Interview with a CEO

As part of the IEM program, we were asked to do a reverse interview on a CEO of a company that operated in a field we were interested in. Obviously, I picked a company in the homeschool theater. I’ve purchased material from Veritas Press in the past (excellent products and service BTW) and my instructor Dale knows the proprietor, Marlin Detweiler.  After I swallowed hard and got over being nervous, I called him. I don’t think I was this nervous asking Liz out the first time. I was so impressed with him and his mission that I had to share, so here is a peek into the view from a true entrepreneur based on our interview:

Company: Veritas Press

Site: http://www.veritaspress.com/

Mission: Provide Classical Christian Educational Products to Home School market. Seeks to provide the best materials possible and to be a blessing to their customers.

1) Would you characterize Veritas as a publisher or distributor?

R: Marlin gave a brief history of his business, which I always love hearing how people got started. In brief, he started with a concept of part-time, small, single curriculum “History and Bible” while he was in real estate. This ended up migrating into full school coverage with self created products and other courses. They entered this stage with 2 commitments. First they would not market at home school fairs – too time consuming, expensive, and away from family. Second, they would only provide best products to suit their market and that they would create products. [ed. He and his wife build excellent products]. He wants to stay as a publisher because a distributor only depends on others for products. By providing select products from other sources and their own materials, it is harder for someone to step in and directly compete. This dual function provides value to his customer base. Veritas is currently moving into more services like online live courses which they have been providing for 4 years. They’ve grown up from just 32 students in the first year (as a trial) to a fully fledged offering now.

1b) What excites you about directions you’re headed?

R: Vertias is just starting an “asynchronous online course” and sees one day having a complete school available this way. It is very expensive and time consuming to develop, but they maintain control over content and quality. Marlin sees education as a whole moving online.

2) What is your biggest issue?

R: Capital to develop what he wants (see online above). Even if someone plopped capital on table he would need the talent to create what he wants as new products. It is difficult to delegate a project like this and still maintain quality of offerings [ed. Also I get impression he really likes and gains enthusiasm from the creative process. ] He feels his hands on approach has kept the bar high in terms of quality of product (clean, easy to use, content, etc) and in meeting the goal of high level and intellectual education with success in students learning at this level.

3) What consumes the most time?

R: Perfecting his golf swing – his self described smart-alecky answer. [I think it shows that enjoying life takes a priority in his balance between business and other aspects of life.] For business, he says he does the things he likes. He enjoys reconciling the accounts from the bank. He enjoys planning and development of new products and marketing. He likes to add new products like Omnibus. He spends the least time on operations – he has a great VP and feels the best way he helps the VP is to stay out of the way.

4) Thing you do that has biggest impact on ROI?

R: Not unexpected – he said product development and marketing. Marlin also said that profit is not his driving factor. He does indeed wish to make a profit but not at the expense of everything else or at any expense. He liked doing real estate but feels his work now has intrinsic value [ed. His cause is obviously educating the next generation and wishes to leave a legacy in that respect].

5) What keeps you up at night?

R: Nothing. Goes to bed early and sleeps well. He feels it is important to be able to do that. Obviously sometimes life events will intervene but in general we should strive to be rested. He feels it is necessary for an entrepreneur to be able to know what they can control and to worry only about the things they can control when they can control them. [ed. I get a sense that he turns over the things that are out of his control to God. He never mentioned God directly but this is just a sense you get speaking to him. Peace is a fruit of the spirit.]

6) Is there any product or service you are looking for? (I added other than the development of the online courses because we had spoken about it.) Is there an XYZ that you wish you could get your hands on?

R: He said he likes to develop his own products and knows he needs talented help to do so. He’s been very fortunate to be able to work with the folks he has. Veritas will always also sell products produced by others so finding those is always a good thing. He said students are ready for subjects a lot sooner than current curriculums give them credit for. Many students can handle more difficult subject matter – we have too low educational expectations of students. He is excited about the marriage of the tech world with good books.

I came away with the impression (as if my opinion matters) that Marlin is a well grounded, spiritual man with his head screwed on right. He is the kind of man that you really like to see succeed and the country needs more of. I encourage you to check out Veritas Press and keep an eye on them in the future. In the end, it was a very pleasant discussion and Marlin was very gracious with his time and information. All the nerves were for nothing.