Tyler Sondag - Serious Startups

Paul Singh: Start a $1B Company from Your Couch in a T-Shirt

Paul Singh, Co-founder of Disruption Corporation and Crystal Tech Fund and Partner at 500 Startups, told it like it is at Everywhere Else Tennessee on Thursday.

“If you’re going to swing, swing for the fence.”

That was one of Singh’s final comments of his presentation. And he’s certainly done so. Singh has invested in over 650 startups hailing from almost every one of the fifty states in, give or take, less than five years.

“Early stage startups have changed. It is ‘everywhere else’ now,” he said, speaking on entrepreneurship outside of the well-known hubs like San Francisco and New York.

Paul highlighted the ideas that small businesses are easier to start now more than ever before, the importance of tech companies and their impacts on local economies, and the difference that can be made when there are concentrated pools of smart people in one place at one time.

“YOU CAN BUILD A BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY FROM YOUR COUCH IN A T-SHIRT” read one his slides. “It used to cost $5 million to start a tech company in 1999. Now you can start an entire internet service company for less than $5,000,” he said.

The investment world has changed, too. “Back then there were only twenty or so investors that really mattered. It was really, really hard to get $50,000…But we’ve seen this ‘rise of the angels [investors].’”

“Guess how many jobs are created when you bring one tech job to town,” he posed to the audience. “4.6. 4.6 jobs are created for every tech job. Did you know that? If you can realize that, you can get important people to [care] about you. And you can do it while you’re making the world a better place, too.”

“Technology is the fundamental driver of growth in the industrialized world. We haven’t figured out how to communicate our value to the rest of the world.”

He hit on the concept of what could be referred to as “smart people clusters” – the fact that smart people want to be around other smart people. “Even the idea of co-working didn’t exist four years ago. Now you see it everywhere,” he mentioned. “And if [a city] makes bringing these smart people to [the city] a priority, watch what kind of affluence will result…Proximity is valuable.”

Singh also made what could be considered by some to be quite a bold statement in the startup world: “Stop calling yourselves startups,” he said. “You are tech-enabled small businesses.”

So, next time you step up to the plate, do the ‘Babe Ruth point-your-bat-at-the-outfield’ and knock it out of the park. Then sit back down on your couch (in your t-shirt) and do it again.

Paul is the founder of Disruption Corporation, which provides tools, research and advisory services to corporations, angel investors and venture capital firms. Previously, he was a Partner at 500 Startups, a 4 year old “super angel” fund headquartered in Mountain View, CA and has overseen the investments in 500+ companies across 35+ countries. He is currently serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and DHS/USCIS. Follow Paul at @paulsingh.

Military DNA in Your Company: Quotes from the Pros

In a panel discussion moderated by Taylor McLemore, founder of Techstars Patriot Bootcamp, Mark Morris, CEO and Founder of MyGigline, Tameesha Desangles-Wilson, CEO and Founder of Wedding Worthy, and Jen Pilcher, CEO and Founder of Military One Click, gave us some real, in-depth insight about what it’s like to have military DNA and work in the civilian world. The following are quotes from Taylor, Mark, Tameesha, and Jen.

Jen (on some of the challenges facing veterans and families of veterans): “Every two years you’re moving, and that’s a ton of turnover…I have a team of 7 different virtual teammates, so we can work whenever and wherever we want.”

Taylor: “…Veterans are generally over-educated and under-employed.”

Mark (on his experience getting into startups in his transition back into civilian life): “When you’re in the military, that’s all you focus on…When I started getting back into the transition into civilian life, they told me ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, just go to the SBA and they’ll help you out.’ That didn’t work.”

Taylor (on qualities of veterans): “I’ve heard people say, ‘Don’t be afraid to tackle the general.’ They’re not afraid to make things happen.”

Tameesha (on qualities of veterans): “There’s no question that the mission has to be accomplished…There isn’t a rule book you can follow, so you have to be creative…”

Jen (on qualities of military spouses): “Military spouses don’t take no for an answer, either.”

Jen (on starting to build the company): “I just wanted to get it going because we didn’t know if we were going to be moving in three months.”

Mark (on what makes veterans different): “Creative problem solving. We’re used to operating with limited resources and under extreme stress, so you have to figure out how to get the job done…You learn both leadership and followership…You’re thrown in the fire as soon as you start [in the military], and I had 20 guys 20 years my senior under my wing. I had to lead.”

Taylor (on hiring veterans and military spouses): “The turnover rate is a lot lower…You’re building truly loyal entities.”

Mark (on stereotypes of veterans): “We don’t all have PTSD. Just get us incorporated into the world…back into civilian life. Don’t treat us differently.”

Tameesha (on Military-based leadership): “Military people have very high expectations for what leadership looks and feels like. If [the boss] isn’t living up to those standards you’re going to hear about it.”

Jen (on hiring veterans and military spouses): “They want to work. And you don’t have to look far. They’re all around you.”

Jen (on how military DNA operates when it comes to tech): “The military community is very tech-based because we have to use it. That’s usually the only way I can talk to my husband.”

The moral of the story: veterans are extremely loyal, hardworking, and versatile potential employees, and you don’t have to look far to find them.

Follow each of them here: Mark and MyGigline at @mygigline; Tameesha and Wedding Worthy at @WeddingWorthy; Jen and Military One Click at @military1click; and Taylor and Patriot Boot Camp at @T2theMac.

#EETN Has Begun!

#EETN officially has liftoff.

With 200+ registered attendees, a successful kickoff party in downtown Memphis and the first speaker, Jared Steffes, President and Founder of Furywing and Co-Founder of Tap.Me, in the books and Ryan Hoover of Product Hunt on the stage now, we have begun.

We’ve got a full lineup of speakers for the next two days, which you can see here, each of which is sure to bring some excitement to the stage. Follow the action live on Twitter with the #EETN tag (or by clicking here), and we’ll see you soon.

Flipoutz: The Family Aha Moment That Led to Shark Tank

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You’re on a trip. A family trip. And if you’re not a kid anymore, pretend you are one for a few minutes while reading this.

You’re sitting next to your older sister and younger brother, complaining and bickering to your parents about how the car’s too hot or that you’re hungry. The “I’m not touching you… I’m not touching you…” game is played, and it’s an all-around delightful time in the 8’ x 5’ x 4’ box that is your car.

Then Mom turns around and asks a seemingly simple question: “If you could have any toy in the entire world to play with right now [to occupy you enough to make you stop talking], what would it be?”

And so it happened that the Johnson family, in unison and more joyfully than ever, stumbled upon their first aha moment.

The oldest sister wanted self-expression. The middle sister: fashion and something to show off to friends. The youngest, the only boy of the three, something “cool” that he could trade. (For nostalgic value and anyone who remembers, he wanted something cooler than Neopets and Pokémon cards.)

The natural solution to all three: a bracelet and token-like coins, of course.

An uncle in the family, who also doubled as a patent attorney, was pitched the idea and, after a little research, gave them two distinct things:

the go-ahead (that nobody else was doing what they wanted to do), and
their second aha moment.

“That was it,” said the middle sister, Lachlan Johnson, now a freshman at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO. “That was all we needed.”

And so they began: first, by ‘coining’ the name Flipoutz, and, before long, making appearances at every convention and trade show that would let under-18 year olds on the exhibition floor. flipoutz2

Their individually decorated coins that fit snuggly inside silicon bracelets could be traded and tracked all around the world, a feature that eventually landed them a Season 2 appearance on the ever-so-popular Shark Tank.

Shortly after Shark Tank, they sold the company, and the Johnson family children joined the ranks of minors who have experienced a feat few adults three and four times their age have.

Full-time college and high school students now, Lachlan and her little brother, Jake, have since started another company, Joxie, which was, of course, spawned from an aha moment of its own. This time it was with bow ties, though, in a brand they’re calling Beaux Up: “What if you could personalize your bow tie – however and whenever you wanted to?”

Though they don’t have a product line out yet, you should be expecting to see it in stores sometime within the next several months. In the meantime you can follow @Flipoutz and visit them online at their online store. And stay tuned for a follow up article detailing Beaux Up’s creative process.

Tyler Sondag is a startup connoisseur with a hand in anything and everything you could imagine. Hailing from the ever-developing Northwest Mississippi, an alum of Saint Louis University and currently a transplant to St. Louis, Missouri, one of his main missions in life is to get and keep young people engaged in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Follow him on Twitter: @MrSondag.

PlateWave Uses License Plates to Help You Find Love

You’re driving down the street in your new car and you see heads turn. You’re not going to stop the car, get out, and talk to that person, are you?

Or, on the flip side, you’re the person on the street, and you see that car drive by. That car’s driver just happens to be a fairly good-looking person, too.

Up until now, what did you do? In short, nothing. You gawked at either the guy or gal opening the door, climbing in, and zooming right out of your dreams.

Or, if you were the driver, you kept driving, hoping that by some magical happenstance you might someday see that same bystander on the side of the road staring at you again. Then all of the stars would align and you’d fall into each others’ arms and live happily ever after.

Marcus Ackerley, though a thoroughly happy and long-time married man, came up with a solution to each of these problems. A Brit who happens to drive a fairly nice car, Marcus got a call one day.

“Were you out driving today?” his car dealership asked. And he had been. The seed was planted.

Fast forward four years and Marc’s created PlateWave, an app that helps people find and connect to each other using registration (or license) plates. Savvy, eh?

His first aha moment came when he ran a little math through his head, though.

“What are the chances of someone knowing someone at the dealership I bought my car at? Now what are the chances of someone knowing someone at every one of the hundreds of dealers across the country? What kind of chances exist that I’m driving in my own town and not traveling across the country at the time when they see me? Altogether, they’re virtually zero.”

“What we’re talking about here is visual social discovery,” Ackerley said, “You see something or someone and you’re interested to the extent that you’d like to make some kind of comment. And if it’s easy enough for you to send them a message…it’s a whole new, easy way of contacting people.”

And that it is. It kind of reminds me of a Tinder for cars, actually.

His second aha moment came when he met his technical partners. “There is a way of doing it. It’s just a really, really big project,” the tech side of the project, Sean Wilson and James Black of Underground Creative, a UK-based web development firm, said. And though it’s been roughly four or so years in the making, they’ve done it.

Though PlateWave is only available in the UK as of now, they expect to be scaling to a country near you soon, so be sure to check out PlateWave at platewave.com and follow @PlateWave on Twitter.