I built Scotch Porter from a Newark barbershop to a national brand and a sale at the end of 2025. Now I acquire, advise, speak, and write about what work asks of the life around it.
 Founder, operator,
advisor, and writer.

What I do now

I write In the Middle, advise a small number of founders, speak to founder and operator rooms, and look for durable businesses to acquire through QH Holdings. Different surfaces, one throughline: the judgment that comes from building something for a decade and paying attention to what the work cost.

The turn

Ten years building toward a life I already had.

I lost my mother in December 2023. My son arrived five months later. She is not here for what comes next. He is here for all of it. I had spent a decade building toward an outcome that was supposed to make that life possible. It was here the whole time. I just kept deferring it to the next thing.

The story so far

About.

Scotch Porter began in a Newark barbershop, then moved to my kitchen table, where I packed the first orders myself. I ran it for a decade, through early formulas, national retail, major partnerships, and a sale at the end of 2025. The numbers tell one version of that story. The other version, the one I care about now, is what a decade of building taught me about what the work is actually for, and what it costs the person doing it.

Build the company. Do not miss the life.

Calvin Quallis, In the Middle

More about working with me

The publication

In the Middle is for founders, operators, and people who have spent years building something demanding and are starting to ask harder questions about the life around the work. The chase does not end when the outcome arrives. It just moves to the next thing. This is the conversation that happens while you are still inside it.

Essays, field notes, long-form profiles, and audio narration when a piece is meant to be heard.

Read In the Middle

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One piece at a time, on what the work is actually for. Sent from readinthemiddle.com. No noise, no pitch, just the work as it is finished.

From In the Middle

Selected pieces

The exit was supposed to feel like an arrival. It didn’t.

I know how to build a company. Not the world my son will live in.

My list used to write itself. Now I make it up.

I started Scotch Porter at a kitchen table, packing the first orders myself, and ran it for ten years. First formulas, national retail, real partners, and a full sale at the end of 2025. The numbers tell one version of that story. The other version, the one I care about now, is what a decade of building taught me about what a business is actually for.