Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

Ok…I thought that I was tech savvy, but I guess not. 
I received the following 2 notices yesterday:

1. “I tried to leave you a comment on your blog– but found that I had to register or login or something . . . quickly gave up!”
2. “BTW, I did a post with a link to your site and I tried to comment on your site and although I am wordpress user it is not letting me. Any tips? I am always logged on and it doesn’t let me just comment, and when I try to log on it isn’t recognizing my username.”

So, I guess that people are having a hard time commenting on my blog again.  I looked into it and noticed that I had the following box checked in the WordPress account:

• Under the Options tab and the General subtab, the box “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” is automatically checked which prevents most readers from commenting.

If you have a WordPress blog, look into it… it may be preventing your readers from communicating with you.

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I was stoked to find out that the University Venture Fund invested in Alianza. Alianza has had a remarkable track record as they have won the BYU Business Plan Competition, successfully raised $2M from the Utah Angels (and others), and now has raised another round through UVF.

While I can’t say that I know Brian Beutler as well as other young entrepreneurs, we’ve met a few times and I am excited about what he is doing. They have taken the VoiP telephone concept into the international marketplace with terrific results. Congratulations Brian.
In addition, I have also been completely impressed with many of the associates at the UVF. Jared Hutchings, the managing director of UVF, is another young entrepreneur in Utah that is making a name for himself as he continues to build a success student-run venture fund.

One of the things that I’m most excited about is the opportunity to work with the UVF to find and fund deals. I already know of 3 deals that have pitched to the screening committee (in the past 3 months) that had posted their business plan on FundingUtah.com. Hopefully, more companies will be invited to pitch after our Speedpitching Luncheon next week!

Anyways, congrats to both Alianza and the University Venture Fund!

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As a follow-up to my previous post on Mom Entrepreneurs, I wanted to highlight 3 other mom entrepreneurs that I’m very familiar with:

• Wendy Bird:   Wendy is the founder of the very successful MyPrincessPearls.com.  My Princess Pearls sells pearl jewelry that has been hand-crafted by women in Thailand and the Phillipines.  Not only do they sell gorgeous jewelry (my wife has some), but they also help out the women that have been rescued from dire circumstances, many of them living in temporary housing, and raising children on their own. Through employment, their lives, and the lives of their children, are lifted.  Greaty story and Great company.  I was honored to recently have been asked to serve on their board.

• Kelly Anderson:  Kelly is the Founder and CEO of Sweet and Charming.  Sweet & Charming is a children’s experience based retail company for children aged 3-10 with a castle theme.  Kelly is incredibly motivated and has already placed in a few business plan competitions across the country.

• Rachael Herrscher:  Rachael is the founder and CEO of Today’s Mama.  Today’s Mama strives to simplify motherhood by making parenting resources accessible and easy to use.  They have created handbooks, “mama pages”, and an online store with the goal of helping mothers.  They have recently started to franchise their idea with terrific response.

I admire each of these women for their hard work, dedication, and life-balancing skills.  I commend them for their efforts and wish them the best of luck in the future.

I wonder what it’s like being a mom entrepreneur?  How do they balance their life?  Do you know any other mom entrepreneurs that are juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship?

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A few weeks ago, I had a couple of representatives from Senator’s Hatch’s office come to visit me.  It was fun to chat with them about their responsibilities and those things that are on the Senator’s mind.  I was impressed to find out that Senator Hatch really does care about the economic development of Utah.  As a result of our meeting, this is what I found out:

1. Senator Hatch is deeply interested in knowing what is happening in Utah’s economic community.  His “peeps” are doing their best to get to know the up and coming companies.
2. Senator Hatch wants your company to be successful and will help you in your cause.  Obviously, most people don’t think to call on their Senator when it comes to building a successful company; however, if you need help landing a Federal contract or if you need introductions to larger companies outside of the state, Senator Hatch might be a good one to ask for help.
3. It’s rumored that Senator Hatch was the one that got Steve Ballmer (CEO of Microsoft) to come to UTC’s annual Hall of Fame event the end of October.  That deserves an “atta boy!”

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Have you kept up on the recent rise in Mom entrepreneurs? I think that it is an awesome new trend. Let me elaborate:

Over the past few months, my wife has become quite the entrepreneur. It all started when she was on the hunt for one of those “cute diaper bags” from Nordstrom. Of course, when we found out the the “cute diaper bags” from Nordstrom were over $150, we put the kabosh on that idea.

She was still set on getting a “cute diaper bag” and began the new hunt. After a few weeks of searching, she found a whole line of diaper bags that were similar to the Petunia Picklebottoms with one huge difference: they were reasonably priced!

Because she couldn’t find the bags anywhere else, she went out on a limb and purchased 10 bags (that way, she could get a discount). With only 2 quick emails, sent to friends and family, her diaper bags became an instant hit!

Since then, she has made many orders and sold quite a few bags without much work. Everywhere she goes, women ask her about her bag. Friends and family are spreading the word which results in random phone calls from women all across the West.

Unfortunately for her, she is not the “salesy” type. She hates the feeling (or even the possibility) of being too forward so she just makes sales as people contact her. Fortunately for me, she is not the “salesy” type. If she was, she would then make me look bad because she would be making more than me!

Coming soon = Mom Entrepreneurs 2

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Over the past 2 weeks, I have created 6 blog entry drafts on various topics. After interesting meetings, events, and articles; I am always motivated to write about the latest and greatest thing. Unfortunately, I begin the draft at an unconvenient moment and have to save it for a later day.

I really don’t know how some people do it. How do they write 2, 3, or 5 entries each day? Perhaps it could be that their blog plays a more important role in their job? Maybe they don’t have a family? Or maybe (just maybe), they are more organized with their time than I am!

Those of you that are avid bloggers, what is your trick? Do you allocate time each day to writing?

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