Jorgen Moller

by Brad Plothow

Jorgen Moller estimates that he’s received hundreds of calls from venture capital firms over the years. While he’s flattered by the attention, he has no intention of selling his company, SnapLock Industries. For him — a man who owns a handful of land-speed racing records — business is a competitive sport. He wants to be behind the wheel, not engaging in what he calls “board meeting survival.”

“I like what I do, I like the challenge and I’m competitive. I need to make decisions that are in my customers’ best interest or the company’s long-term interest, not just to please the board,” says Moller, who with his wife, Kerry, founded the modular flooring firm more than a decade ago. “I need the ability to make a wrong decision.”

Not that Moller wants to make mistakes. He simply prefers to be nimble so he can respond to the marketplace, and he believes that adding a new layer of bureaucracy would pinch his ability to do that. And silent ownership? Nah. Not when you’re emotionally vested in the business.

“I remember the days when we had our first $1,000 day,” Moller says. “I know what it took to get there, and what it took to get where we are now. You have to maintain that same passion.”

Considering his reluctance to relinquish control to capital firms, one might conclude that Moller is a control freak. He says the opposite is true. While he usually approves new concepts for production, he doesn’t micromanage the process. His engineers “know what I like,” he says. He also doesn’t belabor big decisions or question his advisors unnecessarily.

“I trust people who bring me the facts,” he says. “I don’t say, ‘OK, now prove to me what you just said.’”

Hire good people, make them accountable and then set them loose — it’s cliché, but it’s Moller’s preferred management style. He does train his staff — particularly his salespeople — but only to the extent that they are working effectively within the parameters of their own unique styles. It’s a lesson he learned as the son of a restaurateur in Florida.

“We kind of let everyone flourish — no scripts,” he says.

By “we,” Moller means he and Kerry. It was her idea to build portable dance floors that spawned the company in 1995, and today she’s still integrally involved as CFO for SnapLock. “I get the phones to ring, she gets [the product] out the door,” Moller sums.

And at least for now, that arrangement doesn’t include venture capital.