I have run a company,
not a department.
DAN GRIGIN
— Richard Feynman
"What I cannot create, I do not understand."
I started with $5,000. Eight years later the company was running at $7M with thirty people across sales, operations and delivery. Every decision in between was mine — including the decision to close it deliberately rather than force it.
I built it to American commercial standards, and I have formalized those methods since: project governance, structured negotiation, disciplined commercial process.
Seventeen years in Uzbekistan. Seventeen in the United States.
$5,000 to $7M in eight years, with thirty people across service operations, retail, e-commerce, project management and marketing. My role moved from running every transaction to strategy, capital, major negotiations and organizational design.
Elephant Floors — Founder & CEO
Back to the trade with a commercial perspective, into crew leadership, and building the foundation for my own company.
Return to construction
Direct sales in clients' homes. I finished as the third-highest producer in the branch, behind only the branch head and my own manager. It taught me objection handling and how to ask for a decision.
American Income Life — Life Insurance Specialist
Analytical work on complex client cases: evaluating risk exposure under incomplete information and reducing wide option sets into recommendations a senior advisor could act on.
Transamerica — Financial Services Representative
I started as a flooring helper and worked up through installer and lead installer to foreman, running two crews and two concurrent projects while still producing on site. I learned the work from the bottom, which is why I could later price it, schedule it and manage it without guessing.
Construction
Career Overview
Following ASNO's acquisition of Elephant Floors' brand and digital assets, I advise on transition, commercial direction, asset dependencies and operational risk.
ASNO Corp — Strategic Advisor
— Henri Poincaré
"Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things."
Recognizing When Strategy Is No Longer Enough
Digitising how a construction business sold, quoted and delivered.
Turning Installation Work into a Production System
Designing Around the Client, Not the Product
Different industries, Same method.
Four situations across twelve years.
The first was a family. The last was a market.
Case Studies
- San Jose State University — Economics and Finance
- De Anza College — General Education
BASE EDUCATION
- MEDDIC
- MEDDPICC
SALES METHODOLOGY
- INSEAD — Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystems
- University of London — International Business
STRATEGY & INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
- Harvard Business School — Negotiation Mastery
- ESSEC Business School — Negotiation, Mediation and Conflict Resolution
NEGOTIATION
- University of Cambridge — Financial Leadership
- University of Illinois — Financial Management
FINANCE
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner
PROJECT & EXECUTION MANAGEMENT
By the time I enrolled, I had already spent eight years building a company, making the calls, and owning the outcomes. I was not there to start from zero. I was there to put experience under pressure, to find the gaps, challenge my instincts, and separate method from habit.
A commercial leadership role with an ambitious, growth-focused company operating or expanding in Central Asia—across business development, commercial operations, or project delivery—or an external mandate as a consultant, advisor, or owner’s representative.
