Stories and Advice

Ah, the joys of success and the anguish of failure. Sometimes we're reading online and suddenly it feels like we should be at a campfire with Grandpa, listening to stories about the Great Depression. Well, these are our campfire stories. Want to read about what it's like to grow a business to over $10 million a year? Or maybe you'd like to try starting and selling a company in 6 months? These are some of our favorites, but they're only part of our career. Check back here often for updates with more exciting entrepreneurial stories.

3 Lessons To Shortcut Your Startup Learning Curve

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Nelson JamesIt’s always fun to have a close friend (that is qualified) post here on my blog. This is one of those occasions! Nelson James is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Signs.com. Prior to that, Nelson was the president and co-founder of SEO.com, where he helped to grow the company from 2 to over 85 employees and managed many large accounts, including Dell.com. In between all of that, I was able to recruit Nelson to join Lendio, where he was VP of Marketing and was responsible for the creation and management of a marketing team as well as the strategy, tactics and programs to create interest and demand for Lendio’s products and services. He did a great job and it was fun for us to work together. I should note (and this ages me a bit) that I also coached young Nelson when he was a high school tennis star. So yeah, we go back a few years.

Nelson has had the opportunity over the last year to start Signs.com. For all you entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs out there, I thought it would be helpful to hear from him. He’s written three essential lessons learned so far.

Enjoy the read!

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Summit and Northern Utah — The Next Railroad Boom Comes To Ogden

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Summit_logoA little over a year ago I received an email from my friend Shervin Pishevar, a great guy and well connected VC in California. His email was an introduction to Elliott Bisnow, founder of The Summit Group, and was in regards to the organization’s recent interest in Utah. I’d heard and read rumors about Summit buying Powder Mountain, so when I received this email out of the blue I was excited to get up there and learn more.

From the moment I started emailing with Elliott, it was obvious he was a very gracious person. Super nice, very humble and accommodating, and all about hanging out and getting to know each other. He immediately invited me up Eden to learn more in person and show me what they were working on. This was early in 2012. I wanted to immediately tell everyone everything I had seen! The plan, the people, the difference all of this would make to everything in Northern Utah. However, the time wasn’t right to do that as they were still quietly putting together a lot of the details associated with such a large and complex deal.

I’ve kept in touch with Elliott and tried to help Summit in any way possible. I’m glad I could in a few small ways (introductions in Utah, etc.) — but I mostly just kept in touch and looked for opportunities to support what they were doing. Fast forward a bit to December of 2012 and the Summit team publicly announced that they had taken over operations at Powder Mountain and that closing on the purchase would soon follow.

Not too long after this public announcement, Elliott invited me to come spend some time at Powder Mountain. I’d been unable to make it before, so I was glad that this time I could make the timing work. I’m home now after spending the past two days up there.

And all I can say is WOW.

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