Ryan Smith, left, and Kyle Ewing, center, have taken TerraSlate to new heights.
Daniels degrees give Kyle Ewing and Ryan Smith a shared language in the business world
Two things stood out to Ryan Smith, as he read over a job posting for the chief operating officer position at a company called TerraSlate.
First: A company that produces waterproof paper for restaurants, supermarkets, NFL head coaches and the U.S. Navy was pretty cool.
Second: Kyle Ewing was in charge.
The two had never met before, though it turns out they had been in the same place at the same time on many occasions. While Smith was earning his Executive MBA from the Daniels College of Business, Ewing was earning his full-time MBA.
A Daniels connection facilitated a conversation. It was clear that the two alumni would be an excellent fit.
“If you came through the [Daniels MBA] program, you likely can speak the same language on business, and that’s really helpful,” said Ewing, the founder and CEO of TerraSlate, who graduated with marketing and finance degrees in 2008 and his MBA in 2009. “Speed and clarity of communication make a big difference in any working relationship, in business or otherwise. But it’s especially important internally within business. If Ryan and I don’t have to explain every piece of context in every conversation, the conversation can move a lot faster, and that allows our small, entrepreneurial company to move fast.”
Speed is TerraSlate’s superpower. In spite of increasingly high demand, 95% of orders are turned around the same day. Everything is shipped overnight.
“That is unheard of in this industry,” said Smith, who also graduated in 2008. “It’s really hard. But by speaking the same language, it means Kyle and I can iterate that much faster.”
It’s a pace that matches the company’s exponential growth since its founding in 2015. Revenue has grown every year since the company’s founding, roughly doubling over the past three years. TerraSlate’s footprint, meanwhile, has only expanded. Waterproof restaurant menus proved to be the gateway to recyclable labels inside supermarket seafood counters, playcalling sheets for pro football coaches, nautical charts aboard naval aircraft carriers and even flight manuals for Apache helicopters.
The TerraSlate story begins
Printing is the world’s second-oldest industry, Ewing likes to say. His innovative idea for pushing it forward came while standing in an airport security line, with a passport that was wrinkled and water damaged.
And while waterproof passport paper didn’t pan out (he tried), a restaurateur’s request for an easily reusable menu gave TerraSlate a foothold.
When restaurants shut down or shifted their approach during the COVID-19 pandemic, TerraSlate did the same. Soon zoos, aquariums and even mortuaries became clientele.
“It’s really a product that has a huge array of applications because it replaces the need for lamination, which is an old, antiquated technology that’s not recyclable,” Ewing said.
Ryan Smith, front center, graduated with his Executive MBA in 2008.
Real-world Daniels experiences that lead to jobs
For Ewing, the most memorable experiences from his MBA program were the opportunities to get his nose out of the textbook and take on real business problems.
“Once you figure out how to be successful in [group projects], it is applicable to the case competitions,” he said. In Ewing’s case, winning “The Cable Apprentice” case competition came with a prize of a summer internship at one of the sponsoring companies, with the chance to be hired on for a job.
Sure enough, after graduating, Ewing started a role as a management consultant, where he continued to lean on his experience analyzing situations and presenting solutions.
“[Those skills are] still very helpful today, because basically every time you’re on a Zoom, it’s a presentation of some kind,” he said. “You’re trying to communicate a point or series of points and weave a story through it so you can get the folks on the other side to think the same way.”
Smith found a home in that same program, drawn by the weekend class schedule and the College’s focus on ethical, principle-based leadership.
His cohort, too, proved to be a valuable component.
“They were really top-notch folks who were invested in Denver and the Rocky Mountain community,” Smith said. “I grew a lot personally and professionally by having the opportunity to be with such a skilled, driven group of people.”
Industry integration that benefits students and companies
Ewing and Smith take their roles as Daniels alumni seriously. Both have jumped at the opportunity to perpetuate The Daniels Effect: re-engaging with their alma mater, which prides itself on being the most industry-integrated business school in the country. They’ve accepted invitations to deliver guest lectures in the classroom or judge case competitions.
“I’m a big believer in giving back, and there’s a bit of a selfish piece because I think I learn as much as I’m teaching them,” Smith said. “The generation younger than us digests content and learns differently. We’ve only learned this by going to Daniels and talking to students. And now we’ve adjusted some of our own practices based on the feedback we got.”
Ewing agrees: The door swings both ways. Connecting with current students has given him a glimpse of what’s important to the people he could be hiring in the near future.
After all, it was a Daniels connection that brought the CEO and his COO together. As TerraSlate sets a goal of $50 million in revenue, Ewing and Smith know they will need plenty of other talented people who want to change the world.
“We are only successful if we have the right people in the right seats,” Smith said. “And for us, the Daniels stamp of approval, as someone who has gone through the program, is a validation that, ‘OK, they know business. They can speak the language. They understand the way things work. They’re committed to being a growth person and they have an ethical foundation.’”