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).

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…