Tim Metzner

Founder & Partner

Fireroad

Fireroad is a BuildCo, a new kind of holding company, borrowing the best from venture studio and private equity models. We bring a balanced approach to managing the risk of early-stage ventures with the predictability of enduringly profitable businesses.

Founder & CEO

Differential

Board of Directors

Most notable achievement: incubating and spinning out Cincinnati's first ever tech unicorn; Astronomer.

Part services (building bleeding edge technology), part investor (doing work for equity), part venture studio (before the term existed).

Acme Lock and Door

Advisory Board Member

Coterie

Coterie is transforming commercial insurance by leveraging data and technology to bring speed, simplicity, and service to small business insurance. 

As a co-founder, I served on the Board of Directors, led strategy and go-to-market/growth for the first five years, and played a key role in; raising capital (>$125M), recruiting (to over 150 people), people development, and culture building (many "best places to work" honors).

Co-Founder & Board of Directors

OCEAN Programs

OCEAN was founded by three entrepreneurs who discovered how much of a role community and their faith factored into creating successful companies. Our mission is to increase the awareness of God in the marketplace by building into entrepreneurs. We do this by inspiring, educating, and connecting entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are faced with a unique set of challenges, obstacles, and stressors and no one to process those with. Creating a company is a long, often lonely, road and frequently leads to burnout, poor decisions and loss of identity.

We believe that entrepreneurs have the potential to create culture, improve lives and flip cities. Beyond helping to build great companies we build great founders who will be good leaders and either good stewards of their success or equipped to handle failure.

Co-founder and Board Member

Chairman Of The Board

SparkPeople.com

Lead the marketing team by establishing the strategy, goals, and execution plans for all marketing and social media initiatives.

Work with the executive team to establish and understand company objectives and priorities and support those through our marketing initiatives.

Key Functions and Accomplishments:

• Leadership: As one of the longest standing employees at SparkPeople, I help to provide overall leadership, direction, motivation, and to maintain the company culture.  
• Digital Marketing: Tested, managed and negotiated most forms of online marketing.
• Customer Acquisition: Focus marketing efforts on driving conversions (SparkPeople has over 13 million lifetime registrations).
• Product Development: Participate in product development initiatives to help drive new revenue, increase user engagement, and improve the overall customer experience.  
• Business Development: Lead deals ranging from corporate wellness partnerships with Fortune 100 companies, to “in kind” marketing swaps with other organizations.
• Strategy: As part of the core management team, I participate in overall strategic planning for the company, and lead all planning related to marketing. 
• SEM: Managed a large PPC budget for over 8 years.
• SEO: Assisted in many strategic initiatives and projects related to search engine optimization.
• Branding: have helped create, manage, and build all of our brands.
• Social Media Marketing: Took the initiative to begin creating a presence for SparkPeople before any competitors had considered it (SparkPeople still has the most active Facebook Page in our space and a large following on Twitter and Pinterest).
• Inbound Marketing: Increase user engagement and repeat visits, beyond the conversion, by improving the user experience and intentionally focusing on inbound marketing efforts (SparkPeople attracts over 10 million unique visitors per month).

Vice President of Marketing

Led key marketing initiatives and participated in business development activities.

Director of Marketing

Work on the business development team creating and maintaining strategic partnerships and business relationships. Also develop and execute marketing plans, social media efforts, and work on branding initiatives for all of our online media properties, which include:

SparkPeople.com: One of the largest and fastest growing weight loss and healthy living websites. 

BabyFit.com: The world's first and only online healthy pregnancy planner and community. 

SparkRecipes.com: Online healthy recipe site and community featuring over 60,000 searchable recipes with ratings and comments. 

SparkTeens.com: Online destination for weight loss and healthy living for teens.

dailySpark.com: A blog created by health and fitness experts that offers fresh doses of fitness, nutrition and health news every day.

Marketing and Business Development

Alpine Investors, LP

During my time with Alpine my primary roles included:
Building and maintaining relationships with business brokers and intermediaries
Analyzing opportunities against Alpine's investment criteria, the leadership teams in place and the industry as a whole
Assisting in due diligence activities for potential deals

Analyst

Worked in various roles during my co-op terms with SparkPeople which evolved and expanded as the company grew. These roles included serving as Project Manager for SparkCincinnati, a large-scale local goodwill initiative aimed at improving the health and fitness of people in Cincinnati.

Project Manager/Co-op

Build, buy, and back companies to create meaningful returns.

Get daily inspiration and thoughts from me at: www.dailymo.co. Powered by faith + an amazing wife. Love being dad (x4). 

Serial entrepreneur and startup community builder that co-founded Cincinnati's first Venture Studio (Differential), which launched a unicorn startup (Astronomer), one of the most impactful digital platforms in church tech (Apollos), and a leading digital product agency. Co-founder of Coterie Insurance, one of the fastest growing small business insurance companies in America.

Founder & CEO of Fireroad, a holding company focused on building, buying, and investing in businesses leveraging force-multiplying technologies in AI-resistant categories. 

I believe that entrepreneurs can change the world by creating great jobs and culture. This belief has been a driving force behind my own entrepreneurial endeavors, and was the inspiration to co-found a non-profit that has supported thousands of entrepreneurs in staying committed to their faith, families, and health while building companies that are a force for good in the world.

There is no shortage of impressive business and financial accomplishments that you could list about Hobby Lobby. For example, they are on track to do $8B in sales this year. 🤯

But there is one stat that I'll never forget, something I can't stop thinking about: 50.  

I had the distinct pleasure of joining a small gathering to hear David Green and Bill High talk about their new book, The Legacy Life. I'll be honest, I was on the fence about attending. 

When I first signed up, I was excited about the event, but the reality of several days this week of travel and meetings meant the inbox was pilling up, and I woke up this morning eager to get back to Cincy and catch up on work. I jumped off of my weekly small group meeting early so that I could get over to the event, but I almost just jumped in the car, instead. God whispered in my ear to get there. So I did. 

And boy howdy am I glad I did. I haven't walked away from a gathering this inspired and excited to read a book in a long time. 

That number I can't stop thinking about? 50. As in, all 50 of David Green's children, grand children, and great grandchildren live in Oklahoma City. 

The business accomplishments and stats are inspiring, but the older I get, the more I think about the potential for impact through family legacy. 

No matter how successful my entrepreneurial endeavors end up, I want this more. A family that is running after the Lord and each other. Many generations working, serving, celebrating, grieving, and living together. 

50 and counting... what a legacy!

Building, buying, and backing companies at the intersection of AI and SMB succession.

If investors (myself included!) don't get it, that isn't necessarily a bad thing!

I've spent my career building things that look different.

Different than what what investors are looking for, or where they are looking. "You can't build that kind of company in Ohio." 👨‍🌾

Different than what the masses are running after. "Don't limit your pool by putting faith at the center of an accelerator; you'll just get a bunch of "cute church businesses" applying." ✝️

The idea of a startup studio in Cincinnati in 2012 was mostly met with all the many reasons why it won't work. 🙅‍♂️

Over-investing in building world-class culture is "not a good use of resources" at the earliest stages. 🧐 

People need "command and control" leadership to do their best work, not autonomy and support. 🫡

I'd be lying if I said I've never questioned my approach... or wondered how much easier it might be to build for the mainstream. 

But, we aren't called to easy. At least, I'm not!

In 2012, Ry Walker and I set out to do things differently. I've made plenty of mistakes along the along the way, but we've also created almost $2B in value (my friends and family tell me I'm too humble, so how's that for humble brag 🤣). 

Once again, we are building something different. One of the most common responses I get when talking about Fireroad is "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that" or "aren't you doing too much?" Potential investors aren't quite sure what "bucket" to put us in. 

Maybe we're a bit ahead of the curve again, but I think we just might be onto something special. 😉

The problem with "busy" is that we make excuses to stop...

Reading.

Learning.

Working out and taking care of our bodies.

Eating well.

Spending time with God.

Sleeping enough. 

Playing.

Spending time with our loved ones.

Resting.

Busy is OK for a season. 

If you're doing anything meaningful it will be required.

But please don't let that season become the reason you stop...

The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own example. 
— John Wooden

How will you use it? #DailyMo.co

Success is never owned, it is rented—and the rent is due every day.
— Rory Vaden

Crushed yesterday? Awesome! Today is a blank slate. 

Yesterday was the worst? Shake it off! Today is a blank slate. 

Parented your face off this weekend? Well done! Your kids still need you today.

Landed a key customer, employee, investor, or partner last week? The signature is just the start; time to make it count this week!

#DailyMo

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