ROB LABONNE

Supermarkets and self storage. Entrepreneurs' Organization Member, BJJ dabbler, waterskier & conservationist.

About Me

Building Businesses, One Lesson at a Time

I’m Rob LaBonne, a Connecticut entrepreneur balancing two worlds: leading my family’s fourth-generation supermarket business and building a growing self-storage portfolio. I am also the Learning Chair for the CT chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) where I get to host a handful of incredible events.

Like many entrepreneurs, my path hasn’t been straight. I built a landscape construction company, bought, grew, and sold a tent rental business, dabbled in a few ecommerce projects, and worked at a high-growth software company before finally stepping into the family grocery business.

Lessons from the Grocery Aisles

When I joined the family business, the company was in trouble. A tough acquisition left us bleeding cash, and for five years it felt like survival mode. We shut down a store, bought another, and clawed our way back. Today, we’ve stabilized and grown into four locations with nearly 400 employees serving 30,000 customers a week. Implementing EOS (the entrepreneurial operating system) has been a game changer here.

From Groceries to Garages

In 2020, I bought my first self-storage facility inside an old factory building. Since then, I’ve been able to 10x the value of the business, completed two expansions, and am now currently in the middle of the final stage of construction. It’s given me a crash course in real estate, financing, zoning, floodplains, and construction.

What Drives Me

I believe in being proactive, honest, appreciative, healthy, and kind. I love connecting with like minded people who determined to make the best out of life.

What’s Next

• Acquire and grow additional supermarkets doing $10M+ in sales within one hour of our base

• Expand self-storage through new developments and acquisitions

• Keep learning from, and sharing with others along the way

Outside of Work

Most days you’ll find me with my wife and two young kids, waterskiing, training jiu-jitsu, lifting, golfing, hunting, working my dog, reading and keeping up with life’s adventures.

Let’s Connect

If you’re building, scaling, or reinventing and want to compare notes, I’d love to connect. You can find me @roblabonne on X, where I share ideas with 24,000+ people who have decided to follow along or feel free to message me here.