AVL Marketing

Carolina Connect 2010: Entrepreneurship Discussion Panel Video

Posted on 23. May, 2010 by Tracy Sigler in Blog

[The video above is approximately one hour and contains seven shorter segments of ten minutes or less. Mouse over the video player and use the left and right arrows to skip to certain segments.]

Thanks to my fantastic panelists. (See the panelist bios below.) According to AdvantageWest, the organizer of this event, this discussion was a crowd favorite with the only complaints being that it was too short! The general topics discussed in each segment are outlined below, but I encourage you to watch the entire thing. There are some great stories in here that will likely be relevant to you and your business.  

Part 1

• Introductions
• Business plans for startups (Are they really necessary? Can you raise capital without them? Alternatives?)
• Adapting to changes, modifying the business model

Part 2

• Getting new clients as a startup
• Finding a competitive advantage
• Product development

Part 3

• More product development
• Customer research
• Customer experience
• Product usability and user testing

Part 4

• Setting business priorities
• Hiring and delegating
• Managing teams and remote offices/staff

Part 5

• More business priorities
• Coordination and communication
• More hiring (When do you? Rapid growth and maintaining standards.)
• Staying focused

Part 6

• Outsourcing and “crowdsourcing”
• Interns (“The secret sauce.” Where and how to find interns, and how to manage and compensate them.)

Part 7

• Advisory boards (Advantage of a board. Where and how to find board members. Leverage the experience and connections of others.)

Panelist Bios

Gustavo Kolmel / InterStar Global Logistics
Gustavo Kolmel founded InterStar Global Logistics in 1999 with only a laptop and a small amount savings. In eight years he grew the company from 0 to $25 million, with offices in Europe, Latin America, and the United States, then sold the company in 2008.

Derek and Damien Hoffman / Wall St Cheat Sheet
The Hoffman brothers founded one of the fastest growing financial media sites on the web. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Wall St. Cheat Sheet as one of the top financial websites. Damien Hoffman is the Editor-in-Chief of Wall St. Cheat Sheet. He has a background including investment banking, two successful start-ups, and he clerked at the Florida Supreme Court. He graduated with honors from Duke University as well as University of Miami School of Law where he was a Dean’s Merit Scholar.

Derek Hoffman is the CEO of Wall St. Cheat Sheet. He has handled media investment and tactical strategy planning for Procter & Gamble and Gillette’s national asset portfolio. He has also worked in private wealth management for Morgan Stanley. Mr. Hoffman graduated early from the University of Michigan’s world class economics department.

Keith Pelczarski / The Motley Fool
Keith Pelczarski has been a Fool all his life, but he went pro in 1996, joining The Motley Fool. During his six years there, he wore many hats: editor, producer, designer, manager, recruiter, and product developer, among others. The Fool grew from 15 employees to 450 then back down to 75 when the dot com bubble burst, so Keith has lots to share on the ups and downs of high-growth startups.

Jack Carrier / DogTagArt.com
Jack, a serial “idea guy” spent the last glory days of the Tech bubble in California partnered with a retired Microsoft Executive working on and with Startups. Since Jack has spent a lot of time on the life side of the work-life balance traveling and volunteering, all the while mentally preparing to start his next business. In 2009 Jack raised private capital and won a “Technology Business Plan” competition which helped to fund Dog Tag Art, a community built around unique Pet Identification, which is growing at about 20% per month.