biggest things is when you learn an incomparable amount about business is that when you pose a threat or stand directly in the path your industry's Goliath. It's that you have built a super rare business when you are targeted early on. Great teams, services & products have a way getting known quickly."
