I can't tell you how often I'm in a conversation or presentation with a major corporation's senior management team and the first topic to arise is frustration with a lack of effective internal communication and information sharing.
This Common Communication Mistake Is Destroying Your Productivity
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Posted by: Howard A. Tullman on 4/7/16 11:01 AM
I wanted to provide you with my thoughts on my first 30 days as an 1871 Mentor. Jim Dugan, J.B. Pritzker, and Ellen Rudnick were certainly right about the energy and enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs associated with 1871!
Thus far, I have conducted four days of office hours (18 total slots), met with 14 different companies with only one no-show. My discussion areas: 1) concisely presenting a company's competitive advantage to capital providers; 2) how to divide equity among startup founders; and 3) the unique challenges women entrepreneurs face in raising capital appeared to have resonated with the entrepreneurs.
This week I was told that my ideas may have already had an impact with two entrepreneurs. One company, Starchup, met with a company that I had consulted with previously, to discuss my thought that their respective business models were complementary. After meeting, they are in the process of finalizing a deal that could substantially increase their respective revenues. A second company, SpaceHQ, utilized my suggestion to create a competitive sales force model to generate increased salesperson attention to SpaceHQ’s product. I was told that potential customers have embraced this idea enthusiastically.
Other Mentors, such as Maria Burud of Zanon Group, have been very helpful in introducing me to 1871 companies they have been mentoring where my expertise and experience could be a fit. I must compliment you on the 1871 staff, especially Rhonda and George, who have been generous with their time and have been very patient in answering my many questions.
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to be a part of this excellent business effort.
About the Author
Jerrold B. Carrington, President and COO, TurnerPatterson
Jerrold B. Carrington is President and COO of TurnerPatterson, LLC.where he oversees all operations and financial activities for TurnerPatterson. In addition to joining TurnerPatterson, Mr. Carrington is a co-founding general partner of INROADS Capital Partners, L.P., a $50 million private equity firm in the Chicago area that invests in middle to later stage companies, particularly those targeting the urban consumer. He is also the founder of Carrington Partners, LLC a financial advisory firm that specializes in providing private equity investment advice and counsel to middle market companies.
The Five Rules of Uber-ization
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Posted by: Howard A. Tullman on 3/29/16 11:13 AM
Technology columnist Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times recently argued that the UBER model doesn't translate very well and can't be reliably applied to the thousands of businesses that have rapidly appeared in virtually every industry claiming to be the "UBER" of whatever. He thinks these companies are being started and run by people who are either irrational or sadly deluded and that a massive shakeout looms. There's one UBER and that's UBER-- end of story. He's not entirely wrong, but his view is too simplistic.
1871 Says: Our partners at Sage are gearing up for their annual Sage Summit, the largest gathering of small and medium-sized business in the world. The 1871 community can attend Sage Summit at a special rate using code 1871PROMO here. Ahead of the event, Sage has contributed a guest blog to the 1871 site, highlighting keynote speaker Sir Richard Branson's entrepreneurial journey. Learn more below:
Both inside and outside of Turkey’s borders, people are noticing the opportunities that a fast-growing, developing market can churn out. At an international level, 500 Startups announced the creation of 500 Istanbul, a $15M micro-fund that will invest in more than 100 Turkish startups in the next several years. 500 Startups already invested in eight companies founded by Turkish entrepreneurs: Udemy, Socialwire, Parlakbirgelecek, Connected2.me, Boostable, Adphorus, Mobile Action, and Koding.
Tullman: Don't Overlook the Second-Mover Advantage
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Posted by: Howard A. Tullman on 3/15/16 12:31 PM
There's no question that there's a power and many advantages to being the first mover in a new market, along with a like number of potential downsides that require careful navigation. I've written about both aspects of this "advantage" previously and it remains a complex area to figure out. See http://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/first-mover-advantage-maybe-but-be-smart-about-it.html. And I also appreciate that the conventional wisdom suggests, in almost every tech-based or tech-enabled business, that markets over time will tend to become "winner take all" or "winner take most" in which a single player dominates. See http://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/future-of-content-marketing-simplereach.html .
1871 Says: Andy Crestodina, Founder of Orbit Media, will be featured as the keynote speaker on March 22, 2016 at 1871 as a part of the Chicago AMA series, where he will be covering the content of this post and much more! Learn more about this event by checking out Applied Analytics: Insights and Actions from 12 Reports.
1871 member BallotReady helps voters make informed decisions by providing free, non-partisan background information on every candidate and referendum on a voter’s ballot. Ahead of the Illinois primary elections, we sat down with them to find out more about how they're increasing voter awareness and engagement:
1871 member Yolobe visited the White House last week for the Summer Opportunity Workshop and Champions of Change event. We sat down with Yolobe to learn more about this great opportunity.
It’s been an amazing two years since Anyone Can Learn To Code was founded, right here at 1871. Since then, we’ve graduated dozens of new developers over five cohorts in Chicago, and even expanded to San Francisco in late 2015. This year holds even more great things in store, which we can’t wait to announce over the coming weeks. At our two-year anniversary, we want to take a look back at what we and our developer graduates have accomplished.
