What started as a career inside corporate America eventually became something more: a decision to build an independent media platform focused on real equipment insight, real contractor experiences, and the people who keep winter moving.
People see SnowPlowNews.com today and probably assume it was some polished entrepreneurial plan.
Truth is, it came from spending years inside the industry and slowly realizing I wanted to build something different.
I came up through corporate America working with brands like OMC, Western Plows, and Sno-Way. I was deep in sales, marketing, product development, dealer relationships, and digital strategy long before “digital strategy” was even a thing in this industry. Back in the late ’90s, I helped build one of the early web initiatives tied to Western Snowplows — we jokingly called ourselves the “Western Web Wizards.” Funny enough, pieces of that original thinking still exist today.
Over more than 20 years, I got to see the industry from every angle:the boardrooms, the factories, the trade shows, the dealer counters, the parking lots at 3AM during storms, and the contractors trying to keep entire cities moving while everyone else slept.
And somewhere along the way, I realized the most valuable part of this business wasn’t the corporate presentations.
It was the people.The operators figuring things out in the field.The dealers solving problems nobody prepared them for.The snow fighters who knew more than the brochures ever explained.
A lot of those stories never had a place to live.That stuck with me for years.
Corporate life gave me experience, connections, and opportunity, but it also taught me something else: climbing the ladder doesn’t always mean you’re building something meaningful. I got high enough up the ladder to realize the top wasn’t really where I wanted to stay.
What I loved most was creating, connecting people, building platforms, and helping industries communicate better.
That eventually led me to make the jump into entrepreneurship.I acquired GetSim.com and went all-in on developing SnowPlowNews.com into something bigger than a website — a real media and information platform for the snow and ice industry.
Not clickbait.Not corporate spin.Not anonymous forum chaos.
Just real information, real equipment insight, real weather coverage, real contractor experiences, and real conversations from people actually doing the work.There wasn’t some dramatic movie moment where I had everything figured out. Honestly, there were plenty of risks, long nights, second guesses, and moments where the safer move would’ve been staying comfortable.
But building something of your own changes you.
Today, SnowPlowNews reaches thousands across the industry every week, covering equipment, forecasting, dealer networks, technology, and the people pushing the industry forward every storm season.
And in a lot of ways, this is still just the beginning.
I’m still learning. Still building. Still betting on the idea that industries work better when real knowledge gets shared openly.
That’s the path from corporate America to entrepreneurship for me.
Less polished than people think.More personal than people realize.
Building SnowPlowNews has been one of the biggest risks — and one of the most rewarding decisions — of my career.
Appreciate everyone who’s been part of the journey so far.
-Mike Stevens, Publisher SnowPlowNews