The Suitless MBA

First off, let me apologize for the lack of blog entries the last couple of months.  I would blame it on my classes - but I only had 3.  The real reason I neglected the blog is because I was trying to land an internship that I am passionate about and that turned into a full-time job.  The funny thing is, after all of the informational interviews, networking events, and trips to meet with companies – I ended up accepting an internship that very serendipitously fell into my lap.  This summer I am going to be in NYC working for a startup that is disrupting the laundry industry.  Yes, that is correct – I am getting my MBA in order to join the laundry industry.  And the best part is, I am ridiculously excited about it. 

In my first blog post I said that I want to work for an entrepreneurial company that is creating something disruptive  - and that is exactly what I will be doing.  The company is called DashLocker and its mission is to bring 24/7 dry cleaning, laundry and shoe shine services to NYC.  It is a pretty straight forward concept - DashLocker is installing lockers in locations all over the Upper East Side (retail stores, apartment buildings, companies, etc).  Using a mobile app or internet, a customer will log into the system and be assigned a locker and then drop off their laundry in the locker.  DashLocker will pick it up, clean it and drop it back off at the locker 24 hours later.  The availability and ease of the service make this a huge opportunity in NYC.   

As the second employee (slash intern) I will essentially be the founder’s right hand man.  I’ll be managing the different vendors and marketing/PR people, looking for new places to expand to, looking for business development opportunities at apartment complexes and handling whatever else comes up.  Since the company successfully completed its first round of funding and its service includes both online and real-world components, I’ll be getting exposure to a lot of different functional areas (e.g. consumer marketing, mobile, real estate, deal structures, customer relations) and that is exactly what I am looking to get out of a summer internship. 

I am also pumped to become part of the NYC entrepreneurial ecosystem.  The NYC startup community is thriving and I plan to take advantage of all the events and networking opportunities that will arise throughout the summer.  DashLocker is working out of a group space that is shared by lots of other startup companies.  Having worked at the American Underground for the last few months, I know how beneficial it is to be surrounded by like-minded people.

DashLocker opens its first location on May 16^th and I’ll be up in the city on June 4^th.  If you hate your consulting, banking or marketing gig, come find me and I’ll convince you why you should join me in the startup world.

I am heading to Thailand for a school trip on Saturday and was hoping I would be able to write a blog post before I left.  However, finals took over my life and the blog post will have to wait until I return in late March.  Until next time…

-Jeremy

I have known about Kickstarter for a while, however, I recently saw a Kickstarter video on Fred Wilson’s blog and it got me thinking just how big and innovative this concept really is.  Kickstarter is where business meets social and at its very core is turning people’s dreams into reality.  A commenter describes it as: 

“Kickstarter embodies everything that is good about the Human spirit. It is an enabler of ideas, making it possible for individuals or small companies to bring those ideas to market through revenues (not debts or capital). And this — helping ideas become products — is a noble endeavor”

For those that are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it is essentially a crowd funding platform where people raise money for projects from the general public.  Project owners choose a deadline and a target minimum funds to raise – if the target is not hit by the deadline, no funds are collected.  If the target is hit by the deadline, the crowd is collectively charged and the money is sent to the project owner (with Kickstarter taking 5%).  Typically project owners give certain items or services to each person who pledges money based on the amount they donate. 

Kickstarter is a game changer.  It created a space between equity and charity where people no longer need to go to banks or only go to friends and family to beg for funds to fuel their passion projects.  What is really great about Kickstarter is that the crowd gets to know the creator.  Often times the creator will post a video or share a blog about why they are trying to create something.  This allows the public to connect with the creator - a powerful tool when it comes to raising money. 

Kickstarter also allows people to test their ideas before they dedicate their time and resources to producing them. If you are unable to reach your fundraising goal, you immediately know that there may not be a market for your product.  On the other hand, if you are able to easily meet your target, you know that your project is in high demand.  Most recently Kickstarter hit a new threshold by helping two companies raise over $1,000,000.  See the Elevation Dock and Double Fine Productions. 

I love that in the video I talked about before, co-founder Yancey Strickler says that every project is a story.  By hitting the fundraising goal the story becomes a reality.  How right he is.  Check out some of these stories that are on their way to becoming a reality:

• There are films: PUSH Tunisia 
• There are products: Ninja Cloud
• And there are things that are romantic: Love Train

It is inspiring that Kickstarter is very successful.  I have seen it work first hand at Groundwork Labs where several gaming companies have successfully raised money through Kickstarter and have used the power of the crowd to produce a game without giving up equity.  Kickstarter projects that reach 30% of their funding goal succeed more than 90% of the time.  To date, there has been over $50,000,000 collected from projects that hit their target. 

Kickstarter is a movement.  A movement that is creating real products – a movement that is allowing an individual to connect with the world – a movement that is turning dreams into reality and making ideas come to life. 

One of the exciting things of working at a startup is that you can never predict what is going to happen next.  Within two weeks of interning, I learned that a new accelerator had come into town, Triangle Startup Factory, and that my role as an intern was going to drastically change.  As an intern for Groundwork Labs I had three main tasks:

• Help create the structure of the program and source mentors
• Participate in the application process and conduct due diligence on the team, market and product of the applicants
• Help out with the day-to-day operations of the program – engage with and assist the companies in the accelerator

With the emergence of Triangle Startup Factory, this was all going to change.  Before I go into how it is going to change, I want to discuss the reaction of the Groundwork Labs director.  I have always heard that great entrepreneurs know when it is time to pivot their startups strategy (re: http://gigaom.com/2011/11/18/lessons-from-billy-chasens-epic-pivot-to-turntable-fm/) and now we had to figure out if now was our time to pivot.  The purpose of Groundwork Labs was not to be the best accelerator in the area.  Its purpose was to be the only accelerator in the area and fill a void within the RTP entrepreneurial ecosystem.  So when the director of Groundwork Labs heard about Triangle Startup Factory, he did what any great entrepreneur would do – he pivoted Groundwork’s strategy.  Instead of competing for applicants with the other accelerator, he decided that Groundwork would take its funding and try to fill another void in the community.  I cannot go into details because the new strategy has not officially been released, but just know that Groundwork is going to strengthen the community in another great way. 

My role as an intern has changed from the three tasks outlined above to helping define the strategy of the new Groundwork model.  From an MBA student perspective, this is great experience.  I am using what I learned in strategy class and VC class by working with the director to create a new strategy for Groundwork and I am creating models to determine if it is a good investment for our investors.

So within the first month as an intern, I have already learned a valuable lesson – as an entrepreneur or startup employee, you need to roll with the punches and know when to pivot. 

One of the main reasons I came to UNC was to get plugged into the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Raleigh/Durham/RTP area.  Throughout the last six months I have thrown myself into the mix and just recently opened my eyes and realized how vibrant the entrepreneurial community really is.  Within the last ten days I have participated in the following events:

• Volunteered at Southern Capital’s Venture Outlook 2012 and attended a panel where four prominent venture capitalists (Matt Fates, Pat Kerins, Lenard Marcus, Dan Marriott) discussed trends in technology, startups, and talked about where VC firms are looking to deploy capital in 2012
• Attended an American Underground lunch and learn hosted by William Dunbar, Partner at Core Capital Partners
• Attended a meeting with Robert Creedon, Executive Director of Blackstone Entrepreneur’s Network, to discuss Groundwork Labs position within the RTP ecosystem
• Met with Ted Zoller, Director of Entrepreneurship at UNC, to discuss a business idea a classmate and I are developing
• Learned a ton about valuation in my VC Investment class which is taught by two local VCs, Mitch Mumma and John Glushik of Intersouth Partners (side note – this class is amazing and I am going to dedicate an entire blog post on this in the near future)
• Listened to a guest speaker who created a successful telecom company in the early 2000’s in my Intro to Entrepreneurship class

When I stopped to think about what I was a part of this past week, it amazed me when I realized that this week was nothing out of the ordinary.  Business school is a great time to explore your interests and passions and I am thankful that the UNC community is able to satiate my desire to get involved with and help out local entrepreneurs. 

There is one skill that I truly believe stretches across all industries - the ability to effectively communicate.  As a recovering IT consultant, I saw first-hand how important it was to effectively communicate with your team, your manager and with the client.  It was consistently the top communicators, not the smartest individuals, who were promoted and given additional responsibility. 

As you know, I am a first-year MBA student and every day I sit in class with a large group of smart people who on a continual basis baffle me by their inability to effectively communicate.  There are the people who trail off at the end of their sentences, there are the people who talk and talk and talk without ever getting to the point, and most recently I have noticed there are the people who will make a good point and end it with “so….?” – which to me, makes it sound like they really have no idea what they are talking about.  If you want to be respected in your career (any career!) you need to be able to speak confidently. Luckily, UNC makes every student take a Management Communication class in order to graduate.  I think this is GREAT.  I truly believe this will be one of the most important and useful classes we will take while in business school.

In the startup world, this skill has to be one of the most useful skills an early hire should possess.  Think about it – you are working with a small team helping to solve a very specific (or not) client problem.  The client can be another business, consumer, friend, whatever – it doesn’t really matter.  What does matter is that each member of the startup team be able to effectively communicate with one another so they know what each member is working on and know how they can provide value.  Equally as important, every team member should know and understand the client’s business and what their needs are.  The only way to accomplish this is to effectively communicate with the client.  In the long run, the startup team will be able to build a product that matches the needs of the client – one important step in building a successful business.