Free Guide
The Rebuild Standard
8 things I look for before I put my name on any company. This came from losing everything in 2019 and deciding it would never happen again.
In October 2019, I lost everything. Not because I did not work hard. Not because the product was bad. Because of ownership I could not trust.
Years of building, hundreds of thousands of reps, six-figure months. Gone. Because I had not vetted the people at the top as thoroughly as I vetted the opportunity at the bottom.
I built this checklist from that experience. These are the 8 things I look at before I put my name on anything. They are not exciting. They are not the things that get talked about on stages. But they are the difference between building on rock and building on sand.
Ownership First
Who owns the company and what are they building toward? An owner building toward an exit treats the field differently than one building toward a legacy. Ask directly. The answer tells you everything. I no longer join anything without looking the owners in the eye first.
Debt Status and Investor Structure
Is the company debt-free? Are there outside investors? A leveraged company makes decisions based on what lenders require, not what is right for the field. Outside investors have exit timelines that do not align with your building timeline. Clean balance sheets protect the people building in the field.
Vertical Control of the Supply Chain
Does the company own its manufacturing, labs, warehousing, and fulfillment? Or is it dependent on vendors who can disrupt everything? Contract manufacturers create fragility. When something goes wrong in the supply chain, the field feels it first. Own the infrastructure or depend on someone else's.
Founders Who Came From the Field
Founders who have built in the field design compensation differently. They understand what it costs to recruit someone. They build training and support because they know what its absence does to a team. Look for operators, not investors. Look for people who have lived what you are being asked to do.
A Real Mission, Not Just a Story
There is a difference between a well-crafted mission statement and an actual reason why this company exists. The real ones are personal. Dr. Tony Rodriguez built Vital Health after losing his parents. That is a reason. A mission built on real stakes changes how every decision in the company gets made.
Comp Plan Stability and Integrity
Has the compensation plan stayed consistent or does it change every year? Comp plan changes that benefit the company at the expense of the field are a sign of what the company prioritizes under pressure. Look at what they changed, when, and why. The pattern tells you what happens when margins get tight.
Infrastructure for the Builder
Does joining give you real tools? CRM, marketing funnels, onboarding systems, training, communication? Or does it give you a replicated website and a prayer? The tools available to your team determine how fast new people can get started. Slow starts create dropout. Fast starts create belief.
A Track Record That Matches the Pitch
What have the founders built before? Not what do they say they have built. What is actually verifiable? Have they protected their field when things got hard? Have they maintained their compensation commitments? Have they shown up when the company was not performing? Character shows up in adversity, not on stages.
This is not a guarantee of anything.
No checklist eliminates risk. What it does is raise the floor. A company that passes all 8 of these tests is not guaranteed to succeed. But a company that fails multiple of them is almost guaranteed to fail the field eventually.
Vital Health is the first company in 20 years that has cleared every one of these without hesitation. That is not marketing. That is why I flew to Hermosillo and looked them in the eye before I said yes.
Want to see exactly what Vital Health looks like against this standard?