Will it work? Eppinger’s former supervisor Steve Watkins suggests it’s only a matter of time. “Andy was my sales manager at Clear Channel and if there’s one guy who I’d call a first-round draft pick for starting a successful business, it’s him,” Watkins says.
Eppinger gets energy from his love for what he’s doing. “I really believe Sacramento is in need of something like this,” he says. “I spent the last 10 years of my life taking money from retailers and selling air time, never really knowing if I was making the world a better place. With this, I feel like I’m giving something back.”
Jeremy WolfeEppinger’s philosophy is shared by Jeremy Wolfe, a 34-year-old partner at DCA Capital Partners in Roseville. Wolfe, a Harvard Business-Schooltrained investment banker, came to Sacramento to get away from the all-consuming lifestyle of investment banking in the Bay Area and to help meet what he saw as a clear need.
“This is an underserved area in terms of middle-market investment,” Wolfe says. “No one’s doing that here, so it’s a chance to fill a unique niche.”
His partner, Curt Rocca, is equally excited about working with someone of Wolfe’s caliber. “Jeremy is a truly world-class individual,” Rocca says. “He’s excelled in one of the toughest fields of business, graduated in the top five of his class, served as the CFO of a software company, and despite all that, he exudes a humble nature that’s very easy to be around.”
For Wolfe, the chance to achieve a better work and life balance was equally attractive. “When I worked at Goldman Sachs, it was a 120-hour-a-week job,” he says. “I ate dinner at the office and wouldn’t leave until two or three in the morning most days. I learned a lot from that job; it made me who I am, but it was coming at a cost.”
Wolfe, who’s married and has a four-year-old daughter, still puts in 60- to 80-hour workweeks, but enjoys being able to get outdoors and spend more time with his family.
For most of these Whiz Kids “love for the job” fuels their long workdays, but it must be bolstered by the belief that the work is serving some greater purpose. Perhaps it’s simply that small sprinkle of altruism that separates those who blaze on from those who burn out.
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