Month: April 2011

In2Lex Startup Advantage Conference & why you can build a company anywhere

/ Robert Pease / 2 Comments

In2Lex

I had the opportunity to attend and speak at the Startup Advantage Conference last week in Lexington, KY.

My good friend Jim Clifton was involved in organizing the event and asked me to speak along with some really amazing people like Micah Baldwin of Graphic.ly, Deal Architect Vinnie Mirchandani, Tim Schigel of ShareThis, Brian Wong of Kiip, and Rolf Skyberg of eBay among others.

I always enjoy my time in Lexington and am of the belief that you can start a company anywhere.  The ecosystem around you can definitely hurt or hinder your progress but in a world of high speed connections, web collaboration, and reduced distribution friction for software applications, location is not a disqualifier.

I met some great people and cool companies like Pheeva & Keepio including attending a pre-conference reception with Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.  We also had an amazing breakfast overlooking the Keeneland horse track as thoroughbreds had their morning workouts (a top 10 experience for me for sure).

Keeneland

The energy level was high and it was clear there was a focused effort to nurture and encourage entrepreneurship in this community.  I even capped off my visit with dinner at Le Deauville with the founder of Fark Drew Curtis and Rolf.

My presentation was later in the day so everyone was a bit tired (including me) but I focused on building a conversion funnel, ramping it up, and then what happens upon exit for a startup – "The End of the Beginning"

Big thanks to Randall Stevens and the rest of the crew in Lexington for including me and being leaders in their community focused on driving entrepreneurship and innovation.  I can't wait to return…

In2Lex 2011: Traction and Exit (The End of the Beginning)

Did you really just send me this?

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Talk about bad sales + email marketing.

I just received this email from someone wanting to sell me email marketing lists.  Let's assume they are of quality as they got my email address from somewhere, would you do business with these folks?

I won't get hung up on the fact that I am not looking for marketing lists (read my post on buyer signaling) but come on, this thing is ugly, has way too many words, and is the type of thing you send someone when they ask…not to start the conversation.

DidYouReallySendMeThis

Why not just cut 10% of all spending?

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

That's my budget plan for the U.S.

No politics, no policy, no ideology. Just take 10% across the board from all programs and expenditures.

Yes, I know that this is more important than that or another program is key to us "winning the future" or whatever the tag line of the day may be.  That is the beauty of this approach – everything is treated equally with no influence, lobbying, or pet projects.

Get it from cutting waste, making operations more efficient, or even (egad!) innovating around people, process, or technology.

It won't solve the problem of our national debt but it will get us started without this nonsense of who goes first and who is more "extreme."

Most of us (hopefully) have a budget or spending plan.  It's not ideal to reduce it by 10% but it can be done.

Why can't all these really "smart people" we elect do the same?

Thank you for your support in 2012…

Four years of blogging

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Wow. Hard to believe I started doing this four years ago today.    

I re-read my first post again and wanted to share this excerpt as it continues to be the rough theme that I try to stick to with my posts:

My selection of "Reply to All" as a title of this blog is indicative of the challenges and habits created by our technology "enablers" in our modern workplace.  I seek to touch on how we communicate as people and how young companies struggle and strive to make the process better, faster, cheaper, etc.

Thanks to everyone who reads my posts regularly and to those who stop by no matter how briefly.  I'm glad I added this to my life four years ago and look forward to doing it for many more to come.