By Laurence Franklin

Some partnerships begin with a business idea. Ours began in kindergarten.

Larry and I first met as five-year-olds in Johannesburg. I was just about to move into the house next door his. Our mothers arranged an awkward playdate at the local school holiday club, and while I definitely felt like the outsider tagging along, something clicked. We carved a hole in the backyard fence, went to school together, bonded over interests that ranged from sports to imaginative games, and before long friendship took root.

That early connection wasn’t instant magic—it was something earned through shared time. At first, I was the kid encroaching on an existing trio. Larry already had his two best friends—Barry and Tich—and I was a quiet, artistic tagalong while they ran off to play soccer. I chose the art station at holiday club while they took to the soccer field, and it wasn’t long before I overheard something along the lines of, “Who’s that guy you’re stuck with today?” Still, kids are nothing if not adaptable. Within a few weeks, that makeshift playdate became a pattern. We became fixtures at each other’s houses, and shared a growing sense of connection that eventually became inseparable.

The four of us—Larry, Barry, Tich, and I—became our own crew. From neighborhood adventures to classroom antics, those early years forged a sense of identity and loyalty that carried well beyond the school gates. When I moved away during my teens—first to Zambia, then to the U.S.—Larry and I stayed in touch through long-distance letters, those distinctive fold-up “par avion” envelopes with their blue-and-red borders. These weren’t just updates. They were lifelines—connections to shared values, inside jokes, and a mutual belief that our story wasn’t finished.

During college breaks, we met up again. We backpacked through Europe and the US. We wandered through New York and London. We had big conversations about business, creativity, and what kind of lives we wanted to build. We had even bigger discussions, usually along the lines of who should go and try chat up the girls in the next compartment. What we didn’t know then was that we were laying the foundation for something that would eventually become SOARgrowth.

A few years later, after starting our own corporate careers—Larry in Toronto and I in New York—we reconnected. Oddly, we both reached a similar inflection point around the same time. We had grown tired of the big-company grind. We wanted independence. Impact. And more control over how and where we worked.

Neither of us remembers who called whom. But what we do remember is this: we both quit our jobs the same day. It wasn’t planned. It just happened. And so, Goddard Franklin Management Consultants Inc. was born. We worked on some projects together, others on our own. We operated in two cities, shared a common vision, and supported each other through new challenges.

Eventually, life moved us in different directions again. Larry took on a CEO role, leading a successful roll-up in the construction supply sector. I joined Tumi as a junior partner, helping the founder scale the brand into something extraordinary. We pressed pause on the consulting business, but not on the friendship—or the idea that someday we might build something more.

That “someday” came again years later, after both of us stepped back from full-time executive roles. Larry had wrapped up his tenure as partner-in-charge of consulting at BDO. I had come out of retirement to serve as CEO at Frette after my time at Tumi and Coach. We were doing advisory work. Coaching founders. Giving back and staying sharp. And then the conversation resurfaced.

What if we could take everything we’d learned? What if we could codify it—turn years of experience into something scalable and practical for others?

That was the seed of SOARgrowth.

Larry developed the SOAR acronym, with the help from his wife, Jennifer, who has become an invaluable member of our business partnership. We refined the tools and tested them across companies and industries. The goal was simple: help small and mid-sized businesses access the same caliber of thinking, systems, and coaching that elite enterprises use—without the overhead or bureaucracy.

SOAR stands for the four dimensions of an effective and empowered business:

S – sales and margins

O – organization and culture

A – accounting, finance and technology

R – responsiveness to the market and strong execution

But more than an acronym, it represents a philosophy of growth grounded in experience, not theory. Between us, we’ve had the rare privilege of sitting in nearly every chair—executive, founder, consultant, investor, board member. That vantage point helped us identify patterns. We saw how great companies win. And why so many others plateau. Or worse …

A few highlights:

• At Tumi, I helped scale the business from a $4 million niche player to a $400 million global brand. That wasn’t just about products—it was about brand architecture, operational rigor, disciplined growth and a great team.
• At Coach, sales doubled and profits tripled under my leadership. We repositioned the brand, optimized the product mix, and built the foundation for what became a global lifestyle powerhouse.
• At Rosetta Stone, I served on the board during a period when revenue grew eightfold, we went public successfully, then faced severe business headwinds, and ultimately turned the business around and executed a high-value sale.
• Larry took a construction equipment business from $3 million to $100 million in under a decade. He led a complete transformation of operations, talent, and go-to-market strategy.
• He also advised a military product manufacturer that scaled from $4 million to over $100 million and an electrical distributor that quadrupled in size—proof that the SOAR principles apply across sectors.

In every case, the formula was similar: identify unmet needs, align the team, apply a focused strategy, and execute relentlessly.

But it wasn’t just about strategy or systems. It was about people. Culture. Belief. The companies that won were the ones where leadership aligned with purpose, and teams were empowered to act.

And here’s what we learned along the way: small and mid-sized companies often have the will, but not the access. They lack the playbooks, the mentors, the structure. Big companies invest heavily in these areas. They provide executive coaching, strategic frameworks, peer learning, and institutional wisdom. Smaller firms are expected to figure it out alone.

That’s why we built SOARgrowth—to close the gap. To make the invisible infrastructure of growth visible, repeatable, and scalable.

Our methodology isn’t theoretical. It’s grounded in hard-won experience. We know what works because we’ve done it—under pressure, across industries, in good times and bad.

The companies we work with range from fast-scaling startups to family-run businesses and private equity portfolio firms. What they all share is a desire to break through—to move from potential to performance. SOAR equips them to do exactly that.

And at the heart of it all is our partnership.

Larry and I have worked together in many forms: side-by-side on client work, trading ideas across time zones, challenging each other’s assumptions. We’ve never had a formal partnership agreement—just a handshake and a commitment. We’ve disagreed plenty, but never lost sight of the friendship underneath it all.

That foundation—trust, respect, a shared drive to do meaningful work—has been our competitive edge. It’s what gives us the confidence to innovate, to take risks, to keep growing.

We believe businesses are built on relationships. Not just with customers, but with partners, teams, and communities. And if those relationships are grounded in trust and values, the business can go further, last longer, and have more impact.

So yes, we’ve built businesses. And we’re proud of the numbers, the turnarounds, the exits. But more than anything, we’re proud of this: we’ve built something that reflects who we are, what we believe, and what we want to share with others. That’s the power of partnership. That’s the story behind SOARgrowth. And it’s just the beginning.