Brandon Erickson dropped out of college at 21 and built a multimillion-dollar company by 25. Today he runs North Valley Precision, a quality assurance firm nearing 100 employees that has helped protect over $3 billion in client assets.
Most entrepreneurs talk about pivoting. Brandon Erickson talks about systems. He left college in 2008 because he was learning more by doing than by sitting in lectures. By 25, he had built a company that would generate nearly $50 million in online revenue. The pattern held: see what breaks, build the infrastructure to stop it from breaking again, then scale. That philosophy now runs through every venture he touches, from ecommerce to health products to manufacturing quality assurance.
Brandon Erickson is the founder of North Valley Precision, a quality assurance and supply chain data services company based in Wisconsin with nearly 100 employees. He previously founded 7 Innovations and co-founded Sonato Global Health Partners, which he sold in 2016. He has published two books and coaches three youth sports teams.
You left college at 21 to start 7 Innovations. What made you certain enough to walk away?
I wasn’t certain. I just knew the opportunity cost of staying was higher than the cost of failing. I was sitting in lectures at UW-Oshkosh and later University of Phoenix, and I kept thinking, I could be testing this right now instead of hearing about it in theory. I had already started doing product research, building websites, running ads. The learning curve was steeper doing it myself, but it was real. If it didn’t work, I could go back. But if I waited, I might never try.
What did you notice first when a business had real potential?
Whether they had a customer base that kept coming back. A lot of people pitch ideas. Fewer can show you repeat purchases. If someone is buying again, that means the product works and the experience didn’t scare them off. The second thing I looked for was decision-making. Could the team make smart calls without needing me to hold their hand? If I had to be in every meeting, it wasn’t scalable.
I never chased trends. I looked for fundamentals: Are the products good? Can this team make smart decisions without hand-holding?
What do people consistently get wrong about your work?
They think quality assurance is about catching defects. It’s not. It’s about building systems so the defects don’t happen in the first place. By the time you’re inspecting for problems, you’ve already lost money. What we do at North Valley Precision is stop small issues before they become expensive ones. We use real-time data, traceability, and compliance systems that work in high-stakes manufacturing environments. The goal is to protect assets, not just check boxes.
You co-founded Sonato Global Health Partners in 2010 and sold it in 2016. What did that exit teach you?
It taught me that I wanted to build something with more operational complexity. Sonato was a good business. We had strong products, good customer experience, solid systems. But after six years running operations, I realized I was more interested in solving harder logistical problems. The sale gave me breathing room to think about what I actually wanted to build next, and that turned into North Valley Precision.
Has there been a project that looked promising but fell apart because the foundation wasn’t there?
Yes. I was involved in a biotech investment that collapsed during due diligence. The product was exciting, the market was there, but when we dug into their quality systems, there was nothing. No traceability, no compliance infrastructure, no way to scale with integrity. That killed the deal. It was a wake-up call. No matter how good the product is, if you can’t build it reliably and safely, you’re going nowhere.
Everyone focuses on the product. But without solid operations behind it, you’re building on sand.
What mistake is worth letting a new founder make anyway?
Trying to do everything themselves at the start. It’s inefficient, but it teaches you what every role actually does. I handled product research, web design, ads, customer service, all of it when I started 7 Innovations. I wouldn’t recommend staying in that mode for long, but going through it once means you know what good work looks like when you hire someone. You can’t manage what you don’t understand.
You’ve written songs, played poker at a high level, and published two books. How did those shape the way you run a business?
Music taught me patience. You can’t force a good melody. You have to let it take shape. Poker taught me discipline and how to read situations under pressure. You don’t win just by having good cards. You win by managing your mistakes and knowing when to fold. Business is both of those things. You need creativity to see opportunities, and you need discipline to execute without panicking when something goes wrong.
What actually improved your work in the last five years?
Delegating better. I used to think I had to be involved in every decision to keep standards high. That doesn’t scale. What works is building systems people can follow and hiring people who care about the outcome. Once I trusted the infrastructure and the team, I could focus on the bigger problems instead of micromanaging the small ones.
What’s overrated in entrepreneurship right now?
Chasing trends. Everyone wants to be in the hot industry or ride the next wave. But trends change fast, and if you don’t understand the fundamentals, you’ll get wiped out. I’ve always looked for businesses with real customers, real products, and real margins. That doesn’t make headlines, but it keeps the lights on.
Poker taught me discipline, risk management, and how to read people. You don’t win just by having good cards, you win by managing your mistakes.
Where can technology take over in quality assurance, and where does it still fall short?
Technology is great for data collection, traceability, and flagging anomalies in real time. We use it heavily at North Valley Precision. But it can’t replace judgment. A system can tell you something is out of spec, but it can’t always tell you whether that matters or how to fix it. You still need people who understand the process, the product, and the stakes.
What would you tell someone starting a business today that you wish you’d known at 21?
Build strong systems from day one. They’re the difference between growth and chaos. Early on, I thought I could just work harder to fix problems as they came up. That works for a while, but it doesn’t scale. The companies that last are the ones that build infrastructure before they need it.
You’ve been involved in ecommerce, health products, manufacturing, biotech, and real estate. What stays true across all of them?
The fundamentals. Does the business solve a real problem? Can you deliver consistently? Do the economics work? If the answer to any of those is no, it doesn’t matter how exciting the industry is. And the other thing that stays true is people. You need a team that can execute without you in the room. If you’re the only one who can make it work, you don’t have a business. You have a job.
