Why This Founder Asked Her Biggest Competitor for HelpIt was a big risk, but it may have saved her business.

Angela Gennari didn't expect to win. She's honest about that. She's the founder ofTitan Global Enterprises, an Atlanta-based company that staffs and runs security for events, and it's a small player in a giant industry. So when theUniversity of Georgia's athletics contract came up for 2019 (which included its huge football stadium), she saw it as a good learning opportunity. She thought she'd throw everything she had at the bid, lose, get some great insight, and be better prepared next time. But then the unexpected happened: She won. "What a sense of release that was," she says.

The feeling would soon turn to panic. She discovered that her three employees overseeingoperationswere slacking — not filing important documents, not properly training new employees, and so on. "It could have cost me the company," she says. All three resigned. But now she was left to clean up the mess and shoulder the giantcontractall by herself. It was impossible.