David & Leila Centner at AUREA: Focus on Love Before the Bottom Line

Jackson Strong opened the conversation by naming the times. "These are controversial times," he told the room. The event was not there to promote either side, he said, and not to sit in the middle either. "These are times where we need to have strong views on things and it's time to have conviction." Then he turned to the two people beside him, who had lived through a storm of national media attention about two years before, and asked what they made of it now.

David and Leila Centner are the founders of Centner Academy, a school in their hometown of Miami. On the AUREA I stage they talked about that stand, about building a company together from nothing, and about why they now run everything they own on one rule: love and connection first.

What taking a stand cost them

David answered first. The attention came at them "like a wave of massive energy," he said, and they learned fast how to shape the story instead of being shaped by it. He doubts people remember the details of the controversy now. What he hopes they remember is that his wife was bold, that he followed her lead, and that they "were people who really took a stand." Because they run a school, he said, it was also a lesson for the children: to think for themselves and make their own decisions.

Leila told it from the inside. "It was literally a full-on attack. I mean, we had CNN, everybody camped outside our doors." Her community, still young, split roughly in half. She credited her husband for getting her through.

"I needed to take a stand for our children and I was willing to do whatever it takes, and even if it meant taking all the punches. It's a lot easier when you have a supportive partner by your side to take those punches."

How they built a company from nothing

David called himself a serial entrepreneur and a techie who started his first internet company in 1994. He wanted the room to hear where they started. "We don't come from anything. We come from nothing." He described a home of poverty and abuse, and a college class that taught him a founder with no experience and no collateral has to raise money from friends and family. He did not know anyone with money. "So basically it was one brick at a time."

The company that changed their lives was in electronic toll collection, the device on a rental car's windshield that pays your tolls. "That's my invention, that's my innovation," he said, with four million cars using the service by the time he sold it. Leila became the company's chief financial officer after they fell in love, and David credited her with helping grow it forty times on the bottom line. Their split of skills, he said, is the whole partnership: what she is great at, he is not, and the other way around.

A partnership of two people who believed in each other

They have been together eleven years, and they told the room about their first date with enough detail to get a laugh. Both came from broken homes and did not have much confidence when they met. What changed that was each seeing the other clearly.

"We just believed so much in each other that we built each other's confidence and self-esteem to where we are today."

They also arrived with their own baggage and unhealed sides. After they sold the company, they started a personal journey of healing and awakening. That journey led to the school, a farm, and giving away much more money. David put the return plainly: "It seems like the more we give away, the more we get." His own purpose, he said, is "to bring joy and love and connection to humanity, and make a couple of bucks in the process."

Love before the bottom line

Jackson asked how everyone else could do what they have done. Leila went back to the start of their business, before either of them called themselves spiritual.

"I looked at him and I said, you know, don't even focus on the bottom line. Let's focus on love and connection."

They focused on their employees and their customers and on making a caring place to work, and from there, she said, things "just blew up in a good way." They run the school and the farm the same way. School had started again three days earlier, and she described the group chats full of happy parents and kids who can feel the love "vibrating through all the walls." The school pays for consciousness training for its teachers, including Joe Dispenza training and mindfulness training. Not everyone wants that path, she said, and some families do not stay, "and that's okay."

Watch the full conversation above.

Frequently asked questions

Who are David and Leila Centner?

The founders of Centner Academy in Miami. David built the electronic toll collection business behind the windshield toll devices used in rental cars, with four million cars on the service when he sold it. Leila became its chief financial officer, and the two of them now run their school, a farm and other businesses together.

What did they say about the controversy around their school?

Leila described it as a full-on attack, with CNN and other outlets camped outside their doors, and said their community split in half. She said she took a stand for the children and could do it because David supported her. David said what matters now is not the details but that they took a stand.

What is their advice for building a business?

Leila's advice was to stop focusing on the bottom line and focus on love and connection with employees and customers. She said that is what made their company grow, and it is how they run their school and farm today.