Make Quick Decisions: Lessons from an MBA

One of the very best lessons my business school has taught me is to make quick decisions (by the way, I go to Indiana University Kelley School of Business). Why?

First and most important: There is NEVER enough information. You have to accept this. You will always miss an angle, a report or key metric. Once you can accept that you can't get ALL the information to make a decision, you do the next best thing: get as much information you can in a SPECIFIED time frame.

Two: Time is money. Literally. The more time you spend deliberating, the less time you have to execute. While some may say its not wise to rush headfirst into an endeavour you know little about, I think that there comes a physical point in time where you just wont find any extra data.

Three: You need to execute first. There are advantages for executing first whether it is a product or an internal project. You get first strike.

Four: Good ideas with bad execution never succeed. Bad ideas with good execution sometimes succeed. If you are not firm and resolute in your decisions, things will just never happen.

What is your experience with quick decision making versus slower deliberation?

Venture Club of Indianapolis Meeting April - Dannar Mobile Power Station

This April, I had the pleasure of listening to an exciting presentation from Gary Dannar, the CEO and founder of Dannar. His company plans to enter the industry of maintenance of public structures like roads and natural resources.

He described their mobile power station which is a machine that looks much like a mini-tractor.

This can be attached to several multi-tool attachments.

This makes it one machine that can be adapted to several different applications. The kicker for me is that its also a mobile power station that acts like a hybrid, off-grid generator. Several of these puppies can be linked up to power a small grid. Best part is... they are designing it so that it can drive at highway speeds so there is limited need for flatbed transport.

With the recent craziness in the weather, i can see how this can be SUPER useful. Imagine after Hurricane Sandy, these roll in, clear the roads of debris, demolish a few obstacles and, at night, power up a few homes so folks can have a hot meal and some electricity. And to think that we get at least a dozen of these weather crises every YEAR.

My church does a lot of weather-related help and I could see them either purchasing or partnering up with a few non-profits to purchase one.

Okay...I'm jumping way ahead of myself. Right now, they have 2 prototypes and plan to test and validate in summer. So lets see if the thing actually WORKS first.

My fellow MBAs are skeptical because the big boys like CAT and John Deere may decide to enter this space. I don't think so. Its a small niche market. CAT is doing well in the construction business and makes machines that do only ONE thing. This machine is for smaller operators like National Parks and City Works people who would prefer one machine that does everything rather than buying several different individual machines. Dannar also plans to market to defense like the National Guard who respond to emergencies.

Check them out at http://dannar-pressrelease.com/ and tell me what you think!

My first Verge - Indianapolis

I went to a Verge where Gusto was being pitched by Shawn Schwegman at the Mavis. Being a member of the Indy Venture Club, I was not expecting the vibrant and energetic environment of Verge. Folks were pumped, talking and generally having fun. Because this was a very informal setting, it was also much louder.

Shawn came up and launched his new mobile email upload app, Gusto. A few other folks came from Elevate Ventures, 

One thing I noted was the businesses were more inclined to be tech or IT in industry. This is not really my industry but I definitely suggest checking it out if you want to find out more about Indy's tech scene or if you want to meet young, new entrepreneurs.

Here's the Verge blog about what makes the Indy Tech scene so cool here

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Quit Applying for Jobs Online...Waste of Time

So here’s the deal. Globalization is here. Which means you can get cheap clothes and shows from China to fill your closets. YAY!! Which also means that jobs are disappearing from the US at a rate of 400% (yes, for every job that is created here, 4 leave the shores). Which also means that you are competing for the same jobs with not just fellow Americans but the best and brightest from China, India and Brazil. And I don’t mean guys like you. I mean the stereotypical guy who has an IQ of 140 and has 3 college degrees.

So how do normal guys like you compete? Quit applying online for jobs. Huh? You heard me. It’s a blessed waste of time. 

Here are some statistics:

• 5%-15% of jobs are landed by applying for them on job websites.
• 10% were headhunted.
• 5% were filled internally within the company.
• 65-80% were filled by networking and personal referral.

So if you want to strike lucky, go apply online. I'm actually the ONLY person I know who got a job from applying on a website after 2007. Everyone around me got their jobs by a college buddy, a former coworker, a parent who pointed them to a manager that hired him. The only exception are my engineer guys who mostly got recruited out of college. 

So get to know people. And do informational interviews. I hate to say it...network. Right now, that looks like the only way to land jobs.

Lessons from an MBA: Failure is a very viable option

Have you had a great idea, wanted to start a business but stopped because of the possibility of failure? I think we all have. My newest lesson in MBA for you is to embrace failure.

We met with Michael Cloran of DeveloperTown in Broad Ripple who shared his remarkable story of the several businesses that he started, several of which failed and one or two struck gold.

The more you get comfortable with failing and making mistakes, the more emboldened you are to learn from your mistakes and go out there and try again. the key here is learn from your mistakes and keep repeating the same mistakes. I like the motto " Let us make better mistakes tomorrow."

If you quit walking the first day you stumbled, you never would have learned how to walk. Let us not dampen or lose the curiosity, courage and learning of a child.

If you want to learn more about Mike's lessons on failure, check out Lessons from an MBA: Mike Cloran on failure.

Share your lessons and experiences on failure, picking yourself up and trying again.

Lessons from an MBA: Starting a business Stonegate Mortgage

During March Venture Club meeting,I had the pleasure of listening to Jim Cutillo, the CEO of Stonegate Mortgage talk about how his company went public. His story is interesting in that he took a commodity- mortgage business- and was able to be so successful that he could go public. He talked about having passion and building a great work culture and brand name that engenders loyalty. Some advice on starting a business:

• Focus and execute: Many lack focus. Many don’t execute. That’s why many  are not successful
• Invest in People: When hiring your people, invest in them and don’t get the cheapest guy out there. You will always have talent in your court
• Let go of control: To go public, he literally let go of control of the company. However he was far more successful than he would be alone.
• Have personal assets to live on: In the first 2 years, he and his wife had no earnings because they reinvesting in the company. So have personal assets to live on while building up your business. Also known as don’t quit your day job
• Get to critical mass before going public: If you go too early, you give up too much too early
• Why did he wish he knew then that he knows now? That he was a tad bit too conservative and should have taken a few more risks.

Lessons from an MBA: Venture Club March

We had a spotlight presenter from Expedite Healthcare named Brose McVey CEO. He is a partner in heartland strategic partners which I believe sponsored Expedite Healthcare. He went right into and addressed some gaps he saw in the Affordable Care Act. Based on his analysis, healthcare premiums will increase, in some cases, up to 100% by next year especially white collar workers. So the outcome will be that several Americans will drop group healthcare and go to the ACA exchange. Expedite healthcare plans to target these people by offering a lower cost primary health care option in the form of walk-in clinics. Expedite will be integrated to small and midsized companies’ structure. He did stress that they don’t have an option for specialist and emergency care and therefore Expedite won’t be a standalone insurance package. The advantage? With clinics nearby, patients can pop in for care and reduce wait times so that employees won’t have to take half or full days off because of physicians visits. Expedite would sell prescriptions at wholesale prices to drive down costs. He used the term Cadillac care on an affordable budget. He quoted premiums of about $60 a month.

                McVey believes Expedite would be profitable within a year and have an EBITDA of $1 million in 3 years. Their greatest competitors are similar walk in clinics and CVS minute clinic and Walgreens’ Pop in.

         Several members of my class were irked by his comments on being a former politician. Not necessarily a good idea when trying to gain the trust of your audience. Personally, I believe this market is not mature yet. It reminds me of the early dot.com era when EVERYBODY had a website, an internet business and was going to make a million dollars. There were several losers, several small and wise winners who quickly sold to a bigger player, and a few winners who actually became BILLIONAIRES. Provided they have a good management team in place, yes, I would take a gamble and invest in Expedite Healthcare in the belief that it would either become a bigger player or be acquired by a bigger player. While I still have my doubts about Expedite’s model in particular, I do believe the minute-clinic/ open clinic model will work in American super expensive healthcare system. Once they have ironed out their kinks of course.

Lessons from an MBA: Venture Club October

This meeting had spotlight presenters giving pitches for their new ideas and also had a guest appearance from Michael Huber, Chamber of Commerce.

The first presenter was Mark Repko from MedDiary who is trying to target the chronic illness management market of which 45% of the US population has and accounts for 75% of the healthcare cost. Healthcare treatment is beginning to focus on patient engagement and remote management outside of a medical facility. MedDiary is focused on a chronic condition management app that links with several physicians so that the patents’ diet, medication, treatment and general well-being is monitored and tracked using a single app that combines several other treatment apps into one. MedDiary is currently seeking series AA capital and has completes its web phase I and customer engagement.

Personally I’m a bit wary of app developments as a business project because I rarely seen something that distinguishes one app from another. As one of my classmates said, there are over 16,000 healthcare related apps, this is just another one. We voiced several concerns mostly based on product uniqueness, the difficulty in getting physician buy-in and the reluctance of the boomer age group (majority of the chronic illness patients) to use mobile devices and apps to manage their health.

The second presenter was TowYard Breweries. Everyone was excited about this pitch because they brought tons of beer for tasting afterwards! They plan to capitalize on the recent boom in craft beer and make a new recipe for sale in the Midwest. They seemed very connected in the beer industry and a member of their team already successfully launched a craft beer Triton that is well received in Indianapolis. They have raised $311,000 out of their projected $550,000 budget. They have a 20 barrel system and right from day one of production, they project to be the 4^th largest beer producer in Indiana with 12,000 barrels production per year. They have a brew master with 10 years of experience and they have secured distribution through Anhauser Busch /Zink. They also plan to can their beer to make them distinguishable and to make it easier to distribute. 

Lessons from an MBA: Venture Club September

The meeting had a panel of winners of the 2013 Indianapolis Innovators Showcase. The Showcase on July 2013 was aimed to have startup companies pitch, network and search for seed funding for their ideas.

1. Best Seed Pitch, 2013 Innovation Showcase Company of the Year: Emphymab Biotech: Presenter Joe Trebley

Emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD is the third largest cause of death in US. Emphymab is the result of the research of Dr. Irina Petrache, Dr. Matthias Clauss and Dr. Brian Johnstone. They use human monoclonal antibodies in a proprietary method to slow down or halt emphysema, rather than mask its symptoms, like current medications do

I’m particularly interested in this because I’m a molecular biochemist so business mixing with biological research always perks my ears up. They work with Indiana University Research and Technology Transfer (IURTC). IURTC takes inventions and ideas from IU staff and help them develop, patent and commercialize them.

Check IURTC out here

Check out Emphymab Biotech  here

2. Best Startup Pitch, Grand Prize Honorable Mention: Revive Electronics, Presenter: Micah Trusty

Joel Trusty had a problem. His wife’s phone went for a spin in the washing machine and a replacement would cost $500. Rather than shell out his precious moolah, he called up a bunch of friends and had a mini party with the aim of fixing the phone. After several beers and tries, they fixed it using heat and vacuum suction. Revive Electronics was born. They specialize in recovering moisture damage electronics in 25 minutes.

Check them out here

Other notable mentions

3. Elevate Pitch invitations: Enfront technologies, Presenter: Bill Corbin.

He does micromarketing for small business and nonprofits. He helps small business advertise directly to customers in a form of mass marketing.

4. Best First Round Pitch: BlueBridge Digital, Presenter: Santiago Jaramillo

BlueBridge Digital builds apps for small businesses and charges a monthly fee for it. Santiago won the Young Professional of the Year Award for Indiana State. His company targets higher education, tourism and religious organizations.

Quote of the day: We live on the condensation of our imagination level

Venture Club Indy: Lessons from an MBA

I'm in this entrepreneurship class called venture club, part of which involves attending the Venture Club of Indianapolis. We were advised by our professor to wear formal attire. I thought he was trying to be safe as I have found that such “formal” meetings end up being very casual. Well, he was right… ties and jackets galore! In my experience of business casual, I haven’t seen this amount of formal wear since my career fair in undergrad.

We stood outside for 20 minutes, talking to anyone who happened to stare at us. We were advised us to try to mention our companies not that we were students, probably so we can work on getting professional contacts. We are to do the one thing my introverted self hates… network. Really?? I hate networking. I usually just stare at my thumbs, talk to someone I already know (which we were asked NOT to do) or painfully pull out my teeth.

I get fortunate, I spot a Kelly student who I’ve never seen before (and I belong to 2 cohorts at the same time…long story). We talk a bit about the Indiana University Technology Transfer which I have never heard of (that’s for yet another article). I was excited to hear of something that mixes academic biological research with business.

So after a surprisingly sumptuous lunch (I will definitely come back to these meetings, if just for the lunches…oh wait… I have to come. This is a class), we sit for a few spotlight presenters who give pitches that are like a tame version of Shark tank. And that’s what my other articles are about.

Come Learn With Me: Lessons from an MBA

      Just finished the first year of my MBA. Hoorah! So come learn with me! Why? I attend a top 10 university (Kelley school of business in Indiana University). Its free. And unlike my 3 hour classes, I give you the short and best bits.

      Why am I sharing my education? Because I believe the pursuit of knowledge is an honorable thing. I believe in giving freely, especially knowledge. And finally, I actually learn better when I teach.

So come learn with me. You will be glad you did

Don't you just HATE the word "networking"?

Maybe hate is a strong word. Dislike might be a better fit. I'm in a class where we meet with venture capitalists and new business owners to listen to pitches (sort of like Shark Rank on ABC). For the first thirty minutes though, we are asked to "network". Networking reminds me how odd I am at talking to strangers and how I wish I could just melt into the wall. According to Prof. Wendeln, the reason I find networking uncomfortable is because this kind of networking has no "purpose", no reason to it. We just network for the sake of networking. So I don't understand it and dislike it.

Here is a great article though about giving a purpose to networking. Its by Jeff Haden of Inc. I identify with the "little moonwalk shy people do when we want to slip unnoticed to the edge of the crowd". Do you feel this way at social events too? Tell me how you feel? How do you get better at these mingling events?