25 Years of Peer Group Stories: Carlos Mino and Classic Tents & Events

Scaling with Purpose: Building Teams, Culture, and Resilience

When Carlos Mino joined Classic Tents & Events in 2016, the company had just 23 full-time employees. Within a few years, that number would grow to more than 100 as the business doubled revenue, navigated the pandemic, and became a significantly larger and more complex operation.

For Carlos, VP of Operations, that experience reinforced an important lesson: you can't scale a company on hustle alone. Eventually, you need the people, systems, and culture capable of supporting the growth.

From Ecuador to Atlanta

Carlos's path to Classic began thousands of miles away in Ecuador. After moving to New York and eventually settling in Georgia, he built his career in logistics and operations, including managing a 400,000-square-foot eyewear distribution center.

His responsibilities ranged from warehouse operations to financial control, giving him an unusual perspective on how the numbers at the top of an organization connect to what's actually happening on the floor.

That experience became particularly valuable when Carlos joined Classic Tents & Events.

Owner Steven Eisenstein was building an entrepreneurial, growth-minded company and was willing to reinvest in the business to make that growth possible. Carlos was attracted to the opportunity to move quickly and make decisions without the layers of approval he had experienced in larger organizations.

“I loved the idea that we could make decisions quickly and act on them without waiting on corporate approval.”

In 2019, Carlos and Steven developed a five-year plan for the company. They couldn't have anticipated what came next. Within two years, Classic had not only reached many of the goals it had established for 2024—it had surpassed them.

When Growth Changes the Business

Growing from 23 employees to more than 100 required Classic to operate differently.

Carlos and the leadership team began creating clearer accountability throughout the organization. They identified who was responsible for field operations, warehouse operations, sales, and other critical areas, then built a leadership structure around those responsibilities.

“We started at the top. We asked: Who’s leading field ops? Who’s managing the warehouse? Who’s steering sales?”

Department leaders were given greater responsibility, but decentralizing leadership also created a new challenge: communication.

Weekly meetings became essential for keeping departments aligned. Carlos also made a point of walking through the warehouse and visiting job sites to hear directly from frontline employees. He wanted to know whether the priorities and values being discussed by leadership were actually reaching the people doing the work.

“It’s easy for messages to get stuck in the middle. I needed to make sure our core values weren’t just in meetings—they were lived every day.”

A Major Test During COVID

That structure was put to the test in 2020.

As events disappeared almost overnight, rental companies throughout the industry faced difficult decisions about staffing and expenses. At Classic, Carlos pushed to protect the company's core team, particularly experienced tenting crews whose knowledge would be difficult to replace once business returned.

Rather than dismantling the organization they had worked to build, Classic looked for ways to put that talent to work. Sales employees transitioned to remote work, while the company pursued emergency hospital and infrastructure projects.

The decision paid off. Within four months, Classic had recovered its pandemic-related losses and finished 2020 approximately 20% ahead of its original targets. In 2021, the company doubled again.

Retaining experienced people mattered, but so did the systems behind them. Cross-trained crews, clearly defined responsibilities, and scalable processes gave Classic the ability to adapt quickly when its traditional market changed.

Scaling the Culture

Rapid growth created another challenge: maintaining the culture that had helped make the company successful in the first place.

Carlos began seeing employees who initially approached their jobs with a simple clock-in, clock-out mentality become deeply invested in the company's standards and customer service.

“We joke and say, ‘They’ve started drinking the juice.’”

But building that commitment wasn't about expecting people to work around the clock. Carlos also emphasized the importance of taking time off and avoiding burnout. The goal was to create ownership and enthusiasm without making that enthusiasm unsustainable.

Onboarding became an important part of that process. Classic worked to better understand employees' personalities and strengths, match people with the right roles, and provide mentorship as they entered the organization.

Culture could no longer depend on employees simply absorbing it from a small group of longtime team members. It had to become something the company could intentionally teach and reinforce.

Build the Systems Before You Need Them

Perhaps the biggest lesson Carlos took from Classic's rapid expansion was the importance of getting ahead of growth.

Instead of waiting until increased volume created chaos, Carlos and Steven worked on accountability charts, standard operating procedures, hiring plans, and communication rhythms that could support a much larger organization.

They also used assessment tools such as Impacting Leaders to better understand candidates and develop stronger teams, particularly in positions where personality and cultural fit could have a major impact.

Not every hire worked. Not every system was perfect. But the company continued learning and adjusting.

That willingness to build, measure, communicate, and improve helped Classic maintain its footing through an extraordinary period of growth.

Carlos's experience offers a valuable lesson for any growing business. Protect the people who carry critical knowledge. Build systems before the company outgrows the old ones. Make sure communication reaches beyond the leadership team. Treat onboarding as the beginning of culture, not paperwork. And give people ownership while recognizing that sustainable performance matters.

“If we don’t take ownership and talk about it, the communication isn’t real—and then it’s worthless.”

After 25 years of peer group stories, Classic Tents & Events demonstrates something every growing company eventually discovers: growth creates opportunity, but it's the people, systems, and culture you build along the way that determine whether you can sustain it.