In this episode of Strong Conversations: Real Stories, Sam Marcoux sits down with Steve Swinney, CEO and co-founder of Kodiak Building Partners, to unpack what it really means to bet big—and do it thoughtfully. From launching Kodiak during the Great Recession to leading a 5,500-employee organization into its next chapter with QXO, Steve shares lessons on risk, culture, scaling, and leadership. The conversation blends hard-won business insight with humor, reflection, and a few 1980s hair-metal references along the way. --- Episode Highlights · Why Kodiak’s biggest bets were bold but calculated · Lessons from starting a company during the Great Recession · How culture became the #1 diligence factor in acquisitions · What it’s like being acquired after 15 years of growth Steve is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kodiak Building Partners, a transformative force in the building materials industry that he has steered through strategic growth and 40+ acquisitions throughout the past 13 years.
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Sam
Welcome back to Strong Conversations Real Stories with the leaders, innovators and changemakers in the building industry. As always, I am Sam Marcoux and we have quite the story today because joining me on the Strong Conversations podcast, is a man named Steve Swinney. Steve, welcome to the show.
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Steve
Thank you so much. Thanks for having.
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Sam
Me. The chief executive officer of Kodiak Building Partners. Anything new going on in your world?
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Steve
Nothing much. It's been pretty quiet. No. Yeah. Obviously. Just here in the last few weeks, announced, really exciting. Next step in the journey for Kodiak joining CXO, becoming a part of that organization. So a lot of excitement, a lot of a lot of big things coming for us in the coming months and years.
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Sam
You know, just to pull back the curtain on this podcast, you and I probably spent about an hour on the phone about a week prior to this being recorded. Yep. And we talked a lot about what we were going to talk about here. And we're going to talk a lot about that stuff. And one of the things I told you, oh, by the way, if you've got anything coming up, if anything coming up at all, let us know.
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Sam
We're happy to we're partners will we'll promote it. And I sensed a little bit of a wry smile, but nothing. You were silent. The very next morning I wake up. Yeah. I'm on the West Coast and I've got texts, I've got links to articles, and it is the news that has basically taken over our industry right now, which is that you guys have made a deal.
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Sam
Yeah. And that is the next big bet for Kodiak.
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Steve
That is the next big bet. And it's a big one.
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Sam
It's a huge.
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Steve
One. It's a huge one. But we're excited about it.
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Sam
Well congratulations. Thank you. So let's for for those that don't know if you are listening to this right now and if you don't know what is happen. Kodiak. So let's go back. I say is the big bet, because when you and I were talking, I heard you on another podcast and you talked about that. You like to bet big?
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Sam
Yes. And I love that. I love that phrase. I like to bet big. And I think about when Kodiak was started. We're talking 15 years ago.
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Steve
Yes.
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Sam
2011. Our industry had seen better times. Right. We're coming out of the Great Recession. We're still trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what the new reality is in our industry. You're 38 years old. You've got school aged children at the time, and you decide to start this new venture.
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Steve
Yes.
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Sam
That's a pretty big bet.
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Steve
It was a big bet.
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Sam
Yeah. So the culture at Kodiak for 15 years that you guys have been in existence has been. That's part of the culture, is we're going to bet big. We're going to go we're going to go hard. So take me back to when this started. What went into what was the thought process of saying, I'm going to go chase this?
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Sam
Yeah, that's a huge bet.
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Steve
So so at the time I was at Probuild, led the finance organization there. The founders of Kodiak were myself and three guys that worked for me. But, you know, I think I think the first thing. Yes, we like to bet really big. But I would also say it's really important, right on the heels of that, to say they are not cavalier bets.
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Steve
You know, we do a lot of research. We do a lot of analysis. And ultimately, you know, we like to bet big when we feel like the odds are stacked in our favor. Yeah. And so go back to 2010, she said. So I've been a pro build since 2007. We did a lot of analysis, a lot of research for our owners at the time they're on what's happened in this downturn, how, how have past downturns looked?
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Steve
What have they what's preceded them? How bad do they get? What happened after them? And so we've gone all the way back to the Great Depression looking at that kind of stuff. And in that, in all that work and that research, we developed a real thesis for, hey, this is where we think things are going next. Here's the things that we've seen that have gone right or not.
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Steve
So right at pro build in a consolidation in this industry. How do we think that out of work, how do we think that outlook. And at the end of the day, we had a really strong conviction around those things. And so to us we felt like, well, we're not really taking a big risk here. We feel very confident about what's going to happen.
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Steve
We just got to go execute. Yeah. And so we went out and and we bet big you know after all that work on building a company in this space, building a consolidator that would do that in a little different way than maybe we'd seen in the past.
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Sam
So you bet. Big but calculated bet.
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Steve
Calculated bet.
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Sam
You felt good about it, wasn't it? I mean, it's a risky bet, but it's not. You're not just rolling the dice.
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Steve
So to speak, right? You're not just rolling dice. But I will say it's the thing of, you know, intellectually, this all makes sense. I can see it. I can see it laid out. We can see where where we think this is going to go. There is still the reality of we're putting all the chips in the middle of the table, and we think the odds are stacked in our favor.
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Steve
But what if it doesn't play out that way? Because there is no sure things?
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Sam
And I think that's where a lot of folks pause.
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Steve
Yeah.
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Sam
Is that what if. Right. I mean, that doubt, that fear, that uncertainty has stopped a lot of good ideas from ever materialized. Sure. Just because it's like, man, that is a risk and I and I can't afford.
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Steve
Can't pull a trigger.
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Sam
Can't pull the trigger. Have you ever had that happen to you? Have you had that in your life or your career? You were like, oh man, I'd like to try that again someday.
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Steve
Well, you know, I think we've got the very first investor that that said yes to us, when we started is a guy that's been a mentor of mine for a couple of decades now, David Alexander. And, and he kind of always, I think helped me along the way. I would he and I would stay in touch.
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Steve
We'd talk over the years. I always would want to do something like this. Yeah. And, you know, there were there were a couple times over the years where I'd call David up with one of those idea and say, hey, you know, I'm thinking about this. I think I'm gonna do this. And David was a voice that always until Kodiak was always the voice and said, I don't think you should place that bad.
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Steve
I don't think it's the right time. I don't think you've done enough of this or that or the other. Yet when I called him in the fall of 2010, he said, I'm in. I think you should talk to these couple of people. But let's I think this is the one.
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Sam
Wow. Yeah. So you kind of get that stamp of approval. Would you have done it anyway, even if he had told you?
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Steve
Probably that time. He told me no. So many.
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Sam
Times. Like I'm doing it either way, but. Yeah, but it must have felt good for him to say no. This is the right thing.
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Steve
It did. And then I'll tell you the other thing that, really felt good along the way. So as I mentioned, these three guys, Kyle Barker, Brian Clavering and Eric Miller and myself kind of were were kicking this idea around, finding that first opportunity. But in March of 2011, went to, sat down with Paul Hilbert. Paul had been the CEO.
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Steve
Probuild had retired from there the previous year. And my conversation with Paul was really just, hey, here's what me and the guys are going to do. Do you think this is a horrible idea? You know, almost. Hey, you know, stop me if you think I'm about to make a huge mistake for for my family and for these guys.
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Steve
And, you know, Paul, who has just everyone knows Paul has tremendous amount of, you know, wealth of experience in this industry said, listen, I think this could be huge. And I want to be a part of it. He became our biggest initial investor, became our chairman, really was has been now for 15 years. It's been a great manners.
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Steve
Our vice chairman of our company still today here here at the show this week. So that was a really big, boost of confidence, I think, as well, in that decision.
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Sam
So go to those that that original five, let's call it. Yeah. And you find the first opportunity. Yep. And that's, that's what another 75 folks are. So that when you when you first purchase we did.
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Steve
Yeah. So Barton supply first acquisition steel fabrication concrete accessories business and yeah we closed that in July 15th of 2011. Okay. So that was what really started all I took a six months to diligence to raise money to get get lenders in line and get that done, get that across the finish line.
00;08;01;33 - 00;08;09;29
Sam
So 15 years ago I'm going to go with the original five here. Yeah. And now here in 2026, 5500 employees.
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Steve
5500. Now we we lost. We we spun off, Kodiak Interiors group last summer. That was about 6 or 700 employees there. That's a standalone business now outside of Kodiak, led by our former CFO. But, yeah, 5500 employees, about 2.4 billion revenue last year and about 110 locations around the country.
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Sam
So you have you have grown obviously, in revenue from that year one to now. You've grown your employees from inception to now. What was it like scaling up and getting to where you are today? Yeah.
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Steve
I mean, the scaling part has been that's been the fun. Yeah. It's been an exciting journey. It's been amazing to watch a lot of our people grow into such bigger roles. Just to see how it's all come together, sometimes really seamlessly. Sometimes, you know, pretty choppy.
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Sam
Yeah.
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Steve
The stops and starts, inevitably. But I think what's been most interesting to me about the scaling has just been kind of, I'll call it kind of the stair steps. You know, you feel like it's going really well, you're growing and and I feel like when it starts feeling like it's really successful is kind of then when it feels next, like it's falling apart.
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Steve
And and for us those have been those stair steps have been the times where we really pull back. We evolve. We've changed a lot of things about the model over the years. But it's so stair steps where you feel like this is falling apart, where you got to remake it and then move on to that next stage of growth.
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Sam
So how are you able to do that as you, as you guys got larger and big and you have I mean, did you have competing cultures? You have culture clash as you integrated parts of the business.
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Steve
So you know what? Candidly, we have not had that much of that. But I'll tell you, why don't you please.
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Sam
Time now at 445, designing construction. We will be closing in 15 minutes. Once again, the time is 445. And design.
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Steve
And construction. We will be closing in 15 minutes.
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Sam
I just we.
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Steve
Will reopen tomorrow. I am, I think that I don't care how good the mics are, there's no way.
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Sam
I was coming through. So, if you just want to I, I think I got the question in if you just want to start with the answer.
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Steve
Yeah. So we actually haven't had as much of kind of culture clash as I think you would. You would think, but it goes back to one of our early acquisitions, our first acquisitions, fortunately, a very small one where the cultures did really clash. Yeah. And what we learned in that was that culture is the first diligence step in a deal.
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Steve
Okay. It should be, at least in our view, right. And, we learned that because we did have competing cultures, we spent so much time and energy that first year of that acquisition trying to resolve that. And it was not productive work. It wouldn't value creating work. And so what what we learned from that was, okay, you know, culture moves at the top of the diligence list of, are we going to are we interested in buying this company.
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Sam
Yeah.
00;11;13;33 - 00;11;26;36
Steve
Partnering with this company. And by the way, you know, with, with our recent announcement being on the other side of that table saying, are we is this the right fit for our team? Culture for me was the first thing to check off the list.
00;11;26;37 - 00;11;38;49
Sam
So that was actually where I was going to go next. I mean, being on the side where you were acquiring. Yeah. And now being acquired, how important was it that this was a right fit from the other side of the table?
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Steve
Very important for me. I mean, you know, I think like you said, we have 5500 employees. Yeah. You multiply that by maybe another three when you start thinking about how many families, how many people that affects, our people are amazing. We think it's the center of our culture. And it was super important to us that we find a next step for Kodiak and for our team.
00;12;01;03 - 00;12;20;07
Steve
That is a place where they're going to succeed, where they're going to grow, and they're going to expand, and it's going to lay out opportunities for them. And and I have to say, I mean, we really as we got to know Brad and the team at CU. So, we really feel like there's some very core things that we have in common that are really important to them, really important to us.
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Steve
And that's why we ultimately thought this is the right fit. This is going to be a great opportunity for our people.
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Sam
So you talk about your people and I again, I think I agree with you. I think any healthy company, the culture is surrounded around the people. It's built by the people. And it does change. And evolve as the company of change. It evolves, right? It has to in order to remain alive. Yeah. Since the announcement, I know that you've probably been pulled in every which direction.
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Sam
You've got a chance to talk to some of the employees. And what's the feedback you're getting from your team about the announcement?
00;12;51;17 - 00;13;09;12
Steve
Yeah, we certainly have. And that first day that when you were waking up and hearing those announcements, we were having our first employee meeting with our leadership around the country, as well as our corporate team, later that day. And this was probably the highlight of my day. Later that day, Brad and I hosted a town hall for all of our employees.
00;13;09;16 - 00;13;30;39
Steve
So I don't know how many of that 50, 500, but I know we had thousands on it. They had a chance to just hear a little bit about the transaction, but more importantly, about what we want to do together. And then, honestly, most of the call was them posting questions on a chat board. And us just, giving Brad a chance to kind of answer what obviously were a lot of questions people had about what's this going to be like, how should I feel about this?
00;13;30;39 - 00;13;45;44
Steve
Right. So I think where we're at today is, we got a lot of people that are really excited about it. We got people that understandably have their questions, have concerns, but by and large, I think, you know, we're as an organization looking ahead to all the possibilities with it.
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Sam
So as an organization, you're the CEO. Yeah. People are always going to look to you for the direction. And when something like this happens, there's a lot of questions about, well, okay, where's Steve going to go. So what are the plans for you?
00;14;01;04 - 00;14;19;36
Steve
So you know I told everyone it depends on how you feel about working me for me today. If you like that great news. You're going to keep working for me if you don't. Sorry. You're stuck with me. I'm going to be leading. Kodiak will become the building, the lumber and building materials division of cook. So I'm going to serve as president of that.
00;14;19;41 - 00;14;32;53
Steve
So, you know, when we close in early Q2, everyone still has the same boss. So except for me, right. And, and we're going to plow ahead. And we are excited about building the biggest and the best building product distribution company in the world.
00;14;32;57 - 00;14;51;43
Sam
So what is the most exciting thing about this, other than, of course, I mean, you have to have some pride. I would have I mean, obviously this is something you built. It was created in your mind. Yeah. And now there's this, you know, not the end, but the end of this first chapter. And, you know, we built it to this entity.
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Sam
I mean, take me through. What does that mean for you?
00;14;55;19 - 00;15;15;48
Steve
There's listen, there's a ton of emotion in it. And use the chapter analogy. I'll tell you what. What we told our, our folks last week was, said, you know, I'm actually thinking of this a little differently. I'm thinking that it's not really we're going on to a next chapter. It's that there's a book that we've been writing for 15 years.
00;15;15;53 - 00;15;32;18
Steve
We finished that. That book is we're finishing that book, okay. People are going to read it, but we're going to close that. It's going to go on the shelf. It's a great book. It's a great story. We may go back and read it again now and then, but it is a it is a conclusion. But then right around that there's a sequel to that book.
00;15;32;22 - 00;15;39;29
Steve
Okay. And our journey with CXO is going to be a sequel, and we're going to write another great book. So that's how we're looking at it.
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Sam
The, the, the who would be the Shakespeare of the building industry just writing sonnets and,
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Steve
That's right.
00;15;47;10 - 00;16;14;40
Sam
Books. And let's try to think of an author right there. He caught me off guard on that a little bit. So, I know that I first met you about two years ago. You came and spoke, to, my team. Our team? Yeah. And one of the first things that you brought up, and I think, you know where I'm going with this was your affinity for 1980s, call it hair metal bands or hair bands or whoever you want to call it.
00;16;14;45 - 00;16;31;41
Sam
And, you said a lot of great stuff in that hour where you talk, Steve. But I was hooked immediately. And I'm like, is no one going to ask him what who his favorite band was? And I just remember going, I'm asking the question. Everything else, all the business stuff is there, but I need to know. And I think he settled on Van Halen at the time.
00;16;31;41 - 00;16;33;05
Steve
Yeah, I did settle on Van Halen.
00;16;33;05 - 00;16;52;47
Sam
So I'm curious for anybody listening or watching this, if Kodiak, the company that you helped found and that you and 55,499 other folks right now are helping to grow and continue to grow, if they were a 1980s metal band, what band would Kodiak be?
00;16;52;47 - 00;17;06;04
Steve
Yeah. So you tipped me off a little bit. So I had a chance to think about this. And and I'm going to take the, you know, the lazy way out and I can't pick just one. Okay. But I found three that, that I think they all have stuff in common. And I think they remind me a lot of Kodiak.
00;17;06;04 - 00;17;06;24
Steve
All right.
00;17;06;24 - 00;17;07;06
Sam
Let's hear.
00;17;07;10 - 00;17;08;17
Steve
So Van Halen is one of those.
00;17;08;17 - 00;17;09;22
Sam
Okay, I take it. Yeah.
00;17;09;29 - 00;17;10;31
Steve
Motley Crue.
00;17;10;35 - 00;17;11;49
Sam
The Motley Crue and.
00;17;11;49 - 00;17;13;02
Steve
Guns N roses.
00;17;13;06 - 00;17;15;55
Sam
Guns that are so motley that that would be a hell of a concert.
00;17;15;57 - 00;17;18;43
Steve
That would be a hell of a concert. So that's.
00;17;18;43 - 00;17;21;21
Sam
Thinking. So who's opening and who's closing in that scenario for us?
00;17;21;28 - 00;17;41;24
Steve
Well, today, I mean, I think we can't get Van Halen all the way back together at this point. That's true. But but you can get Sammy and and Michael I think are still there. They're still playing together. I think you'd have them in there. I think depending on Axl and Vince's voice, I think it's a toss up between which one of them's the headline.
00;17;41;29 - 00;17;54;49
Sam
I think. I think what you do is you put Guns and Roses as the opener because, you know, they're going to be laid bare, and then you put the other two bands on because they're a little more professional in terms of showing up on time. And by the time GLR shows up, yeah, they're headlining.
00;17;54;51 - 00;18;11;25
Steve
There you go. Well, I will say so here. So I put a lot of thought in this though. And I thought, well, why would I pick those besides the fact that I love those bands and, and I do think there are some pairs, you know, you look at our team, you look at our people and all this kind of motley group that we've pulled together over the years with 50 acquisitions.
00;18;11;30 - 00;18;30;38
Steve
But but here's some things I know about our team. Incredibly talented. Just like some of those guys. You know, epic. When the lights are on and, you know, it's big time, it's it's go time. Our team has delivered over and over and over again every night on stage to, to use that analogy. And then, you know what?
00;18;30;42 - 00;18;50;06
Steve
We've been a little crazy and out of control at times, over the years. But at the end, you know, those bands, they became legends. And I think our team and Kodiak, the organization that we built, became legends. And now we get to go, you know, keep with the band analogy. We're going to join a supergroup here.
00;18;50;11 - 00;19;03;43
Sam
The supergroup, the, the legendary Steve Sweeney, the man who bets big. Joining us here on Strong Conversations. Thank you very much for being here. And thank you all for joining us here. We got more strong conversations coming soon. See you guys next time. All right.
00;19;03;46 - 00;19;07;11
Steve
Thanks. Nailed it. It was fun. Nail it. It's fun to do this all.