He Quit His Job at 30 To Rebuild a Company With a Mission | Ed Mitzen

In this episode of Celebrate Your Story , I sit down with Ed Mitzen, founder and CEO of FingerPaint Group and Business for Good Foundation for a conversation about what it takes to build a company that lasts.

Ed walked away from a stable career at 30, with young children at home and no guarantees ahead. He started his business in a basement, pushed through years of uncertainty, burnout, and personal loss, and ultimately built FingerPaint into an 800-employee company serving some of the largest healthcare organizations in the country.

Along the way, he learned lessons many entrepreneurs discover the hard way — that the work never truly shuts off and that success often comes at a personal cost.

We talk about the parts of entrepreneurship people don't always share: starting over after divorce, carrying the weight of payroll and responsibility, and finding perspective after years of effort. Ed also shares how advances in AI are reshaping healthcare and the workforce, and why those changes have made questions of access, opportunity, and dignity even more urgent.

That urgency led Ed and his wife to create the Business for Good Foundation, using their business skills and resources to invest in workforce development, housing, and entrepreneurship in underserved communities. It's a reminder that while business can be demanding, it can also be a powerful tool for lifting others. What do you think? Share your thoughts and stories with me here.