Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

I guess that it’s about time for me to start showing my public support for the man that, I believe, should lead the United States as our next President. After studying the issues that our country currently faces, I strongly believe that Mitt Romney is the right person to be in Washington. Here are a few of the reasons why I support him:

• The Economy: When all is said and done, the most important problem/issue that faces our country is the declining economy. Beyond the war in Iraq (foreign policy), the challenges of health care, and the control of immigration — the economic strength of our nation is what will allow us to keep a strong military and remain the world power. As of today, we are faced with a 9 trillion dollar national debt, a growing trade deficit, a weakening dollar, a declining housing market, and nearly 45 trillion dollars in obligated debts that will be due over the next several decades. In addition, the competition throughout the world (China, India, etc.) is heating up. If we don’t have the right man in position to lead us through these challenges, it could be disastrous. There is no other man more qualified and more proven to lead our nation through these struggles than Mitt Romney.
• Proven Leader: Mitt Romney has proven over and over again as a successful business man, as President of the 2002 Olympics, and as Governor of Massachusetts (private, public, and political experience) that he is a leader. Because he hasn’t spent his life as a politician, he knows the challenges of the “real world.” He has successfully led businesses (large and small), organizations, and state governments; while most of the other candidates have hardly led their subcommittees. He understands how to manage people and how to manage a budget. He is fiscally responsible — something that is hard to say about most politicians. Also, I don’t believe that you have had to serve in the military to be a great military leader (we’ve seen it over and over in history)… but I do believe that being a great leader will lead to a great military leader.
• Tax Plan: It’s frustrating to think about those that believe that the solution to any government deficit is to increase taxes. It’s inspiring to hear how Mitt was able to turn the Massachusetts’s deficit around without raising any taxes (just as he said he would). Mitt’s plan is to keep the tax burden low — a solution that speaks to all of us.
• Strong Economy, Strong Military, Strong Families (Romney’s Platform): I, too, believe that the success of our nation lies in the amazing citizens that we have here in the United States. We believe in freedoms and we believe in values. I believe that families are the core unit of society and, as a result, we should place emphasis on the strength of families.

There are other reasons (including his stance on health care, the war in Iraq, and immigration), but I won’t go into a lot of detail.

Now, you are probably asking, “what does McCain have to do with all of this?” Well, one of my business partners found an interesting video that shows McCain endorsing Mitt Romney after Romney won the Governor’s race in Mass. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend checking it out. It is a great endorsement and quite ironic considering the heated debates that have happened as of late.

The whole McCain topic is a whole other story, but I’ll refrain from going into detail. Let’s just say that I don’t put a lot of trust or faith into him and would be very worried about our economy if he were in the White House. He does a great job in the senate!

Anyway, I’ve contributed my financial support to Mitt Romney and I urge you, after really looking at the issues that face America, to do the same.

Comments(1)

Over the past couple months, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a good amount of time with Jeremy Hanks (Founder, Chairman & Head honcho at Doba).  Jeremy has built an incredible company that has received a lot of (deserved) recognition as of late.  Here are a few things that I have read about:

• Doba was ranked #22 on this year’s Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies
• They were recently featured on the cover of Utah Business Magazine as a 2007 Best Company to Work For
• Ranked #1 Fastest Growing Companies in Utah by Mountain West Capital Network
• And there is more… (but you get the idea)

Jeremy is passionate about entrepreneurship and that passion spreads like wildfire to those that he comes in contact.  On a personal level, he has offered strategic advice to me as a young CEO — and to FundingUniverse.

If Jeremy isn’t on your radar screen… he should be.

Comments(0)

Chris Knudsen wrote a blog entry about a year ago about the difficulty of being a CEO. While I don’t argue that being a CEO is difficult, it’s the “specialists” and the “monday morning QBs” (as he puts it) that really allow the company to grow and be successful (Chris: I still love ya :)). Here are a few of the people in my life that work their tails off to make FundingUniverse (and me as the CEO) look good:

1. My wife: I don’t want to get too personal here (because I could go on all day about her), but my wife is truly amazing. Her support, encouragement, patience, and love is what motivates me and keeps me going.

2. My partners: Trent, Jeff, Briana, and Josh are incredibly talented. They have made a ton of sacrifices to make FundingUniverse into the company that it is today.

3. The team: when it comes down to it, you always need people on the ground (specialists) that are making things happen. We’ve got fantastic employees, partners, contractors, and advisors that know how to execute.

Sometimes the CEO will have a lot of people telling them how great they are and they soon begin to believe it. They forget that there are a whole lot of people at their side that are making things happen and ultimately results in them (as the leader) getting recognition.

Comments(3)

I have to tell you that I’m not that into politics. Should I be? Yes. Do I wish that I was? Yes. In fact, I’m going to have that be a small goal of mine this year — pay more attention to what’s happening with our local and national government officials.

I guess that this week will be a good first step. If you didn’t know, Mitt Romney announced on Monday the formation of the “Romney for President Exploratory Committee” (which basically means that he has officially filed his papers with the Federal Election Commission to run for the President of the United States). I received about 6 emails on Monday from various people asking for my support through a financial donation (each person can donate up to $2100 or $4200 per couple) — I even had an email (via a friend) come from Mitt’s son Craig.

Here is what the email from Criag Romney said:

As you may know, my dad filed papers to form an exploratory committee earlier today to test the waters to run for President in 2008.

One of the keys to be able to do this is to raise a significant amount of money over the next 12 months. Candidates will need to raise about $100 million over that period to be considered serious contenders for the Presidency. The first few weeks after announcing the formation of an exploratory committee are critical in that they demonstrate the candidates ability to raise this kind of money.

As a result, I am asking you to help me raise money for my dad’s exploratory committee. On January 8th, he will be hold a National Call Day in Boston during which time many of his supporters will gather to call friends and family to request them to make donations to the committee.

Please let me know if you have any questions and feel free to take a look at my dad’s positions at www.thecommonwealthpac.com.

From the sounds of it, it appears that Mitt is already well on his way to raising the $100 million necessary. Here is an excerpt from an email that I received Monday night:

As you may have heard through the many news reports, we had a very successful day today in Boston! Governor Romney and the national finance team conducted a National Call Day, raising in excess of $6.5 million towards the Romney for President Exploratory Committee. A record day which illustrates and validates the depth of the grass roots effort that has begun in support of Mitt and Ann Romney and their presidential aspirations. It was an amazing thing to witness the success of the day through so many contributions from so many people, especially recognizing that no one contribution could exceed $2,100. Never before has any presidential aspirant raised so much in so little time. Governor Romney has established his leadership through past successes, and further evidences his position as a top tier candidate for the Presidency of the United States by his positions on issues before us, his personal character and integrity, and in his capacity to garner substantial grass roots support.

I am intentionally excluding personal opinions regarding Mitt and the 2008 election until I have formalized a more concrete opinion. Early on, I do like Mitt and have been impressed with his successes as Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee.

January 11th 2007 Posted to Leadership, Personal

Comments(0)

Another way to show you can execute is to surround yourself with talent.   If an experienced professional steps up to join your management team or advisory board, it communicates to investors that you are building something valuable.

It is also appealing to get an investor on board who has significant industry experience.  In many cases, his/her presence alone will validate the investment opportunity for future investors.

This concept is especially important when you are a first-time entrepreneur.  If you don’t have much experience, compliment your passion & energy with experience and expertise by adding them to your management team and/or advisory board.

Comments(0)

A few weeks ago, I attended an impressive lunch conference that featured David Thompson, the author of the new book Blueprint to a Billion, as the keynote speaker. Going in to the event, I was interested in the topic but I hadn’t really heard too much buzz concerning the book — so I didn’t have too high of expectations. Coming out of the event, I was completely impressed with David, his research, and (now) his book.

Honestly, I could not believe the amount of research that David and his team had performed before writing the book. They spent “3 years of in-depth research to provide a quantitative assessment of the success pattern common across a distinct group of 387 blueprint companies that have grown to $1 billion in revenue.” If you’ve read Good to Great, I would compare it to that book.

Since that day, I have purchased the book and read most of the principles held within. One of the topics that I really enjoyed was that of Inside-Outside Leadership. The basic concept is that most of these successful companies had a dynamic duo at the head. One of the leaders (usually the COO) is completely passionate about leading the company from the inside (i.e. operations, innovation, product development, etc.), while the other (usually the CEO) is completely passionate about leading the company to the outside world (marketing, sales, biz dev, vision, etc.). “Their relationship was dynamic in their use of their complementary strengths” and “as a pair, they were the highest of performance teams.”

Examples included: Jeff Mallett & Tim Koogle (Yahoo!), Bill Gates & Jon Shirley (Microsoft), Meg Whitman & Maynard Webb (eBay), etc., etc.

I love this concept! Personally, I know that I have a weakness when it comes to details and operations. I need a person that can take a vision or strategy and develop the detailed process to completion. On the other hand, (not to toot my own horn) I feel like I have some strengths when it comes to vision, strategy, and business development.

Anyway, if you haven’t had the chance to read Blueprint to a Billion — I highly recommend it.

Comments(0)

One of the things that we have been focusing on lately at FundingUniverse.com is being more effective through projects. In other words, sometimes companies are too task-oriented and forget how their project contributes to the overall success of the company. As a result, there is a lack of accountability and ownership.

Once we identified the concern, we have been trying to find a way to be more effective with our time by assigning very specific projects to various members of our team. Once the project has been assigned, that person will perform the preliminary research and then bring the concept back to the team for an idea/brainstorming session. During the brainstorming session, we try to flush out all of the ideas and decide on a concrete plan of execution. Once the plan of execution has been developed, we then depend on the project leader to execute on the plan.

To facilitate this process, we’ve decided on a more fixed schedule during our workday:

• 8 - 10 am = Professional development/learning, emails, project execution
• 10- 12 am = Team meetings/brainstorming
• 12 - 1 pm = Lunch
• 1- end of day = Project execution
• 2:30 pm = Office Shootout (each team member gets 10 shots on our nerf office bball hoop — whoever makes the most gets the prize watch for the day! You gotta have a little bit of fun.

I’m anxious to see how this goes. I’m excited about doing this because it will allow team members to take ownership of a project and really contribute to the team. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. If any of you have figured out a more effective way of executing, let me know.

June 19th 2006 Posted to Leadership

Comments(0)

I am continually impressed by Alan Hall. Alan Hall is the founder of Grow Utah Ventures, the most active early-stage venture capital firm in Utah. Their latest announcement is the funding of Revinetix — that’s 30+ technology companies funded by Grow Utah since their inception.While 30+ companies is a very impressive number, the most impressive part about Grow Utah is their vision to stimulate & support entrepreneurship by rallying financial resources throughout Utah. As a result of Alan’s leadership, 4 new angel groups have been formed throughout the state. Each group meets regularly (once a month) to listen to pitches and fund new deals.

Another reason that I’m so impressed with Alan is because he feels a personal responsibility to give back to the community. He explains that he is the beneficiary of good fortune which only means that he is now a steward over the money that he has made. As a steward, he is doing all that he can to make good use of it. But, it’s not just money that he contributes! He spends much of his time helping and mentoring entrepreneurs.

Thanks Alan for helping entrepreneurs and building a strong legacy for others to follow!

Comments(1)

I just read a very interesting article in the Seattle Times that talks about young (in their twenties) CEOs. Supposedly, many VCs are seeking out young talent because they are well aware of the internet market. Here is an example quote:

“Twentysomethings have their pulse on the sweet spot of the Internet, much better than others,” says Mark Kvamme, a venture capitalist with Sequoia Capital, which has invested in several companies with young founders. “They are able to put together a product or service that speaks better to that generation — and do it without enormous amounts of capital.”

To me, this brings up a very good question: Which is better — energy or experience?

Of course, I am a young entrepreneur, so I would take the energy side — under certain circumstances.

1. First of all, the young entrepreneur must be teachable. The last thing you want is a know-it-all inexperienced youngen. On the other hand, an ambitious high-energy businessman who is willing to learn from his/her mistakes and the mistakes of others will be a valuable asset to any team.
2. Secondly, (going along with being teachable) the entrepreneur must dedicate herself to learning. How much time do you spend each day learning new things? Are you reading the latest news, blogs, magazines, and books? If you do, this will help you to be experienced beyond your years.
   People often ask me if I am planning to attend graduate school and the response I give is: “I don’t know.” The reason that I will even consider not attending graduate school is because I am enjoying the every-day learning experiences that I am currently having. (the graduate school controversy is another topic entirely ). I imagine that if I come to a point in my entrepreneurial career that I am not constantly learning — I will go to graduate school.
3. A young entrepreneur must surround herself with experienced mentors. There is (almost) nothing that can replace experience. I am very grateful for the many mentors that give me help and advice on a daily basis — including, but not limited to the Junto Mentors, BYU Business Professors, Paul Allen, and each one of my brothers. One of the most appealing parts of Greg Warnock’s Junto Partners program is that he has put together an amazing group of experienced mentors in each area (legal, strategy, marketing, sales, etc.).
4. Finally, the entrepreneur must use their energy to their advantage. Sometimes the only thing that will cut it is good ol’ fashioned hard work!

Comments(1)

Sometimes it blows my mind when I am meeting or talking with another individual who isn’t “cool.” I don’t use the word “cool” to mean “popular, well-liked, successful, etc.”– I mean business friendly. I get the feeling that people think that only one of us can be successful; if one company is successful, they automatically think that their company can’t be successful — there always has to be both a winner and a loser.

Frankly, I can’t stand this mentality. I truly believe that we can all be successful together. If you are doing well — that’s great! That’s why I love partnerships so much. If there is an opportunity to partner with another company and it will help the both of us be more successful than we would otherwise be…let’s do it.
Brings me back to the book: Love is the Killer App — if you haven’t read this book, it is a must read.

Comments(2)

One of the things that I love about business is that you are always interacting with people. I’m a true believer that the best things happen out of the office. Obviously, your time must be balanced — but for the most part, good things happen when you are out meeting and interacting with people.

Part of the passion that I have for business comes from the people that I work with on a daily basis. My partners (and our team for that matter) are hard-working and trustworthy individuals who are fun to be around.

I also really enjoy to meet new people. It’s very fun to meet other business professionals on a business relationship, but much more gratifying to get to know them on a more personal level. I can’t stand when I get so caught up in business that I forget to get to know people. Has that happened to you?

Something that I am trying to do that I think will make a difference is to be more personal in my communications with other people. Can you do that? For example, can you say, “Peace out, girl scout” at the end of your email? Can you say, “You’re a stud!”? Or does it have to be so formal? I don’t know. I just think that it would be fun to add a little more personality into the workplace.

Anyway, I’m just glad that I get to work with people. I’m always interested in meeting others…if you are reading this and I haven’t met you, feel free to contact me at brockjblake AT gmail.com.

Comments(2)

“Remember who you are! Knowing who you are changes what you do.”

This phrase means more to me than most will ever know. You see, the phrase “remember who you are” was very frequently used by a very special person in my life — Grandpa Loy F. Blake. My grandpa is my hero for many reasons, but mostly because he understood who he was and the principles that he stood by. His example has left a huge impact on me and I hope to be like my Grandpa Blake. Let me explain…

1. My grandpa believed in hard work. When my father was a young child (7-8 years old), the neighbor farmer hired my dad and his twin brother to work on his farm. My father and uncle worked on the farm for many years until they could get a job elsewhere. It wasn’t until a few years ago that we found out (through the neighbor) that my grandpa was really paying the wages of my father & uncle through the neighbor so that my father could learn how to work.

2. When I was in high school, I was invited to travel and play with a regional soccer team in Europe for a month. I really wanted to go, but didn’t have the few thousand dollars that it would require to pay my way. I knew that my Grandpa was a wealthy man (though he didn’t show it by any means) so I went to him for money. He was very kind and asked that I go with him to the bank. I was very excited that he would agree so quickly and take me to the bank to withdraw the money. We arrived at the bank, sat down, and began to chat with the banker. This wasn’t unusual to me because my Grandpa chatted with everyone (after all…he was the town mayor). Before giving me the money, the banker and my grandpa handed me some papers to sign and I started to realize what was happening. Instead of withdrawing a few thousand dollars for my trip, my grandpa was setting up a loan! Obviously, I didn’t appreciate it at the time — I had to pay $265.17/month for the next year!

Looking back on it now, it was one of the best things that my grandpa ever taught me.

So why do I bring up all of this now? Well, these principles of integrity and hard work are shaping the decisions that I am making today. Recently, I’ve been dealing with a difficult experience that has affected my partners, my family and me. While it is still not completely resolved, I realize that decisions I make today will not only be representative of me, but also my partners and my family down the road. There are many things lost that you are able to regain, but once you have lost your reputation of integrity, you may never get it back.

In regards to this issure, Warren Buffet said:

A lot of people in business these days trap themselves by putting on a facade. I remember my father telling me when I was 11, ‘It takes you 30 years to build a reputation, but you can ruin it in 30 seconds.’

Thank you Grandpa Loy Blake for leaving a legacy for me and the rest of the Blake family to live up to!

Comments(0)

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend the annual UITA Hall of Fame dinner event at the downtown SLC Marriott (Thanks David Bradford!) I was impressed by the attendance of many business professionals throughout the state including Senator Orrin Hatch and HP’s CEO Mark Hurd.

I was very impressed with Mark Hurd’s knowledge and leadership. He shared his personal management style with the group and I especially enjoyed this quote on leadership (as shared in the a press release): “In my opinion, the secret to success is to focus a company and provide its people with a clear mission and clear expectations. Make sure they have the right resources, and then get out of their way.”

“It’s not just the clarity of the message,” Hurd added, “But it’s also the frequency of the message that’s key. Having everyone on the same page, understanding their role, and knowing how they’ll be measured and how they’ll be rewarded is critical.”

Comments(0)