Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

I’ve never been so busy at FundingUniverse.  Things are going better than they have ever gone before and I’m super excited about the future.  With the growth and opportunities, I’ve been over loaded with new projects and meetings which means that I’ve neglected to write as much as I’d like on the blog.  So here is a list of things that I would’ve liked to blog about, but didn’t:

1. FundingUniverse named #2 Startup to Watch on the UV50 list
2. Participating on the Advisory Board of the yet-to-be-publicly-announced Utah Pulse — the site for “all things business in Utah” — led and sponsored by Zion Bank’s CEO Scott Anderson
3. Recent FundingUniverse SpeedPitching event — 12 awesome companies, 30+ legit investors, 1 great location (Noah’s in Lindon)
4. Recent “hot companies” in Utah that I’ve seen or met with recently:  Lumiport, Open Floor Technologies, Sendside, Velosum, Mangia, SimpleStartup, and Neutron Interactive (there are probably more, but I can’t think of them all right now).
5. v|100 list was announced — though it can sometimes just seem like a popularity list, I’m honored to represent FundingUniverse because the recognition comes from the Utah Business Community
6. Lots of thoughts on various types of financing for businesses including, but not limited to:  unsecured lines of credit (680+ credit score & 2 years of business will go a long way), Dell business credit (an easy $25,000), Google credit line (an easier $125,000), Equipment leasing, etc.
7. The parting of Jeff:  total stud.  We’ll miss him.  In the end, will work out best for everyone.
8. Following up on Entrepreneurship & the Family… for those of you that are entrepreneurs and have a family, I’d love to get your feedback via a quick survey that I set up.  It’s a fun side project for me.
9. Read the book The Illusions of Entrepreneurship and loved it.  You can learn more about it here and here.
10. Being a judge at the BYU Business Plan Competition — a lot of fun.  Went to the final event today and the final 3 winners are:  1.  Klymit (previously Argon… raised $375k through one of our SpeedPitching Events), 2. SchoolTipline (founder is Justin Bergener… one of my Junto Partners), and 3. Greeting Call.  Congrats to each of them!
11. Hiring of our new VP of Sales Jason Emett.  Jason is a rock-star that I’ve known for over a year.  He used FundingUniverse for a separate company and was invited to pitch in front of the Utah Angels.  We’re stoked to have him on board.
12. Looking to hire the following positions in the near future:  COO, CMO, Affiliate Recruiter, Internet Marketing Specialist, Business Loan Specialist, Investor Account Manager, and a few more.

Anyway, I know that there are a bunch of other things that I should be blogging about, but that’ll suffice for now.

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As part of the “Entrepreneurship & the Family” theme that I started a few months ago, I’d like to interview a few entrepreneurs about their experience of raising a family while being an entrepreneur.  In fact, it’d be great to ask a few questions to the spouse of the entrepreneur too.

If you are an entrepreneur with a family, the spouse of an entrepreneur, or if you know an entrepreneur with a family and would be interested/willing to chat… please contact me at “bblake at fundinguniverse.com”.

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It’s been a week of emotions for me after I heard about the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley (president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I am saddened to hear about his death, but am also gladdened to know that he will be able join his dear wife Marjorie (who passed away 3 years ago). Pres. Hinckley was an amazing man that was loved by millions across the globe. I enjoyed watching the tribute given by famous talk-show host Glenn Beck — if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it (video below). Following the example of Glenn Beck and many others, I’d like to point out a few of the ways that President Hinckley touched my life:

• President Hinckley was an optimist. He always saw the cup “half-full” and his happy, optimistic attitude spread like wildflower to everyone that came in contact with him. Here is a quote from Pres. Hinckley that I truly enjoy (it’s been up on our fridge for about 3 months now): “It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. ‘It all works out. Don’t worry.’ I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us, if we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worth of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.”

• President Hinckley was a motivated and great leader — a man with tons of energy (even at the age of 97). He was the most travelled man of any previous prophet, frequently travelling around the globe to be with the people.

• He was an outgoing man, loved by many, liked by all. Even the sometimes-known-as-callous Mike Wallace (60 Minutes) appreciated and befriended President Hinckley. From presidents of countries, leaders of religious organizations, and CEOs of large companies to the poorest of people of the world thought of him as a friend.

I could go on all day about Gordon B. Hinckley. I hope that I can follow his example. He has inspired me to be better, to do more, and to Stand for Something. No matter what religion, belief system, or values you have; you would love to learn about the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley.

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One of the most important topics of being an entrepreneur and having a family is health insurance.  Let’s just say that there are no “shortcuts” or great health insurance discounts for entrepreneurs — I remember Paul Allen writing about this same topic 2 years ago saying that the lack of health insurance was one of the biggest “damper’s” on entrepreneurship.  The cost of health care is continually increasing, which makes it more and more difficult for entrepreneurs.

During the beginning stages of FundingUniverse, we all just had personal and/or student health insurance (some of us were still taking night classes in the beginning)… so it wasn’t that big of an issue.  When we raised our first round,  we decided to test the waters to have company health insurance benefits.  Getting health insurance for a small company is about the same as getting health insurance for a family — they look at each team member to determine your initial rates.  We ended having a few “pre-existing” conditions that raised the prices of our company health insurance dramatically — so we passed.

Since then, we’ve looked into getting company health insurance a few times…and we just keep passing.  We have found that getting individual health insurance is more cost effective for everyone — and we offer other perks & benefits to make up for it.

If you are looking for health insurance, I recommend eHealthInsurance.com.  My wife and I have gone through the process a couple of times (testing insurance brokers and online tools), and we have found that eHealthInsurance has been the most productive.

I’m glad to see that Governor Huntsman is starting to make an effort to help with small business health care.  For those of us with families, it is a huge issue to taking the step into the life of entrepreneurship. (I’m especially thankful after my boy had to go to the emergency room on Thanksgiving after he hit his head on the head board while jumping on the bed with his cousins!  Probably won’t be the last time that he gets stitches.)

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My wife sure loves me a lot.  She must because she has invested a lot of money in me over the past couple of years.

One of the ways that entrepreneurial dreams affect the family is that a lot of the money that you have in savings will usually go towards the business.  A wife will usually sacrifice their thirst for shopping, their comfort of a savings account, and their desire to get their own home so that your company can be successful.  At least that has happened in our household.

So far, we’ve…

• Pulled money (not hundreds, but thousands) out of what used to be called our “savings account”
• Taken gifts and loans from close friends & family (thank you, thank you, thank you)
• Used money that we had received for student loans (not sure if I really should admit that)
• Pushed off buying a home (my parents were on an LDS mission for 18 months — so they asked us to take care of their home).  Even though I was making a 1 hr + commute, it was worth it for the FREE rent.
• Taken reduced salary — 1/2 of my “salary” was going to pay back loans each month

There is more… but you get the idea.

I’ll be making this point alot… but usually the spouse of the entrepreneur is the one that is making most of the sacrifices.  I honestly love what I do.  I have confidence that our team can build a successful company and that the sacrifices will be worth it in the end.

My wife, on the other hand, can only stand on the sidelines and hope that we are successful.  She usually only sees/hears about the “high highs and the low lows.”  Some days, she must be thinking, “what is Brock getting himself in to?!” because she sees me worry about the company and our employees and she knows that I’ve chosen this path over others.

Most of us entrepreneurs call this “skin in the game” — while the rest of the world calls it insanity.  Despite it all, I love what I do.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world… and I’m in deed grateful to my wife for her patience and encouragement…. and MONEY! 

Entrepreneurs:  if you are planning to become an entrepreneur… make sure that you have a supportive spouse.

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Now that we are 2.5 years into FundingUniverse and past the “we might die tomorrow” stage that usually happens during the first year of any bootstrapping business, I’d like to start writing about some of the aspects of mixing family while trying to be an entrepreneur.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get some comments from my wife — because her input is going to be much different than mine.

During the early days, both you and your company are usually “hanging on a thread” and most people don’t like to talk about those details while they are going through it (bc they obviously don’t want the world to know).  But… now that we have been through those tough times and are (hopefully) beyond that, I’d like to talk about the struggles in detail so that others can relate and benefit.

Let me give you an idea of where I’m hoping to go with this:

• As an entrepreneur, sacrifices must be made for the sake of the business.  In my opinion, no one sacrifices more than the entrepreneur’s spouse.  I’d like to get specific with the types of sacrifices that are made so that entrepreneurs (and their spouses) will know what they are getting themselves into.
• Aspects of bootstrapping.  What did we do in order to get resources and stay alive.
• Aspects of fundraising — when you really need the money (and you don’t want the investors to know about it).
• Asking your employee’s family to sacrifice and believe that we’ll make it through (very difficult).
• Health Insurance, babies, etc.

There will definitely be more… and I’ll try to focus on how all of this affects the family.  Josh Steimle wrote a ton about “You Might be an Entrepreneur if…” and provided some great content.  There might be a little overlap, but I’m trying to focus more on the family than he did.

The family is important to me.  Entrepreneurship is important to me.  Entrepreneurship has ruined families — and/or usually puts a huge strain on the family.  I am no expert… but am hoping to provide some good discussion.

If you have any specific topics that you would like me to cover… let me know.

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