Tag Archives: entrepreneur

Dec 18

Shit Hits the Fan

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What have I done when shit hits the fan?  As an entrepreneur, venturing off to create something new, innovative, & excellent, shit is bound to hit the fan.  Things are bound to not go as expected.  You can’t plan for every possible situation, but you can be prepared to handle whatever comes your way.  It’s like the early American settlers headed west along the Oregon Trail.  They set off to a new place, undiscovered.  They couldn’t predict when an oxen would die or famine would strike.  All they could do was be prepared for whatever came their way.  Meat spoils.  Pull out the other food or kill an oxen to make up for it.

Similarly, I have experienced times when shit hits the fan.  Sometimes it’s messier than other times.  Sometimes I have been more prepared than other times.  And there have definitely been times when I don’t want to clean up the mess.  But I have to.

Obviously there are different degrees of things going wrong.  A child dying of thyroid fever isn’t comparable to meat spoiling (or so it seems…hard to really say what it was like since my only experience was through the computer game in third grade).  An equipment malfunction doesn’t bear the same consequences as losing a key employee.

I remember a time when everything was going great!  Iorio’s was just featured on NPR & several emails & calls came in from folks around the country, recognizing our radio press.  The next day I got a call…not about the NPR bit…not about a great experience in our store…The gelato case.  The gelato case was off & all the gelato inside had melted.  I was in the midst of prepping for valuations for RPM Ventures, & couldn’t get away immediately.

How to react?

There’s no “best” way.  And everyone is different in how they handle shit.  Some panic.  Some get angry.  Some are cooler than a cucumber (at least on the surface).

What do I do?

It depends.  I have panicked.  I have kept my cool.  I have gotten angry.  And sometimes combinations thereof.  No matter what my initial reaction, I always like to make my way to calm & collected in order to solve problems in a rational way.  I find that when I have other people to talk to about the issue at hand, I do much better.  It’s good to get other perspective & another to balance your reactions.  Talking through  problem also helps.

In the case of the malfunctioned gelato case, I talked through the problem with the Iorio’s team member (a recent hire) & she handled it like a pro.  The initial panic quickly decreased as we calmly walked through appropriate steps to take to solve the problem.  Crisis handled.  Why?  Deep breathing & a great team.

The highs & lows are inevitable as an entrepreneur.  Every entrepreneur needs a good support network, especially mentors, to turn to during these times.  To keep sanity & a healthy reality check.

How do you handle the times when shit hits the fan?

Venture on,

mel, the Venture Gal

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Oct 22

Engage Your Audience

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At a Second City show I recently watched, I was reminded of the importance of engaging the audience in any successful presentation.  The Second City crew (it was the “We’re All in This Room Together” show on the e.t.c. stage for those of you who want to experience it for yourself…which I highly recommend!) did a fabulous job of involving the audience in the show, relating the story onstage to the audience in the room, & making emotional connections to the audience.  A couple of examples of how they did this…

Involving the audience in the show.  For one sketch, the Second City crew pulled someone from the audience to participate.  The sketch was about a marriage, & the audience member was commissioned as the groom.  The audience member rose to the occasion & did a great job of improvising.  And even though the rest of the audience wasn’t in the show themselves, they felt more apart of the show because someone “like them” was experiencing being on stage.  The entire audience benefited from the one audience member’s participation.

Relating the story onstage to the audience.  The Second City crew did this repeatedly by asking the audience for suggestions, for topics, names, professions.  One sketch particularly sticks out…two of the SC improvisers played elderly folk & asked members of the audience in the front row questions about where they were from, what they did for a job, & other characteristics about their life.  The SC folk responded, clearly in the moment, with witty, funny, & timely responses.

Making emotional connections to the audience.

For an entrepreneur or presenter of any kind, these lessons are equally important…

Make your audience part of the story.

Make it personal.

Let your audience participate.

Engage your audience & they will engage you.

Venture on,

mel, the venture gal

 

 

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Aug 23

Comedy Writing for Entrepreneurs

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Ever seen Dollar Shave Club’s promotional video?  If you answered no, here’s your first assignment, watch it!

DId you laugh?  If you did, you’re in the company of millions of others who saw the video, laughed, & signed up to get f*ing great razors sent to them every month.  I love this video for several reasons, but mostly because it is a great example of comedy writing & early stage companies (2 of my favorite things) colliding.

I have led comedy writing classes & mentored entrepreneurs separately, & made the connection to meld the 2 & put together a curriculum “comedy writing for entrepreneurs”.  Today, Startup America, as part of its Learning Series, hosted a webinar that I led, “Comedy Writing for Entrepreneurs”.

During the webinar we covered:

  1. Commandments of Comedic Content
  2. Comedy Writing Techniques & how they can be used in the context of your company
  3. Brainstorming exercises to come up with original comedic content

Along with fun examples from Elf, Looney Tunes, & the one & only Mr. Bean!

The audience had some great questions, including:

What to do after the video (or other content) is created?

Before I talk about post-content creation, let’s jump back to before the content is created (as they are related).  Before you set out to create comedic content for your company, do the following:

  1. Define your goal (objective for the content).  Why are you setting out to create the content in the first place?  What are you hoping to get out of it?
  2. Define metrics of success.  What does success look like?  How will you know if you have reached your goal?  Are you measuring number of views? Shares? Conversions to customers? etc.
  3. Figure out your audience.  Who do you want to watch the video?  Who is your target audience?  Who are you trying to reach?
  4. Figure out distribution.  How will people find your cleverly created content?  (Knowing your audience really helps in crafting a distribution strategy…are you tweeting at influencers?  Commenting on blogs? etc).

Once you have gone through & answered those questions, you are ready to create the content.  Once the content is created, then it’s time to execute on #4 (& be prepared to measure the key metrics you identified in #2).

Want to learn more?  Startup America has the entire webinar recorded & will be available on its  website.  Of course, you can Contact Me & ask questions, check out EPIX Improv, &/or set up a time for a workshop or ask to be updated about future webinars & classes/workshops.  I also really appreciate your support in giving me a “thumbs up” for my SXSW Workshop Proposal, “Steve Jobs to Carell: Improv for Entrepreneurs”.  Thanks!

Venture on,

mel, the venture gal

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Aug 16

What has been your most disappointing moment?

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I think there are a lot of ways to answer this question…disappointment in myself? in others? in relation to my business? and so forth.

For the purposes of today’s daily thought question, I’m going to answer it in terms of my most disappointing moment as an entrepreneurial leader (as that is the context the question was originally asked to me).

So here it goes…

I remember my most disappointing moment as an entrepreneur like it was yesterday (because it also doubles as most difficult & emotionally challenging).  My most disappointing moment as an entrepreneur was firing the first “long term” employee for which I had high hopes for.  This particular team member had been with our company for over a year & was on track to run our newest gelateria & become our first non-family member partner.

Think about it..this is like deciding who to marry.  Big decision.  Really important person in your life, right?!

I was at a wedding when I got the call.  It was Labor Day weekend, 2011.  When I received reports of the wrongdoing of one of my team members I was shaking with all sorts of emotion – anger, frustration, disbelief, confusion, guilt, disappointment, and beyond.  As much as I wanted to talk myself out of it, I knew the fire needed to happen.  It was agreed upon by our leadership team.  When someone violates rules that are very clearly laid out & agreed upon, there’s no excuses.  Allowing slippage in rule breaking creates a poison that will ultimately kill a company.  And I didn’t want that.  Driving back from the wedding to the store was such a difficult drive.  I rehearsed my planned script the entire way.  I was shaking.  I got the chills.  I couldn’t feel my legs.  I felt sick to my stomach.  I didn’t want to do this.  I knew I had to though.

Why was this disappointing?

  1. I let my team down.  Not only did I put my team in a potentially dangerous situation, but I felt like I let them down as a leader.  I invested a lot of time, energy, & resources into shaping a future leader only to set us back.
  2. I let my customers down.  Customers knew this individual by name & even still asked about the person after the fact.  Letting them know that the person was no longer apart of the business wasn’t a fun story to tell.
  3. I let myself down.  I let my judgment down.  I was disappointed in myself for not recognizing the character of the person before it came to this.  I felt like I should’ve been able to predict this & thus prevent it before happening.  I was also disappointed in myself for not being a better leader…perhaps something I could have done (or not done) could have prevented this.

Fortunately I learned a lot from this experience.  A lot about myself.  People.  Hiring.  Firing.  Leading.  What to do.  What not to do.  Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

What has been your most disappointing moment?

Venture on,

mel, the venture gal

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Jul 30

Ask the Associate: Getting into an Incubator?

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Dear Venture Gal, 

I’m looking to raise some money for my startup idea by the end of the year & am interested in participating in an incubator for the access to capital & mentorship.  Incubators are looking for alpha products, but I’m not sure what defines an alpha product.  Would I need to have a functioning product that users have already adopted?

Sincerely,

Interested in Incubators

 

 

Dear Interested,

You don’t need a functioning product that users have already adopted in order to get into an accelerator (you mention “incubator” but if you’re thinking TechStars, YCombinator, those are more “accelerators”..there is a difference). Obviously it doesn’t hurt, but there have been plenty of examples of companies that have gotten into accelerators without an alpha product.  That’s a big purpose of accelerators…to help entrepreneurs figure out customers & product/market fit.

On getting into an accelerator by the end of the year, it’s going to depend on the application cycle for the accelerators.  I recommend making a list of all the ones out there & figure out which ones work with your timing & other requirements (not sure if you have a location need or other criteria you want met).

Venture on,

mel, the venture gal

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Jul 22

Hypocritical Art Fair Haters

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Stop hating on the Ann Arbor Art Fair.  Especially if you’re supportive of entrepreneurship in Ann Arbor.

Started in 1960, the Ann Arbor Art Fair didn’t always attract over 500,000 visitors, like it does now.  The Art Fair itself is an entrepreneurial venture & it is also one of the most beautiful displays of entrepreneurship & talent I have seen in Ann Arbor.  Each booth represents an entrepreneur…someone is behind that hand done watercolor or that collapsable beach hat.  Even the food booths have some entrepreneurial story behind them.

If you don’t want to be a hypocrite, stop dissing the Art Fair, yet claiming you want to see more entrepreneurs in Michigan.  Because for a few days a year, Ann Arbor is home to one of the largest concentrations of entrepreneurs at any given time.  These entrepreneurs are from all around the world.  Their pitch isn’t verbal, not always.  It doesn’t need to be.  It’s visual.  It’s the captive image in the photograph.  It’s the feel of the smooth pottery.  The scent of the ethnic foods filling the streets.  The way the crushable hat fits your slightly sunburned head.  The sound of the musical instrument you have not ever heard before.  Take a look for yourself…

 

Since this year’s Art Fair concluded this evening you have a year to reflect on whether or not you’ll support next year’s exposition of entrepreneurs in Ann Arbor.

venture on,

mel, the venture gal

 

 

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Jul 21

1 year ago…

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…was a big day

…was a milestone in a new venture

…was the beginning of something special

…was the grand opening of Iorio’s Gelateria in Ann Arbor, our 2nd gelateria location in Michigan (not sure about this Iorio’s Gelateria…check out this video below of me telling our story at Entre-SLAM).

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Direkt

Today is a special day for me.  Exactly one year ago today we opened Iorio’s Gelateria numero due, number two, in Ann Arbor.  I wrote a bit about some of the highlights over the year, for the store, on our Iorio’s blog.

In the past year I have learned a lot about myself, as an individual, leader, & learner.  In particular,

  • Working with a great team is freaking awesome!  I am so blessed with a great team at Iorio’s.  Sure we are picky about hiring & only hire the best & the brightest, but it’s more than that.
  • Culture is crucial.  Related to working with a great team.  Our team thrives because of our culture…it’s open, it’s fun, it’s consistent, & it’s clear.  I about shed a tear when someone on the team handed over “Iorio’s Commandments” he wrote which embodied our culture to a tee.  Our team gets it. It’s alive.  It’s real.  It’s real sweet.
  • Shit hits the fan.  Our freezer broke.  We ran out of gelato.  Gelato melted.  We ran out of spoons, cups, napkins, you name it.  Our building even set on fire.
  • Family businesses aren’t all that bad.  My brother is my business partner in this venture.  He is amazing.  I am so proud of him.  I couldn’t do this without him.  I think he knows that.  But in case he didn’t I just stated it publicly on the internet.  And since everything on the Internet is true, well, there you have it.  We often get asked how it is to work with each other & it works out really well.  His strengths are my weaknesses & vice versa.  I believe this experience has brought us closer.  I also think fights/arguments/disagreements are even better as related business partners…because at the end of the day we still love each other.  No matter how much we disagree about something.  It all works out in the end.

Mary & Nick featured in the Ann Arbor Observer.

  • One person can’t do everything. Delegate! As soon as I removed myself as the filter in processes things started really cranking.  Sure there were some bumps & lessons to learn along the way, but I’m pretty sure I was the bottleneck in getting  some things done quicker.  Delegate became my new favorite word.  Spending my time on activities that were more value add for me to do & delegating activities that I shouldn’t spend my time on was critical.  Critical for me.  Critical for the business.  Critical for the team.
  • People rise to the occasion.  Smart people like to be challenged.  Challenge them.  Sometimes your expectations will be blown away.  This is another reason not to fear delegation.
  • Perfection isn’t necessary.  We opened our store with no seating. No tables. No chairs.  Very simple.  Enough to get us in business.  Not typical for a retail store like ours.  We got some negative remarks on Yelp.  We knew there was more coming & we wanted to get open asap so we could start generating some cash-flow.  The few negative reviews were worth it, to get product out there quickly, test out our service, our systems & processes.  ”Lean startup” for retail aka just good business sense.
  • Sleep is important.  Get it.  For the first several months I didn’t.  It catches up to you…trust me.
  • Be thankful.  Some days are hard.  There are highs & lows…always.  It’s the life of an entrepreneur.  Enjoy the process & be thankful for everything because it always comes with a lesson if you pay attention.

It’s been a wild ride & I’m excited to keep on the wave with a great team.  Here’s to year due!!

Vive la dolce vita! / Live the sweet life!

venture on,

mel, the venture gal

p.s. if you’re in the area, please stop by & say “ciao”!!

Jul 09

Ask the Associate: Deck vs. Business Plan?

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Dear Associate,

We’ve had conflicting advice of what/how to approach raising money from the ‘send a business plan’ to ‘never send a business plan, only send a 10 slide deck.’  What suggestions do you have?  At what point (if any) do you suggest sharing a business plan and how long would you suggest that business plan be.

Yours Truly,

The Perplexed Presentation Sender

 

Dear Perplexed,

Regarding your question, whether to send a business plan or just a deck, investors have different requests and some may ask for both (and more) or some may just want a deck.  A deck & executive summary is typically enough to get an investor interested.  Business plans are long are probably won’t be read unless the investor has already become interested and wants to dive in further.

Regarding your deck, it’s pretty text heavy so doesn’t really need another document to go along with it…basically your business plan is a longer way to say exactly what you said in the power point deck.  When presenting your deck I do recommend a bit more visual presentation, as it gets boring as an investor (and investor associate) to listen to someone read off text from a deck or word document.  Investors invest in great stories from entrepreneurs solving big problems with innovative solutions…so tell your story in a captivating way.  Especially if you already have some product out there you should have lots of great visual aspects to show.

Venture on,

mel, the Venture Gal

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Jul 02

Improv4 Entrepreneurs & the Women in Mobile Accelerator

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Months ago I had the pleasure of leading an Improv4 Entrepreneurs workshop for the Women in Mobile Accelerator (WIMA) in New York City.  The workshop focus was “the pitch” & since all participants were entrepreneurs they were able to practice their own pitch.  The  goal for the workshop was to improve the entrepreneurs’  skills, perfect their pitches, & have fun!

There are only a few guidelines for these workshops:

  • Agree.  Say yes because no kills a pitch just like it kills an improv scene.  In the workshop, if I ask someone to sing their pitch, guess what?, they’re singing it.  They’re saying yes.
  • And…  In addition to saying “yes”, build on what is given to you.  Say “yes and…” to create something even greater.  This is especially relevant in the marketing focused workshop.  For the pitch workshop this guideline promotes pushing yourself to make even more improvements.
  • No Mistakes.  There are no mistakes.  Only gifts & opportunities.  Each opportunity is a learning opportunity.

We did a Fire Drill exercise to warm up; My Company Your Company to focus on listening & simplifying our story.  Then we did The Perfect Pitch to work on everyone’s individual pitch.  We ended with an Entrepreneur Slam in which the reality of VC is made clear & the importance of being memorable is emphasized.

The key lessons emphasized were:

  • Simple is Memorable
  • Be Present
  • Tell Stories

All which were stressed in each exercise.

I also told the entrepreneurs to stop thinking about “pitches” as “pitches” & start thinking about them as “stories”.  Pitch is a dirty word & really what you need to do is tell your story.  Why are you doing what you’re doing?  What is your story?  What have you learn & where are you going?  There’s more to it than that, but I guess you’ll have to participate in a workshop to get the full story!

Venture on,

MEL the Venture Gal

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May 30

Ask the Associate: Entrepreneurship on Campus & Why VC?

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Dear Associate, 

I am interested to hear about your entrepreneurial experiences on campus, why you chose to work for RPM after graduation, and garner any advice I can. 

Sincerely,

Young & the Questioning

_________________________________________________________

Dear Young & Questioning,

Thanks for the question.

First, my entrepreneurial experiences on campus, at the University of Michigan.  Since I realized at an early age that I had the entrepreneurial bug (starting my first business in high school), I came to campus already having been engaged in the University’s entrepreneurial activities.  When I was a senior in high school & had already chosen UofM to attend in the fall, I attended the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium, an annual conference that connects investors & entrepreneurs.  This was my first foray into the venture capital community in Michigan.  This is where I got some early mentors & started to learn more about the resources at the UofM as well as in the Ann Arbor community.  The conference is put on partially by the Zell Lurie Institute (ZLI) for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Ross School of Business.  There so many different events going on & I attended all that I could & that were interesting to me.  This is how I started to learn more about opportunities & meet people with similar interests.  As soon as I started at UofM in the fall I got involved in all I could at ZLI…sometimes getting involved in activities that weren’t initially open for undergraduates.  Some of those activities included:  Dare to Dream Grants, Michigan Business Challenge, Entrepreneur & Venture Club.

Me & Ned Staebler at the 2010 Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship (ACE) in Ann Arbor

At the business school I also took as many entrepreneurial related classes as available & that fit in my schedule.  One of these classes had me working with a  team of students with a real tech startup in Ann Arbor.  After the class concluded I continued to work with the company when they needed help, as this was a great way for me to stay engaged & continue to learn about building a tech company.  For another class I had the opportunity to work with a medical device startup based in Israel.  With a group of students, we did a lot of “customer discovery” (before it was cool) & put together a go to market strategy for the company.

I also discovered entrepreneurial resources on North Campus, at the Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Engineering.  I took a couple classes up there & loved it & carved the path for other non engineering students to get credit for those classes as well.

On choosing to work at RPM Ventures after graduation.  I didn’t plan on working in VC after graduating from college.  I thought I’d end up working for a tech startup or doing something else to help companies get started & grow.  I was interested in VC, especially after learning more through my experiences working with tech companies & my involvement at MGCS.  When the option to work in VC presented itself I reflected on a couple things:  What did I want to learn?  What were my goals?  Where did I see myself in 5 years? 10 years?

Of course all of those had the possibility of changing, but in answering those questions for myself I was able to align what I needed to learn with what I would have the opportunity to learn by working in VC.  In its simplest form, I wanted to be a great entrepreneur building companies that change the world.  Working in VC allows me to not work on & learn from building one company, but rather, work on & learn from building over a dozen companies.  Disclaimer:  Not all VC firms are alike.  I work for an early stage VC firm that is hands on & am fortunate to get to work directly with some of our portfolio companies.  Not all VC firms are like that though, & many junior VC roles are less involved with the portfolio.  If you are considering in working in VC do your homework.  Already, after 2 years working in VC, I have learned so much that will help me do just what I want – to be a great entrepreneur building companies that change the world.

Any other advice?  Yes, keep reading my blog or ask any specific questions & I’m happy to answer.

Venture on,

MEL aka Venture Gal

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