Finding Your Venture

As much as we all try to keep these things separate – it’s impossible. As the whole world starts working from home this fact has been on display in Zoom calls around the world. But it’s always been true. The people we spend time with at work and at home are crucial to our happiness and success.

This episode starts with some background about the coffee business and how Per’La got started. Then in the second half we talk about the importance of maintaining positive relationships in your startup and at home.

This is true for a lot of students who are becoming adults. Transitioning into the professional world is strange when you’ve been a kid your whole life. But the work you’ve put into school and jobs and learning about life hasn’t been for nothing. You know more than you give yourself credit for and if you choose to start a business there are people who will pay you for your talent.

In our class we force everyone to do customer discovery and a lot of people ask “why would anyone talk to me about this stuff when I’m just a student?” And my answer is “You’re not just a student.” You’re a smart curious person who’s interested in making something better. You understand technology in ways that don’t come as naturally to older generations. And sure, a lot of people will be too busy to engage with you, but for some people you might be exactly what they’re looking for.

In this episode you’ll hear Lisa describe the transition from architecture student to startup founder. We hope that hearing her story will help you feel more confident approaching customers for your new venture.

Music Credit: Grammatik

It’s up to you what that impact looks like. For some people that means money. But impact is about more than money. Whether your goal is to dismantle systemic racism, fight climate change or to solve a problem that is interesting to you, forming a venture means establishing a structure that can scale beyond you.

MacArthur is an automotive supplier. During normal times they make stickers and labels used in manufacturing. During the COVID-19 pandemic MacArthur got invited to do something different but important. This is the story of how they responded.

Since revenue numbers for private companies aren’t public information, fundraising PR is the best way to pick at that scab of self doubt sitting in my subconscious. And I know it’s not the thing that matters. I know this. But I forget sometimes and need to be reminded.

Alisyn graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering. She worked at GM for almost eight years before starting a company called May Mobility. May Mobility has taken a different approach to deploying autonomous vehicles – one that is actually working – and this year they are the third fastest growing company in Detroit. Alisyn is so cool. And I’m excited for you to hear her story.

Song Credit: Grammatik

Photo Credit: TechCrunch

So it makes sense that most people you reach out to are going to ignore you. But for a lot of us that rejection feels bad. And that’s why the #1 most common issue I see among rising (and experienced) entrepreneurs is that they haven’t pitched enough people to draw any conclusions about what’s happening. Yesterday I talked to somebody who sent three emails and was stuck because nobody replied. That’s an example of getting discouraged too quickly.

Jen is a 5x founder. Her best known win was with Accuri Cytometers, which was sold for $205M in 2011. Today she’s the CEO at FifthEye. You’re going to hear her talk about why you have to pitch lots of people before you can start drawing any conclusions about the opportunity.

If you’re interested in more from Jen, consider reading and subscribing to her new blog: www.startupceoreflections.com

Music Credit: We’d like to thank Gramatik for our theme music for Season Two, “Muy Tranquilo“.

It sucks. The list of things that can make you feel like an outsider goes on forever. Race, gender, sexual orientation. Your age. Every startup founder I know has felt like a misfit at some point and here’s why that’s not a coincidence :

The world as we know it was built by ‘normal’ people – so normal people don’t see anything wrong with it. Being ‘weird’ or different gives you an advantage in locating problems and imagining a future that is different but better.

She’s a mother of five from the midwest who dropped out of beauty school to become an entrepreneur. She raised venture capital to launch a party planning app used by more than more than a million users in the Hispanic events market.

She’s funny and confident and determined to win. I hope you hear something you can relate to in her story.

Some startups require venture capital to succeed but most do not. And because focus is our only competitive advantage in the early days, it can be harmful to put too much emphasis on fundraising. Especially fundraising that is actually just thinly veiled vanity.

Raising money is like buying gas on a road trip: sometimes you need to do it, but it’s definitely not the main objective. And there are a hundred ways to raise money. The more expansive your thinking is about fundraising, the less trapped you’ll feel in your startup.

Fares Ksebati is the Founder and CEO of MySwimPro. Fares is like a flywheel of positive energy that is completely genuine and fun to be around. Fares’s enthusiasm is contagious and it was a pleasure hosting him at my house in Ann Arbor to tell this story.

It’s a funny story now that I’d be happy to tell you over a beer – but at the time it was scary. I was afraid that we would lose our company, but I was even more afraid that I would lose my house and somehow put my family’s future in jeopardy. Neither of those things happened, and in many ways this is a result of how our legal system is structured.

Believe it or not, the United States is a still an incredibly great place to start a company. It’s easy and inexpensive to do so legally, and doing that creates a separation between you and your company. If you’re thoughtful about a few key things when you’re starting your company, you’ll save time and money and stress down the road.

So for this episode I asked Joe Morrison – one of the best startup lawyers in Ann Arbor – what advice he would give a new entrepreneur that he met at a cocktail party. Off the record. Friend to friend. 

Joe represents early and high-growth companies in an outside general counsel capacity. He focuses on technology-enabled emerging companies and the venture capital firms that invest in them. In Ann Arbor he’s known as a very approachable resource with a ton of reps under his belt. Rather than overwhelm you with how smart he is, he does a great job of simplifying things that can easily become complex.

Joe and I recorded this story at the Bodman offices in downtown Ann Arbor.

You don’t have experience in the industry. You’re not a coder. You’re not a business person. You don’t have the money. These things might be true, and they can limit the speed or way in which you start a company, but they are challenges you can overcome if you really want to. The whole point of starting a company is to build something that grows beyond the capabilities of the founder. That’s why organizations can do more together than one person can alone.

As a founder you are just one piece of the puzzle. Your job is to find all of the other pieces and put them together in a way that gets the job done. Other pieces might include co-founders, employees, free software, contractors, investors – there are hundreds of ways to build your company.

Maggie Bayless is the founder and Managing Partner at ZingTrain, one of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. Zingerman’s has won tons of awards for being a great small business Maggie has been there from the very start. She is a thoughtful and humble leader that has built an incredible legacy of innovation and impact.

I spoke with Maggie in the ZingTrain offices in Ann Arbor, MI.

And everybody is going to have advice for you. Do you have IP? Have you hired an accountant? Did you see there’s a company in the Valley that is doing that same thing now? It doesn’t stop, and it’s overwhelming. Your only hope is to somehow pick which things are most important, and focus on them first.

This is literally my #1 favorite thing to do. In class we will fill up a room full of white boards with all the things you will need to do, then pare that giant list down to a handful of things that matter most. It’s not a perfect science, but it’s essential for getting unstuck. The goal is to validate your key assumptions as quickly as possible and modify your plans as you go.

Jeff has had a successful career in the insurance industry, then left to start a technology company called Groundspeed Analytics that has become one of the fastest growing companies in the region. Groundspeed uses artificial intelligence to digitize insurance records. The company went from an idea to raising a $30M Series B in two and half years. Jeff is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We met at Groundspeed headquarters in Ann Arbor.

There are four sections in this episode – In this first section you’ll hear about Jeff’s background and how he came to start Groundspeed.