“It’s important to take risks, as a business leader, as an entrepreneur. This business was a huge risk from day one.”
– Alex Danza
On this episode of The Pivotal Leader, Gina Trimarco interviewed Alex Danza, founder and CEO of Vonlane luxury motor coach service that he founded in 2014 to give Texas travelers an alternative to the delays and interruptions that accompany short-haul flights and the hassles of driving one’s own vehicle. Starting with routes between Dallas and Austin, Alex has expanded the company’s reach, and now the five biggest cities in the Texas Triangle are completely accessible on Vonlane with plans for expanding out of Texas.
Alex also is the 2017 recipient of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award in the Southwest region in the category of Emerging Retail and Consumer Products.
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Podcast Topics Include:
- Alex describes Vonlane – “it’s like a private jet on the ground”
- How personalized and proceduralized training is the key to creating an amazing customer experience
- Recruiting employees and referrals and how to get top talent in the door
- Making gut decisions, taking risks to progress and innovate
- Spending advertising dollars as a startup
- Scaling and growing: identifying prospects and keeping the model pristine
- Raising capital to get a business venture off the ground
- Suggested strategies for CEOs seek help and guidance for leadership and as an entrepreneur
- Favorite books: Good to Great
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More About Gina Trimarco
More About Pivot10 Results
More About Alex Danza & Vonlane
- vonlane.com
- https://www.facebook.com/vonlanecoach
- https://twitter.com/vonlanemotors
- https://www.instagram.com/vonlane_grams/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/vonlane
Prior to forming Vonlane, Alex was President of Savoya LLC, a provider of global chauffeured ground transportation services. While at Savoya, he developed the company into the one of the most respected and successful companies in the $3b chauffeured ground transportation industry. His efforts led to partnerships with luxury brands such as Marquis Jet, Netjets, Exclusive Resorts, Neiman Marcus, and Inspirato. In 2017, Danza partnered with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide cancer patients with discounted, fully refundable travel on Vonlane’s fleet.
He started his career as a consultant, first for Andersen LLP and later for Hitachi Consulting. During his eight years in the field, Danza was responsible for managing strategic re-engineering, systems implementation and strategy development projects for large multi-national clients in such industries as entertainment, hospitality, logistics, oil field services, and automotive manufacturing.
In 1996, he received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting as well as a Masters of Professional Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently a member of the Dallas Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Chapter and serves as Chairman of chapter’s executive board. Alex and his wife Amy live in Dallas with their three daughters where they are active members of Park Cities Baptist Church.
The Pivotal Leader is a production of Pivot10 Results, a strategy and training company that helps businesses shift from people problems to performance results.
