Birmingham serial entrepreneur has passion for helping companies reach their full potential
Birmingham entrepreneur Richard Randolph says he has a passion for helping companies reach their full potential.
After getting tutelage from David and Steve Upton, owners of CraneWorks in Birmingham, Randolph made his first business plunge in 1993 at age 27 when he joined a California entrepreneur and helped form Gravity Works.
The duo created an amusement ride chair called the Ejection Seat that shoots riders 12 stories high then zips back down. The ride is now found at parks across the United States and in more than 20 countries.
After selling that company, Randolph in 2000 joined Atlanta’s David Lee in starting Airshares Elite, a company that allows partners to have fractional ownership of airplanes. He remains a major shareholder.
A few years later, Randolph helped some Washington, D.C., entrepreneurs purchase and revitalize Christianity.com, a Web portal for Christian content. They sold it to Salem Radio Networks.
For the past three years, Randolph has worked with Birmingham’s Shannon-Waltchack Real Estate on his latest venture - lakefront development. Last month, Randolph began his first solo lakefront development, Taylors Ferry on Bankhead Lake 25 miles north of Birmingham.
Randolph shares what inspires him in business and the thrill he receives from his favorite hobbies - aviation and motocross riding. What got you interested in your hobbies?
Aviation is my favorite. I have an instrument rating and 1,300 hours of flight time. I hope to go in with a partner or two and buy a super decathlon aerobatics plane.
Motocross is my other big hobby - it’s something my wife, Patti Ann, and kids love to do as well. I recently had “Bomber Barnett,” a former world champion motocross champion, build a private track for us up on Smith Lake.
Tell me about your love of sports cars.
I change out sports cars nearly every year. I like unique, highly modified sports cars built out at reputable speed shops. My favorite was a 475-horsepower Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo.
Right now I have a 1971 Pontiac Trans Am.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
I was two years out of Auburn, working in sales for Reliable Rentals and got interested in bungee jumping. I attended a seminar in Atlanta where I met Peter Kockelman, a California engineer who had commercialized the sport.
I offered to take him to the airport and got him to tell me about an invention he was working on. It was a twin-towered reverse bungee ride we later called the Ejection Seat.
I offered to pay for the prototype if he would let me in on his company - Gravity Works. Problem was I had no money, but a friend of mine loaned me $45,000 and I used the machine to be built as collateral.
In 1993, CNN did a clip on our ride and we launched our company. We spent five years building 50 rides, licensing territories and shipping rides all over the U.S. and the world.
How did you transition into Airshares Elite?
I had bought a Beechcraft Bonanza to help me get around the country and collect license payments and fell in love with aviation. After Skycoaster bought me out of Gravity Works in 1997, I started work at Epps Aviation in Atlanta in Cessna Aircraft sales.
David Lee approached me to buy a Cessna 182 as the first plane in his start-up company based on Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets business model. We went into business together, bought a few Cessnas and worked for months with no sales as we watched our bank account drain to nothing.
We then switched to Cirrus Aircraft, and obtained five Cirrus SR22s. We finally started selling shares, landed $1.5 million in capital and the company now has 55 planes serving roughly 300 clients in 10 markets.
And after that you helped start Christianity.com?
9/11 almost killed Airshares Elite. Our fleet was grounded, as was all of general aviation by the FAA. During that time, I had joined Church of the Highlands and was trying one day to get my pastor’s sermons online when I ran cross a sermon streaming company called Lightsource.
I saw the CEO was from Birmingham and called up Duncan Rein. He told me that a week before he learned Christianity.com had exhausted $44 million in venture funding and that it was for sale.
Within three weeks, we owned Christianity.com, and it was going backwards $200,000 per month. Three months later, we had shaved 90 percent of the expenses and kept 70 percent of the revenue.
How did you get into waterfront development?
A few weeks after we sold Christianity.com, Len Shannon of Shannon-Waltchack Investment Real Estate and I went with my missionary friend Russell Black to Peru. Len suggested I look into buying waterfront properties.
Over that summer, I took my wife and/or my boys on long boat rides and camping trips on seven Alabama lakes and after getting a feel for them all, I decided to focus on Smith Lake.
I found a 200-acre tract for $2.5 million that we (Shannon-Waltchack and R4 Capital) turned into the 72-lot Hidden Falls.
Why would you get into a development concept like Taylors Ferry when the real estate market is going down?
Aside from our Smith Lake developments, I have also purchased several land tracts, fixing them up and reselling them. Last year I ran across a beautiful tract on Bankhead Lake.
To position the property in this economic climate, I came up with a retro fishing camp concept - old-time cabin architecture on affordable lots. I adopted a one-day sale strategy, spending $100,000 in marketing up front and praying it wouldn’t rain on sale day.
It worked.
What advice to you give other entrepreneurs?
Learn MS Excel so you can run numbers. You will see quickly whether what you want to do will work or not. Get a subscription to Forbes.
Work only with rock-star talent. Listen to what people say - they speak what is in their heart. Test a system or idea before you try to roll it out.
Have a “get-done” list, not a “to do” list. Follow opportunities. Show up early.
When you get a windfall, increase your standard of giving, not your standard of living. Be a good steward of your time, talents and treasure God has given you.