Angel Investing, Entrepreneurship & Learning

It was 3 years ago, almost to the day, that I heard about an entrepreneurial program called Junto Partners. I decided to throw my “hat in the ring” to be selected as 1 of 5 entrepreneurs that would receive a $50k investment to start a company. The program lasted 8 weeks; it was filled with Trump/Apprentice-like activities and the awesome experience of learning at the feet of venture capitalist and entrepreneur mastermind Greg Warnock.

Being selected as one of the Junto Partners really jump-started my entrepreneurial career. I ended up investing my $50k into FundingUniverse (which had started several months earlier) and was off and running. It opened doors and provided momentum and infrastructure to a young and energetic entrepreneur. I attribute a lot of any success that I’ve had to the Junto experience.

Though the experience was invaluable, I also felt like there were a few pieces of the Junto program that were “broken.” I didn’t like the deal structure/terms of the $50k.  Also, while I learned a ton from my partners (and they’ll be good friends for the rest of my life), the partnership arrangement didn’t foster the best decisions to build successful companies. I also felt that the mentor program needed some re-structuring.

Despite the challenges, I felt like the Junto Partners program was a fantastic program and needed to exist. Greg Warnock and Alan Hall (the masterminds behind Junto) are sincere in their desire to build entrepreneurship in the state and they love working with young and energetic entrepreneurs. As a result, I felt motivated to provide as much help and feedback to the re-structuring of the new Junto Partners program. Led by Joe Grover (one of my 5 Junto Partners), we met several times to figure out how to create the Junto Partners program with the “issues” being resolved.

That being said, I’d like to help announce the Junto Partners Program 2008. If you are an entrepreneur and are looking to take the needed step to be “plugged in,” you totally should apply to participate. Even if you aren’t accepted as 1 of the 5 entrepreneurs, the 8 weeks of learning (which is free) will be one of the best experiences you will go through as an entrepreneur and will change the way that you think about things. The deadline for the application is this week (April 30th), so don’t wait.

Thanks to Greg, Alan (and Joe) for their hard work to provide such an amazing program for young entrepreneurs. I’ll always be grateful for their mentoring, friendship, and foresight.

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One of our advisors, Kent Thomas (CFO Solutions), put together an interesting article called “10 Tips for Recession-Proofing your Business.” Kent provides a much-needed out-sourced financial services for the small & growing business. He has been fantastic to work with and I highly recommend him. Here are the details of his recent article:

1. Diversify Customers. Evaluate your customer base and identify concentrations of customers in the same industry and / or geographic region. Also look at how much business you do with each customer (make a list of your top 10 or 20 customers with total sales in the past 12 to 24 months and calculate the percentage of your total sales that comes from each. Losing any customer that individually represents a large percentage of your total sales (10% to 20% or more) could have a devastating impact on your business. Establish a strategy to expand your customer base and to watch the “concentration risks” carefully. Also, take this opportunity to review all of your customer’s credit worthiness and make sure that the credit limits that you have granted are still appropriate based on their current financial position. Act quickly to make the adjustments necessary to remove these potential risks from your business.

2. Cut costs. Have a look at your business and figure out where you could save, suggests Bill Lenhart, the national director of business restructuring at BDO Consulting in New York. If three employees are doing the job of one, you may need to make job cuts. Additionally, if you have two product lines and one is successful while the other one isn’t, consider selling off that division. “When times are tough, it’s best to focus on core markets and spend money in those areas, not in areas that haven’t been more profitable,” says Lenhart.

3. Ratchet down inventory. When a recession hits, the last thing you’ll want to do is get stuck with shelves of needless inventory. If spending $30,000 a year on boating gear, for example, isn’t necessary, make sure your purchase orders reflect that. For a better idea of what you’ll need as the year progresses, keep an eye on leading consumer indicators such as those offered by the National Retail Federation and the Conference Board. Also, establish inventory targets and make sure the sales and purchasing departments are talking.

4. Maintain prices. You may be tempted to slash prices to free up cash flow. That’s a mistake, says Bradley J. Sugars, a business coach in Las Vegas. Sure, you’ll sell products but you’ll also cut your profit margins and likely dilute your brand in the process. Plus, if customers decide to buy again from you in the future they may expect similar discounts.

5. Reserve discounts. “Don’t go into a discounting war,” says Sugars. Since you don’t want to dilute your brand’s value and you especially don’t want to start competing on price with discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores and Target, tread lightly when it comes to offering discounts. Be sure to reserve them only for current, repeat customers. “You’re trying to breed loyalty” without diminishing your brand’s value, says Sugars.

6. Focus on service. While expanding your business into markets abroad may be avenues for growth, many small-business owners should focus on their existing customers and clients for a boost in revenue. With this in mind, Sugars suggests focusing on service. “It is one of the best ways to add value without costing money,” he says.

7. Invest in employees. When the going gets tough, the employees you have will be your productivity all-stars, says Lenhart. Make boosting productivity within reason, of course a focal point. For those that rise to the top, be sure to reward them accordingly. “You don’t want to lose your most productive people at this time,” he says. Consider offering vacations or time off, which can be cheap incentives. Also, now is a good time to evaluate all of your employees and replace the mediocre and poor performers – especially if your competitors or other businesses in your area are downsizing.

8. Free up cash flow. While you’re attempting to cut costs and grow sales, “now is the time to call in favors,” says Howard Applebaum, chief lending officer of Sterling National Bank in New York. Be sure to free up your business’s cash flow by asking to have payments to suppliers extended. Also, if you have old debts, call them in. Having a good amount of cash on hand, especially in light of the credit crunch, will help you do everything from make payments to employees and vendors to spend on marketing campaigns that may grow future business.

9. Renegotiate contracts. If a contract, a lease or other obligation will soon be up for renewal, try to negotiate lower prices. At this point, you may be able to also make cuts, says Applebaum. If you don’t need 50,000 square feet of office space, consider paring down. “It is really a reality check that requires a tough look at your expenses,” he says.

10. Look to expand your business. If, on the other hand, you’re sitting pretty, Carmen Bianchi, director of San Diego State University’s Entrepreneurial Management Center, suggests giving the competition a gander. “Look for weaknesses and instability,” she says. If they’ve been having trouble, you may be in a good position to pick up their business at bargain-basement prices. Obviously, make sure you can afford it, says Bianchi, but their loss may be your gain.

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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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I’m here (written yesterday) at the rock-star-packed University Venture Fund conference in Salt Lake City. I didn’t even know about the conference until late last night when a fellow entrepreneur forwarded to me the conference agenda. As soon as I found out about the list of panelists & speakers, I quickly rearranged my schedule to make sure that I could attend. Here is a list of (my favorite) people that are here speaking:

• Brad Feld
• Will Price
• Eliot Jacobsen
• Josh Coates
• Rick Alden

While I missed the first panel on “What VC’s look for and Industry Trends,” I was able to make it to the entrepreneurship panel “Starting Your Company – Going from an Idea to Your Business.”

Here are a few highlights:

• Almost every entrepreneur on the panel saw a simple need in the market and, after noticing the market potential, pressed on the gas to build the company and penetrate the market.
• Common theme:each entrepreneur is “unemployable.” They are truly afraid of getting a “real job.”
• Almost every panelist had started and sold smaller companies before starting the companies that they are currently running.
• Advice from panelists: build a company that you are completely passionate about, because your passion for the space will drive the success of the business.

Highlights from Brad Feld’s Keynote:

• The most important decision he makes as a VC: do I support the CEO or not? If I do, then I do whatever he asks to build the company. If not, I will find another CEO that I completely support and trust.
• The Foundry Group is very open and transparent. They will take emails from anyone… and he will respond to anyone (within reason). I can personally attest that this is true — Brad is one of the most responsive people that I know.
• 2 Rules for investing: 1) invest in his area of strength (software, internet, etc.) and NOT outside of it. 2) Must believe in/trust the founder.

Overall, it was a fantastic conference and was stoked to attend.

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Wow… it’s been a nice and relaxing holiday break.  Plenty of family, food, and fun.

While the break was relatively uneventful in the business world, I did find out that the Entrepreneur’s Story has finally been released!  The story is the brain-child of entrepreneur super-woman Carolynn Duncan.  She spent most of 2007 gathering stories from over 70 entrepreneurs from around the world and compiled them all into one book.

I have had the chance to read some of the book and I am completely impressed.  If you are an entrepreneur, or an aspiring entrepreneur, or are just suffering from “entrepreneur’s anonymous”… you should read this book.

Thanks Carolynn!

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It cracks me up to read some of the blogs (both here locally and nationally) that try so hard to be controversial.  Most of these bloggers are so interested in getting readers, pageviews, and comments that they’ll make ridiculous entries/statements that will stir the pot in the community.

This type of blogger will look for anything and everything to criticize because they know that it will attract readers to their blog.  I’m not saying that it’s wrong to be critical in your blog.  In fact, I should probably be a little more candid in my entries, but I guess that my motivations for blogging are different from their motivations.  What I’m saying is that it gets a little old to read a blog that is always cynical and tries so hard to be controversial.

I’m 100% positive that a lot of those same people believe that my blog is boring.  I hardly write about controversial topics.  In fact, I love to write about good news, learning experiences, and topics on entrepreneurship.

This entry brings up a good question — why do you write/read blog entries?

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By recommendation of Brad Feld, I installed the Lijit search tool onto my blog.  I enjoy the tool because it give me an idea of what my readers are interested in learning about.  Over the past few weeks, the #1 phrase that people are looking for has been Term Sheets.

Before I dedicate any time towards the topic, I wanted to know if there was anything in particular that you would like to know?

Here are a few resources to get your started:

• Brad & friends (AskTheVC) post a great series on term sheets here
• There is more here
• We have some great podcasts & webinars on the topic on FundingUniverse.com

(Wow… I just realized that I gave Brad a lot of link love.  What can I say… the guy’s a stud.)

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As I was just sitting here reading the latest entries on my blog reader, I realized that I am Teck Geek.  Not as big as a tech geek as some people out there, but a Tech Geek nonetheless.  Here are a few things that I do (that you might do also) that make me a tech geek:

1.  I joined Twitter
2. I stay up on the newest and latest technology companies via TechCrunch, ValleyWay, VentureBeat, etc. (especially lately)
3. I have a BlackBerry (read “my email comes to my phone and sometimes lures me into addiction”)
4. I actually send “tweets” on twitter so that my friends, family, and other “peeps” know what I’m up to (like anyone really cares)
5. I blog … and I read blogs

I’m sure that the majority of people that read this blog are saying… “those things make you a tech geek?”  If you are thinking that in your head, you are probably a tech geek yourself.

Let’s be honest, most people in this world do not read blogs.  Most people have never even heard of Twitter.  And most people could care less about the latest and greatest technology.

What other things do you do (that I probably do too) that would make us tech geeks?

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A friend of mine showed me The Funded website about 6 months ago and I always thought that it was a cool idea.  I liked how it flipped the tables and allowed entrepreneurs the opportunity to rate and speak out (for good or bad) against VC firms across the country.  Since then, I have thought about (here’s a free idea for someone — if you are interested, let’s talk) putting together a similar site dedicated towards rating angels and angel groups, but thought that it could possibly jeopardize my role at FundingUniverse.

To me, anytime you can put more information in the entrepreneur’s hands, the better.  Why?  Well, we all know that there are some angels out there that put together ridiculous deals (usually because the entrepreneur doesn’t know any better).  In the end, the company and the entrepreneur suffer.  The problem is that the word never gets out and so the angel keeps doing bad deals and more entrepreneurs suffer.

Luckily (and I mean this sincerely), the majority of the investors that we work with at FundingUniverse don’t fall into this category.  Most understand how to structure a good deal that will help the company to grow and motivate the entrepreneur (because he/she maintains controlling interest in the company).

Since this train of thought has been on my mind today, I wanted to get your opinion and ask you (all 4 of my regular readers) the question “what makes a good angel investor?”

• Is it the terms that the investor negotiates?
• Is it the strategic experience/expertise that he/she brings to the company?
• Is it his/her connections?
• Is it strictly the cash?

Those are just a handful of questions to get your mind going.  Those of you that have had angels invest in your company — what has been your experience?  I’d love to hear good or bad.

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The best thing that happened to us at FundingUniverse was our renewed drive to focus on Sales & Marketing. About 3 months ago, we were facing a very difficult situation where cash was low and we were needing to get our subscription model launched. During the previous 4-6 months, our company was very focused on research & development. We spent quality time planning and developing a compelling membership subscription, but it was time to get the product to market.

At the time (3 months ago), our team came together and made some very difficult decisions and sacrifices with the ultimate decision being that we would work harder, stay up later, and give more. What happened next was clearly remarkable: office doors began to shut (less distractions), the daily ritual of the office basketball break was soon forgotten, and the team got on the phones. It was a spectacular phenomenon: the team was taking home less yet giving more.

The decision: Focus on Sales & Marketing.

It was the best thing that ever happened to our company. Jeff and the team started rocking on the phones. We brought in a Rockstar named Jerry Khemraj. Jerry knows his stuff and helped to get things off the ground.

Results: 1. December was a record month of revenue. 2. January doubled December’s revenue.

The past couple of months have been a fantastic learning experience for my team and me. You always hear that the most successful companies are focused on sales, but it often takes some tough trials to have it really sink in. Most entrepreneurs (including me) often think that they have to have the next best mouse trap. They spend most of their time going in circles trying to make a perfect product. Don’t get me wrong — it’s important to have a solid product/service, but it’s more important to focus on sales.
February 05th 2007 Posted to Entrepreneurship, Learning

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If you are interested in learning more about angels and VCs, I found 2 blogs this week that provide great content.

1. An unknown angel investor out of Colorado has started to blog at www.5280angel.com.
2. Also, Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson (Mobius Venture Capital) have started Ask the VC blog.  The 2 of them use the blog to answer common questions that VCs get asked.

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I got an email yesterday from David Cohen, the successful entrepreneur and founder of TechStars (He found me through Jeff Barson’s blog).  TechStars — the brain-child of David, Brad Feld (Managing Director of Mobius VC), Jared Polis and David Brown — is an entrepreneur friendly summer of learning held in Boulder, CO.  Their website reads:
“TechStars brings aspiring technology founders to Boulder, Colorado for an intensive three month period, provides seed funding, education, and connections, and will result in the formation of ten new companies during the summer of 2007.”

I would love to be able to support TechStars however we can and it appears that David is also interested in the possible partnership.  The concept reminds me a lot of our Junto Partners program founded by local VC Greg Warnock, except the entrepreneurs will spend the entire summer in Boulder working on their startup idea.

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I’m totally stoked.  Trent got our company histories back up on our website and I’ve had a great time learning; I spent about 30 minutes reading the histories of Berkshire Hathaway and Big O Tires tonight.

While it was obviously edifying to read about Warren Buffet and his long career of successful investing, it was even more fun for me to read about a local businessman named Steve Cloward.  Steve spent most of his career as the President of Big O Tires.  Now, he is the Director of the Davis Business Alliance which includes the Grow Utah Venture’s sponsored Davis eStation.  Here is an excerpt from the Big O Tire Company history that talks about Steve:

By 1984 Big O recognized the need to change with the times and turned the company leadership position over to Steven P. Cloward, who had begun his career as a territorial sales representative for Michelin based in northern California. Big O had been one of his accounts and he soon became assistant to the Area Director of Big O Tires of Northern California. Cloward also accepted the position as president of William B. Thomas Enterprises, the largest of the area tire distributors, and shortly thereafter he orchestrated the merging of “his” two companies.

According to company records, Cloward reasoned that “The better job you do at conveying your genuine interest in a customer, the more customer inventory base you’re going to build, the more repeat business you’re going to get, the more positive word of mouth–the net result is a more successful business. The times may change, but the basic needs to satisfy customers will not.”

Steve attended our last SpeedPitching event here in Utah and enjoyed the experience.  He’s a great guy and someone that I respect.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the 10,000 company histories, I recommend that you do.  Not only does it provide a great learning experience, you might read about someone you know!

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A few weeks ago, Chris Knudsen wrote a blog entry on the lack of value he has seen from his membership at LinkedIn. I guess he wasn’t really saying that there is not value, he was just commenting that he hasn’t seen much personal value.

I have always liked LinkedIn, but his post did make me think about the benefits that I have seen because of my membership. Though I haven’t used LinkedIn as much as I should, I really believe that it can be very beneficial to your business networking — you just need to take advantage.

To be honest, I don’t think that I’ve ever denied a LinkedIn introduction — I’ve always passed them on. I’m guessing that others would do the same if I were to ask for introductions or favors.

Guy Kawasaki wrote an entry this week on 10 Ways to use LinkedIn and I believe that it provides valuable tips. I love networking and believe that it is an important part of business. Hopefully, I can transfer the networking into an online environment to take advantage of LinkedIn and other technology advances.  Here are his 10 tips summarized:

1. Increase your visibility
2. Improve your connectability
3. Improve your Google Page Rank
4. Enhance your search engine results
5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks
6. Increase the relevancy of your job search
7. Make your interview go smoother
8. Gauge the health of a company
9. Gauge the health of an industry
10. Track startups
11. (Bonus)  Ask for advice

That being said… if you are a member of LinkedIn and we are not connected, feel free to send me the invite. (Don’t get me wrong…I’m not trying to be a LinkedIn spammer or enter into a LinkedIn popularity contest — I don’t think that it’s valuable to connect to strangers.) But if we have had some interaction, let’s get connected! If we haven’t had any interaction, I’d prefer to meet you or get to know you before connecting up.

Feel free to send me an email at bblake at fundinguniverse.com.

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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.

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Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in the semi-annual Weber State University Entrepreneurs Association advisory board meeting. Though the association is still in its infancy, I’m anxious to see what comes out of this small group of very motivated entrepreneurs. One thing’s for sure, they are starting out on the right foot by getting a strong advisory board (including Greg Warnock, Alan Hall, Alex Lawrence, Tony Allred, Jerry Ropelato, etc.) and getting the support of successful entrepreneurs in the community.

Anyway… back to yesterday… the main discussion of the meeting was trying to figure out how to provide strong entrepreneurial experiences for the students that would result in more members joining the association. In our last meeting, a lot of the discussion was centered around the possibility of raising a student-run venture fund. The plans turned 180 degrees yesterday when Greg Warnock talked about the difference of analyzing a business to invest and actually building a business yourself. While it is valuable to know how to analyze an investment opportunity, it is not the same as getting your hands dirty trying to build the business.

The timing of the discussion was impeccable; the night before, I read an interesting blog post from Guy Kawasaki that talked about this same concept. Here is a quote from Guy in summary:

“Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first.”

While it would be fun and exciting for the students in the WEA to run a student venture fund, I think that the right decision was made yesterday and it will largely benefit of all those involved. What us young entrepreneurs need (including the students and me) is valuable entrepreneurial experience building successful companies — not valuable experience looking at other companies from the outside.

If you get a chance, read Guy’s blog about young VCs. I’d love to get your comments on the subject.

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2 weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to travel to Arizona and speak on a panel at the AZ Entrepreneurship Conference. As part of the conference, I had the pleasure of listening to the author of the famous entrepreneurial book The E-Myth: Michael Gerber. Michael did a fantastic job — not only was he very inspiring, his speech was engaging and funny. Here are some of the notes that I took during his keynote:

• He’s predicting a new wave and growth of entrepreneurship over the next 200 years
• He’s got a new book coming out in the Fall of 2007 called Awakening the Entrepreneur Within
• I liked his quote about Man’s desire to create: “If man is born in the image of God, then we are born to create!”

He also discussed a concept that really got my mind thinking… he said, “Every industry will be transformed by someone on the outside.” Let me explain…

He used the example of Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonalds. When Ray Kroc decided to purchase the rights to McDonalds, he was an outsider to the restaurant industry. He knew nothing about flipping burgers or making french fries — he had never had experience in the restaurant space.

Gerber explained that the reason that Ray Kroc was so successful at building up McDonalds is because he “worked on the business, not in the business.” He spent his time creating detailed and efficient systems and processes that he could duplicate in every single franchise. The reason that he was so successful was because he created a standard that customers could expect EVERY SINGLE TIME they visited a franchise. It didn’t matter what country you were in, you knew what you were going to get.

He believes that many industries will be transformed by outsiders (like Ray Kroc) that will find a better, more efficient solution to a problem. This concept was very intriguing to me — and I have to concur. Often times, those that are within the industry have blinders on that prevent them from creating an out-of-box concept.

Who do you know that has successfully created a new concept as an “industry-outsider”? I’d love to hear of more examples.

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Ok, I’m going to come clean: I am a college drop-out!

But, on the other hand…aren’t you?

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my college days; probably some of the best times in my life. But, as soon as I caught the entrepreneurial bug, school was the last thing on my mind! I’m not down-playing the importance of going to college and getting a degree (Most of the education that is taught is very valuable). But at the same time, entrepreneurship is AMAZING!

One of the things that I like most about entrepreneurship is the opportunity to learn. If you can’t tell by the title of my blog, learning is a very important part of my life and career. Honestly, I think that I dedicate about an hour each day to formal learning and then enjoy the informal learning that occurs throughout the rest of the projects and experiences that I am having. My job is fulfilling. I love to go to work each day because of the challenges that I face.

(I’m getting off topic…back to school). Even though I got the entrepreneurial bug, it is important to me that I graduate from college. As a result, I have been spending the last 1.5 years working on independent study and night classes. To be honest, I can’t stand it (I would rather be spending time with family, working, playing, blogging, or even sleeping!) but for the sake of finishing that which I started — I will finish.

All of this brings me to: I finally walked a couple of weeks ago! All of my projects and course work is complete with one final left to go. I’m glad that it’s coming to an end and am grateful for my wife’s motivation to help me finish.

Are there any others out there that wish to come clean? If so, I’d like to hear your story!

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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.

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