Spencer Patton

Founder of the Patton Foundation

Spencer is the founder of multiple companies in the logistics space, including Patton Logistics, Route Consultant, and Hello Truck Lease. Spencer is regularly quoted in Bloomberg, Reuters, Fox Business, The Washington Post, NASDAQ. com, Business Insider, and The Wall Street Journal. Input from fellow entrepreneurs and business leaders has played a vital role in shaping Spencer's entrepreneurial ideas.

What businesses do you run?

I run a network of logistics companies. I got started 10 years ago with routes for FedEx Ground. A lot of people don't know the person coming to your door wearing a FedEx uniform, driving a FedEx truck is not actually a FedEx employee. FedEx Ground contracts out their package delivery to some 6,000 small business owners across the United States.

I grew my business into one of the largest operations for FedEx Ground in the United States. My trucks have been on Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live, which are like the last places you ever want to be as an entrepreneur or as a truck driver because it means you’re about to get made fun of!

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

I got started as an entrepreneur like most kids with a lemonade stand. I mean, no joke, I feel like I was coming up with ideas since I could walk. My parents encouraged entrepreneurship from an early age, and I was outside my house selling lemonade and trying to upsell someone into two lemonades rather than one.

How do you think about growth in your current business? How do you plan for the future?

The hallmark of any good entrepreneur is that you understand the pain of the customer group that you're trying to solve for. When I got started in the FedEx world, I drove a truck as a FedEx driver for two years I was in that truck. I was sweating. I was running from dogs. I was doing all the things that any of the drivers or my staff were going to do. I had done personally. When I had experienced it, I was then able to provide solutions and have authenticity. When I'm sitting across from my staff and they say, "Hey, this can't be done", I know when that's true and when that's not.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship requires mental toughness. You've got to have grit to push through times where people are going to call you crazy, times where banks are going to tell you no, times where things look like a failure in the moment. You have got to be able to get through that.

But here's something else true about entrepreneurship: this is not a maverick quest. If you think that you as a solo individual are going to find a way to push through all the hurdles that await you, you will fail guaranteed. You have to have your family around you, a spouse, friends, a team, and other people that often are behind the scenes. This support network deserves tremendous recognition. Those people around you can help encourage you in the moments where you need somebody else to pick you up out of that dirt, tell you to brush off, and convince you to find a new path forward.