Our story
It started on Friday mornings.
Our story
How it started.
The idea behind Miami Business Assembly goes back years.
While our founder, Leon Stoltz, was building PotatoFinger, a potato chip manufacturing company founded in Decatur, Georgia, the business grew from a local operation into nationwide distribution, with some international distribution as well.
And as the company grew, so did the questions.
So we started bringing people together on Friday mornings.
The format was remarkably simple.
A small number of companies would come in and tell us what they were doing and what they were dealing with.
What was working?
What wasn't?
What had they tried?
What had they learned?
What did they need?
Then we tried to bring the right experience into the room.
Some sessions took place at our offices in Decatur.
Others were hosted at Morris, Manning & Martin, one of Atlanta's leading law firms, with the support of its co-founder, John G. “Sonny” Morris.
The room might include people with experience in marketing, strategy, finance and law.
Other gatherings brought investors, executives, entrepreneurs and specialists whose experience was particularly relevant to the companies participating that morning.
The objective was never to assemble the most impressive résumés.
It was to assemble the most useful room.
Week after week, companies brought real situations to the table.
People shared what they knew, what they'd tried, what had worked, what had failed—and what they would do differently.
Along the way, Sonny Morris and John Morabito became mentors to Leon.
But just as importantly, every person who came through the room had the potential to teach us something.
There were no professors.
No curriculum.
No exams.
Just real businesses, real decisions and people willing to share what they'd learned from actually doing it.
And that's how Leon ended up with what he still calls his MBA for the price of coffee and doughnuts.
Sometimes the people you learn from become your mentors.
Two people who became particularly important during those years were John G. “Sonny” Morris and John Morabito.
Sonny co-founded Morris, Manning & Martin and helped build the firm from a small Atlanta practice into a nationally recognized law firm.
He became a highly respected real-estate deal lawyer and an important member of Atlanta's business community.
John brought a different kind of experience.
His career combined finance with substantial operating experience, including sales and marketing leadership involving brands such as Samuel Adams, California Coolers, Guinness and Rémy Martin, followed by executive leadership in the beverage industry.
Over time, both became mentors to Leon.
Nobody assigned them as mentors.
There wasn't a mentorship program.
Those relationships developed because people kept showing up.
They talked about business.
They asked questions.
They challenged ideas.
They shared what they'd learned.
And they took an interest in what other people were building.
That's what can happen around a good table.
Sometimes we meet someone who has already been where we're trying to go.
Sometimes we become that person for somebody else.
And sometimes we don't realize either has happened until years later.
Everyone has something to share.
One of the most memorable people who ever joined one of those tables was 14 years old.
She had started an online cosmetics company and arranged to have her products manufactured in Canada.
She sat at the same table as experienced businesspeople and professionals.
Not as a student.
As an entrepreneur.
There were things the experienced people around that table could share with her.
And there were things she understood that they didn't.
That experience captured something we've seen repeatedly.
Age doesn't determine the value of an idea.
A title doesn't determine the value of a perspective.
The size of a company doesn't determine whether someone has something useful to say.
And success isn't the only thing worth talking about.
Everyone has something to learn.
Everyone has something to share.
This isn't a then-and-now story.
Those original Friday mornings didn't create the idea of bringing people together.
They demonstrated its value.
Throughout Leon Stoltz's career—across entrepreneurship, technology, real estate and other ventures—bringing people together has remained a constant.
People with ideas and people with experience.
People who need something and people who may know how to help.
People who've succeeded.
People who've failed.
People at the beginning of their careers.
People with decades behind them.
And often the distinction between who is helping and who is learning disappears pretty quickly.
Someone knows something we don't.
And we probably know something they don't.
Miami Business Assembly simply gives those conversations a table.