Entrepreneurship

Don’t Ever Let An Entrepreneur Complain

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Being an entrepreneur is hard. Very hard. There have been days when my confidence was shaken and I questioned why I was pouring my heart, sweat, and money into a business that I didn’t know the future of.

However, when I take a step back and think about how I’m investing my time, there is nothing else I’d rather be doing. There is something very special about creating things that have never been created before. Being an entrepreneur means that you absolutely stick your neck out by taking risks, but having the opportunity to blaze your own trail is something rare that a person may only have a few times in their life.

This Thanksgiving I thought about where I sit in my career and the decisions I’ve made. I will be the first to tell you that I would do a lot of things different, but that is based on lessons learned as an entrepreneur. I’ve learned so much about how to start and grow a company. I can honestly tell you that I love what I do and feel that I have an opportunity to change the world which makes me feel that every day matters.

This is the special feeling that I think only an entrepreneur has, which is why I think that you should remind any complaining entrepreneur that they hold a great opportunity in their hands and that is something special.

The Number One Thing Your Advisors Can Do

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Flat out, the number one thing advisors can do to add value is make quality introductions. If an advisor is not comfortable making introductions for your company, then you don’t need them as a formal advisor.

Warm referrals or introductions from a trusted advisor are critical for B2B companies. Expectations should be set upfront for any advisor in terms of the number of introductions that you’re looking for them to make. For example, depending on the level of advisor, i.e. how much equity they are given, there should be an expectation of warm intros made per month.

I believe it’s reasonable for an advisor to make 2 to 3 quality introductions per month. This can be done in-person or over e-mail. Make sure to make it easy for your advisors too. If you have some big company news, make sure to share it with your advisors and ask them for help communicating it. Provide sample e-mail content and if there are specific people in your advisor’s network that you would like in introduction to, ask for it. Linkedin is an easy tool for seeing your advisor’s network.

Even before you formally enter into a relationship with an advisor, I think you should ask them to make 5 introductions for you. This can serve as a filter for people who may not be comfortable making introductions and sets good expectations for how you want the advisor to add value.

Of course you will still have feedback sessions and discuss strategy but you have to set the expectations for introductions in order to gain maximum value out of the advisor relationship. After all, it’s in the advisor’s best interest to directly help you grow your business, if they have an equity stake in your company.

I’d love to get feedback from others on how they have approached advisor relationships and tips on how to get maximum value out of them.

Letting Our First Employee Go

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This is a hard post to write but I hope it can help others. I let our first employee go last week. It was tough because we are a small team and everyone gets to know each other well and become friends. We all work hard together and have fun as well.

Being an entrepreneur can be a very emotional experience. I would recommend putting in as many metrics in place as you can to make decisions as objective as possible. Otherwise, you will talk yourself into anything and find ways to justify your decision based on your strong emotions.

For us, we knew there was mostly likely not a fit for this employee for a couple months but wanted to make it work. I would tell myself, ‘the product is not ready, the market is not right, or things are so close we should just hold out longer to see what happens’. Looking back now, all of this was my own attempt to justify not doing what I knew needed to happen, which was to let the person move on into something else where they could be successful. It was not only the right thing to do for the business but also for the employee.

I was sick to my stomach the whole day leading up to when we talked. However, all of the build-up wasn’t necessary. When we had the conversation I was planning on, it was almost expected by the employee. I almost feel as if there was a sense of relief by the employee to not have everything hanging over their head anymore and now they are free to move on. It went well and there was a mutual respect for one another.

There is a saying that whatever is measured, gets done. I truly believe this. There should be clear expectations for every role on your team. This gives employees a clear direction along with creating a more scalable process for any part of your business.

Once clear expectations are set and there is a defined measurement process in place, it is a very objective conversation with any team member as to their performance. The goals are either being met or they are not. Our lesson learned was that we should have spent more time understanding what the process and metrics should be before bringing on a new team member into this role.  Before we make any investment in the future, we will work hard to define the metrics for success and have a process in place to measure it.

Getting Closer to Product-Market Fit

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There is a lot of talk about the idea of achieving Product-Market fit. Successful entrepreneurs such as David Cummings discuss this topic regularly on his blog.

Achieving product-market fit is one of those things where you can’t always define it, but you know when you have it.  My view is that when your company has brought on 5 new consecutive clients for the same product and for the same value proposition, then you most likely have product-market fit.

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Cooleaf on The Atlanta Tech Edge

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We recently had the opportunity to tell the Cooleaf story on NBC’s Atlanta Tech Edge show. This was the first time that we’ve been interviewed on TV so it was a cool experience.

Big thanks to Angel Maldonado, producer of the show for having us out. We had a great time!

 

Cooleaf on the Atlanta Tech Edge

Check out the interview here.

We also got a behind the scenes tour of the studio right before we starting taping the show. It was a cool experience and made me feel proud to be sharing my story about Cooleaf.

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Starting to Build a Company Culture

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Cooleaf on the door

I have to admit it, there is something about seeing your own company’s name on the door that makes you want to keep coming back for more and pushing harder than you ever have before.

I’ve absolutely been humbled working to grow my company, Cooleaf. We’ve evolved so much since when we started and I have a learned so much from the experience and have plenty of battle scars to show for it. Last November we moved into an office at the Atlanta Tech Village and it has been awesome.

We struggled through a couple years trying to grow Cooleaf and all the while, keeping our burn rate as low as possible. We finally got to a point where it made sense to move into an office. When I see my company’s name on the door,  it is  just a very small reminder to me that we’ve been able to achieve something special and that ‘it’s possible’. This feeling lights a fire in me that wants more!

In today’s virtual world, it’s easy to make the argument that work can be done remotely and avoid the overhead of office space. I think people who think that way don’t understand the intangible value that comes from bringing a team together in one place.

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I believe it’s all the small laughs, F-bombs, and high-five’s that start to make up a culture for the company that can only be created when a team comes together. We recently started a tradition with our office neighbors at Gigabark that we would take shots when either company closed a new contract. I’m happy to say that we have a few more shots to take!

Challenges of a Two-Sided Market Business

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I regularly meet other entrepreneurs at startup community events such as Startup Village, which is a once a month event where a handful of companies pitch their business to a crowd of around 200 people.

Lately, several entrepreneurs that I have met with have all pitched me their business concept that falls into the category of a two-sided market, which naturally creates the classic chicken & egg problem. Usually this involves some form of an aggregator or marketplace product where buyers of a particular industry have easier or discounted access to multiple suppliers in that industry. The typical business model involves a transaction fee or revenue share when the buyer makes a purchase through the marketplace product.

The problem is that this model requires double the work for a startup! First you have to partner with enough suppliers so that the marketplace is attractive to buyers and then you have to attract enough buyers to make the marketplace viable to the suppliers and to earn sustainable revenue for your business.

Based on my own personal experience at Cooleaf with our first product, I discovered a full set of challenges with this model.  A big challenge that I found was the amount of time spent on maintaining the supplier side of the marketplace. Issues such as keeping data or supplier information current, suppliers not being happy with the amount of business they are receiving, turnover at the supplier and them forgetting they even have an agreement in place, growing the number of suppliers into new markets which will make people question the scalability of your model (big issue for investors), and more.

An issue on the buyer side is that you need a enough budget to put behind promoting your marketplace to change the behavior of a large number of buyers. I get feedback from entrepreneurs that they are going to leverage social media to do this. My response, good luck with that! Getting likes on Facebook is a far road from getting loyal customers.

Another issue with buyers is them going directly to the supplier once they establish the relationship and cut your marketplace out. I’ve found buyers in this model to have very little loyalty to the marketplace product and more often than not, it comes down to price which is a ‘race to the bottom’ business.

My suggestion when I meet entrepreneurs who are going down this road is to focus on building the technology to solve the problem that they see for buyers in the market, but just sell it directly to suppliers as a product. This may be branded for the supplier and licensed to them which creates a recurring revenue business model (investors love this!). This allows the entrepreneur to focus on building a product company as opposed to a marketing company. I think it’s really hard to be great at both. Plus, by just focusing on building and selling to the suppliers in the market, you are able to dedicate all your scares resources and attention. I believe this is critical for any startup to be successful.

Celebrating the Small Wins

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I really believe in the value of taking the time to feel good about the results that you have been able to achieve as a team.

We’ve been absolutely busting our ass at Cooleaf to grow the company. Recently we took 10 minutes on a Friday afternoon to celebrate a couple small wins and bang the crap out of a gong that is located in our office building at the Atlanta Tech Village.

I think part of building a culture is experiencing both ups and downs in your company and how you deal with them. Don’t forget to celebrate the small wins so your team can take a breath, smile, and feel happy about the crazy and awesome train that they are riding on.

Cooleaf Gong Hit

TAG Business Launch Competition Finale

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On May 5th I will be pitching my company, Cooleaf at the TAG Business Launch Competition final event.

The event is put on by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and Venture Atlanta.

There were approx. 100 companies that applied. 18 were selected for a semi-final pitch off event and the list was then narrowed down to 8 companies for the final competition. I’m excited to say we’re 1 of the 8 finalist!

At the end of the event, a panel of judges will announce the winner of the grand prize for 50K + a ton of free services. It should be a great event and a good opportunity to meet some really connected folks in Atlanta. Below is a link to sign up to attend and a discount code for 50% off the registration fee.

Register Here

Discount code: BLFIN2014

Here is a Cooleaf  video that TAG made for us as being a finalist.

B2B Selling using LinkedIn

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LinkedIn is an amazing sales tool. There is no reason why you can’t be able to get a conversation set up with any company you’re trying to sell into, regardless of industry or location.  Once you have your prospect, you can drill into strategies to close that organization as a new client. Here are a few thoughts on how I approach B2B sales using LinkedIn.

Once you pick out the prospect company you want to target, use LinkedIn to review your network for connections inside the company. A simple search will give you a list of people that you have 1st,  2nd, and 3rd connections with.

Review the 2nd connections you have and find individuals as part of the executive team if possible. I’m looking for a decision maker, preferably at the VP level or C-suite.

Once I find the person that I want to reach out to, I write them a message similar to below. This may vary depending on the role they have in the company, how you’re connected to them, and what is relevant to them. I’m usually looking to learn about how they are building a strong culture inside of their company and share about how we (Cooleaf) are working with clients to see if there is a fit for us to work with them as a client.

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Hi ____,

We’re connected through ______. I’m the founder of a company based in Atlanta called, Cooleaf.

I would really value getting your feedback about how you approach building a strong, innovative and collaborative culture at your company. I would also be happy to share what we’ve seen from other organizations on how they approach reducing turnover and attracting the best talent.

I would really appreciate you connecting with me.

-John

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If they connect with me, I follow up with a thank you e-mail for connecting and asking if we can set up a phone call or time to meet over coffee or lunch. You would be surprised how effective this is. After all, you are only asking for feedback.

You won’t always get a response but if you take some time to research how and why to connect with someone, you have a decent shot. After that, it’s a numbers game. I believe timing plays a big role in making these connections. You will never make any connections unless you reach out to people in a meaningful way.