In this episode of The Boon of Wireless, host Jon Horovitz sits down with Rich Balot, founder of Victra and Verizon's largest authorized retail partner. Rich started as a teenage mobile DJ, opened his first US Cellular store in college to employ his father, and grew Victra into a nationwide wireless retail powerhouse operating roughly 1,800 Verizon locations across all 50 states, with 300+ total doors, approximately $3B in annual revenue, and up to 10,000 employees.Rich walks through his full journey — switching carriers from US Cellular to Alltel, navigating Verizon's Alltel acquisition, selling to private equity, returning as CEO in 2019, and buying the company back in 2021 through a 650-store Go Wireless acquisition.He also discusses people-first leadership, building a strong retail culture, entering the prepaid space through Total Wireless, the challenges of longer upgrade cycles and inventory constraints, and his roadmap to 2,000 stores.