Chuck Warshaver

We are honored to welcome Chuck Warshaver as a Sales Partner with PerceptionPredict.  Chuck is an accomplished Executive, Entrepreneur, Business Coach, and Board Member with more than 35 years of success in manufacturing industries, as well as nonprofits. 

Mark had the opportunity to sit down with Chuck to interview him in an effort to get to introduce him to our organization.

Question 1: What’s your impact on the world, problem you want to solve for your clients?Legacy is very important to me especially where I am in my life. I especially like helping young entrepreneurs avoid some of the mistakes that I made. For me, it's really about the next generation. Most of the people that I'm coaching are younger, and I am trying to open their eyes to try new things. They are our future and everyone should have a coach/mentor to help guide them.

Question 2: What's a story you'd like to share about your business?
I owned a mattress manufacturing company in the Northeast. One of our major foam suppliers delivered foam that was not cured properly (and smelled up the entire factory) and as a result, we dropped them as a vendor.

Months later he cold called me- thinking he was there to apologize again, I hesitantly met with him and to my surprise he was there to show me some new proprietary products. It was right at the time that Tempurpedic was making their move into the industry and quietly gobbling up market share. And he had a ""better"" product. He said, ""We'd like it to be something that your company would consider and maybe even exclusively."" So I said, ""I'm definitely interested."" Long story short, we partnered and we presented and sold it to QVC as the first knockoff product of Tempurpedic that anyone had done. We ended up having a three year run at QVC winning product concept of the year twice. We were fortunate enough to sell that brand to a private equity firm. All because we met for 30 minutes. You just don't know. So, take the meeting!"

Question 3: What does your organization look like?
It's just me, and I'm not looking for long term projects. I think it's better to just focus on, what is it that you as a client want to solve? What is it that you need my help with? And let's see if we can just do that. I'm like a doctor - diagnosis then prognosis. Then hopefully a cure!

Question 4: Tell us the most gratifying experience you’ve had in business.
"In 2012, after I'd already sold my business and moved to Phoenix I was tooling around LinkedIn for possible new opportunities. I'd already been off since 2010. And this nonprofit appears on my feed called Playworks, which is an organization that teaches low income kids soft skills and conflict resolution through play at recess. And I'm like, wow, this looks really cool. So I LinkedIn the CEO, and I said, ""I'm really interested in joining your Board, and seeing how I can help you grow in Arizona."" And she said, ""we only have three schools. Would you be interested in becoming the Executive Director?"" I started soon thereafter and treating it like a start up business we grew very quickly. After five years, we had grown from the three schools to over 50 schools. We were serving 50,000 kids a day.

We changed their original model and became best in class. I'd say that was hugely gratifying that they, adopted a lot of what we did and, my team went on to do bigger and better things. My former Program Director is now an Executive Director for another nonprofit. And, one of my Program Managers is now a Program Director for another nonprofit. I like to see the young people take what what they have learned and be able to use it and parlay into self improvement. That's most gratifying!"

Question 5: If you were driving on the Autobahn (no speed limit) how would you decide how fast to drive?
I would slide in with the speed of the road. When it comes to driving, I know that I would not be the lead dog. I would go with the flow, that's not my personality or leadership style, but in the case of driving, it would be. Back of the pack for me on the Autobahn!

Get to know Chuck by visiting Linkedin