{"id":454243,"date":"2026-10-02T12:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454243\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:18:14","slug":"lorenzo-de-plano-is-building-a-company-around-speed-transparency-and-conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454243\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorenzo De Plano Is Building a Company Around Speed, Transparency And Conviction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Lorenzo De Plano,<\/a> entrepreneurship has never been about following a single playbook.<\/p>\n

The entrepreneur and investor has spent much of his career moving between building companies, developing products, investing in startups and identifying opportunities in public markets. His ventures have included DPGW, Solace Technologies, Silicon Farms, and his latest venture, ALP Supply Co., while his work has been featured in Forbes, CNN, Inc., Entrepreneur and Business Insider.<\/p>\n

Today, De Plano balances several roles. He is Chief of Strategy at Turning Point Brands and co-founder and CEO of ALP Supply Co., a user-driven consumer brand focused on modern alternatives to traditional tobacco products that he helped build from the ground up.<\/p>\n

His experience has given him a perspective on entrepreneurship that is less about having all the answers and more about knowing how to move when an opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n

From Product Development to Entrepreneurship<\/p>\n

De Plano\u2019s path to ALP began well before the company even had a name.<\/p>\n

He and the team behind ALP began developing the company\u2019s products before formally establishing the brand. In 2024, the team partnered with Neil Patel and Tucker Carlson to develop and launch ALP Supply Co.<\/p>\n

The decision to build around the product first was intentional. Rather than starting with a brand identity and then developing something to fit it, the team wanted to determine whether what they were creating was worth introducing to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started working with the company before its inception. As one of the company\u2019s founders, I have been fortunate to watch it grow from a drawing I had on a piece of paper to the unique and audacious company it is today,\u201d De Plano says.<\/p>\n

That progression reflects a broader philosophy that has followed De Plano throughout his career: ideas are only valuable when a team can execute them.<\/p>\n

Keeping An Entrepreneurial Edge<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges De Plano has encountered with ALP has been scaling without losing the speed that helped the company grow in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cScaling the company while maintaining a fast and nimble team is paramount,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

He refers to this as maintaining the company\u2019s \u201cefficiency edge.\u201d For De Plano, growth should not automatically mean adding layers of bureaucracy or slowing down decision-making. Instead, every new process and hire needs to be considered in terms of whether it helps the company operate more effectively over the long term.<\/p>\n

That philosophy also shapes how he leads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a village to raise a child, and a company is no different,\u201d De Plano continues. \u201cOur approach is to find great people, have radical transparency, and make fast decisions as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n

He does not see the CEO\u2019s role as simply making decisions from the top. In fact, De Plano describes his job in a way that may be less conventional than the title suggests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important part of the role is to ensure the various parts of the ALP machine are effectively communicating with each other,\u201d he says. \u201cI view the role more as a \u2018Chief Communications Officer\u2019 role rather than an \u2018executive\u2019 role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The distinction is important to his leadership philosophy. As organizations become more complex, De Plano believes the ability to keep teams aligned can determine how quickly a company can respond to opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image courtesy of Lorenzo De Plano
\nThe Importance of the Right People<\/p>\n

De Plano credits ALP\u2019s growth to a combination of factors, including its partnership with Patel and Carlson, its relationship with Turning Point Brands and the people working inside the company.<\/p>\n

For him, the human element is not secondary to strategy. It is the strategy.<\/p>\n

He believes a growing company needs talented people who understand the broader objective rather than simply focusing on their individual responsibilities. Clear objectives, transparency and incentive structures help create that alignment.<\/p>\n

That approach is particularly important during periods of rapid growth, when companies can easily become fragmented.<\/p>\n

For De Plano, the goal is to grow without losing the ability to make decisions quickly.<\/p>\n

The milestone that first convinced him ALP had momentum was surprisingly straightforward \u2013 \u201cThe day we launched.\u201d<\/p>\n

For someone who had been involved since before the company officially existed, the launch represented the transition from an idea into something that could be tested in the real world.<\/p>\n

Giving Back As Part of the Business<\/p>\n

De Plano also sees entrepreneurship as an opportunity to contribute beyond the company\u2019s commercial objectives.<\/p>\n

ALP has supported community-driven initiatives including Foster\u2019s Outriders\u2019 trade school scholarship program, the Warrior Dog Foundation, which provides care for retired military service dogs, and nonprofit organizations focused on reforestation.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s approach to philanthropy is tied to the same values De Plano says guide its business decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a value driven company and as a value driven company we want to use our company\u2019s equity to give back to causes that align with our team and community\u2019s beliefs,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Rather than treating charitable giving as a separate initiative, De Plano says community involvement is central to the company\u2019s ethos.<\/p>\n

That philosophy is something he expects to continue as the company grows.<\/p>\n

Looking for Mavericks<\/p>\n

The people ALP chooses to work with extend beyond its internal team.<\/p>\n

The company has developed partnerships with athletes including Conor McGregor, Joe Pyfer, Son Heung-min and Bobby Dautrich. De Plano says the common thread is not simply athletic recognition, but whether a potential partner shares the company\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are searching for mavericks and renegades who are unapologetically themselves,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That approach fits with De Plano\u2019s broader view of partnerships. The right collaborator, whether an employee, athlete or business partner, should bring something more than name recognition.<\/p>\n

They should bring conviction.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image courtesy of Lorenzo De Plano
\nBuilding What Comes Next<\/p>\n

De Plano is not particularly interested in treating ALP\u2019s current growth as the finish line.<\/p>\n

The company has several projects in development that he says will be revealed in the coming months and years. For now, he is keeping the details private.<\/p>\n

He teases, \u201cWe are excited to share them with the world when they come out, but for now we want to keep our cards close to our chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

His immediate ambition is clear: grow ALP into an industry leader.<\/p>\n

But when asked what success means to him personally, his answer goes beyond the size of the company or its position in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

For De Plano, success means building companies that create meaningful experiences for the brand\u2019s community, while simultaneously creating value for the company\u2019s shareholders and employees. If the company can challenge established ways of doing business, innovate and disrupt along the way, then to Lorenzo De Plano, that\u2019s obviously a plus.<\/p>\n

His career has taken him from selling a company to a publicly traded company for north of $15 million dollars, to leading the product development and new ventures divisions of a large organization, to investing in early-stage companies and finally to building ALP<\/a> from an idea on paper to one of the fastest-growing CPG companies in the United States.<\/p>\n

The common thread is a willingness to move.<\/p>\n

Build the team. Make the decision. Learn from the outcome. Then keep going.<\/p>\n

For De Plano, that may be the most important part of entrepreneurship: staying fast enough to recognize the next opportunity while building an organization capable of pursuing it.<\/p>\n

\n Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Lorenzo De Plano, entrepreneurship has never been about following a single playbook. The entrepreneur and investor has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[51415,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-454243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-msn","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}