Surviving a 2-Month Revenue Freeze in Year 1

Thank you for having me. Chibuna, when this episode airs, you will be almost exactly one year into your ownership of Veterans Room, a behavioral health business serving veterans and their families. So many details that I want to address in your story.

Let's hop right in. Start us off with some background on you, please, Chibuna.

background. I'm originally from Nigeria, so I'm an immigrant. Here, one of six, my family and I came to the States in 1995, where we grew up in Jersey City. My father and my mother

And my father, really the inspiration behind my recent acquisition and journey into entrepreneurship was an entrepreneur himself. He sold goods such as textile. And that was the... the resource that we were able to leverage to coming to the state.

So I grew up in Jersey City and I subsequently went to school in the South, went to a small school that has gotten a lot of notoriety now, Jacksonville State University. I went there where I studied political science and had all the aspirations of venturing into a career in government and law. where I interned for a congressman in that area.

And fast forward, graduated in 2007 and moved back home like most people do, and moved right into the financial crisis of 08, 09, and really And I'm sure we'll talk about this, but that's really the genesis of my interest in healthcare was sort of what was going on during that period. Subsequently thereafter, I decided to try my hand at a master's program.

And I went to Rutgers and got my master's in public administration, again, focusing on healthcare and public effectiveness within organizations. And spent some time in Trenton working for Governor Christie at the Office of Management and Budgeting. And through that foray of exploring public service, I realized that there was a shift happening around that time.

And that shift was a lot of private equity and a lot of banks. really you know changing the landscape of health care by way of acquisition there was a flurry of acquisition as you can imagine post that financial crisis and that's really where i got interested to wanting to see the other side of of the fence um but before i got there i spent a significant amount of time within the managed care…

So I've worked at Aetna. I've worked at Horizon. I've worked at various other plans, one recently acquired by Molina called Affinity Health Plan, and cut my teeth, as you would say, around health care managed care operations.

And with all of that said, I subsequently ended up at Duke University in pursuit of my MBA looking to get to that other side of the fence. as it pertains to healthcare. And I focused on healthcare and finance.

And by will and grit and the luck of the universe, ended up as an investment banker at MTS Health Partners and focusing on life sciences and healthcare services, M&A. And really that's where I...