EQ Journal Archive 14

By Bruce Firestone | Uncategorized

May 14

https://www.eqjournal.org/?paged=14


         Six Questions with Sok Joks’ Angella Goran        

       
   Posted on
       Friday 8 April 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Angella Goran
Company: Sok Jok
Bootstrap Award: Most Innovative Business Model

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

SokJok Inc uses sports socks as an apparel brand to create an
opportunity for giving. We also use dynamic social media for marketing.
All the socks are made from a specialized weave of bamboo fibers which
offer a light grade of compression with multiple benefits.  “Soks for a
Purpose” and “Through Sport, We Support”.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

My background as an elite athlete and volunteer coach/personal
trainer saw me personally day-in and day-out wearing (and buying)
performance gear.  It stuck me that the high cost of a lot of sporting
apparel put it out of reach for many teenagers and others who did not
have an unlimited budget.  The quality was not great either—a lot were
using Lycra and Spandex which holds on to odor after the first use. I
started the company with the idea of giving back and chose socks as the
first of a whole collection I have in mind for a full apparel line. Our
“Soks in the School Program” really works, makes a difference and really
motivates me.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

There have been so many that to point to just one is very hard!  I
think for me what has been the most exciting part is the messages from
teachers, children and athletes that say “Thank You” to SokJok for what
it is doing in their community.  

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

A few great mentors told me before I ventured in to this business
that I would face some ups and many downs.  I took to starting this
business much like preparing for a World Championship in sport- you have
to hit the wall, experience a few flat tires, run out of fuel, to then
get to the Podium.  The biggest challenge I have had so far would be to
learn the system of importing and exporting goods as my products are
made overseas in Turkey.  A small error had my first inventory shipment
stuck in a customs warehouse where I had to spend five days sticking
labels that read “Made in Turkey” on each pair of SokJok socks before
they allowed them to be shipped to our warehouse.  The experience taught
me a lot, but the best part was that I was not there alone in sticking
the stickers on: I had some great friends come and help. At the end of
day five, one could say; 4 Great Friends + 42 Boxes of SokJok Socks =
Priceless!

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

The sky was NOT the limit for me, at least not initially! After
graduation and pursuing career positions both in non-profits, sports
organizations and government, I felt trapped and missed the passion and
zest I had had when I was a student athlete who was always active,
learning, experiencing and growing.  I did not choose the life of an
entrepreneur or intrapreneur, that life was already inside me from day
one, I just needed to unleash it.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

Learn how to take the challenges as accomplishments for you will only
get stronger if you believe in what you first set out to do- Never lose
sight of your “why”.

(This is the eleventh in a series profiling winners and finalists for Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 11:03 am

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         Six Questions with Inovatech Engineering Corp’s Miguel Clement        

       
   Posted on
       Monday 4 April 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Miguel Clement
Company: Inovatech Engineering Corp
Award: Finalist for Fastest Growing Start-Up

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

Inovatech Engineering conceives, designs and builds robotic solutions
for commercial industries.  We are in the business of finding robotic
solutions for companies that currently believe that robotics are only
useful for industrial markets such as automotive manufacturing.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

We found an opportunity to develop a product that could greatly
increases both productivity and profitability for structural steel
fabricators.  We believed that our idea had great potential and that our
conceptualization of the process was unique.  Our vision of the process
challenged the typical methods of robotic structural steel
manufacturing that were being used at that time.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

In the past year, we’ve managed to sell a product that had not yet
been proven. Companies we work with have been trusting, understanding
and believe in Inovatech Engineering’s ideas and capabilities.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

Our biggest challenge at the beginning was staying on top of
everything: conceptualizing, designing, and building ate up a
significant portion of our time.  Added to that was the time needed for
the business itself.  Inovatech Engineering is evolving at such a fast
rate that it required all of us to be very versatile.  We’ve been
fortunate enough to develop a company where every employee brings an
array of different skills to the table.  Our horizontal management style
and relaxed atmosphere lets everyone feel confident when making
day-to-day decisions.  

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

What drove us was a deep desire to work on robotics.  There weren’t
many opportunities for this kind of work so we created our own. We’re
doing stuff we’ve always had an interest in so work doesn’t actually
feel like work.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

Be prepared to jump through all manner of hoops.  Also, do not sacrifice sleep—you’ll need that to be able to accomplish more.

(This is the tenth in a series profiling winners and finalists for Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 1:32 pm

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         Strategic Investor        

       
   Posted on
       Saturday 26 March 2011  
     
   
       

Introduction

One of the most overlooked sources of self-capitalization (bootstrapping) for new enterprises is the strategic investor.

What is a strategic investor?

Ans: someone who has a strategic interest in your success.

How do you find them?

Ans: look through your value chain. Check out your supply chain, your
customers (and their customers too), would-be sponsors/advertisers,
even your competitors can be a source of start-up capital if they are
looking to you as a new co-opetitor.

Why go to strategic partners?

Ans: because they will generally make investment decisions faster
than Angels or VCs and have more capital and better connections
throughout your industry than friends, family and fools.

What will they ask for in return?

Often much less than Angels or VCs—perhaps they will be satisfied
with, say, an exclusive period during which they can feature/use your
products or services thereby keeping your products or services away from
their competition and further differentiating themselves in the
marketplace. The funding that they give you may also come with many
fewer strings attached.

When we established the modern era Ottawa Senators, we engaged many
strategic partners including Molson (beer pouring rights), Ogden (arena
management rights), United Parking, PCL (construction) and many others
who provided in addition to rights fees (cash) many other forms of
support such as volunteers to work on ticket drives, credibility with
banks and even financial guarantees.

Almost every startup I can think of has potential strategic partners
that they can go to for all kinds of support. When Apple launched the
iPad, several companies paid significant amounts to be included on its
home screen. In a previous launch of the iPhone, Apple required the No. 3
carrier in the US (Sprint Nextel) to buy at least $15.5 billion worth
of their phones before they would give them the rights to their product
in 2011 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/blackberry-fans-wait-as-carrier-scrutiny-causes-delay-in-us/2013/02/01/f671176a-6c2f-11e2-8f4f-2abd96162ba8_story.html).
Apple also got and received an unprecedented deal from AT&T in 2007
when the original iPhone was launched– they demanded a revenue sharing
agreement that sees Apple take part of AT&T’s monthly subscriber fee
for each iPhone activated.

What’s good for Apple and the Sens is probably good for your next
startup too. Let’s think about some household names that were in their
own day, startups. When Fred Smith started Fed/ex who were his strategic
investors? Well, you can guess who they were by asking the question, ‘Qui prodest?‘ (Latin for ‘Who benefits?‘)

If you answered, airplane manufacturers, leasing companies and
freight airports, you would be right. But there are others such as
trucking companies. Huh? Yes, trucking companies. Aren’t they
competitors? Well, yes they are but they are also co-opetitors. You see
the last mile of delivery is always done by truck so Fred, if he had
wanted to, could have made deals with local delivery services. By
‘deals’, I don’t just mean that they could become part of his new
ecosystem and make money from it, he could turn to them for capital,
either low cost loans or ‘free’ rights fees, to  help start Fed/ex.

In a discussion of LooseButton.com’s biz model (see, https://www.eqjournal.org/?p=2748),
obvious strategic investors are on the supply side. Folks like L’Oreal,
Covergirl, Moroccan Oil could not only supply free samplers for Loose
Button’s Luxe Box but also free or low cost capital. But what’s
interesting about Loose Button is that they discovered in the
process of building their business that people (like the Globe and Mail
or People Magazine) will pay them to deliver Luxe Boxes as premiums to
their customers for renewing their subscriptions. So, amazingly, LB gets
someone to pay their marketing costs for them. But it’s also
obvious that if LB ever needs to raise more capital, they can go to
anyone in their ecosystem for help as long as the answer to the
question, Qui prodest? is, ‘Faciemus’ (‘We do.’)

Be Strategic

Case Study– All World Sports

A start-up maker of sportswear for women and men, we will call them
All-World Sportswear (AWS), recently came to see me about their
capitalization plan. It was pretty simplistic and even their basic
arithmetic was wrong. The good news? AWS has some very cool designs, a
patented bio-fabric and an existing online business that sells women’s
socks that is generating about $125k in annual volume so they are not
starting from scratch. Plus the two founders are multi-talented folks.
I’ll call them Amy and Leanne.

Valuation

The first thing we worked on was their valuation. Valuations are up
(circa 2011)—ranging anywhere from 2x to 83x revenues (Twitter). We used
20x.

This gave us a value for AWS of $2.5 million (20 x existing revenues of $125k per year).

There is some existing debt—about $70k so we ended up with a net
valuation of $2.43 million. Now here is where their arithmetic went
awry. They want to sell 30% of the biz to equity investors (as opposed
to strategic investors) so they simply multiplied 30% by $2.43 million.
This would have given away 30% of the company for $729,000.

But the funding is going into the treasury of their company so after
the investment, the company’s value is equal to: $2.43 million + the new
investment amount.

Hence, they can raise $835,000 and only ‘give away’ 25% of the firm.

Our spreadsheet will show you how to calculate this properly and can be found at: .

You can see that doing your arithmetic right makes a BIG difference.

Strategic Investors

The next thing I did was challenge the two founders to find an equal
amount of strategic investment—$835,000. This will obviously double the
cash they have on hand to launch their new line of athletic wear but,
the second tranche of investment will not further dilute their equity.
There are, after all, only four 25% ‘pieces’ that you can sell before
your ownership is completely divested so start-ups should be careful
about giving away too much too soon or at all.

That is where strategic investors come in.

I clipped an article out of Bloomberg Businessweek (March 27, 2011)*.
In it, Cotten Timberlake and Matt Townsend say: “Large merchants are
aggressively locking up the rights to sell lines exclusively to make
their stores destinations.”

(* I attach the article at the end of this post below.)

Saks, Bloomingdales, JC Penney, Macy’s, Dillard’s and Kohl’s are all
competing to add differentiated value to their stores. How does adding
AWS’ product line with its cool designs, patented bio-fabric and two
photogenic founders sound?

What will they pay to have a two or three year exclusive arrangement with AWS? Quite a bit I think.

My suggestion to AWS would be to approach four strategic partners who
would each pay just over $200,000 for the privilege of exclusively
featuring AWS product in their stores for a period of time. The $200k
could be an advance on royalties that they would pay on the clothing or
it could be an advance on merchandise bought from AWS. That is, AWS
would have to ship them the first $200k of merchandise for ‘free’.

AWS could negotiate more favourable repayment terms—the advances
might, for example, be paid back more slowly, say, by giving their
strategic partners a 10% discount on the first $2m of product shipped to
each of them.

Better yet, these strategic investments could simply be considered a
product placement fee (and, hence, non-refundable). Remember, in
entrepreneurship, there are no rules—we make them up as we go along. So
perhaps, Amy and Leanne could convince their strategic partners to give
them the funding in return for the right to a period of exclusivity and nothing else.

In none of these cases do their strategic partners get any equity in AWS.  

Other types of strategic partners for AWS might include Gatorade, Red
Bull, Coke, Ford, L’Oreal Cosmetics and so forth. These folks will
often pay money up front to be involved in a hot new product in
return for discrete placement of their logos on the clothing line as
well as participation in product launches and other AWS events.

I think the power of co-branding has not been sufficiently explored
yet—there is a lot of room for growth in this area and AWS is a vector
for experimentation in this field. I mean why don’t Harry Rosen (suits)
and BMW (autos) do more advertising together—it would stretch their
budgets further and allow for much more creative campaigns—such as, ‘buy
a BMW and get a HR suit thrown into the deal…’ That would have more
appeal to people like moi than a $100 coupon I can buy from Groupon for
$50.

Equity Investors

Now why do equity investors want to put their money into AWS? It’s
the return, stupid. But how can you convince anyone to invest in your
start-up without giving up too much equity?

The one thing that entrepreneurs constantly underestimate is the value of their sweat equity. While you focus all your time on making your new enterprise a success, your investors are clipping their coupons. Old money doesn’t really do much. It mostly sits in t-bills or GICs, yielding  a piddly 2.55% p.a.

AWS has a chance to be a $10m per year business if it sticks to its
click model. But it has a chance to be a $120m per year business if it
does bricks and clicks. (This is a discussion I had with the Founders of
AWS—they just want a clicks business but even mega successful, online
shoe e-tailer, Zappos.com, had to establish a RL (Real Life) store to
fix a broken business model that almost went under without it. You can
read more about this: Delivering Profitability, https://www.eqjournal.org/?p=973.
I believe the future is bricks and clicks, not just clicks and not just
bricks. Even Groupon, the fastest company ever to get to $3 billion in
sales, is kind of like a brick business; they have 1,000s and 1,000s of salespeople calling on mom+pop shops to sell them coupons. It isn’t just a website and a mobile app…)

If it becomes a $120m business in, say, ten years and assuming there
is no further dilution, the 25% that belongs to their equity investors
will be worth more than $56m at that time (using a 2x multiple). That’s a
52.4% annual return on investment which sure beats t-bills or GICs,
wouldn’t you agree? (You can learn how to calculate the IRR, Internal
Rate of Return, by again referring to our spreadsheet: .)

And how did that 52.4% IRR happen? Through the hard work and
creativity that the Founders bring to AWS. So when an investor asks you
why s/he only gets 25%, you tell them to go find another investment in
their portfolio that potentially pays them 52.4% per annum.

All It Takes is a Bit of Dedication and Effort

Case Study– Ron Kovacs and Budweiser

Ron Kovacs is a former, award-winning, Montreal-based goal judge
sidelined by two knee surgeries and the advance of technology that made
goal judges as useful as buggy whips. He is also a handyman and, one
night walking home from his neighborhood pub, he came up with the idea
that he could put a goal light in every home in Canada that had an
iPhone or Android smartphone together with hi-speed Internet and wi-fi
that would go off every time a mad hockey fan’s favourite team scored
whether home or away.

Former Goal Judge, Ron Kovacs with his Bud Red Light

Ron just knew he had a winner but first he would need some Super Bowl
Ads (less expensive in Canada than the US but still costly for a
handyman) to get his message out there. In walks Budweiser. Why not
brand his lights with their logo and team up with them to bring these
lights into Canadian homes?

Hey, they not only flash when your team scores, a horn sounds.
Wouldn’t that be great especially when an east coast team is playing on
the west coast and your side scores at 1 am in OT? It’ll wake up the
whole house to let them know les Canadiens just beat the Kings!

Of course the whole story about Ron is fictitious– it was created by
Bud to sell more beer plus some actual branded goal lights with the
capabilities I describe above (which BTW cost $159 and sold out after
the 2013 Super Bowl*.)

(* Consumers were blindsided to some degree when they found out these
lamps are only available in the GTA. Fan is short for fanatic so it’s
never a good idea to piss them off en masse. This is reverse
marketing, at least it could be for people living outside of Toronto.
But Toronto is the centre of the universe, everyone knows that plus
everyone is a Maple Leaf fan, right? Except moi. Read Why Cheering for
the Maple Leafs is… Unnatural, https://www.eqjournal.org/?p=852.)

But the concept is sound and it could have been real. If you
are an emerging company, you need to be creative in terms of developing
marketing and sales channels. Entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and
artpreneurs have to be inventive to get their products and services out
there. Enlisting mega brands, co-branding with them, intricating them
into your schemes or otherwise getting them to invest in marketing your
ideas can provide huge leverage for you.

@ProfBruce
@Quantum_Entity

Postscript: Equity investors will almost certainly argue about exit
valuations. VCs generally expect that about one out of every ten of
their investments will pay off in a big way, two or three more will
generate tolerable returns and the balance will suck.

Thus, they might argue that the expected value of their investment is actually:

IRR x p,

where p is the probability of the outcome.

If we use 10%, then their IRR is 5.24% not 52.4%. They will use this
as an argument to ask Amy and Leanne to sweeten the terms of the deal
(e.g., give them more equity or make their investment a repayable
debenture with a fixed (interest) coupon plus give them bonus equity
participation.)

I would argue that while this is not a lifestyle business, it isn’t a
tech high flyer either– it has a lower risk of failure than a
Twitter/FB/Google wannabe. (It’s also true that it has a lower potential
payout than any of those. Mind you, the chances of launching a Twitter,
FB or Google are, in my view, less than your odds of winning the Mega
Bucks Lottery.)

So on balance, I believe the above is a fair deal for both parties.

It also demonstrates again how important strategic investors can be.
They own no part of your enterprise and won’t bog you down in endless
what-if discussions and, ultimately, what could be a messy divorce.

Postscript 2: I show an exit above after ten years. This does not
mean that Amy and Leanne have to sell their business at that time to
provide an exit for their equity investors. As readers of this blog will
know, I strongly believe in a build and hold strategy: https://www.eqjournal.org/?p=218.

So at the right time, Amy and Leanne could consider a number of
alternatives to provide liquidity for their shareholders including:

1. bringing in other shareholders for the next leg of their journey to buy out those who want to exit;

2. buying out exiting shareholders using corporation coffers (its
treasury) to do so (i.e., they can raise cash by taking on more debt or
perhaps selling off a division of the company);

3. redeeming shares over time at a fixed price using the free cashflow of the corporation.

Most exit strategies that are popularly talked about involve either
an IPO or a sale of the company but there are lots of other ways for
mature companies to handle these matters that do not involve a loss of
control by its Founders. If you’ve worked hard to build something and
used up a huge amount of your personal storehouse of luck to achieve
success, why not keep it?

Dr Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (Civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD; Founder, Ottawa
Senators; Executive Director, Exploriem.org/LearnByDoing.ca; Author,
Quantum Entity Trilogy, Entrepreneurs Handbook II, Urban Nirvana and the
Peradventures of Maddy Henderson; Entrepreneurship Ambassador, Telfer
School of Management, University of Ottawa; Real Estate Broker, Century
21 Explorer Realty Inc, 900 Morrison Drive, Suite 206, Ottawa, Canada
K2H 8K7 Tel.: 613.566.3436 x 200 Fax: 613.566.3442

Follow Prof Bruce on Twitter @ProfBruce and @Quantum_Entity and read his blogs at www.EQJournal.org and www.dramatispersonae.org.

You can find his works at www.brucemfirestone.com and also at LearnByDoing.ca.

You can engage with him on Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/QuantumEntityTrilogy and https://www.facebook.com/Exploriem as well as via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/profbruce.

His real estate interests are summarized at www.ottawarealestatenews.com and www.thelandstore.org.

YouTube channels include https://www.youtube.com/user/ProfBruce and https://www.youtube.com/user/quantumentitytrilogy.

You can also send the first four chapters of Quantum Entity Trilogy to your friends for free from: https://www.eqjournal.org/?p=3993

Prof Bruce’s current motto is: “Making Each Day Count”

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 11:59 am

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         ANNOUNCEMENT— TOP FIVE FINALISTS        

       
   Posted on
       Wednesday 23 March 2011  
     
   
       

FOR THE 2011 EXPLORIEM.ORG FASTEST GROWING START-UP BOOTSTRAP AWARD

Congratulations to those companies selected as nominees for the 2011
Fastest Growing Start-up Bootstrap Award. The top five nominees each
year are invited to the OCRI Awards Gala where, as guests of
Exploriem.org, the gold, silver and bronze medal winners are announced
in front of a large audience at the Gala.

This year’s event is being held on April 7th at the Hilton du Lac Leamy, next door to the Casino du Lac Leamy.

Thanks again to Bryan Haralovich, judge, at Ernst and Young for his great work again this year.

The five finalists this year for the 2011 Fastest Growing Start-up (in alphabetical order) are:

Blindside Networks https://www.blindsidenetworks.com/
GPStoGo https://www.gpstogo.ca/html/
Inovatech Engineering https://www.inovatechengineering.com/
Moving Boxes https://www.movingboxes.ca/
Purple Forge https://www.purpleforge.com/

Honourable mentions go to Dual Code (https://www.dualcode.com/bigbluebutton/) and Pretzil (https://pretzil.com/).

The growth rates of all these companies are fantastic and each of
them should be proud of what they have accomplished so far—with much
more coming soon.

For more on the gala, please see:
https://ocri.ca/events/ocri-awards.

Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, B. Eng. (Civil), M. Eng.-Sci., PhD.
Founder, Ottawa Senators
Executive Director, Exploriem.org
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
Real Estate Broker and Mortgage Broker
Century 21 Explorer Realty Inc.
LINCOLN FIELDS SHOPPING CENTRE, 2525 CARLING AVE, SUITE 23, OTTAWA ON K2B
7Z2 Tel.: 613.422.6757 ext. 250 Fax: 613.422.2807 Email: bruce.firestone@century21.ca
Internet: www.OttawaRealEstateNews.com, www.century21.ca/explorerrealty and
www.Exploriem.org
Blog: https://www.eqjournal.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProfBruce
“Making Each Day Count”

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 2:55 pm

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         Six Questions with GPS TO GO’s Russ Salo        

       
   Posted on
       Monday 21 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Russ Salo
Company: GPS TO GO
Award: Finalist for Fastest Growing Start-Up

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

Turnkey Canadian made GPS Tracking systems, delivered and installed
with maximum WOW factor together with a three-year written warranty.
Zero cost installation and zero downtime along with world class
technology, GPS TO GO is now being used by companies like UPS, Molly
Maid, Service Master & Interstate Batteries.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

The live GPS tracking business model focuses on producing a monthly
recurring revenue stream which creates continuity in our company’s
growth. This market niche is still in its infancy and we are into the
middle of the adoption cycle for the bulk of new businesses to get on
board. I saw a completely untapped market in the Ottawa region and early
part time success spurred me on to go at it full time and head on.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

After our first year in business, our manufacturer, based on our
performance, gave us several large accounts. That really helped to
solidify our monthly bottom line and propel our sales so we could work
on some larger accounts and win.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

Learming the transition from motivated salesperson wanting to be a
small business owner to learning what it really takes to run a small
business and all of the many facets of it, day to day. I sought advice
from the Entrepeneurship Centre and the iProfit program to get some
mentoring and coaching that I needed to get the ship—well, shipshape.
Learning the routines of –taxes –GST –PST –HST –forecasts- gross margins
–expenses – financial statements etc required that I get a coach/mentor
so I could go get ‘em.

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

I would have to thank my previous 14-year employer for showing me how
an idea in a person’s head can turn into hard reality and an income for
you & your family. The thrill of creation, the freedom to chase
after a new goal with no limitations… To create something that you can
say is truly yours, something new. As well, I wanted to get on this
path, succeed at it and be able to pass along these skills to my
children – have them grow up in an entrepreneurial home feeling that
anything is possible and have them equipped to take on the world where a
40 year job is no longer the norm (or maybe even possible).

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

DO-IT-NOW, not later. ACT NOW. Ted Rogers said in his book something
like: ‘Don’t dither, I dislike people who dither and tell me why
something cannot be done.’

If you have an idea, get after it. Try, try, try –perseverance is your friend. Test and measure what works –test again.

Another business idol of mine says: ‘Fail often, fail fast, fail
cheap.’ If you are not failing from time to time, you are not pushing
yourself hard enough.

If I did have a number two, I would add that you must be involved in
the community giving back in some way by, say, joining a Service Club
–Kiwanis –Lions –Rotary –United Way.

(This is the ninth in a series profiling winners and finalists for Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 4:25 pm

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         Six Questions with Dual Code’s Luc Richard        

       
   Posted on
       Monday 21 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Luc Richard
Company: Dual Code Inc.
Award: Finalist for Fastest Growing Start-Up

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

Dual Code is a ‘one-stop’ eLearning shop. We design, develop and host
online Corporate Universities and training modules for organizations
that understand the value of training their clients, employees and
volunteers. Our one-stop shop approach combined with our use of
open-source technology allows us to provide best-in-class eLearning
solutions at a fraction of the cost of proprietary systems.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

I love to learn, but I’ve always hated the process of learning.
Reading user manuals and taking time off from my busy schedule to attend
seminars is not what I consider time well spent. My desire to eliminate
these pain points and facilitate the transfer of knowledge are what
motivated me to first get involved in eLearning.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

Winning our first Request for Proposal is undoubtedly the single,
most exciting thing that has happened to us so far. As with most other
start-ups, our initial sales came from clients within our existing
network, notably friends and family. Having a large organization tell us
that their team had ‘anonymously selected Dual Code over 30 other
vendors’ confirmed that we had a best-in-class solution that met our
market’s needs.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

Our biggest challenge has been finding top-notch employees. As a
start-up – and especially as a bootstrapped start-up – it’s hard to
compete with established companies that offer above-market salaries and
other benefits. That’s why Dual Code has adopted a hiring philosophy
that’s different than most larger companies.  Hiring for us is not about
finding people with the most experience, it’s about finding people with
the right mind-set.  

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

Many consider entrepreneurship to be risky. They believe it means
putting your career and financial security on the line in the name of an
idea. Personally, I believe leaving your career in the hands of an
employer is a greater risk and one I was no longer willing to take.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

Work on your business, not just in your business. You have to do
both. A business that is built by someone who combines the approach of
the technician and the entrepreneur will have a far greater chance of
future success than one built by someone thinking like a technician
alone.

(This is the eighth in a series profiling winners and finalists for Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 3:58 pm

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         Six Questions with Pretzil’s Kyle McInnis        

       
   Posted on
       Monday 21 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Kyle McInnis
Company: Pretzil
Award: Finalist for Fastest Growing Start-Up

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

Pretzil’s value proposition is to help developers get their
applications noticed in the noise. There are over half a million
smartphone applications and the market is expanding exponentially with
new platforms and devices. Pretzil will help the cream rise to the top.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

I’ve been working in the mobile space for some time and had been
watching it grow at a fantastic pace. Pretzil, while it has had several
iterations, was a concept for a company that made sense to me and I
wanted to get behind it.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

Never underestimate the input of your most engaged users. I’m
constantly amazed by our top points earners and their ability to create
an engaging community on the platform we’ve created.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

We’re growing at a tremendous pace and this puts pressure on our
servers and infrastructure. Just ask Dan Crawford, our VP of
Engineering.

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

I don’t know if I exactly chose to be an entrepreneur or intrapreneur. I’m just taking life as it comes to me.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

I’m not about to pretend I’m a business expert or maven in this industry.

(This is the seventh in a series profiling winners and finalists for Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 3:23 pm

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         Six Questions with Blindside Networks’ Fred Dixon        

       
   Posted on
       Monday 21 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Fred Dixon
Company: Blindside Networks Inc.
Award: Finalist for Fastest Growing Start-Up

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

We help universities and colleges save money by providing commerical
support and services for BigBlueButton, an open source web conferencing
system for distance education.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

We started the BigBlueButton project in 2007 while at Carleton
University. When we spun out, Carleton became our first customer, so we
had to make sure we grew the company quickly enough to support them.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

Helping a large telecommunications company integrate BigBlueButton into their product.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

Figuring out how to effectively grow an open source project. We
learned by watching other open source projects for what worked (and what
didn’t).

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

I get to work with very smart people.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

Redefine ‘failure’ to mean ‘learning experience’.

(This is the sixth in a series profiling winners and finalists for Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 3:09 pm

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         Six Questions with Ideavibes’ Paul Dombowsky        

       
   Posted on
       Monday 21 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Paul Dombowsky
Company: Ideavibes
Gold Medal Award Won: Most Innovative Source of Bootstrap Capital/Most Innovative Business Model

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

Ideavibes offers organizations the tools to build greater customer
engagement (whether they are a government organization, company,
non-profit or educational institution). The ability to tap into the
wisdom of the crowd through a crowd engagement platform by running
either crowdsourcing or crowd-funding campaigns takes innovation from a
closed loop to an open one where customers and potential customers can
help set the course for the future.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

I started Ideavibes because I wanted to build something that had both
business value as well as social relevance. The idea of focusing on
first implementation of our platform with a national partner such as
TELUS then making it happen was a testament to the validity of the idea
in terms of what this organization could be.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

Actually, building a product with the help of a great group of
advisors and suppliers has been pretty exciting. Lots of people start
things but I am energized by the fact that we now have a real product on
the market; a couple of them actually. We launched Fundchange which has
been unbelievable – we started with a vision, then worked through
development of the platform and finally got our first charities on
board. Wow.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

Our biggest challenge so far has been that we use a business model
that is different than any that Canadian Banks or other funders are used
to seeing. The banking system is conservative and stable but perhaps a
bit too risk-averse for it to be relevant to a startup trying to do
things differently. Launching Fundchange was a huge challenge and
required combining many resources to work around an entrenched system
that seems to have been designed to inhibit innovation.

Success came from wearing people down and also by not leaving any
stone unturned. We were confident in our model but willing to adapt it
as that became necessary. We aren’t where we want to be but, as
Fundchange matures, we can fight that battle to make it exactly what we
think it needs to be and should be.

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

I guess the thought of being able to use the skills I have developed
over the years of working for others plus the desire to make something
that makes a difference were the driving force. I also didn’t see many
organizations, besides TELUS, that placed a value on making change
happen for a better community and not always rely on government. The
opportunity to work with them on a project was an attraction which came
out of meeting the folks there while working there on a contract.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

Having a launch client from the start is a key to making sure the
marketplace actually wants what you are building. While it’s true you
are going to need more than one launch client, having that adoption
right from the get-go helps make the transition to a market-ready
product easier. In an age of iterative development – friendly launch
clients are critical to gaining new customers by reducing their risk of
jumping on board at an early stage too.

(This is the fifth in a series profiling the winners of Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 11:47 am

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         Six Questions with PatientWay’s Jay Lawrence        

       
   Posted on
       Wednesday 16 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Jay Lawrence
Company: PatientWay
Gold Medal Award Won: Best Value Proposition/Value Differentiator/Pixie Dust

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

The only way that a healthcare process redesign is going to work is
by utilizing emerging technologies – that’s what PatientWay brings to
the table. We streamline patient access through web, kiosk and mobile
apps. By making the patient a more active participant in the delivery of
their care, hospitals realize time and cost savings as well as
increased staff and patient satisfaction.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

From day one, the PatientWay team worked to enhance the healthcare
system using emerging technologies. Economic realities are forcing
hospitals and healthcare providers to do more with less.
Meanwhile, today’s patients expect to receive the same level of
convenience (shorter lineups and choice of self or full-service) that
they are used to receiving from other industries (banking, travel,
shopping, etc). Making the healthcare system work more efficiently is
what gets us up in the morning.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

We have helped several hospitals, including Southlake Regional Health
Centre in Newmarket, to achieve measurable cost and time efficiencies.

Contributing to success stories like Southlake has been the most exciting thing that has happened so far:

a. 30% reduction in registration staff (redistributed 12 FTEs (Full
Time Equivalents; i.e., JOBS) from the area of patient registration to
other functions within the hospital)
b. 50% reduction in registration data errors
c. 60% reduction in time to see a registration clerk
d. Substantial reduction in the time to check-in to the hospital
e. $400K in annual operational savings.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

The biggest challenge we have encountered is how do we create a sense
of urgency in our potential clients that they need to embrace
technology to enhance delivery of healthcare. Designing smart and
intuitive applications, plus making the business case clear to
healthcare organizations has helped us address this challenge.

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

I had a dream that I would find like-minded colleagues at university
who would be interested in starting a software company with me. Although
that never happened, I realized my dream of creating a company and a
product anyway. Why did I choose this life? I don’t think I had a
choice! I have this mysterious internal drive that compels me to create,
to solve and make the world a better place. The best way to do that is
to start a company like PatientWay.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

Get out of your office and immerse yourself in your market. As
technologists, it is so easy to sit in our offices and labs dreaming up
solutions to problems. Everyone tells us to research the market – so you
Google away and compile your research. This alone won’t work. I’ve
learned that you must open your mind and personally experience your
market/talk with potential clients in depth to truly succeed.

(This is the fourth in a series profiling the winners of Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 10:54 am

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         Six Questions with Vertigrow’s Duane Van Galen        

       
   Posted on
       Wednesday 16 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Duane Van Galen
Company: Vertigrow
Gold Medal Award Won: Most Innovative Sales Technique

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

We bring health, beauty and life. A vertical garden is more than
beautiful plants; they purify the environment they inhabit and make
workers healthier and more productive. There are also fewer sick days
for the enterprise.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

Initially Vertigrow, then called Babyl, was a class project for a
business plan competition. At some point near the end of the term, Luc
(co-Founder) and myself had the realization that we could do this
ourselves. So we did.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

Winning awards has been incredible. It’s nice to get the validation
that comes with winning something like a Bootstrap Award, to have people
say: “Yeah, that’s something I like”.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

Our biggest challenge was, and remains, the newness of the idea. I
get two common reactions from almost everyone I talk to about our
business. First, they ask what it is, then they say how much they like
it. Spreading awareness of vertical gardens has been the most involving
part of the business thus far.

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

Personally, I don’t like the idea of working for someone else. I feel
I have the ideas and the skills needed to execute on them, so why
provide that benefit to someone else?

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

This is a full-time job and a half. Make sure you’re making time in
your life for other things that are also important but your new
enterprise will consume almost every thought anyway.

(This is the third in a series profiling the winners of Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 7:16 am

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         Six Questions with Jennifer Lee Promotions’ Jen Butson        

       
   Posted on
       Tuesday 15 March 2011  
     
   
       

Name: Jen Butson
Company: Jennifer Lee Promotions
Gold Medal Award Won: Top 20 and Under Startup

1. In three sentences or less, what is your enterprise’s value proposition?

I can sum it up in one word: me. The truth is that my industry is
extremely saturated, and we all have the same product offering by
dealing with the same repertoire of suppliers.  My use of social media
as a key relationship-building tool, my age, and my obsession with
marketing makes me a key up-and-coming player, in my opinion.

2. What motivated you to first get involved?

It was the summer after my second year of University, and I decided
to stay in Ottawa. I don’t speak French, I wasn’t in co-op and I had no
ties to Government. I was working two part-time, minimum-wage jobs at
the mall and hating every second of it. I knew two things about the end
of the summer: I wasn’t going to have any money to show for all my work
and I wasn’t learning anything new. The day before my 20th birthday I
was sitting in my apartment and decided it was now or never. And I
haven’t looked back since.

3. What has been the single most exciting thing that has happened so far?

The most exciting thing has been the adventure. It’s such a
rollercoaster of emotions…I went from scared to excited, from frustrated
to ecstatic in a matter of minutes. I remember I didn’t sleep for at
least a couple weeks after I registered everything for the biz. I
couldn’t stop thinking: “What the heck am I getting myself into?” I’ve
learned a lot of things the hard way, but I wouldn’t trade it for
anything.

4. What has been your biggest challenge and what did you do to get past it?

My biggest challenge was definitely being a young entrepreneur trying
to grow a new enterprise. I was getting a lot of ‘you need trade
references to do x’ but then I needed ‘x’ to get trade references. The
only investment I have had in the business was the $175 I got for my
birthday, so I had to rely a lot on upfront payment (deposits) from
clients plus I had a few trusting suppliers who helped me get started.

5. Why did you choose the life of an entrepreneur or intrapreneur?

I don’t think I really chose this life – I just know I wouldn’t be
happy doing anything else. It kinda chose me. My father has been running
his own successful company for over 25 years now, so maybe I inherited
some sort of entrepreneur gene from him. It’s all I really knew growing
up but I definitely didn’t see myself doing it so early on until I
actually took the leap.

6. If you had one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs, what would it be?

If it doesn’t make you happy, then don’t do it. This lifestyle
provides you with a smorgasbord of weird feelings. But at the end of the
day, you need to feel good about what you are doing. You need to keep
the passion burning to keep you going at super-speed…or else this
lifestyle isn’t for you.

(This is the second in a series profiling the winners of Exploriem.org Bootstrap Awards 2011.)

       
       
       
     Prof Bruce @ 9:48 am

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About the Author

Bruce is an entrepreneur/real estate broker/developer/coach/urban guru/keynote speaker/Sens founder/novelist/columnist/peerless husband/dad.

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