We Level Up Founder Pitches Cure for the 'Founder Bottleneck'

Author and speaker Ryan Zofay will hold a two-day workshop for 140 business owners in Deerfield Beach, Florida, on October 10 and 11, arguing that companies with proven models most often stall because of the founder rather than the strategy, according to a press release distributed by PR Newswire on October 6, 2026.

The event, called Speak to Scale, is aimed at owners who have validated their business model and then hit a revenue ceiling. Zofay frames the progression in three stages — owner, leader and chief executive — with the final stage defined by a team that can operate without the founder present. His framework, which the release calls the Agreement Method, centers on identifying what a counterpart believes, feels and needs before communicating. Participants are to leave with a positioning statement, a presentation outline and an implementation plan.

Zofay is the founder of We Level Up, described in the release as a nine-figure behavioral health organization. He has written a book, "An Unlikely Businessman: From Overdosed to Multimillionaire," recounting a teenage overdose, two years in juvenile detention and a turnaround of a Florida treatment center he co-owned.

"I was the bottleneck long before I was the CEO," Zofay said in the release.

This story was first reported by PR Newswire.