Most family business transitions happen quietly behind closed doors. For Andrew Johnson, the handoff included a meeting he now calls "The Apocalypse." Before he became the CEO of ShelfAware, Andrew was just a son trying to modernize his father's legacy company, O-ring Sales & Service.

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Host Kyler Nixon talks with Andrew about the messy reality of entrepreneurship. They discuss the friction between founders and the next generation, specifically how Andrew and his brothers-in-law presented a massive growth plan that led to them being "fired" for a night. Andrew also breaks down how constraints—like wanting to compete with giants like Fastenal without adding headcount—forced them to invent the RFID technology that eventually became ShelfAware.

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👤 Guest Bio

Andrew Johnson is the CEO of ShelfAware LLC and an Owner at O-ring Sales & Service, Inc. Growing up in the family business, he started inspecting parts in the warehouse before earning an accounting degree to prove his financial literacy to his father. Today, he runs a connected ecosystem of industrial businesses in the Greater Kansas City area. Andrew focuses on "Digital VMI" (Vendor Managed Inventory), using RFID technology to help independent distributors automate replenishment and compete with national chains.

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📌 What We Cover

1. The "15-15-15" Plan: The specific goal Andrew and his partners set to hit $15 million in revenue with 15 employees in 15,000 square feet.
2. Surviving "The Apocalypse": The story of the night, the next generation presented a modernization plan to the founder, and nearly lost their jobs.
3. Founder's Syndrome: Why creators often treat their company like a "fifth child" that no one else is allowed to raise.
4. Practical Education: Why Andrew’s father forced him to get an accounting degree instead of a marketing one before joining the firm.
5. Competing with Fastenal: How O-ring Sales & Service needed a VMI solution that didn't require expensive field reps or branch locations.
6. RFID Smart Labels: Transforming standard inventory shelves into "virtual vending machines" to track consumption without hardware-heavy investments.
7. The "False Start" in Succession: The consequences of executing major business changes—like a new ERP implementation—without fully communicating the vision to the founder or the staff.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

1. ShelfAware VMI

Distributors often look to direct-to-consumer giants for website inspiration, but B2B buyers have fundamentally different needs. They are not shopping for entertainment: they are doing a job. Kyler Nixon sits down with Tari Elkin from Restek Corporation to break down exactly how to convert busy lab managers into loyal customers.

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The secret is not adding more features: it is removing the barriers that stop the sale. Tari explains why Restek moves past vanity metrics to focus on pure utility. She shares a specific case study in which shifting the burden of account verification from the customer to the internal team led to a 40% increase in conversion rates. Kyler and Tari also discuss the critical role of accurate product data in preventing costly downtime for clients and how to prepare your digital infrastructure for the upcoming shift toward "Answer Engine Optimization."

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Tari Elkin helps lead the digital experience at Restek Corporation, an employee-owned developer and manufacturer of chromatography products based in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. With a background in research at Oregon State University, Tari bridges the gap between technical scientific needs and seamless e-commerce experiences. She focuses on data-driven enhancements that simplify procurement for lab managers and scientists worldwide.

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1. The Utility Mandate: Why B2B buyers care more about finding invoices and tracking shipments quickly than they do about flashy website designs.
2. The 40% Conversion Win: How Restek changed their account linking process to remove friction at the cart level and drastically increased sales.
3. Customer Advisory Panels: A practical framework for meeting with your most vocal customers biannually to validate your roadmap.
4. Rethinking Subscriptions: Using subscription models to give buyers control and flexibility rather than trapping them into unwanted monthly orders.
5. The Cost of Bad Data: Why a wrong SKU is just an annoyance in retail but causes massive revenue loss and downtime in industrial and scientific sectors.
6. Roadmap Strategy: Organizing agile development into boulders, rocks, and pebbles to balance major innovations with necessary maintenance.
7. Future-Proofing for AI: Preparing product data for "Answer Engine Optimization" so bots and humans can find your inventory.

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1. Restek Corporation

Most entrepreneurs believe the distribution market is a "solved game" dominated by giants like McKesson and Medline. Kevin Finley disagrees. In less than five months, he launched Keystone Supply Group and is already profitable by doing exactly what the legacy players refuse to do. This episode is a masterclass in supply chain resilience and aggressive, scrappy sales tactics for new distributors.

Kevin reveals how he leverages public government data to build prospect lists from zero and why he purposefully avoids net-30 terms to secure unbeatable pricing. He explains the critical role of "secondary distributors" when Tier 1 supply chains break down, citing the recent Baxter manufacturing crisis as a prime example. If you believe the market is too crowded for a new player, this conversation proves that agility, cash flow, and direct manufacturer relationships still beat massive scale.

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Kevin Finley is the Founder and CEO of Keystone Supply Group, a rapidly growing distribution firm based in Wayzata, Minnesota. With a background forged in the high-stakes pressure of COVID-19 procurement, Kevin specializes in bypassing traditional supply chain bottlenecks to serve healthcare and industrial clients directly. He champions a "Partner in Preparedness" philosophy, emphasizing transparency, speed, and the elimination of unnecessary intermediaries to deliver essential supplies when Tier 1 distributors fail.

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1. The COVID Wake-Up Call: Kevin explains how the pandemic exposed massive lapses in the traditional supply chain. He realized that when the "big guys" run out of stock, the entire market breaks down, creating a significant opportunity for agile secondary distributors.
2. Capitalizing on Crisis: The conversation shifts to the recent impact of Hurricane Helene on the Baxter manufacturing plant. Kevin details how smaller distributors can step in to support downstream clients, such as surgery centers, when national supply lines are severed.
3. The "Ripple Effect" Sales Method: Starting with zero customers requires scrappy tactics. Kevin describes how he dissects a single win—such as selling gloves to a New Jersey wholesaler—to immediately identify and pitch similar businesses in the same region.
4. Hacking Government Data: You do not need to buy expensive lists to find leads. Kevin explains how he uses tools like BidNet and BidPrime to find public bid requests, using specific keywords to identify exactly who is buying which products right now.
5. State vs. Federal Bidding: If you want to enter the government market, do not start with federal contracts. Kevin advises focusing on state and local bids first, where the paperwork is manageable (5-10 pages) compared to the 100-page complexity of federal RFPs.
6. Building Systems to Scale: Kevin discusses the importance of documenting every process before hiring. He shares his strategy of recording screen captures for invoicing and shipping to ensure new hires can replicate his work without constant supervision.