Power of building relationships is the one lesson I keep coming back to. Business is never a solo endeavor. Every chapter of my career has been shaped by the people I met, the partners who showed up, and the relationships that survived the bad days. The companies came and went. The relationships compounded.
I have been building infrastructure for a long time now — landscaping in New Orleans, retail before the internet caught up, the Whinstone build in Rockdale, Texas, and now Savrn and AI infrastructure. The work changes. The lesson does not.
Power of Building Relationships at the Whinstone Scale
When I started at Whinstone, the build looked impossible on paper. Raw farmland in Rockdale. A timeline that did not respect physics. A grid interconnect that wanted forms in triplicate. None of that came together because of a deck. It came together because the right people showed up and stayed in the room.
Whinstone, later acquired by Riot Blockchain, became one of the largest data centers in North America because we built relationships with the linemen, the county, the fabricators, and the energy partners before any of them owed us anything. That is the part you cannot shortcut.
Showing up matters more than the deck
I have a personal rule: visit the site, walk the perimeter, eat lunch with the people who actually run the place. That habit was born in Rockdale and it has carried into every campus I have touched since. The deck closes nothing. The lunch closes the next thing.
Power of Building Relationships at WWT
My recent partnership with World Wide Technology is the clearest current example of the power of building relationships in business. I was introduced to WWT by my good friend Bill Kleyman from Apolo. Bill has always been someone who sees the potential in partnerships, and his introduction to WWT was no exception.
Since that introduction, Chad Michels at WWT has been the person on the other side of the table who helped align our business goals and position both of us for the long term. What stuck with me about working with WWT is the culture. The whole company has a passion for the work, and that passion shows up in the way they treat partners. It is not just transactions. It is connection.
Bill Kleyman’s introduction was the unlock
Bill knew what I was building before I had the right words for it. He was the connector who sent the first email. None of the WWT work happens without that introduction. That is how the power of building relationships actually compounds — one person who knows you well sends one email, and the next chapter starts.
Trust is the only currency that scales
The power of building relationships is not about making business deals. It is about creating a foundation of trust that can hold weight when the numbers go sideways. Without trust, no idea or contract or quarterly target survives a bad week. With it, you can pivot through almost anything. Whinstone, WWT, Savrn — every one of them stands on trust I built before I needed it.
Power of Building Relationships at the Intersection of Cycling and Business
For anyone who knows me, cycling is not just a hobby. The bike is where I do my best thinking. When I am on the road, my mind clears, and I work through whatever is stuck on a whiteboard somewhere. The physical and mental endurance the bike asks for is the same endurance the building asks for.
On a recent trip to WWT in St. Louis, I got reminded how powerful these intersections are. My client manager at WWT, Brandon Shepherd, is an avid cyclist. Shared interests deepen business relationships in a way that decks cannot. During our meeting, Brandon surprised me with a signed jersey from his cousin, Keegan Swenson, who has been making waves in the gravel scene.
It was not just a thoughtful gift. It was a symbol of trust between two people who could just as easily have stayed in the transactional lane. I rode anyway, the next morning, in a city I barely knew, with the jersey reminding me that the best business relationships look a lot like the best riding partners.
Shared passions deepen the partnership
I have signed plenty of contracts in my career. The ones that turned into something bigger were always with people who cared about the same things I did, and not all of those things were on the agenda. The bike, the build, the people. Three things and they all run together.
Power of Building Relationships Through Culture
One reason WWT and I clicked is that we both treat culture as a competitive advantage. Culture is not a poster on the wall. It is what people do when nobody is watching. The way teams work together. How they support each other. How they handle a bad week. All of it stems from culture, and culture stems from relationships.
At WWT, the passion for the work is felt the moment you walk through the door. From leadership to every member of the staff, there is a deep commitment to collaboration. That is the environment our partnership grew inside, and it is the same environment I try to build at Savrn.
Culture is what survives the spreadsheet
When budgets get cut and timelines get hot, culture is the thing that holds. Spreadsheets argue with each other. People do not, if they trust each other. The power of building relationships is what makes the spreadsheet survivable.
Power of Building Relationships and What’s Next
The work ahead — the Savrn AI Factory campuses, the Token Economy framing, the next jurisdictions — depends on the same engine that built every chapter before it. People first. Trust before terms. Show up before you need anything.
If you are navigating your own entrepreneurial journey, my one suggestion is to focus on relationships. The day-to-day grind will swallow you if you let it. The people you surround yourself with are what make or break what you build. Invest in them.
The bike, the build, the people
At the end of the day, the work is more than profits and growth. It is the journey, and for me, that journey has been shaped by the people I met along the way. From Bill Kleyman’s introduction at WWT, to Chad Michels and Brandon Shepherd, to the team in Rockdale, to the people I am building with at Savrn now. None of this happens alone, and that is the whole point.
Updated: 2026-05-10