Chief Endurance Officer

How does an endurance mindset shape entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation in a global tech company?

Today’s guest is an inspiring leader whose resilience, curiosity, and mission-driven focus fuel both athletic and entrepreneurial success! Introducing Rob Schimek, CEO of Bolt Tech. Rob partners with host Gregory McDonough to share how his early “never quit” mentality shaped his career, the origin and rapid global growth of Bolt Tech, and the importance of falling in love with the problem, not the solution. He also delves into teaching entrepreneurship to young people, building strong support systems, and leading with a clear mission that acts as a true North Star.

Takeaways
  • Cultivate a resilient, “never quit” mindset. Learn from every experience, good or bad, and apply those lessons to future challenges.
  • Define a clear mission and use it to guide decisions, especially during uncertainty or rapid growth.
  • Fall in love with the problem before jumping to solutions; deep understanding leads to better innovation.
  • Encourage curiosity, risk-taking, and learning from failure, for yourself, your team, and the next generation of entrepreneurs.
  • Build strong support systems at work and at home to stay motivated and grounded.
  • Bet on yourself, commit publicly to big goals, and follow through with discipline and perseverance.
  • Include family and community in your pursuits to create shared memories and stronger relationships.

Quote of the Show:
  • “If you're going to ever bet on anyone in life, you should bet on yourself." - Rob Schimek

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Chief Endurance Officer is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/ 

Creators and Guests

Host
Gregory McDonough
Greg McDonough is a seasoned executive who has owned and operated businesses in the professional services sector, navigating them through both good and tough times. He brings his personal experience of knowing what it’s like to be ‘in the owner’s seat’ when working with clients, taking time to ask the questions others may not.
Producer
Gabby Aloisi

What is Chief Endurance Officer?

Join host Greg McDonough on a transformative journey as "The Chief Endurance Officer" explores the incredible power of positive energy and sustained effort. This podcast delves into the real-life stories of individuals who have harnessed the endurance mindset to achieve remarkable goals in every facet of life – personal achievements, professional success, and athletic triumphs. Visit our website www.chiefenduranceofficer.com for additional resources and exclusive content, and subscribe to hear these inspiring episodes every Friday!

CEO - Rob Schimek
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[00:00:00]

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Well, welcome to the show. I am super excited for our guest today. He is a leader and athlete. He who knows what it means to go the distance. He spent over 30 years in senior roles at Global Giants like A-I-G-F-W-D group and Deloitte.

Rob Schimek: a

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: He founded a fast growing international InsureTech company, which now operates in more than 35 markets across four continents.

When he is not driving growth in the boardroom, he's testing his limits in some of the toughest endurance.

Rob Schimek: on the

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Races on the planet

Rob Schimek: Ironman World

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Ironman World Championships to Antarctic ice marathons. He's the group CEO of Bolt Tech. Please welcome Rob Shimek. Rob, welcome to the show.

Rob Schimek: Thank you very much, Greg. It is an absolute pleasure to be here with [00:01:00] you. been

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: really been looking forward to us connecting and recording this, so here we go. Rob, as you know, I love talking about the endurance mindset. So can you tell me how your endurance mindset has impacted your life Unexpectedly.

Rob Schimek: Yeah. You know, I, the very first thing that I will say is I, I don't know that I was ever the most gifted athlete of all time.

Um, but one thing I have always had is I have maybe a screw loose in my brain. I have that, you know, never quit, uh, mindset. And, and I think that, um, I never set out to even be an endurance athlete. I just set out to never quit. Um, and you know, in, uh, may, maybe the, the most interesting, unexpected thing to happen to me is I used to work on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania when I was a kid and I was, um, I was 10 years old, so I was.

Like a baby man. And, and I'll never forget, like the horror, when the [00:02:00] farmer came up to me one day and said, you know, I'm gonna have to lay you off. I'm gonna let you go. And I was like, holy shit. Like I didn't say holy shit at that point in time because the idea, it was like, you know what? In the world I, I, I cannot ever let this happen again.

And so it just gave me that mentality then that I would work harder then, which is the equivalent of. Just never be willing to quit. And um, but it all really came from this unexpected event, I'll say early in my lifetime, that has carried on for decades beyond. awesome.

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: awesome. Um. It

Rob Schimek: how

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: how so much of our current life is

Rob Schimek: in experiences that we've

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: that we've had as kids and teenagers.

Rob Schimek: It, it is. I actually think that, you know, you've, we've all heard that phrase that we're a product of our past. Uh, I think it's actually [00:03:00] factually true. You know, there's many things about my past that, that maybe didn't go the way that I.

wanted them to go. But I will say that the person I am today is 100% because of the experiences that I've had in the past.

And, uh, You know, I think you, you can't deny it. You can't hide from it. And what you should try to do is make the, make the learnings from those experiences, whatever they are, whether they're good or bad. You know, we've all had, like that teacher, you've worked for, someone that you hated, or you had a teacher that was really tough.

Um, learn from them and if they're really good, emulate them. And if they really aren't good, I got great advice. Learn. Not to do what they've done,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: You know, Rob, it's a

Rob Schimek: point and you're,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: point and you're,

Rob Schimek: me

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you're guiding me into a different direction than I expected. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for it. Um,

Rob Schimek: this

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I've got this theory about teaching entrepreneurship.

Rob Schimek: especially

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: It's especially young women, young girls, and I've got two [00:04:00] daughters, and I remember before the pandemic, my oldest and I, we were building this little business

Rob Schimek: put

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: it kind of got put on pause.

Rob Schimek: for you to

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: But I'd love for you to reflect on sort of that teaching entrepreneurship,

Rob Schimek: risks, being

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: risks, being curious, falling down. It's

Rob Schimek: the

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: very much the endurance mindset too. Um,

Rob Schimek: I'd love for you to

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: but I'd love for you to reflect on that and then we'll go back into racing and, and then these endurance events. But I, I'd love to.

Rob Schimek: your,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Hear your, your insights to that.

Rob Schimek: the very first thing that I'll say is that the company that I have had the pleasure of founding is a company called BTech.

Today we are the, um, the fastest growing InsureTech. That's the, the where the connection point of insurance and technology in InsureTech. Um, we're the fastest growing InsureTech focused on distribution in the world. We operate in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, across 39 markets. And you know us really well by the way.

In the US we help other [00:05:00] companies to do the things that they're trying to do just faster and better. So if you've ever bought a, um, auto and home bundle from progressive. It might be elements of our technology that had helped to to make that.

happen. But, but the company was born in the pandemic and, you know, we, we've kind of continued to run into obstacle after obstacle after obstacle.

First it was being born in the pandemic and I literally had to start some, uh, businesses, some locations in countries where I couldn't travel to. I live day to day now in Singapore, and I couldn't get to Korea, but I had to open a business in Korea. And You know you, you, you learn by the way, to solve problems when, when these obstacles happen.

Um, but you learn them in a really good way. And if you said to me like, so. What's your big takeaway from that? You know, you figured out how to succeed. You've [00:06:00] scaled it, you've scaled a business during the pandemic, you've, you've been able to raise capital in this more recent funding desert that has existed where it's been almost impossible post this Silicon Valley bank challenges that happened in the US really hard to raise capital.

So, so how did, how did we do that? I would say, you know, a couple things. Number one, um. Really understand your North star. It, it's also about endurance in my view, because we've been very thoughtful about picking the vision of what we're trying to even do in the first place. Uh, what is the vision? What is the mission of your organization?

And while lots of things have to change. As you're going, it's like being in a race. There'll be days when you feel good or maybe, maybe you fall and get hurt, or you know, you have a, you have an injury that that crops up. It doesn't matter what it is. You might change your tactic a little bit. But the one thing you shouldn't [00:07:00] change is you shouldn't change this whole idea of what is your mission?

What are you trying to accomplish in the first place? So for us, we set a big. Hairy, audacious, uh, goal. Like, you know, what are we trying to do? We wanna build, um, the world's leading technology enabled ecosystem for protection insurance. Like, oh my gosh, what does that even mean? Well, um, what we're trying to do is use technology around the world.

To help to close something that's known as the Global Protection Gap. And the protection gap is very simply the difference between this, the disparity between the people who have people and companies who have. Uh, protection for risks that, that they encounter versus the ones who need it. Or how much protection did you need?

And you could use as an example, like if you live in California today, in the wildfire affected areas, it [00:08:00] might be pretty hard to get wildfire protection. That's an example of the protection gap You need protection. But you don't have it. So we've had this North star from day one that says we are going to be a really important player around the globe at closing that protection gap.

And that's the thing that we've never lost track of. And if you never lose track of that, it's like running the race. If you never lose track of the fact that, uh, of what the. Finish line looks like, or the thing that you're trying to achieve looks like, then you can do it. But if you lose track of that, you keep changing.

You know, imagine running a marathon and you change what you think is the end destination. You

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: the question that pops into my head, and I really like the way you framed that and

Rob Schimek: articulated your

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: your North Star.

Rob Schimek: Stepping

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: back just a little bit

Rob Schimek: to

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: to the process of identifying the North Star, I mean, how did you and your team

Rob Schimek: sort of

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: of come up with [00:09:00] that,

Rob Schimek: you know,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you know, closing the protection gap as you're a North Star?

Was it.

Rob Schimek: A

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: A strategy session, was it on a long run or did you, you know,

Rob Schimek: how, how

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: how did you come up with a de Because that's one of the things I struggle with is like,

Rob Schimek: exactly what

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: what is my North Star? I mean,

Rob Schimek: yeah, I've

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I've got a lot of dreams and a lot of directions and I've,

Rob Schimek: you

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you know, I wake up excited every day and that's part of it,

but

really it and putting it down on paper and getting it,

Rob Schimek: you know,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: know.

Rob Schimek: Form,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: uh, developed. That's a, that's a difficult process. So I'd be how you and your team

went through that process to identify that North Star.

Rob Schimek: the best analogy that I can use is a quote that was, um, mostly attributed to Albert Einstein. And Einstein said if I had one hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes in the problem. And five minutes on solution. So the very first thing I'd say is what I see when I watch [00:10:00] others sometimes is I see people who are running to the solution before they are thinking about what problem are they trying to to solve.

So I've spent a. I'm not the youngest founder you've ever had on your show, Greg. Um, you know, I've spent my career, um, at Deloitte serving, uh, clients in the insurance industry. I went to a IG and I worked at a 100-year-old company in the insurance industry. And as a result of that, I got real respect for, um.

For the industry and all the things that they're trying to do to solve, but I became really a expert on the problem. Mm. So what I fell in love with, don't fall in love with the solution first. Fall in love with the problem first, and if you spend your 55 minutes of your hour on the problem [00:11:00] figuring out what would you do to solve it.

We'll become much more logical to you, much more obvious to you. And That's the way I've gone about it. And for my team, um, they've really gotten on board with that because they also have fallen in love with the problem. I think it's a calling card of what we're doing at BTech today, and I think it serves us really well.

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: That's really well said.

Rob Schimek: I'd

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I'd love to know

Rob Schimek: how

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: how that translates into your endurance life.

Rob Schimek: you know, I.

I fell in love, I guess there with, um, with trying to figure out how would I ever, as I, as I got older, how would I ever stay really active? But, um, still be able to walk on my knees. Um, I don't wanna walk on my knees, but I, I want these knees to be able to allow me to walk.

Um, and you know, as I was younger, I was, there was a [00:12:00] time in my life where I was really fast. I was a good American football player. So, um, the, the. Proper football, the one that you use with your hands, not the one that they kick with. The one I've had to get used to out here in Asia. Um, but, but those years are past me.

And you, I've fallen in love with sort of the, the solving of, so what do you do when you're a sprinter or when, um, you know, things that require the fast, quick muscle, um. Really are gonna go away from me. And, and by the way, I don't, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure that there's some listeners on the podcast that, that, uh, might be 70, 80 years old and have amazing quickness.

I would say you're amazing to you people. But what I learned was that, that the only way I was going to be able to solve my problem of how would I stay in [00:13:00] the this game for a long time. Um, I had to switch from my natural inclination of the, the fast twitch muscle sports, um, ones that required more and more endurance.

And it's a really funny story, Greg, like, you can't make this up. I decided to run in the world championship. before I had ever in my lifetime completed my first half Ironman, But the one mental thing I had decided was that, um, that I was never gonna quit and that I had decided that.

I can do this stuff for a long period of time if I never lose focus on what it is that I'm trying to do. And over time it's been my transition away from speed, my substitute for speed.

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you

know, what's coming to mind, Rob,

Rob Schimek: are the

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: tough,

Rob Schimek: dark

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: training [00:14:00] days.

Rob Schimek: and

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and I would love to explore that with you and, and what

Rob Schimek: have been

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: been your hacks

Rob Schimek: other

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: other than,

Rob Schimek: you know,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you know, you've got a goal and you're never gonna quit, and there's a finish line in front of you at some point in time,

Rob Schimek: but

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: but there's some days and some weeks

Rob Schimek: that

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: that it's just dreary and dark.

Rob Schimek: and

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: It's really hard to sort of roll out of bed and get motivated to get,

Rob Schimek: get

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: get it done.

Rob Schimek: I'm

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I'm curious if you've got any hacks that kind of gets you re-energized or,

Rob Schimek: I don't

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I dunno. I'll leave it at that to see where this goes, but I'm, I'm,

Rob Schimek: that's the

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: the kind of question that kind of

Rob Schimek: my head. Um.

Three things come to my mind. The first one might or might not surprise you, and that is that, um, I've had a, the wonderful experience in life of coming across a life partner, my wife, um, who's just as crazy as I am.

And so the very first thing I'd say is, isn't it great when you don't have to do it by [00:15:00] yourself? Um, because when you have to get out of bed on those days that you don't wanna get out of bed, you have to exercise at those times. You don't want to if someone else just gives you a little bit of encouragement because they're going or because, you know, you can't let that partner down, um, you will.

So my training partner, um, is my, uh, is my wife Maria, and it's a. It's really an honor for me to have the opportunity to race in things with her. Um, she and I at this very moment, we're trading for the craziest thing that I think I've ever done, which is something called the World Marathon Challenge, which is seven marathons on seven different continents in seven consecutive days.

I didn't choose to do that race. Um, she chose so already, you know, that I'm, I've married someone who's a bigger, um, nut in a positive way, um, than me. But it's a great hack because now I'm [00:16:00] not giving up time with my wife to go do training. I'm actually training with my wife and now some of you say, mom, first of all, I don't want that much time with my wife or, or my husband and I don't wanna train with them.

It's awesome. It really is because listen, it's not like, it's not like we're able to converse at every step along the way. But isn't it really nice if you're gonna be out training for four hours that it's not four hours and then I come home and I'm exhausted, but my partner's not because they've been waiting around for me trying to see if I got home, and the moment that I get home and they wanna go do something, my partner's with me, and so that it works that way.

So that, that's one thing that I'll say to you. The second thing is. I'm really big on, um, making a commitment, just deciding on a race just so that I've made the decision to do it. Because then what I know is I'll never not train for the race. So in this calendar [00:17:00] year, uh, I've done. A couple of pretty crazy races.

I did something called the Aurora, uh, Northern Lights Marathon, which is in northern Norway, and we did that in February, uh, with my bull tech team, by the way. So my 20% of my senior most leadership team all flew out to Norway and they ran this crazy race under the Northern Stars, and I would recommend it to anybody.

It was a, it was an amazing race. Um, uh, a very fun one. But it, it was like Navy seal training, man. We were like, run up a hill. It was, first of all, it was dark 'cause they did it under the Northern Lights. It was dark, it was cold, um, it was windy, and you had to run up the peak to even get to the plateau, that plateau that you would actually run on.

So who wants to begin their run, um, by torturing yourself up the hill. Now, by the way, the, the one positive is you get to run down the hill at the end of the race. Um, not that that helps you at all when you're trying to get up the hill. Um, but I would [00:18:00] just say to you as examples, you know, like we've done that, we've done the North Pole marathon, uh, and turned it into a family adventure in July.

Literally went on a ice breaking ship to the North Pole right by where the Titanic went down only with the safe. We went through the ice, we got out at the North Pole and we ran, but we turned these things into like a family adventure. So I love sign up for something and commit that you're doing it. And then doing it not alone is a really big.

And then one other point that I would make is that, um, although I vary on my discipline with this. Many times on a longer run, I like to run with no headphones. Nothing other than just my brain because the truth is rarely do we get time. To ourselves to think through.

You're so busy And so think of it as I'm giving myself [00:19:00] the gift of fitness. I'm giving myself the gift of time to think through problems. I'm giving myself the gift of time with my spouse. Those are the things that motivate me, and those have been my. personal hacks.

a

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: a great insights. Um,

Rob Schimek: it's

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: it's ironic.

Rob Schimek: So

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: So my wife

Rob Schimek: got

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: got me into long distance triathlon

Rob Schimek: 10

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: 10 years ago. Um, and when we met,

Rob Schimek: she was

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: was training for her first marathon, which then led into

Rob Schimek: into her

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: our first Ironman, which then got her into the pool, which then got me back in the pool

Rob Schimek: and it

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and it all sort of snowballed from there.

Rob Schimek: And

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: And to your point, there is something special about.

Rob Schimek: Race

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: day with your spouse or your partner

Rob Schimek: towing the

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: the line and you're on the bike

Rob Schimek: and

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and you're daydreaming about when you're gonna pass each other going One way to the other.

Rob Schimek: Curious, Rob,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Rob, were both of you sort of into this endurance sport

Rob Schimek: before you

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you met or did something you discovered together, like walk

us story.

Rob Schimek: Yeah, she blame, she would blame It [00:20:00] clearly on me. Um, that I think that that would definitely be true because she, she was not previously a marathon runner, but, um, but it's really nice how it has turned. The tables have turned, the person who signed up for the North Pole marathon.

Was Maria, um, the person who signed us up for, um, seven marathons and seven continents in seven days. Seven, seven, seven as they call the race. Um, or the World Marathon Challenge, it was Maria. And so, um, so o once I got her going and you could think of then, then she has made sure that that momentum stays.

And you could think about that in the business context too, right? I mean, you know, the, the Isaac Newton theories. Of, uh, of relativity, like, you know, an object in motion stays in motion. You gotta get the object into motion first, but once it's in motion, keeping it going is actually easier than stopping.

That's funny. I experience [00:21:00] more pain when I don't train the way that I need to. As opposed to pain when I train regularly. So we're now training, um, even though this might not be the ideal formula, we're training seven days a week. Uh, we're running distance seven days a week, and we're teaching our bodies how we will recover after running a marathon and then needing to run a marathon the next day and then running it again the next day and running it again the next day.

But there is something about your body learning. Um, how to, uh, how to recover and you getting in motion and staying in motion. But if I take a couple of days off, boy, those knees get creaky again, and I don't even understand how that happens. You would think a little bit of rest would be nice. It's, it's a bigger headache.

It's a

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: is a hundred percent true. Um,

Rob Schimek: Rob, I'm

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I'm curious,

Rob Schimek: how

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: how are you finding these races? Or do these races just

Rob Schimek: find you?

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: [00:22:00] you?

Rob Schimek: There's a community, um, that that ends up, um, finding you, I guess, you know, at first you find it and then it finds you. But we've really gotten associated with an amazing group called Runbook, uh, R-U-N-B-U-K.

You should, uh, Google 'em up and take a look. Um, they're really interesting. They do a lot. Um, a lot of great races. We've raced with them in Antarctica. We've raced with them at the North Poles, the two we're, we're now bipolar. We've done it on two poles of the earth. Uh, we've raced with them in, uh, Alta for the Northern Lights.

I've raced with them, uh, on numerous occasions. And what ends up happening is you find even though I rarely race with the same racers, I have raced with the same racers here and there, but I rarely race with the same racers. I've raced with the same organizers and there's something really nice and familiar when you get associated with a group and you, they know you, you know [00:23:00] them, and it really makes it nice.

We have a 14-year-old daughter, Sophie, who went with us to the North Pole, and every one of the organizer. People, they know her. Uh, and that becomes really a, a cool experience because you?

can't do this and leave your, leave your family behind. They've gotta be a part of it. That's,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: that's a hundred percent right.

In fact,

Rob Schimek: many of

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: of our most cherished family memories.

Rob Schimek: are

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Around races that we've done

Rob Schimek: internationally,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: domestically, like having the

kids

Rob Schimek: When

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: when they're really, really small, sort of with my parents watching from the sidelines. They just think it's normal

Rob Schimek: and,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and uh,

Rob Schimek: there's

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: there's something magical about that.

Rob Schimek: Rob, I'm

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Rob, I'm gonna gears on you a little bit and talk more about entrepreneurship. Um, I'd love to hear the story about Bolt Tech

Rob Schimek: and

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and how that started as an idea.

Rob Schimek: While I'm

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I'm assuming you're working at a larger corporations [00:24:00] and then all of a sudden you got the motivation and the encouragement and the confidence

Rob Schimek: to

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: to leave that

Rob Schimek: setting and

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and start your own business, like I think a lot of us

Rob Schimek: come

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: come up with great ideas,

Rob Schimek: but

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: but many of us struggle to actually

Rob Schimek: and

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and take the risk and jumping out on your own and forming your own business

Rob Schimek: I'd,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I'd I'd love to help the audience sort of understand what

Rob Schimek: like.

Uh, it's really a very important and probably quite deep, um, question, Greg. The, the first thing that I'll say to you is that, um, you do have to have willingness to take risk and to be courageous. And, you know, a lot of times people talk about that, but then when it first chance comes, um, then they're afraid to take a risk of, my best advice I would give to anyone is.

Um, if you're gonna ever bet on anyone in life, you should bet on yourself. Um, and, and I [00:25:00] really believe that. So I worked for big companies. I depended on, uh, on many other people. I would always have to bet, you know, will my, will, my year end bonus? Um, how will it be? I know what my individual performance would be, but you know, the whole team's gotta perform and.

And I love being part of that team. Um, but. It, it's not, I can't control all members of the team, and so therefore I couldn't control that. But I knew that I, if I went out and did something on my own, I knew that I could count on myself, um, because I believed that I would just will it to succeed. I didn't, didn't know how successful, but what I knew was it would not be an utter failure.

Right? At least my mental model was that it wouldn't be. The second, uh, thing is. I had a really weird experience, so I am, I am quite American. I'm proudly American. I'm proudly from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the [00:26:00] home of the Eagles, um, the, uh, the reigning Super Bowl champions. And so you can't take that out of me.

Like you'd have to really beat it out of me, and I hope no one on the call today wants to beat it out of me, please. Um, but, but the, but I'm super, super, really loyal. Um, and I'm from a town in, uh, in Pennsylvania, little Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where my mom is from, um, where my brothers and sisters live.

Um, I've got a couple of older kids and, and they live there and, and so it's, it's such a pleasure for me to go home and the concept of me ever leaving the area would be, no one would ever believe I would do it. Um. Uh, even I worked at a IG in New York City for 10, 12 years and, and I commuted back and forth, kept my home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania would, would make that trip.

So no one would ever think I would do this, [00:27:00] but, um. But I eventually at, at a time when the company went through a leadership change, I kind of just made that decision that, you know, I, I wanna bet on myself, um, when I work in a 100-year-old company, if I stay one more year, I'm gonna, I'm going to have a 1% influence.

On the life, um, uh, accomplishments of that company. Mm-hmm.

I would rather go somewhere where I was, uh, working for one year in a company that was alive for one year and then I would've had a 100% influence on the company. And so, so I really just made the decision at a, at a leadership. Change to say, boy, I wanna go to a company that I start from scratch.

But you have to begin with following the capital because capital is the fuel for the [00:28:00] business. If you start a company on the basis of just a great idea, unless you're independently wealthy, it's hard to bootstrap these businesses. And so I was approached by, um, by an investor in Asia who offered me my original.

The investment and said, if you are willing to take the lessons that you've learned at a IG and in the US and bring them to Asia and do what you said, which is take all the lessons that you've learned in your, you know, 55 minutes of the hour where the, the, the bigger part of your career, and now focus on the solution, then I'll take you, I'll bet on you, but you're gonna have to move to the other side of the world.

In order to do this. And that was a big move for me. Um, but I think, again, I came back to having, having the bet on [00:29:00] yourself. Mm-hmm. Having. Fiction that you understood the problem that you were trying to solve. Um, and, uh, in all honesty, having capital, because if you're going to be an entrepreneur and sit on on an endeavor like this, it's very hard to do it, um, only all by yourself.

And so I had those things. It gave me the courage then to make the move. And, um, from there. It has been nothing but. Tremendous interesting learnings, challenges, et cetera. And by the way, no matter what you think, you know, before you become an entrepreneur and start a company on your own, you've never seen anything like what it is in real life.

Like, you know, picking the company name, setting the company's values, freaking uh, figuring out what the, uh, the URL will be getting your email address like. I don't know. There's no training I ever had for any of those [00:30:00] things. Whoa. Who tells you how to do that? Learn? Um, but, but anyway, that, that's, those are, that's kind of what gave me the courage to do it.

I, I will also say that I'm, because I'm, I think it's because I'm older. I'm very much not someone who believes that I have to be the center of the universe for my company. The proudest thing in the world for me would be to be surrounded by people who are capable of taking over and replacing me. Um, I wanted, I'd say sometimes I wanna die of old age.

I just don't wanna die of old age trying to build, when I'm trying to build, I wanna build it faster. Um, I wanna die of old age, but I probably don't wanna die of old age work.

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I love it. I love these entrepreneur stories and.

Rob Schimek: where

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Where I'd love to go is talking

Rob Schimek: about that that inflection point

on

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: [00:31:00] on the journey of sort of day one of bolt tech.

Rob Schimek: Until

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: today, at some point in time, the market yes,

Rob Schimek: this

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: this is a technology we need.

Rob Schimek: We

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: We are accepting you as

an as an as an innovator.

Rob Schimek: But But prior to that.

There

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: There was probably a little bit of doubt, probably a little bit of pushing the rock up the hill.

Rob Schimek: Can

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Can you

Rob Schimek: talk to

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: to us about that inflection play? When did you feel like

Rob Schimek: the

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: the market us and they're accepting this tech and

Rob Schimek: all? Now

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Now we're in,

Rob Schimek: you know,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: you know, 35 different markets across four continents, like when did

that just

spark?

Rob Schimek: it's a really good question, Greg. And you know, I, the first thing I'll say is with a, with a dose of humility. I wanna say, I guess, I guess that.

It's still not fully achieved it. What I see is I see, I see the, the hope and the, I don't even like to use the word hope, because that, that's neither a plan nor a course of action. Um, I can see that the, that the direction that [00:32:00] we've set. Is in fact being recognized by the market. So the kinds of things that have, that have emboldened me, um, are that we've been able to raise capital.

So, you know when, when you're an entrepreneur and you go out to raise capital, you will hear the word no. And, you know, get used to the word no. Um, I wouldn't say embrace it like you like it, but don't be afraid to hear No. And so, um, so I've learned better to hear the word no and then smile and. Keep going.

And as a result of that, uh, what we've been able to do is we've had the largest series A fundraising in the history of the world for an InsureTech, which was $246 million. Then we followed it up with the largest series B fundraising, uh, round in the history of the world for an InsureTech at 240. Um, billion.[00:33:00]

And then we followed up with a, uh, quite successful series C fundraising, um, which was, uh, smaller but still a nice, and at a closer to $150 million. And so you can see we've raised a lot of capital. And one of the things that really emboldened you is when investors make the decision to put their capital behind you.

And by the way, in the next round, um, some do even bigger. And in the next round some do even bigger. And the other thing is that we've had a mental model for our business the world is not my competitor as a matter of fact. because imagine little both imagine us trying to fight every established player in the market.

All the big incumbent insurance carriers, all the big incumbent insurance brokers, they're too powerful. So we've had a mental model that is a model of. Um, [00:34:00] enablement. What we're here to do is not to disrupt you, but to enable you to do things that you were setting out to do on your own in the first place.

So if you are, again, think of a IGA. Could be. I came from, there's many things that they're trying to do. They're working really hard. It is a, it's a quite good company, but because they're a hundred years old, they have all the old infrastructure that you would have. They have many of their own, um, legacy challenges and they're working really hard trying to do all the right things.

And so sometimes an enabler can help them over that. And so when big partners started to choose us, and even when they compete with one another in the same industry, but both of them choose us, that's because they recognize that we can enable them to do the thing that they want to do. When a big investor.

A big well named investor chooses to put capital behind the company. That gives you a lot of, uh, a [00:35:00] lot of confidence. Um, so these are the things, and then it's sort of hand, hand to hand combat. We've won some really big, um, accounts with, with global names that you would know super well. Let's, let's say as an example, Samsung.

We, we work with Samsung. By the end of next year, we should be in about 45 countries around the world with Samsung. Mm-hmm. Um, that, that emboldens you. Right? Because what you can see is that that partner that where we started with two countries. Now wants us to work with them in 40 countries. So those things give you confidence.

People giving you capital, give you confidence. Um, partners in the same industry, both saying, we'll get past the fact that we're, that you're working with both of us competitors. We want your capability to enable us. These things have given us confidence. It's, but it is a journey. It is that endurance race.

And so there I was say, you know, we're not done it. That's what we're not done with that race. And that's [00:36:00] why I don't like to declare it as victory. But I would say, um, you know, you think of it, think of it by a, a funnier or, or a more, uh, appropriate analogy, which is think about doing the Ironman. You've got the swim cutoff.

We've made it. You've got the, you've got the bike cutoff, you know, maybe we've made it. Um, we still have to make The run cutoff. Uh, and so we're, we're out there on the run course. Um, but it's part of that endurance race. The

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: The analogy that I was thinking of Rob was very similar.

Rob Schimek: Um,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: but you're on the run, starting the run and you're looking at your Garmin and you're like,

Rob Schimek: Hey, I

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: I might PR today,

Rob Schimek: but

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: but you still got 26.2 miles to run.

Rob Schimek: But

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: But you feel

em

Rob Schimek: empowered. you

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: You feel confident. Um,

Rob Schimek: that's

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: that's awesome. I love your journey. I can't wait to continue to follow it.

Rob Schimek: Rob,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Rob, audience member wants to get in touch with you. What's

Rob Schimek: way for them to get in touch with you? Super. Um, but first of all, please reach out on LinkedIn. Um, you'll, you'll, uh, you?

won't have any trouble finding me there.

Um, my [00:37:00] email address at BTech is, uh, rob dot shimek. It's rob dot SCH, IM e k@btech.io. So we don't have the.com, we have the DO io. So feel free to send an email message check, uh, check in in LinkedIn. Those are the two ways that I would suggest to catch up. Fantastic, and we'll

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: and we'll include those in the show notes.

Rob Schimek: Um,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: best of luck at the World Marathon Challenge. I can't wait to hear

Rob Schimek: The, the,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: the race

Rob Schimek: from

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: from that. I might bring you back on the show just a. Get the play by play or you and your wife to get the play by play.

Rob Schimek: Audience

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: members, if,

Rob Schimek: if you

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: if you got some value out of today, please like this show, please share it with your community.

We always welcome your subscriptions.

Rob Schimek: Rob,

greg-mcdonough_82_11-04-2025_090041: Rob, again, it's been fantastic having you on

the show and good luck on this journey.

Rob Schimek: Thank you, Greg. Really pleasure to be here with you.

[00:38:00]