Member Spotlight | New Summit & Vital Learning

THRIVE: Tell us about what your company does.

ALLEN: Practical training solutions for frontline teams. We teach core and foundational management skills, customer-oriented sales training methodology, and customer service skills.

THRIVE: How long have you been in business?

ALLEN: NewSummit was formed in 2019, but due to the pandemic, really didn’t begin to get traction until 2022. Most of the team, however, has been with me since 2010 in one capacity or another. We acquired Vital Learning last year. This company has been in business for over 30 years, starting out a McGraw Hill organization. Vital Learning has taught over 1.5 million people worldwide.

THRIVE: What inspired you to create your business?

ALLEN: NewSummit and Vital are my 4th and 5th businesses I’ve acquired or built from scratch. I love being an entrepreneur but also have a passion for learning and developing people. I’ve combined these two passions since 2010 after having run Learning and Development organizations for other companies for years. In 2015, my company contracted to Vital Learning to redevelop their very successful Leadership Essential Series. Digging deeper into the topic area, I realized that the frontline management level was an underserved market, with most competitors offering more senior level solutions. Coupled with the current state of customer service and the need to offer a customer focused sales process, it was a quick leap to start NewSummit with this focus. Of course, we love the Vital Learning content so much that we bought the company.

THRIVE: What was your biggest success in the past year?

ALLEN: Developing and delivering year 1 of a multi-year leadership development program for the Mohegan Tribe, including supporting their new Korean operation. This included setting up a team in Singapore and Korea, providing training in Korean. The Mohegan Tribe is amazing and truly live their cultural values. Our leadership training, including executive coaching, supports the Tribal Government, their corporate organization, and each of their managed casinos.

THRIVE: How has Thrive supported your business?

ALLEN: Thrive has supported every aspect of our business in the Denver area. From the office itself, the conference and training rooms, all the amenities, and most importantly, the amazing Thrive team. Everyone I have worked with feels part of my own team and truly care about my company’s success.

THRIVE: What recent challenge did you face?

ALLEN: Each challenge can be an opportunity. Recently, one of our main suppliers told us they were drastically raising prices which would negatively impact the non-profit lines of business many of our partners depend on. This is the second increase since last year. The first price increase was mitigated by a team member coming up with great solutions that would reduce production costs without impacting the quality of the product. The second price increase this year is even larger though. As of the acquisition of Vital Learning, we have been looking at different business models to take advantage of new technology and ways of doing business, and this challenge fed the creativity of the organization to innovate and improve the product offerings, building towards our future strategy. I am very excited that this challenge ended up with providing the first step on our overall strategic roadmap.

THRIVE: What’s your favorite piece of advice?

ALLEN: In regard to profit, always make sure your people are taken care of first, then your business, then yourself.

Running a business does require sacrifice, but most of us do this because we have a huge passion for something. Your passion becomes your business. When you find the right people to help you, the focus should be on them, what they need, what’s in their way, but truly who they are as people. Know when to help and know when to get out of the way. The stronger the team, the stronger the company.

THRIVE: What’s your favorite quote that would inspire other entrepreneurs and business leaders for 2025?

ALLEN: If a person knows not to which port they sail, no wind is favorable (modified from Seneca’s quote).