Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Author, Leadership Professor, and Nonprofit Philanthropist… Sam Palazzolo brings a variety of value creation topics to entrepreneurs and business leaders. His ideas and actionable takeaways are captured in his five books, the most recent being “Leading at the Tip of the Spear: The Leader.“
Sam Palazzolo BIO
Sam developed his ideas for his first book — The Influential Leader (2008) — after discovering the principles of influence/persuasion and how they could be implemented/executed at Toyota/Lexus, taking the manufacturer from #4 to #1 in their domestic pursuits. He parlayed the large corporation success through consulting with clients ranging from the Fortune 500 to SMB market. He’s worked with over 1,000 organizations both domestically in the USA and abroad through this consulting work.
Sam went on to lead a technology (SaaS) startup, raising $8Million which allowed them to develop cutting-edge technology, deliver a best-in-class customer experience, and crush revenue targets! This ultimately led to a successful Private Equity exit for him. In exiting, he “put the band back together” in forming Tip of the Spear Ventures where there are two-sides of the house, a venture firm and a consultancy (The Zeroing Agency). The venture-work focuses on early-stage seed funding for entrepreneurs, Mergers & Acquisitions, and business funding activities. The consultancy-work focuses on enterprise transformation, with emphasis on Sales/Business Development success.
Sam has built a reputation a successful investor, having provided start-up capital for several early-stage ventures as well as M&A activity. An advocate of accelerated learning techniques, he is an avid education activist who has instructed at the collegiate level since 2008. In 2017 Sam founded The Javelin Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides Executive Education so that a portion of the profits are provided to those leaders who experience family hardship (Hardship in the form of Death, Disease, Divorce, and/or Drugs).
Sam has been invited to speak at some of the world’s most innovative organizations, including Amazon, Starbucks, General Mills, Microsoft, The Department of Defense (DOD), Harvard Business School, Dartmouth University, the University of Texas and Vanderbilt University. He has also been invited to speak and keynote at world-renowned conferences and summits.
Sam graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics & Public Policy and received his MBA from Vanderbilt University. He has accomplished additional graduate studies from the University of Texas (Coaching), University of Michigan (Sales | Negotiation), Northwestern University (Digital Strategy), and the University of London (Business Funding).
