Stefan Bozik - Alumni Profiles - People - Batten Institute

From an early age, Stefan Bozik (MBA’14) had a knack for “making money and having fun.” He juggled numerous side-hustles (selling baseball cards, hawking holiday cheesecakes) in addition to his multiple jobs every summer and school break. Today as an experienced business leader who acquires and runs companies, Bozik gravitates toward opportunities where he sees more than just the financial upside. “I’m not the type of entrepreneur who would acquire just any company,” Bozik reflected. “I need to feel drawn to the product’s story or the problem the company solves, and I have to feel a sense of purpose in what I can bring.”

In 2015, through mutual friends, he met the founders of a tiny fashion start up called La Matera, whose high-quality accessories—inspired by Argentine gauchos (ranchers)—impressed him. “I loved the quality, loved the business, and knew the customer base. I felt like it was a story I could tell well.” He was confident he “could evolve and amplify what they already started.”

Within 30 days, he bought La Matera and ran it for eight years. As the business owner, he traveled the world, expanding artisan sourcing and style inspiration from Guatemala and Mexico, in addition to other regions of South and Central America. By the time he sold La Matera to an investor group with fashion and ecommerce experience, he’d grown topline revenues 30x.

His success with La Matera wasn’t just about being in the right place at the right time. Bozik spent years building his skills in finance while studying economics at Wake Forest and working in investment banking at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Wanting to gain operating and management experience, he joined McMaster-Carr, an industrial parts supplier which he describes as “Home Depot meets Amazon.” There he worked his way up to running the warehouse, overseeing three supervisors and 100 employees.

As a student at Darden, Bozik envisioned himself becoming CEO of a large company, perhaps joining a program like GE’s rotational management program after graduation. Instead he found himself spending hours in Batten Institute’s i.Lab Incubator, a program for early stage ventures. “It allowed me to have fun and play in a purposeful way,” remarked Bozik. “I met classmates interested in the same things and collaborated on businesses all summer and all year long. It was extremely beneficial.” He began researching an idea for a crude-oil hauling business (growing up, his parents ran a heating oil business), but was dissuaded by high regulatory barriers. In the meantime, driven by a desire to eat well, he founded and operated Yolo Meals, delivering healthy meals to Darden students and Charlottesville gymgoers. Though neither venture lasted beyond business school, Bozik says the iLab time was invaluable. He also loved his classes, particularly Raul Chao's Product Development class and Entrepreneurial Thinking, taught by Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy.

After graduation from Darden, Bozik moved to California and drilled water wells but then a friend introduced him to the brothers who founded La Matera. Bozik “sank his teeth into the opportunity,” relishing the opportunity to build a brand and be creative. He reached into his Batten iLab network, hiring Rick Kulow, an iLab entrepreneur-in-residence, as his CEO coach.  Bozik said he learned quickly the difference between case studies in Darden classrooms versus operating in real life. “I learned that a lot of times you’re making decisions with information available at the time, and hoping the good decisions outweigh the bad.” He also learned to dial back on perfectionism, and to trust others’ processes.

The business flourished and he was able to pay off the La Matera seller note in two years. Repeat customers drawn by fashion novelty represented 35% of the business, unheard of in a belt-driven business, where customers tend to buy a single belt that they keep for decades. In his seventh year running La Matera, Bozik wrote a growth plan for the next owner and retained a broker, something he highly recommends for first-time sellers. “We had six offers. It was bid up 40 to 50 percent over what I would have gotten otherwise,” he commented. 

Since selling the company, Bozik formed No Limit Ventures, a search fund looking to acquire a business in Tampa, Florida, the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, or conducted virtually. This time, he’s not looking for fashion. Instead, he wants a business in an “unsexy industry,” with “at least three years of operating experience, minimum $600K EBITDA, not a lot of marketing spend and some operational efficiency.” And then, of course, the critical factor—a business where he can see what “my purpose is here.”

As for advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, Bozik believes the Silicon Valley narrative—which focuses on founders and unicorn start-ups—presents “a skewed view of entrepreneurship. I think we’ve gotten away from remembering that for many people, the American dream is owning and operating your own business. Not everyone needs to be the founder of Google. There is a whole world of business opportunities out there.”

His final advice for Darden students and alumni interested in ETA? He suggested “getting started now. As you get older, there are only more and more reasons not to take the chance. The road to someday leads to the town of nowhere.” Acquiring and running a business will “stretch you in countless ways professionally and personally” but, he concluded “It’s absolutely worth it.”