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In the last MetroStart podcast, we talked to Cornbread Hemp’s Jim Higdon about their ongoing equity crowdfunding round. This week, we talk to Jim again about how they knocked it out of the park – nailing an oversubscribed $107,000 round in just 17 days! Listen to the podcast to learn how they were so successful, even in the middle of the Coronavirus shutdown.   Podcast Transcript (This is machine transcribed, so please forgive the typos.) Alan (00:03): Welcome everyone to the MetroStart podcast. This is Alan Grosheider and I’m here today again with Jim Higdon. Jim is the co founder of Cornbread Hemp ,and it’s a first for Metrostart because I’m interviewing Jim for the second time in a row. So it’s the first time I’ve ever interviewed the same person twice right in a row. And there’s a good reason for that. In the last podcast we talked about a capital raise that a cornbread hemp was going through and what was the first, because they received $20,000 from Render Capital and they were the first to be accepted into we funders special program with render capital for a discounted rate with we funder and they were doing a capital raise and I won’t spoil the surprise but uh, about what happened cause we’ll talk about it but Hey Jim. Okay, great to have you back again. And I guess we’ll go ahead and say what it is and congratulations because Jim and Cornbread Hemp, they just finished a fund raise on Wefunder and raised the full amount in, what was it, two weeks? Jim (01:20): It was 17 days. Alan (01:24): Wow and in the middle of the coronavirus thing, Jim (01:29): Right in April of 2020. Alan (01:33): Crazy. But it’s a, it’s a great sign of what’s going on with crowdfunding. Crowdfunding. Equity crowd funding is a really good way to raise capital for your company. Even in tough times. Probably an easier way during tough times if it’s a product that people like and people can identify with. Um, so quickly, just, just so in case somebody is listening to this podcast and didn’t listen to the other one, tell a little bit about what corn bread hemp is. Jim (02:03): Sure. So cornbread hip is a CBD brand based here, Louisville, Kentucky, where the first Kentucky based CBD brand to offer USPA certified organic CBD oils, which is how we kind of got out of the, uh, out of the norm brands and really elevated ourselves to a national level. Um, we’ve been, uh, we’ve been offering certified organic CBD products since, uh, the end of last year. Uh, and, um, we had been plotting several different fundraising strategies last year and nothing really clicked. A Louisville is a particular sort of, uh, you know, ecosystem, uh, for capital and fundraising. Um, and so at the beginning of the year we decided to shift gears and pursue a crowd funding strategy. Equity crowd funding was new to me, a learn. Most of my beginning, uh, understanding of crowd was through talking to you and some of these other folks in the Louisville startup community. Um, I was familiar with a Kickstarter and go fund me and Patrion, but none of those are pro, uh, platforms that, that sell equity, uh, in a, in a crowdfunding capacity. Jim (03:16): So understanding the mechanics of what equity crowd funding would look like is something that I had to learn on the fly and we put these pieces together and we were ready to go. Um, in March, uh, we were going to go on another platform and someone in the Louisville startup community, actually, Larry Horn at leap said, told us, Hey, did you know about this matching fund between render and we funder. Um, and we didn’t. So we switch gears and replatform I’m really in the Nick of time. Um, and um, it just really set us up for success. Uh, we got that Mmm relationship between render and we funder, um, that we got a discount on the percentage that we funder’s going to take on the res. And a render matched our first 20 K. so on our first day out in the, in the raise, our goal is to put that first 20 K together. Jim (04:16): We did that in a couple of hours, uh, and then we got rendered to match it before lunch on day one. Um, and then by the end of day one we had 50 K. so we’ve under has a really smart, um, platform characteristic where, um, in the friends and family round in the beginning when you were getting your ducks in a row, uh, instead of showing an amount raised on the page, it has a countdown clock for when it’s going to go public to encourage people to get in without showing them what the level of funding is so that it doesn’t look like we’re starting from zero. And then when you have enough in the bank there you can, you can flip the switch and turn that countdown clock off. So we had started the countdown clock to for April 15th to give ourselves some lead time, but we’ve flipped it public at the end of day one. Nice. So that was how we got started. And uh, the, just the, the momentum that the local startup community was able to, uh, facilitate for us principally through that render matching investment, um, you know, just really created a, uh, you know, a sense of inevitability and it created, you know, let us present strong to the investment world. And we were able to put together probably more than half of those investments. And then the we funder network, Mmm. Has really taken care of the rest. Jim (05:57): That’s Alan (05:58): something I was curious about. So are you able to tell what percentage of investments came from the we funder network versus your advertising and your network? Jim (06:11): Well, yes, because our advertising efforts have been rather minimal on this. We have, we have run some Facebook ads and we’ve definitely gotten stuff, few investments off of those ads. So there has been some, uh, result from, from the advertising. Um, but in terms of our friends and family network customers, uh, business associates of porn bread, uh, you know, those are pretty easy to identify. And then in terms of the leaf under people, you know, w, you know, we’re getting investments that range from $100 to $5,000 from people we’ve never met before. Alan (06:51): Man, that’s amazing. Jim (06:53): And right now I think that number is something like 37 States, uh, four of the five boroughs of New York city and five continents. Um, our international investments come from places like, uh, Vancouver, London. Um, and Dora Poland, Mmm. South Africa, uh, Australia, Singapore, Pakistan. It’s really, it’s really amazing, Alan (07:25): eh, you know, there, there’s a good, I think that comes out of that that I have been arguing for awhile and I learned from doing some of my own crowdfunding that when you’re raising capital for a company, it’s all about the people that invest. It’s all about whether or not they are excited about what you’re doing. And when you go to your local startup community and you go and you talk to the, the active angel investors, that’s a very small audience and that’s a very, uh, the, you know, they, they all have their own preferences and interests. So it’s really difficult to find that person in a really small group that has a real interest in your product or your service that you’re building. So you’re, you’re out of the gate. It’s really hard to find a good find enough fit investors to help you get your company started. But when you use a crowd funding mechanism like this where it is opened up to the world, and I’m surprised, I didn’t realize that, uh, that investors outside the United States could invest through we funder and reg CF, Jim (08:37): I mean news to me too, that we can’t, we don’t ship products outside because our products are full spectrum. They can handle legal amount of THC by a federal standards. But getting them through customs in another country is just impossible. So we had an investor from Australia who invested and then asked us to send product. Alan (08:55): We appreciate the investment, but we can’t get products to your customers. So, but that’s, you know, w when, when you’re able to reach a large audience like that, it doesn’t take millions and millions of people to find people that are interested in what you’re doing and bring in enough money to, to raise capital. So, you know, just kind of a recap from our, our last podcast for those who didn’t hear it, w what happens when you, a regulation CF crowd fund allows you to go to a site like we funder fill out. Uh, I’ve walked through the process of a form C, which is a filing with the sec. Then it becomes when, when that’s approved, you are legal to, to go to the crowd and sell shares or other equity instruments in your company. So you’re selling equity in your company and um, and their platform makes it easy for those investors to sign your investment agreement and, and pay you and they collect all the money for you in an escrow account. Alan (10:02): And then when you’re done with your capital raise, you cash it out minus a fee, which it was 5% because of your discount with render. And typically seven and a half percent, I think seven, even 7%, uh, is the sort of, uh, retail price. If you just go onto their website. If you go through a organization like render, then it’s 5%. So that’s an amazing way to raise capital. My, I think that that is, yeah. In the next five or 10 years, that will be how almost all startups raise capital. Yeah. For anyone listening to this podcast in the Louisville Southern Indiana area. If you’re considering doing a fundraise like this, it just makes sense. Like reach out to render capital and, and do this through them with, uh, this partnership that they have just really couldn’t be better. And it made this process, it was reall

Louisville’s Cornbread Hemp just scored a local fundraising first. They’re the first company to receive Render Capital’s $20,000 investment in their WeFunder Match Fund. They’re also the first local company to raise funds using Regulation CF equity crowdfunding through WeFunder, one of the nation’s top equity crowdfunding portals. Equity crowdfunding is the way of the future for startup companies, and Cornbread Hemp is blazing the trail in the Louisville area. In this episode of the MetroStart podcast, learn: — how Cornbread hemp got started; — what they learned about equity crowdfunding; — the pros and cons of equity crowdfunding; — pitfalls to avoid; and — how to make equity crowdfunding successful.     Transcript (This has been machine transcribed, so there may be some typos.) Alan (00:02): Welcome everybody to the MetroStart podcast. I’m Alan Grosheider, and today I’m talking to Jim Higdon. He’s a cofounder of Cornbread Hemp Company, and we’ve been talking about raising capital and what he did to get his company started for a little while. And I’ve been trying to give him any experience that I could and what I’ve learned in raising capital. And he is hot in the middle of doing a regulation CF crowdfunding capital raise on Wefunder. So we thought it was a good, a good time for us to talk, to help others learn the process that he went through to get his company started and, and what he’s doing to raise capital. Hey Jim? Jim (00:47): Uh, Hey. Thanks for, thanks for having me. It’s really, this is really great. Alan (00:51): Yeah. So just, just for recording our thoughts right now, we’re, we’re right in the middle of all the coronavirus stuff and everybody’s on lockdown and staying home. So it’s, it’s a really weird, interesting time. Jim (01:07): Yeah. It’s a strange time to be running a business and raising capital. It really kind of afraid about, uh, you know, how this was, you know, obviously you and I had been talking about Cornbread Hemp and us raising capital for six months now or so. Um, and so this is not an, not a new thing for us, but as we finally got our legs under us and finally figured out the path forward and how to do a reg CF crowd fund and, and, and, and to find the right platform for our crowd fund, uh, all these things took a little time and as soon as we got everything lined up ready to go, that here here comes a global pandemic, you know, not something that we anticipated dealing with obviously. Um, but you know, doing a quick heat check on ourselves and our company, we really feel like we’re a company of the moment. Uh, we were getting reviews from customers saying that our products help them with the anxiety they’re feeling as a result of social distancing, uh, related to the coronavirus. And it’s just a really, um, it’s a really good time too to be, I’m trying to grow a company that is helpful in this situation. Alan (02:18): Yeah, I think there’s, there, there are a few industries that are going to do pretty well. You know, my day job is a company called Bluetooth 22 that helps companies manage remote employees and manage remote contractors. And it looks like it’s actually going to be something that is a good thing in this weird economy where people can’t travel. Jim (02:42): So we’re, or the travel is certainly going to be deemphasized and all alternatives are going to, are going to be looked at first. Alan (02:49): Right. So let’s talk about how you got the company started and maybe maybe a little bit of back about your background first. Where did you grow up in the Louisville area? Jim (02:59): I grew up in Lebanon, which is Marion County, which is on the other side of Bardstown, hens on who you ask whether that’s the Louisville area or not. But anytime I’ve ever been in a bar and anyone asks me where I was from, I can always point to the bottle of maker’s Mark behind the bar and say, I’m from there. Um, so, uh, I grew up in, in central Kentucky and went to central college and then went off to school in the Northeast. I went to Brown for a master’s degree and then I went to Columbia journalism school. And while at Columbia I put together a book proposal to come back and report the story from my hometown, which was the cornbread mafia, a story of a 70 men arrested on 30 marijuana farms in 10 States in the late eighties with what police said was 200 tons of marijuana. Jim (03:47): And then the success of that book led me into a journalism career and I was covering, uh, I was freelancing for the Washington post when news broke in Kentucky. And I was also covering cannabis policy for outlets like Politico, excuse me, those, a motorcycle driving by. Um, it’s when I was covering, uh, the farm bill, uh, hip, the hip legalization aspect of the farm bill of 2018, uh, for Politico, I saw a CBD hemp harvest come in in Western Kentucky and realize the reality of, of the CBD marketplace was finally upon us. And none of the brands, none of the companies that were working to get this industry on its legs. I felt we’re doing things the right way where they in, in terms of branding and evoking the Kentucky traditions that made this whole thing possible. And by virtue of having literally written the book on Kentucky cannabis realized that I had, um, advantages in, uh, in the marketing in the hip marketing space that just weren’t being exercised elsewhere and really understood it to be my opportunity. Jim (04:56): Uh, I had a, uh, an investor, uh, who, who had tried for years at that point to buy the film rights to my book, to the corporate mafia book. And because they were tied up elsewhere, I just couldn’t do it. But I maintained a relationship with this guy, um, because I just personally liked him. And then when this opportunity presented, presented itself, he was a natural first, uh, uh, first source for a seed capital for as an angel investor. So I partnered with my first cousin, Eric, who is a young, uh, e-commerce Wiz with an MBA in two e-commerce exits under his belt before, uh, he and I joined forces to start cornbread, him and we had this angel investment of a hundred grand lined up at the beginning of 2019 in January. And then by April of 2019, we were shipping our first products. And so when you and I first started talking about, uh, fundraising and crowdfunding was about six months after that, we were, uh, you know, uh, doing revenue Alan (05:58): rolling in, in revenue nuisance. We product launched in April. So this month, April, 2020 is our first month over month. A set of data or we are our first, our one year birthday was just last week. And so we’re, you know, we’re moving right along. That’s how we got here. That’s fantastic. How do, explain a little bit about the, the legal side of CBD versus marijuana in, in, you know, just [inaudible] cause I don’t really understand w w where the legal land lies right now. Jim (06:37): It’s a very good question and it’s hard to know because when you see these CBD fields, uh, videos, videos, we have of the CV of the, of the hip farms that were, uh, extracting CBD from their unfertilized female flower to an untrained eye or to even a trained eye, they look and smell like marijuana. Uh, and that’s certainly not what people thought they were legalizing when they decided to legalize him. But what happened was, uh, when co when Congress first in 2014 in the farm bill and then in 2018, um, uh, created these pilot programs and then outright legalization, they did it by changing the definition of him. To me, the cannabis plant with not more than 0.3% Delta nine THC, which is the, the cannabinoid in cannabis that that produces the euphoric high feeling, right? So they changed the definition of hint to be the cannabis plant where they rock bottom level of THC. Um, and so instantly geneticists in legal States were, I’m presented with a challenge. Uh, all you have to do is create, um, females, cannabis flowers whose THC level is federally compliant. And then you’ve got a legal plant. So that’s, that was the revolution between 2014 and 2018 is geneticists taking advantage of this redefinition of him as just being defined by the THC level and breeding varieties of cannabis that matched that definition. Alan (08:16): So this is just way off the business side, but it’s fascinating to me that that marijuana is illegal and alcohol is not illegal. It can, I assume being the historian that you are and involved in, in the, uh, this industry, that you have a pretty good idea of why it’s now illegal and you know, what, what took place? Can you give a short story on, on, you know, why, why is marijuana illegal and alcohol is not Jim (08:48): the, the, the short history of the marijuana prohibition. It’s no coincidence that alcohol prohibition ends in 1933 and cannabis prohibition begins four years later in 1937. Um, more than anything, both these prohibitions are forms of population control and specifically minority control. These are racist laws meant to control minority populations. Um, in the case of, of the book that I wrote, cornbread mafia where there’s 70 guys on the record being arrested, all of them white. This is very much a, um, an exception that proves the rule, rule concept and very, uh, very few. In fact, in the documents I have cover, um, from uh, internal FBI DEA records, um, investigating the cornbread mafia. They were mystified that uh, all these guys were white, but there were no minorities involved, no foreign nationals involved because every drug organization by definition involved minorities and foreign nationals. Um, because the nature of drug laws is to control minority people and minority pop

Steven Plappert and two co-founders, Andrew Busa and Chris Pierce, started an online fantasy sports company in 2013 called FantasyHub. The company saw early promise and growth, moved to Austin, TX to join the TechStars accelerator program, and even attracted $1.1 million in investments. However, due to issues in the industry as a whole, FantasyHub eventually shut down and sold parts of their operations to another fantasy sports company called DraftKings. In the world of startup companies, you learn more from being in the game than you ever could from reading any books or even earning an MBA. So, the experience was a fantastic learning opportunity. Steven is now back in Louisville, sharing his experience with our local startup community. He’s also back in the game with a new startup called Forecastr. In this episode of the MetroStart podcast, learn how Steven got started as an entrepreneur, how he funded his previous company, and what he has learned from his entrepreneurial journey. Also learn what’s happening with his new startup and where they’re going.   Transcript (Machine transcribed, so please forgive the typos.) Alan: 00:02 Hey everybody. Welcome to the MetroStart podcast. This is Alan Grosheider. On this podcast I talk to local entrepreneurs about how they got started, about their ups and downs, and about anything else that might help other entrepreneurs. Today I’m talking to Steven Plappert. He started a company a while back called FantasyHub, and he’s currently the CFO and in business development for a company called VentureFirst, and is building another startup called forecaster. Hey, Steven. Steven: 00:28 Hey Alan. How’s it going? Alan: 00:30 Good. Does that, did I say everything right there? I said, is that accurate? Steven: 00:34 Sorry, I’m, I’m not the CFO of venture first. I’m in the finance department, so I do operate as an outsourced, uh, head of finance or CFO for a lot of our client companies, but not a venture first proper. Alan: 00:46 I got you. Steven: 00:46 Other than that, you’ve got it perfect. Alan: 00:48 I understand. Did I say Plappert right? You did. You did. All right. Everybody butchers, my last name is pronounced “Gross – Hider”, not “Gro – Shider” you know, so I’m used to, so anyway, let’s talk about kind of how you got started. I love finding out what people, you know, when people kind of got the entrepreneurial bug. And I’m always interested in finding out what, what got you started at a young age. Were you entrepreneurial as a kid? Steven: 01:19 Yeah, I’d say so. I was definitely entrepreneurial is that give, but I don’t think I used that term or knew that I was, if that was, you know, I mean I, I was very curious. Uh, I was always very independent. I was kind of uh, do my own thing kind of guy. And I always asked a lot of questions. So I think at a basic level that’s kind of the entrepreneurial mindset, you know, you want to asking questions, solving problems, being kind of a self starter. Um, and actually my father was an entrepreneur and still today as he’s owned his own business for the last 20 years, uh, somewhat paradoxical. I didn’t really view him as an entrepreneur because again, I would, didn’t really have a lot of exposure to that world. So I didn’t really see him as a, as a founder, if you will. Steven: 01:59 I just saw him as I just said, hey, you know, I Know Dad dad’s got his own thing. Uh, but that’s all I really, really thought about. And, uh, when I went into, when I went into college, actually wasn’t planning on starting my own business at all. I wasn’t even on my radar. Uh, I was always kind of a math nerd growing up and that was always my forte. So when I went into college I was like, well, you know, I’m good at math and I want to make a good money so you know, what’s the profession where I could do that? And I looked at, I was actually considering being an actuary as funny as that is to me now, cause I would never do that anymore. Um, but that was a, that was what I thought I wanted to do first. And then it kind of slowly devolved from there. As I got older and went through college and just became more mature and kind of gave me more critical thoughts with that life path, I wanted to take it slowly steered more and more away from kind of a big corporate environment and more and more towards the sort of startup environment. Alan: 02:53 Yeah, let’s, uh, you know, I kinda, my background in, I got a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue and it was kind of the same way. I just, I was always good at math and I sorta thought I didn’t, I didn’t really think about being an entrepreneur, but I w I wanted to do something that seemed like it made, you know, I could make money doing it. And something I always recommend for my daughter and any, I think anybody who’s a young student or whatever that might listen to this is that you really, you’ve got to pay attention to what things you really enjoy doing. And I wish I had done that at an, at an earlier age. Well, not, I’m glad I got an engineering degree. I mean, that’s never bad to have on a resume, but it’s, you know, I never spent any time thinking about what do I really enjoy doing? I just thought, okay, engineering, I’m good at math makes money. That’s it. Steven: 03:42 Yeah, exactly. I actually have a similar, you know, had similar story and now I have kind of a three-pronged paradigm where it’s like, um, you know, what’s you’re good at, what you like to do and what people will pay you for or the three prongs of the triangle essentially. And, and if you do what you like to do and when someone pays you to do, but you’re not good at it, uh, you’re, you clearly won’t have a job for very long. If you do what you like to do and what you’re good at, but no one will pay you for a while, then you know, you don’t really have a job. And if you do something that you’re good at and something that people will pay you for, but you don’t like to do it, uh, then you’re just kind of on a course to burn out. So I think you really need to have all three of those prongs, you know, represented in a job. You need it to be something that you’re passionate about, something that you’re good at and something that you can make money down. Alan: 04:32 It’s so hard to find that combination too. It’s um, because it seems like so many stable jobs where you make a lot of money. You, you mentioned actuary, that just sounds horrible to me. Nothing against anybody out there who’s an actuary. But, um, something where it’s just so many boring jobs out there. And For me, being an entrepreneur, I love the roller coaster of being an entrepreneur. Uh, but you know, it’s just not for everybody, but it’s so hard to figure out what you really enjoy doing in and then move in that direction. I guess it’s just more of an iterative thing where you, hey, I enjoy that. I’m going to take a step in that direction. And then, Steven: 05:15 yeah, I think so. And I think to your point, it’s one of those things where that, that piece of it is the piece I think people don’t think about as much. You know, people often think about, well, what am I talented at and what can I get a job doing? And that’s usually the approach and maybe not as much what do I like to do? And, and I think that, yeah, that’s something that all entrepreneurs, you know, do have that mindset around, uh, you know, not just stopping at what they’re good at and what, and what people will pay them for. And I think people, you know, one of the things that I tried to do, you just kind of with my friends and folks that I know and that kind of thing, it’s just empower them to realize that, you know, really like you can get a job doing almost anything. Steven: 05:51 And if you really just think about what you like to do, there’s a way into that world. You know, a lot of people kind of assume that there’s more red tape or barriers and there actually are, or they say, oh, well I don’t have a background in that, or I didn’t go to school for that. And, um, you know, it’s really just kind of an artificial barrier. I think you can really bust through those if you just have the right strategy. If you can just know how to break into those worlds, I think you can. So I would try to influence people to really kind of go after that. Alan: 06:19 Well, you just, you gotta ask and you know, that’s one of the things that, that have found in life is you just ask, ask, ask, ask for what you want. And then eventually somebody tells you where to go, where to go to make it happen or at least get closer. And I think so many people are afraid to just say, hey, I like this. And then ask somebody how to get there. But that’s a good, Steven: 06:38 yeah, exactly. You know, if you have, if you have a job that you want to pursue or you want to do, I mean go find somebody doing that job and ask them out to coffee. And to your point, ask them, hey, are there any opportunities? Can I work underneath ea? Can I do this? Gotta do that. Like you said, make that ask, I mean, people, people send a lot of times and say, well, I’ll just look on indeed and you know, whatever there is there is. And I think that that personal approach of approaching people, building a relationship, one-on-one, asking for what you want has lots to be said for that. Alan: 07:09 Yeah. And these days with Linkedin it’s a lot easier. You can kind of sniff out who you want to go after and ask them. Often my brothers had gotten several jobs that way of just like, you know, nailing people on Linkedin

People often cite healthcare as an area of expertise that may help propel Louisville, KY to greater startup and business prominence in the United States, and Dr. Angelique Johnson is helping us make that happen. She holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and in computer engineering, a masters in electrical engineering, and a PhD in electrical engineering. Her doctoral work lead her to the development of technologies that she now applies in her own company called MEMStim. To quote directly from their website: “At MEMStim we produce implantable electrode leads capable of providing targeted electrical stimulation to highly dense and small nerve fiber groups. Using automated Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) manufacturing similar to that of the micro-computer chip industry, we create biocompatible electrode leads, which, just like computers, can be made smaller, and do much more than their hand-assembled counterparts.” The website also notes that, “We are an early stage startup dedicated to enhancing the full lives of individuals with Parkinson’s tremors, chronic pain, or hearing loss.” So, Elon Musk is not the only guy out there creating implants! Learn how Dr. Johnson got started and how she is helping to put Louisville on the high tech healthcare map.  

After years of working in the corporate world, Mo Sloan saw a need. Online ordering systems that were available to restaurants had a glaring problem. They do not integrate with the restaurant’s current point-of-sale systems. This causes many restaurants to forego offering any sort of online ordering, even though the demand is very high. Mo set out to create a solution: EZ-Chow. The company found early traction and is growing fast. Entrepreneurs like Mo are a great example of how the “Third Wave” of growth of the Internet is happening. Specifically, people like Mo with industry experience are spotting problems and creating solutions with current technology. Learn how Mo saw the opportunity, how he got started, and where EZ-Chow is headed in this MetroStart podcast interview.  

What single Louisville company is part of the same fraternity as Airbnb and Dropbox? It’s a company called WeatherCheck, and they now are an alumnus of the prestigious Silicon Valley accelerator Y-Combinator. They’re the first and only Y-Combinator company to date from Kentucky! Demetrius Gray, Founder of WeatherCheck, and Co-Founder Jermaine Watkins recently returned from their 4-month stint with the accelerator, and it has proven to be an amazing accelerator for their company. In this podcast, I have an in-depth conversation with Demetrius and learned: ◊ more about his background and how he became and entrepreneur, ◊ how WeatherCheck got started and raised early seed capital, ◊ how they got into Y-Combinator, ◊ what they learned from Y-Combinator that can apply to our startup community, and ◊ where they’re headed. This is a must-listen podcast for our startup community and aspiring entrepreneurs.   Transcript (This was machine transcribed. Please forgive the typos.) Alan: 00:00:01 Hi everybody. Welcome to the MetroStart podcast. This is Alan Grosheider, and today I’m interviewing Demetrius Gray. He’s a founder of WeatherCheck and the first Louisville area company to, I think. right Demetrius, ever get into Y-Combinator? Demetrius: 00:00:18 Yeah, man. The first actually in the state of Kentucky. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, wow. Alan: 00:00:25 That’s pretty amazing because that’s one of those, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve heard of y Combinator and you’ve heard of Airbnb and I guess Dropbox and some of the big companies that have gone through y Combinator. So congratulations man. That’s amazing. Demetrius: 00:00:39 Man. It was, it was a heck of an experience. I mean we, uh, we were out there for like three months and I’m like, I’m just telling you, you know, I’m out there still once a month for about a week at a time and um, it’s been really cool to kind of, um, build a little bit of a bridge to the bay area, um, with a heck of a lot of access. Alan: 00:01:02 Yeah. And I think I’m excited because it seems like that access is going to be good for other companies in our area, since you guys are pretty tied into the startup community. And in fact, you know, you and I have, have, have some combined founders and, and you know, I, hopefully it’s going to be good for the whole startup community. It’s those connections kind of take off. Okay. All right, well why don’t we start, let’s kind of get an idea about, I like to find out what got somebody started being an entrepreneur and it seems like there’s a lot of common common denominators that, you know, got somebody that made somebody want to be an entrepreneur. So I’m just curious, you know, about growing up and what got, what made you want to be an entrepreneur? Would you do, what was your, your childhood like were you an entrepreneur as a kid? Those sorts of things. Demetrius: 00:01:54 Yeah. So, um, so you’ve heard of the Book Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Yeah, I probably will eventually write a book called Black Dad White Dad. Alan: 00:02:06 Okay. Demetrius: 00:02:08 Um, my mother actually married a, um, petroleum engineer, white guy from, um, uh, central California, um, Stanford educated, um, petroleum engineer. Um, his, his, his father actually had invented the horizontal drill, um, for the oil and gas industry, which really kind of, um, opened my world. And then, um, my, uh, grandmother on that side, um, her father had invented a form of die casting, um, called Granger’s. Dot Casting and southern California. And so, um, it was really my first sort of foray into entrepreneurship, having watched to them I’m running oil and gas proliferation company, um, that was eventually sold to Halliburton. Um, then, uh, before that, um, then watching my, my great grandfather Harlow’s, um, die casting company, um, pass success simply through generations and eventually be sold. Um, and so, you know, every meal was about sort of like what’s going on in the business. Demetrius: 00:03:23 And so I had a, um, an early front row seat, um, to, you know, that life. So obviously eventually came out. I actually steered clear up the oil and gas business. I really wanted to start by wanting to go to medical school. Um, but then got the accounting, uh, and, uh, um, eventually ended up in a business of my own. But, uh, yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s where the impetus come from. I mean, I still talk to my dad and grandfather nearly every day, um, just about what’s going on at whether Jack and has a gun and, you know, um, those sort of encouragement that every entrepreneur needs to kind of keep going. Um, anybody who’s, for instance, the old Facebook knows, like, they’ll see this old white guy who signs every post poppy father who’s like encouraging me to keep going. But I mean, I’m so grateful to them for, um, they’re just continuing to pour into me and believe in, uh, you know, what we’re building. So, yeah. Alan: 00:04:34 That was that. So is your dad or Stepdad or was it, Demetrius: 00:04:38 yeah, so take me as my Stepdad and, uh, yeah, I mean, but you know, by marriage, you know, just lucky hitting, um, um, eventually came to find out that my biological father had his own sort of entrepreneurial journey in the franchise business in and a South Carolina. And, um, I was able to reestablish the relationship with him and years later, um, in my teenage years. And, um, and so he’s had a considerable amount of entrepreneurial success in the franchise space. And so, um, with Lyndie’s and chick-fil-a and, and so, yeah. You know, just, uh, kinda crazy that, uh, that no matter where I looked, there was this sort of entrepreneurial energy, um, that I guess I was sort of predestined for. Alan: 00:05:35 I see. You’ve got the jeans. Yeah. It’s interesting because there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to people deciding to people becoming entrepreneurial. It almost seems like a Jean because there, I’ve talked to a number of people who had no entrepreneur ism in their family there. Their parents were teachers or professors and they grew up, uh, you know, we’re with nobody really being an entrepreneur in the family and they just had that drive. And then in your case, it sounds like there were entrepreneurs all over the place as you were growing up. Demetrius: 00:06:11 So the little town that I grew up in, in western Kentucky Madisonville I mean, there’s so many entrepreneurial people there. Um, I, you know, I don’t think they know what we have in some ways. Um, I don’t know if you don’t have the business locally and liberal Mercer transportation. It is owned by a guy named her Blegen whose also from my hometown of Madisonville, Kentucky. Um, and he sold his other Trump Ligon transportation to Landstar trucking, um, which was a huge sale. Um, and so, and her bloops that and like, well, this is great dude. Um, and, uh, then, you know, loud donuts from down and engineering here in Louisville. Huge outfit of forensic engineers. I’m number two in the country, I believe also Lau don’t an engineering started in Madisonville, Kentucky. Uh, so it’s a weird sort of place. Um, but the entrepreneurial spirit there in terms of building or, um, you know, you look at Brook, bluegrass pharmacy started there. Um, you know, just these sort of juggernauts of companies that kind of come out of that area of the state. But yeah. And then obviously Steve Bryshere, uh, his family originally from Hopkins can, where it’s space. So I know them very well. So yeah. Alan: 00:07:36 That’s interesting cause it seems like a lot of times in those, in smaller towns, there’s one sort of boss hog cat and guy that that owns everything and everybody else works for him. But it sounds like that town, you know, spinning off a lot of entrepreneurs. Demetrius: 00:07:51 Yeah. I mean they’re doing a wonderful job at it and, and um, you know, I think, I don’t even know if they realize how well they’ve done that daily, exactly that. But, um, but yeah, you know, I wouldn’t try to do it for anything. Alan: 00:08:05 Is there anything there that you, you see that, that helps push that along, that, that creates that atmosphere? Demetrius: 00:08:12 No, it is, um, I think the, there’s a certain freedom in that community to explore and to be, um, I spent, you know, childhood riding my bike around town and going to the local hamburger shop. And it almost sounds like I grew up in the 1950s, but you know, it just, it just was a great town to grow up in. You know, there weren’t really many limitations. Like I didn’t, I didn’t feel like there was any sort of, uh, racial animus towards success, you know, that, you know, you’d think small town, you know, Western Kentucky that, you know, I’m not, certainly there weren’t a whole bunch of black role models or anything like that, but, but, um, you know, like you, if you were relatively smart and you know, for the most part everybody wanted you to succeed, you know, and um, and, and so I had a lot of help from the community, kind of helped get me off to college and all that good stuff. Alan: 00:09:18 I think that’s probably so important is the, just drilling into somebodies head that it’s possible no matter, you know, what their background is. If somebody grows up in an atmosphere where people are around them acting like it’s not possible. That’s kind of what you think. And if, if you grow up with people always just saying you can do anything you put your mind to, I think maybe that’s, I think that’s probably the deciding factor on whether a kid grows up to, to be more entrepr

  Since the very beginning, MetroStart (formerly Metro Startup Launcher) has worked to make it easier for startup companies in our area to raise capital and get started. With a lot of trial and error, we believe we have figured out a much easier way for startups to raise capital. The same method allows investors to invest smaller amounts and spread their risk, which statistically produces huge returns compared to typical stock market returns. As we have worked to build the audience for MetroStart over the last couple years, we’ve heard a lot of common themes: ◾ It’s REALLY difficult to raise the first $25,000 to $50,000 for startups that need a small amount of cash to get started. ◾ NO ONE wants to be the first investor to help me get my concept off the ground. ◾ After raising my initial chunk of capital (sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars), we just can’t seem to find any additional investors. ◾ All the serious angel investors say they are tapped out.   And, from the investor side, we’ve heard similar things: ◾ I don’t want to be the first investor on someone’s idea. ◾ Come back after you have proven your concept. ◾ Come back after you have traction in the marketplace. ◾ Come back after you’re profitable. ◾ I invested $25,000 in a startup one time, and I lost all my money. I’m not doing that again.   Not only does this lack of very early stage capital lead to less startups, this means that the MAJORITY of ideas for companies never get started at all. I’m not saying that ALL ideas deserve to be funded or should even get started. However, there are many great ideas and great companies that never get started and/or eventually fold because they can’t raise the capital they need to maintain momentum. From the investor side, it makes sense for us to launch a lot more startups and for investors to invest in a lot more startups. If you download MetroStart’s ebook, Little Angels, Big Profits, and look at the information contained in multiple studies of angel investors, there’s an important statistic. Angel investors MUST invest in multiple startups in order to be profitable. Here’s the stats: ◾ If you invest in one startup company, you’re likely to lose all your money. ◾ Invest in 6 or more startups, and you’ll probably reach break-even. ◾ Invest in 12 or more startups in a 5 year period, and you’ll start to approach a 27% annual return on your investments.   I think this leads to a pretty obvious plan for our area: ◾ Teach startups how to set up their company, file with the SEC, and raise capital in small chunks (as small as $1,000 per investor). ◾ Make it easy for investors to invest small amounts ($1,000 or so) in multiple startups. ◾ Help the best startups get the funding they need to get started and grow. ◾ Help angel investors actually make money over time through DIVERSIFICATION.   What have we learned: After assisting with several local capital raises, we believe we found a formula that works: 1 – Create your company as an LLC so that you can write off all early losses. 2 – Write a short business plan that is polished enough to get investors to write you a check. 3 – Create a SAFE agreement, which investors will sign to invest as little as $1,000 in your company. 4 – Submit a Regulation D 506(b) SEC filing, which allows you to take investments (privately) from any number of accredited investors and up to 35 non-accredited investors per year. 5 – Raise capital from family and friends (including non-accredited). 6 – Switch to a Regulation D 506(c) SEC filing, which allows you to ADVERTISE as much as you want and take investments from accredited investors only. 7 – Advertise on LinkedIn, Facebook, and social media to find investors that have interests in your product or service. So what are we doing to help: 1 – We’re in the process of creating an online course that will provide complete step-by-step details on how to perform all the steps above. 2 – We’re creating a Louisville SAFE agreement that has been vetted by local attorneys and angel investors, which EVERYONE can use. 3 – We’re building a team of “Lead Angels” that will perform due diligence on startups, invest and/or earn equity in startups, help the startups raise capital, and help the startups grow. If you’re interested (CLICK HERE). 4 – We’re continuing to build a database of “Micro-Angel” investors that will invest as little as $1,000 in lots of startups, helping them shoot for the 27% annual return.   We’re currently working with multiple startups in the regional area (Louisville, Lexington, and Evansville) , lots of local Lead Angels, and the whole startup community to make it happen. Make sure you’re on our email list and follow us on social media to stay in touch! Image credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/crowdfunding-crowd-investment-3158320/

Patrick Henshaw came to Louisville about 4 months ago to lead the Louisville Entrepreneurship Acceleration Partnership (LEAP) as CEO. If you’re part of our entrepreneurial community, you’ve probably seen him speak at an event or two. You’ve probably heard some of his vision for the local startup world. However, he probably hasn’t had time to talk too much about his background. It’s become more and more clear with successful entrepreneurial communities around the country that startup communities are more successful when they are lead by entrepreneurs. Well, when you hear his story, you’ll see that Patrick has real, in-the-trenches, entrepreneurial experience, including pitching many, many, many angels before getting his first investment. In this podcast, you’ll learn about his entrepreneurial journey and more, including his real life combat experience, which earned him a Bronze Star. You’ll also find out what Patrick has learned from 4 months on the job and his thoughts about the growth and success of our startup community. So enjoy the latest MetroStart podcast with Patrick Henshaw. Transcript (machine transcribed, so please forgive the typos) Alan: 00:02 Hey everybody, welcome to the MetroStart podcast. This is Alan Grosheider. And today I’m talking to Patrick Henshaw . He’s the CEO that was just brought in about four months ago to run the label entrepreneurship acceleration, partnership or leap. And uh, we’ve met a number of times that I’ve seen him speak a number of times at events. And, uh, with this podcast we’re going to kind of dig a little deeper into who Patrick is and how he’s qualified to help us bring our startup community together and accelerate this startup community. So, Hey Patrick. Patrick: 00:37 Hey Alan. How are you? Alan: 00:39 I’m doing all right. We’ve, we’ve already had our discussion about the weather so we can, Patrick: 00:44 right. I’m more impressed not only at the weather but the fact that you knew the entirety of leaping its acronym of Louisville Entrepreneurship acceleration partnership. That’s good. Alan: 00:54 Well that’s the benefit of being able to sit on my computer while we’re having the interview. Cause I’m looking at here at your linkedin profile right now. I love it. I can like bending. You’re one of those guys like me that has your whole resume on there. And so now I can really just roll through it and pick, you know, try to find things to ask you about some Patrick: 01:14 that’s right. Well, it’s been quite the journey with, uh, I think we’re up to 20 addresses in 20 years now. So literally and physically been all over the place. Alan: 01:23 I, you know, I was rolling through your resume out here and just thinking, man, um, you know, you’re, for one thing, you’re younger than me and you’ve in so many places and done so many different things on there. I don’t even know how you were able to keep your head on straight while you’re doing awesome. Patrick: 01:40 Supporting spouse Alan: 01:41 Yeah, and married to the same person the whole time. Patrick: 01:45 Yeah, exactly. Alan: 01:46 Yeah, that’s, that’s amazing itself. So once you kind of start with, um, where you grew up and I always like to try to figure out what things in your childhood made you more entrepreneurial than somebody else now what, where, where’d you grow up? What was your childhood like? And you know, we don’t have to get into like anything really traumatic rating. Patrick: 02:10 We can, we can go there too. I’m a, I’m a transfer kind of guy. So I grew up in Houston, Texas, uh, born and raised, uh, moved once my entire life. Uh, one, one of the reasons was because of, uh, our neighbors. Uh, their backyard. Well, I’ll fast forward the story because it was full of grass. Uh, I, he marijuana, uh, and that was not as kosher as it was as it is moving into today. So it was, it was not a great neighborhood shop of the day, old bread store, you know, uh, or graduated high school with, didn’t have any other education beyond that. Um, and she’s really one of my inspirations for being in, going and pressing through because from not having, you know, a college education, um, she’s now about to retire as a senior executive at a publicly traded title insurance company after having a first career at IBM. Um, so she’s really been an awesome inspiration for me in my life. Alan: 03:08 You know, I think that it seems to be a common theme. What are those common themes for people who are more entrepreneurial? Is is definitely, and it’s not all across the board, but often growing up without having a whole lot and you know, cause I grew up, we always had everything we needed, but I didn’t have the coolest shoes and the designer shirts and everything. And it always felt like, you know, the other kids had a little bit more than me, so damn it, I was going to go out and you know, you get it for myself that, that I think somehow that stuck in my head at a young age. Patrick: 03:44 Yeah. Well kind of, it’s funny you say that because it kind of saddened me that, uh, that Payless filed for a, for a second bankruptcy this year because that was my jam. Oh, hey, let’s all the time to give by velcro shoes. Alan: 04:01 Wait. Patrick: 04:02 Yeah. But I think, Alan: 04:04 go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to make a dumb joke. If you were like 10 before you learned how to tie shoes, but you know, Patrick: 04:12 well, I, uh, that might’ve been the case. I’m, I’m, uh, you’ll, you’ll find people around, they always talk about how I’m about efficiency and effectiveness and island yet this is probably going to show up on some weird trivia show or something. But I wore velcro shoes and dogs and like the sixth grade, I didn’t get, I didn’t get why you needed laces. What’s the point license? You can just zip them on, just them off. Alan: 04:34 Yeah. You know, I’m surprised there aren’t more shoes that are Valkyrie that more people don’t wear that because it is a lot more efficient anyway. That’s right. Patrick: 04:42 That’s right. Anyways, I digress from my Houston days anyways. So grew up in Houston and uh, my, my parents actually don’t live there any longer cause my, my, uh, childhood home flooded about four times, um, from various different weather events. So my parents literally and physically, physically have now moved to higher ground. Alan: 05:02 So in your, as a kid, did you, were you an entrepreneurial kid? Patrick: 05:07 Yeah. So we, um, so the short answer is yes. The longer answer is everything from, uh, mowing grass, um, to one of the early entrepreneurial efforts that we got into was actually, we had Dalmatians as a kid and we would, uh, we had female donations and we would breed Dalmatians in our own home, um, as a side project to make money. One of my good friends in high school, or actually from Pre k until, um, we, we both went off to college. Her, her parents were Yvette that used to live right around the corner from us. So we had a good little little side hustle of, uh, having, uh, having beautiful little a Dalmatian kids and then to doing the typical entrepreneurial thing of, uh, capturing the, uh, the local market, uh, for lawnmowing business and my neighborhood too, which is always fun. Alan: 05:56 Did that too. I have a twin brother and we had our little law unmooring low mowing business. I had a paper out when I was in sixth grade and I think that’s really common for entrepreneurs is to have that drive to earn a few bucks when you’re a kid and to realize that you can do it. Okay. Patrick: 06:14 To understand the market opportunity. And, and for me too, it was about at least later in life through middle school and high school is about leading other people, not necessarily to be entrepreneurial, but leader leadership in general, which is a big, um, you know, kind of a personal passion of mine. Alan: 06:31 Yeah. And I won’t, I won’t get in it too, uh, too much because I think I’ve said this on about 15 different podcasts, but that leadership thing I think is so important to entrepreneurship because it’s, you know, that Tom Sawyer effect, it’s that, that’s what an entrepreneur does. You’re the guy who’s talking everybody into doing things and being happy about it, doing it for, you know, a third of the money they could make somewhere else. Patrick: 06:55 That’s right. That’s right. With the potential to make three or 30 x if it works out. Alan: 06:59 Right. Yup. So then what’s, so what’s next? Where, where, where did your, where’d you go to school and, and you know, how did that shape your entrepreneurial spirit? Patrick: 07:11 Yeah. So, so you would have think that would have stifled that? Cause I went to the, uh, United States Military Academy at West Point. Um, and, and obviously that’s a direct path to, um, to, to be in the army. Um, but for me, again, the main reason why, two main reasons why I went to West Point one was obviously it’s the premiere leadership, um, development school in, in, I mean this is obviously a skewed perspective because I went there but the world, um, and, and at the time, you know, I, I had, you know, I knew just like every high school or knows what they want to do when they grew up. I knew I wanted to be a civil engineer. Um, and at the time I, that I went to westpoint civil and they were the number two school for civil engineering in the nation. And the number one school at the time was the Colorado School of mines. Um, and if you change your degree from engineering at the Colorado School of mines, it was two engineering. Patrick: 08:09

Rebah Wheeling was a successful insurance claims adjuster. One emotional day while meeting with a hurricane victim lead to the founding of her fast growing local company – Schedule It. In this podcast, Rebah talks about the emotional moment that lead her to start her company. Her description of the process of building her company is a MUST-LISTEN for any aspiring entrepreneur in our area and anyone else who would like to see our area prosper with technology startups in the “Third Wave” of the global economy. Learn how she got started, how she got funded, and how she is building a very successful software as a service company right here in the Louisville area.   Transcript (machine transcribed – please forgive the typos) Alan: 00:01 Hey everybody, welcome to the Metro Startup Launcher podcast. This is Alan Grosheider and today I’m talking to Reba wheeling with schedule it and we’ve known each other for a while, but I think we were introduced originally about Greg Langdon. Right. Rebah: 00:17 I think that everybody gets introduced to somebody else by greg, master connector in the city Alan: 00:24 every time you ever talked to anybody to make a connection Xyz and that’s almost, they’re always first responses. Have you talked to Greg Langdon and is he. Rebah: 00:36 No, I mean as a volunteer in our city, I don’t think he’s paid by anybody. I mean what an incredible asset that we have in our community with Greg Langdon. Alan: 00:44 Yeah. He really works tirelessly for without anybody around him and I don’t know how he does it, but it is nice to have somebody working that hard for the community and I think our startup community. Yeah, there’s been. I think there’s been some of the early things with metro startup launch era. I said, what’s wrong with our startup community? It wasn’t really intended to say there that we have a bad startup community. It, it was just saying what could we do better? And I kind of put it in a way that was a little maybe abrasive to some people, but that got attention. But our startup community is really great, you know, it’s so supportive and you know, people like Greg and enterprise court for the size of our city, we really do have a lot going on and start a community now. We just need a few more billion dollar companies that put money back into it. So I just wanted to kind of what I normally do, I don’t know if you’ve listened to any of the metro startup launch your podcast, but a lot of times I just talk to people about their journey getting started as an entrepreneur. Maybe things that you did early in life that led you to become an entrepreneur. Were you somebody that did a lot of entrepreneurial things as a kid? Rebah: 02:04 Um, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family for sure construction businesses, um, you know, and my family’s in medical. They’re in construction there in restoration on the insurance side, so our dinner conversations were always about profit loss, employee issues, benefits, um, you know, rfps, all those types of things. So I didn’t know really that there was another way to be able to live even though I did go to corporate and corporate environment. Alan: 02:43 So when, when you were growing up, were you thinking, I don’t ever want to get into all that because I know my daughter, uh, I have always been an entrepreneur and her mom has always been an entrepreneur and a lot of times these days she’ll say, that seems too stressful for me. I don’t want to get into all to being an entrepreneur. Was that, did you think you would eventually become an entrepreneur? Rebah: 03:07 No, I mean my goal is a little girl was never to grow up and own a technology company for sure. Um, you know, um, when I started out then I really focused on just doing the best at whatever I was doing at that time. I owned my own business at night. Um, I burnt myself out at 23. Then, um, I went to the medical field, uh, took the logical, um, you know, and the more you work, the harder you work, the more you move up. Saw other people that were promoted to incompetence, which was frustrating in the medical field. I didn’t realize at that time that it was in every field. I just thought that in medical we would just push people around and other departments because, you know, they’ve been there so long, but then, you know, coming into the property and casualty insurance side, it was a natural fit for me when we saw that there was something that needed to be fixed and okay, I have this experience now, let me fix it. Alan: 04:18 How did, what was your business before getting into the, to the adjuster stuff? What was the business? Ten Years in health? Rebah: 04:28 Um, I’m very, um, fantastic managers, you know, people that were obviously focused on being able to document and ensure that things were done a certain way to be able to meet the guidelines of the medical industry. And that taught me on the property and casualty side, how to be extremely detail oriented and to communicate properly in sticking to the facts. Um, and then that’s how I was able to bridge that gap with the technology team and utilize the new business services aspect and communicate properly to them on what type of software that we needed to build to create a solution that made things better. Alan: 05:12 No, I was asking about what business, what was your first business that you started at? Nineteen. Rebah: 05:19 I didn’t start it. I bought it. It was a lady’s consignment store and when I got there, everything was manually written out. The inventory sheets, the price tags, you know, the, the, uh, receipts for purchasing. So identified a piece of software that would automate that process and um, you know, was able to double that business in three years. Alan: 05:44 Got burned out. Rebah: 05:47 Yeah. You know, um, those of us that are in the entrepreneurial community can relate to the youth no matter what it is. You know, whenever you’re passionate about doing something, you, it’s not really work for you. But one of the biggest things that I learned from that first business, you know, wasn’t only just customer service and those things, but really that in order to do better at what you’re doing, you have to step away from it and you know, I can do more in two weeks by the beach on strategic planning. Then I came for two months in the office, Alan: 06:26 the jewelry store at one time. And that was not my, my, my wife and we got done with that. I was like, I will never ever do anything in retail again. Or did you feel that when you were finished? Rebah: 06:46 Oh, absolutely. I mean, even when I talked about starting this business and um, I had friends that were encouraging me to do it. I’m like, I have no desire to own a business. I’ve not want to be tied down like that. You guys have no idea because he’s never had one. You don’t know how much work. But when God puts a calling on you and you know it, then you just do it can muster up the guts to walk in faith. Alan: 07:19 There’s definitely something that you’re born with as an entrepreneur that makes you have that drive. And I went to work, I worked for Frito lay when I was a summer intern and then when I was out of college I was in mechanical engineering at purdue and I was doing project engineering and almost from the very beginning I felt like I wanted to own my business. I would see contractors come in and do work for us and just say, yeah, just a really want to own my own business one day. And you know, even so the businesses, I’ve started it over time. I just, it was almost like I couldn’t help it. I just had to do it one way or another. And you know, I’ve started businesses on credit cards, you know, it’s just whatever it took to get it started. And uh, you know, the business I’m running now, Bluetooth 22, which I kind of want to maybe maybe off the call, talk a little bit more about because I think we definitely have a things we can work on together that are complimentary in the two businesses. Alan: 08:25 But I was, I went for several years after I sold my company working for that company and I just couldn’t stand not doing another startup. I just, it just made me crazy until I’ve figured out how to do it. And then, you know, went two years with no income getting it went from a nice income and not having to work too hard, but I couldn’t. It was like I couldn’t not do it. So I think there’s something in entrepreneurs that makes them just feel like if there’s a solution that nobody else has taken care of, I got to do it. I gotta figure out how to get that done. So that sounds like Rebah: 09:07 because we know how to get it done. We’ve done it before. So I’m. Did you go to the Entrepreneur Hall of fame last week? Alan: 09:16 No, I did not. Yes, last week. Rebah: 09:22 Brian does an amazing job in our state as a connector. Brian has his finger on the pulse and everywhere on the state on who needs help in the startup community. Right? So in his presentation he talked about a puzzle and that if you have a 500 piece puzzle, it’s really hard to put that puzzle together if you don’t know what the puzzle is, the end results to look like and when you talk about, you know, that we have an itch to, to fix something that we see that um, you know, isn’t working as good as we know that it can work. I think that’s because as entrepreneurs we have done it before and we know what the end result is so we know how to be able to get it done. So that’s why we have that burning it to the second and the third and the fifth and the 10th time, you know, because after you’ve done it the first time, you know that you can do it. Alan: 10:25 I just had a drive

What’s the most effective way to raise capital for your startup? How do most companies actually raise capital for their startup in our area? What changes in SEC law have made it easier to reach a lot more investors? What’s the best way for YOUR startup to raise capital? In this video and podcast, Alan Grosheider, Director of Metro Startup Launcher, recaps his recent speech at Venture Connectors to discuss all of the above and more. Transcript Below (Machine transcribed, so please forgive the typos.) Hey everybody, it’s Alan Grosheider with Metro Startup Launcher in this video and we’ll also put it out as a podcast on how to get capital for your startup. I’m recapping a speech that I gave recently to venture connectors and in the speech I talked about what seems to be working and not working for raising capital for your startup in our area and some of the law changes that allow you to be more public about raising capital for your startup and what I would recommend that you do. So first let me ask you if you think it’s a good idea to raise capital from lots of small investors to get your company started. Well, let me give you a couple examples of companies that have done that and had been very successful with it. The first I witnessed myself when I was going to college, I would come home in the summertimes and workout at a gym in Southern Indiana and at that gym there was a guy who would walk around asking people to invest in his company and he was asking for five or $10,000 and talked to a guy, another guy one time who was pointing in mountain talking about it and said, this guy’s crazy. He walks around the gym every time he’s here and he’s trying to get people to invest in his company and he thinks he’s going to build this big national company and it’s going to compete with pizza hut and little caesars and dominoes. So I think you can probably guess who I’m talking about: Papa John. Everybody’s heard the story about him selling his Camaro so he could buy an oven and put the oven in his dad’s bar and get his company started. But what they haven’t heard is he also raised capital from fairly small investors in a number of fairly small investors in the area to get the company started. And of course now he is the first Forbes 400 billionaire in the Louisville area. So the point is small investors can definitely lead to big success. I’ll give you another example. My company, it was called ESA1 in 1994. I was 25 years old and I found for investors to put $6,000 each into my company and I started this company that was going to be a nationwide environmental inspection company. We then ended up, I ended up putting an $85,000 on credit cards and I definitely would not recommend that to anybody. But from there we raised $350,000 from 52 to individual investors. And then finally $3,000,000 from a venture capital firm. From there we built the company to include operations in all 50 states with employees in 30 different cities around the country. So again, small investors can definitely lead to big success. So how do you do it? If you want to raise capital for your startup, the classic way I’ll call it this, is the way that most companies still raise capital around here and probably the most common way that’s raised around the United States. You start with an idea and then you form your corporation and you create a business plan. Then you get your friends and family to invest in. Hopefully you’ve got some friends and family who are willing to put some money in that. If you’re lucky, you find a lead investor and the lead investor knows how to set up all of these things. They set up your help. You set up your Cap Table and your valuation and shareholder agreement. All of the different pieces that you need in order to successfully raise more capital and then the lead investor helps you go out and get more investors. But this can. There’s a lot of places this can go wrong, especially at the friends and family level. That’s I think where most companies end up failing is that they have a great idea and they get things set up and they start moving, but they don’t have friends and family who can invest when they don’t find a lead investor and once that happens, they just kind of fall apart. So here’s what I would recommend as a better way to raise capital for your startup. You start with the same idea, set up your corporation and create your business plan, but now you create a safe agreement. A safe agreement is a document that you use to hand to a shareholder and they sign it when they write a check to invest in your company, and I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but then step three, you actually file yourself. You file with the SEC to make it legal for you to raise capital for your startup. And then step four is you just network. You network like crazy. Just like Papa John did, just like I did back in in when I started the company in 1994. You network and you find lots of small investors that get you enough money to get started, so I mentioned a safe agreement and also a business plan. Those are the two main tools that you need when you’re going out and raising capital because w, if you have a safe agreement and you have something to hand your investor to sign, it makes it, makes raising capital so much easier and you look at your business plan at this point. You want it to be a plan that you’re going to use to try to build the company, but it’s primarily a tool that you’re going to use to get people to sign your safe agreement and to write a check to help you raise capital for your company. If it’s a company that needs capital to get started and it’s amazingly more easy to raise capital when you can hand somebody a document that they can sign and know what they’re versus going around and networking in in. Maybe you have your business plan already and you meet people at venture connectors or wherever and and somebody says, yeah, I might be interested in investing in your company. Now what? And neither one of you knows what to do next. You don’t have a document. Decide if you have a safe agreement in a business plan. Those are the tools that can get investments in your bank account. So what is a safe agreement? A safe agreement is the first thing I think we need to really change in our community to embrace, to accelerate capital raising in our community. It’s. It was invented by y combinator in Silicon Valley. It’s the most successful accelerator in Silicon Valley and that’s primarily what’s used in silicon valley in the early stage of capital raising. Here’s the way it works. Let’s say that you get a whole bunch of people to invest five or $10,000 in your company and you raise $200,000 and it’s enough to get your company up and running. Then an investor comes along and really likes what you’re doing and they invest a million dollars. So all of those people that signed safe agreements, the way it reads, they’re safe agreements will convert over to shares and it’s gonna convert under the same terms as the larger investor. So think about it as an investor. It’s really fair for you because you get to have a much more sophisticated investor negotiate for you. They negotiate and I’ll show you the different things. They negotiate the Cap Table and negotiate the valuation and they negotiate the operating agreement. All of the complicated stuff that needs to happen to operate your company that’s now negotiated by a much more sophisticated investor and you don’t have to worry about negotiating early on. If you’re an investor and as the person who started the company, you don’t have to worry about figuring out all those things at the very beginning, which is really hard to do. So I also mentioned an sec filing. This is a really important piece of the puzzle that most people have no idea they actually need to do. When companies raise capital without filing with the SEC. Even if you’re taking investments from your brother and your uncle, you’re doing it illegally. The SEC is supposed to be notified, so I would suspect that Papa John Probably back in those days didn’t do that. I don’t know if he did or not, but I know from my first for investors with Esa one I didn’t do that. I had no idea what was supposed to do that. Now eventually when I raised a larger amount of capital, we did do the filings correctly, but it’s a very important thing because the sec can actually shut you down. They can make it so you can’t raise capital for your company anymore and it’s going to kill your company if you start. If you start raising capital without the sec filing and the thing is it’s a very easy process. It’s very easy to do. I would recommend working with an attorney, but it should be very simple and fast. It’s a online form that’s filled out on the SEC Edgar website that takes minutes and I don’t think there’s even a charge for filling out your sec filing, but you need to make sure that you submit the right sec filing. There are a lot of different types of sec filings and what you’re basically doing is telling the sec that you don’t want to be a public company like Mcdonald’s or somebody that’s publicly traded because there was a whole lot of complication that goes with that. So you’re filing an exemption from having to be a public company. The three different types of exemptions that would most likely be used around here or a regulation d five, zero, six B, a regulation d five zero, six C and a regulation cf. a regulation d five zero six b exemption is the most common way that startup companies raise capital. I

  The "Sharing Economy" has been an amazing driver of wealth and convenience for the world. Companies like Uber, Lyft, and, Airbnb have dramatically changed the way we get from one place to another, stay in one place or another, and get things done. They also have created HUGE company valuations and wealth for investors. Where does Louisville fit into this? Can we get a piece of the pie? Are we actually poised to be a leader in some areas of the sharing economy? Most people these days are familiar with Uber and Airbnb. If you like to travel, they can make your life a whole lot easier, more convenient, and more cost-effective. They have attained recent valuations of $60+ billion and $30+ billion, respectively, and they continue to grow rapidly. But, there's only so many markets and services that will work with these kinds of software-based peer-to-peer plays, right? Actually, I believe the sharing economy will continue to dominate the landscape of great scalable companies for quite a while. I also believe that Louisville can and will make an impact in that arena. I was triggered to write this article by the recent announcement of a $185 million investment in a trucking startup called Convoy. CapitalG, the investment arm of Google's parent company, Alphabet, just led the round. Trucking is a $740 billion per year industry in the U.S. More individuals in the U.S. are employed as truckers than any other occupation, and, the industry is often very inefficient. Many truckers are independent contractors. They rely on various brokers to send them business. Attempting to maximize their profits by efficiently planning trips is a critical function that is sorely in need of automation, artificial intelligence, and overall disruption. That's where companies like Convoy come in. They're "Uberizing" the business of trucking, and CapitalG saw enough potential to bet $185 million on the company. Convey is not even a Silicon Valley company! Imagine that. It's in Seattle, which, granted, is a much more tech advanced community than Louisville, but it does show that companies outside of Silicon Valley are creating major disruptions in the sharing economy. This is where Steve Case's Rise of the Rest philosophy will really kick in. More and more companies in the central parts of the United States will begin to develop these technologies. Why? Because, experience in an industry is where the ideas come from, and a lot of industries besides software tech are located in pockets around the country besides Silicon Valley. I recently posted an article that shows the MOST successful age for an entrepreneur to start a company is 50! It's not 22. It's 50. (By the way, I am exactly 50 years old...just saying...😁.) So why is that age successful? It's because the entrepreneur has experience in their industry. They've seen a need for a long time, and they came up with a solution to solve that need. That's a BIG part of the Rise of the Rest Philosophy. Need + Experience + New Technologies = Huge Opportunity! So, how can Louisville be a leader in the sharing economy? For one thing, we need to maximize our strengths. We're a nationwide leader in logistics and healthcare. We're centrally located. We have lots of great universities and industries. Let's look for the entrepreneurs who are coming out of these industries and SUPPORT THEM by investing in their companies and helping them grow in any way possible. So, how are we doing? Are we building any sharing economy companies? Yes we are! Some examples include: Meta Construction Technologies, LLC (http://www.meta-ct.com/) is "transforming the heavy highway industry with innovative software solutions." The company originated in the University of Louisville Entrepreneurship MBA program in 2016, and their first product, BlackTop, is a mobile tracking and dispatch platform that lets asphalt contractors request and track dump trucks. ScheduleIt (https://www.scheduleit.

Increasing the number of local angel investors has been the goal of Metro Startup Launcher from the very beginning. We've done a lot of blogs, emails, and podcasts, and now we've participated in two different types of crowdfunding campaigns. How's it going? Well, one of the companies just landed an investor/partner that has agreed to invest up to $10 million and is launching one final $300,000 local investor round. Learn more about this final $300,000 angel round!   So what's working and what's not working? If you look at angel investing in our area, here's what's happening: 1. Companies like Edj Analytics, MobileServe, and SentryHealth (formerly Edumedics) are raising millions of dollars in capital. They're raising capital the "classic" way, using a Regulation D 506(b) SEC exemption. Under this type of exemption, you can raise an unlimited amount of capital from accredited investors, up to 35 non-accredited investors per year, and you must only raise capital from people with whom you have an existing relationship. Generally, an accredited investor is defined as a person with an income of $200,000+ or $1,000,000 net worth (excluding the value of their home). You cannot use any form of public advertising. This method of capital raise is still very successful, IF you know the right people. You must find a lead investor to help you set up your capital raise, get all the right paperwork in place, and encourage all of their friends to invest. Typically, they shoot for $25,000+ investments from each investor. 2. One local company, Cuddle Clones (https://cuddleclones.com/), has utilized the Regulation CF exemption for equity crowdfunding. This is a newer method of crowdfunding that allows anyone, accredited investors or non-accredited investors, to invest. It is very similar to Kickstarter in that you can publicly advertise as much as you like; however, you can actually sell equity investments in your company. Investments can be very small, as little as $100 per investor, so just about anyone can afford it. You can raise a maximum of $1,070,000 per year using this exemption. To use this method, you must utilize one of the licensed online equity crowdfunding portals (such as WeFunder, StartEngine, or SeedInvest). They provide great online resources for walking you through the process and for collecting your funds. But, they're not so great at marketing the capital raise for you. You must be prepared to execute a significant marketing effort (and dollars) in order to make this work. Your capital raise also is limited to a set period of time. If you haven't completed your full raise, you're out of luck. Finally, with most of the portals, you cannot access any of your raised funds until the full capital raise has been completed. However, if you perform an amazing marketing campaign for your capital raise, this process can be very effective. Over $100 million has been raised using Regulation CF since it became legal in May 2016. 3. Finally, another local company, Blue222 (https://blue222.com/), has been successful in utilizing the Regulation D 506(c) SEC exemption. The 506(c) exemption allows a company to raise an unlimited amount of capital from an unlimited number of accredited investors only. You can publicly advertise as much as you like. The one caveat is you must prove that each investor in an accredited investor. The great thing about this exemption is that it is easy to set up, and you don't need to go through a licensed portal to collect funds. You can deposit the funds directly into your account and utilize the money immediately. In the first trial run of this method, Blue222 raised $214,000. Blue222 has intentionally chosen to raise capital in small chunks using the 506(c) exemption. Each small chunk of $200,000 to $300,000 is being sold at higher valuations. This allows earlier investors to get more bang for the buck and encourages people to move quickly to get involved.

Jennifer Williams of Cuddle Clones is making Louisville startup history! Cuddle Clones already made world history by creating the only scalable company that allows you to order online and create a lifelike replica of your pet (https://cuddleclones.com/). Now, they just made Louisville history by becoming the first Louisville area company to sell equity in their company to the general public under the new Regulation CF crowdfunding laws. These laws allow a company like Cuddle Clones to sell equity in their company to ANYONE for as little as $100 minimum investments. This method of startup fundraising is the way of the future. It will help Louisville get more startups started and let a lot more local people share in the profits! INVEST NOW!   Check out my interview with Jennifer and find out: ◊ Where did the idea come from for Cuddle Clones? ◊ How did they get started? ◊ Where did their early funding come from? ◊ How did they decide to use Regulation CF crowdfunding to raise capital, and what's the process like? ◊ What can we do to continue to improve Louisville's startup scene?   Transcript (machine generated, so please forgive the typos): Alan: 00:02 Hey everybody, welcome to the Metro Startup Launcher podcast. This is Alan Grosheider, and today I'm talking to my friend Jennifer Williams. She's the chief cloning officer of the company. She started called cuddle clones and in my opinion, Jennifer's now blazing a trail that will be the way of the future for startup companies to raise capital in the area and said, Hey Jennifer, how are you? Good. So she just started a regulation cf crowdfunding capital raise that allows anybody, not just rich accredited investors to invest as little as $100 bucks in her company. But first let's kind of talk a little bit about what your company is it called. It's called cuddle clones. Tell us what's the. What do you do at cudell clones Jennifer: 00:53 and our flagship product. The cuddle clone is a stuffed animal that's made to look just like your pet. So customers go onto our website, they upload pictures, they tell us all the special characteristics about their pet and make a few choices and in several weeks they get a plush animal that looks just like their pet and has the markings and every other sort of special thing that represents their pet. Alan: 01:19 How did you get it to look? Right? I had to have some that came back and you're just like, what is that? Jennifer: 01:30 Definitely. Um, it took a while. Uh, this business started out of an idea from the University of Louisville Entrepreneurship Mba program and we kind of did a lot of the academic thing, like a business plan and industry analysis. And at the end of the program we said, okay, well, does anyone actually know how to make a stuffed animal? And we're looking at each other like, no. Alan: 01:53 Okay. Jennifer: 01:55 So a good two years from the program until we launch to get the product. Right. So we went through several consultants. Um, we did, we looked at the US, we looked at Vietnam, we looked at uh, other places, uh, ended up in China where we actually own our own workshop now and that's actually a really good competitive advantage for us just because we have full control over the quality and there are employees, so, so that's super nice Alan: 02:31 entrepreneurs, a lot of opinions as to whether you can start a company where you don't necessarily know how to do exactly what you're going to do. And I'm, I've always been of the opinion that the entrepreneur, the person who makes the company work is the person that just pulls everybody together. There. Tom Sawyer that gets everybody on board and convinces them to keep moving in the right direction. And it's, you know, it'd be nice if you are sometimes if you're an expert in the area that you're starting the company, but if you really have a passion for,

What a week we had recently for local entrepreneurs! I hope you had a chance to attend some of the Kentucky Startup events. With Endeavor's International Selection Panel and Steve Case's Rise of the Rest Tour making Louisville its only return city to date, we have a lot to be proud of. So how do we keep up the momentum? We're collectively doing a lot of great things, but let's see if we can crank it up a notch! At Metro Startup Launcher, we're working on a better way to increase the amount of available capital for local startup companies, spread the risk much more effectively, and help all of our local angel investors make more money (statistically, an AVERAGE of 27% annually). How do we do that? Well, to start we've stumbled into some funding that will help make a huge difference in our area: 1. We've partnered with a group that is creating multiple $500,000 mini-funds that we can access for very early startup capital. 2. The same group also is creating two $100 million funds that will be available for follow-up capital. 3. Finally, we're tying in crowdfunding to allow a lot more local investors to get involved in the whole process. The investment strategy we're using is based on what we've learned over the last couple years of researching multiple studies of successful angel investors throughout the United States. (If you sign up below, we'll send you a short eBook that summarizes the studies.) We're calling this the 1000x Club, and the idea is pretty simple: 1. Build a huge list of potential angel investors in the Louisville area, adding lots of people who currently are not angel investors. 2. Use local pitch groups, angel groups, accelerators, and individuals to screen and recommend startups and/or companies that are further along in the process. 3. Work with our partner funds to provide capital for local companies. 4. Allow lots of local angel investors to piggy-back on the fund investments using the new equity crowdfunding mechanisms that were promoted by Steve Case and made legal under the JOBS Act, allowing smaller investments from any investor (accredited or non-accredited). 5. Encourage more local investors to invest small amounts ($100 to $5,000) in 10 to 12 startups every year. 6. Help a higher volume of startups raise their first $25,000 to $100,000 and get started. 7. Get enough people involved that we can quickly raise $1 million (1000 x $1,000) for any local startup that has proven itself. Why is this important? 1. We need to keep companies here. Rubicon Global is a great Louisville startup success story, but they moved to Atlanta for a $1 million investment. Now it's a $1 billion valuation company. Wouldn't it be nice if they had stayed in Louisville? 2. Lots of startups need a small amount of funding to get started. These days, $25,000 can be enough capital for an online business to at least prove an interest in their concept. The more of these we produce, the more we can build the next Rubicon or Airbnb right here in Louisville. 3. Statistically, investors who invest in 12 or more companies in 5 years AVERAGE a 27% annual return! Wouldn't it be nice to invest small amounts in a way that statistically produces great results, spreads the risk out to a lot more people, AND helps produce great companies and jobs in our area? So, I'm asking for your help in one or more of these ways: 1. Become a potential 1000x Club "micro-investor." 2. Help to screen and review startups for the club (in exchange for equity). 3. Help to get the word out to your friends to join the 1000x Club. All you have to do to join is sign up below, and I'll send you more information as we progress. Thank you! Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ges2016/27866935085 #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the prec...

Alli Truttmann just celebrated a HUGE milestone for any business: the 10-year anniversary of her company, Wicked Sheets. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of businesses fail in their 1st year, about 50% of small businesses fail by their 5th year, and only 30% survive over 10. And things are really starting to heat up now with her upcoming appearance in front of an audience of 96 million on QVC! Alli has been interviewed for a lot of Louisville area publications, but as she mentioned during our talk, she's never been interviewed about how she got her funding to get started, what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and what she would have done differently. Since our mission at Metro Startup Launcher is increasing the number of local "micro-angel" investors and helping more startup companies get their early funding, we really enjoy learning how our amazing local entrepreneurs made it happen and getting to know them a little better. So, enjoy our podcast interview with Alli Truttmann. Transcript (machine transcribed, so please forgive the typos!) Alan: 00:03 Hi everybody, welcome to the Metro Startup Launcher podcast. I'm Alan Grosheider, and today I'm talking to my friend Allie Truttman. She's the founder and ceo of Wicked Sheets. Hey Alli. How's it going? Alli: 00:19 Great. Thanks so much for having me on today. Alan: 00:22 Yeah, we finally got on after a month of you blow me off so I know you, but Alli: 00:29 when we delve into what the, the things I've been through the past couple of months, I think you'll understand why it's been hard to get me on the phone. Alan: 00:36 I know you've had a lot of stuff going on. I'm totally kidding and I will. We'll definitely get into talking about all the stuff with in China and it's. I know you've been super busy so I'm totally kidding. So what I would try to accomplish on the podcast, just you, you know, a little bit about metro startup launcher and our primary focus has sort of morphed into really being focused on trying to figure out how to get more angel investors in our area, investing in startups and then helping startups utilize that and hopefully crowd funding to, to get a lot more startups started. So in talking to you and other successful entrepreneurs, I just really want to get a lot more information about how you became an entrepreneur, how you got started, what triggered you to want to be an entrepreneur and uh, you know, advice that you would have for other entrepreneurs and maybe mistakes you made that you could help somebody else avoid. Alli: 01:34 They're absolutely. If you, if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and take that one question and say, how did you become an entrepreneur and getting into the business world? I actually, if you ask my parents, I actually was designing what I didn't realize were small businesses when I was really young. So, um, I, I fashioned myself and inventor of sorts, not in the very technical science realm, but, you know, there were always things that when I was younger I would notice and I would say it would be so much better if, you know, for instance, OK, before the radio would tell you what the song was or who sang it, I, I, my mom said I was like six or seven years old. And I was like, if only your radio would tell me who sings a song or what the words are that I'd be a better singer. Alli: 02:20 And then everybody laughed and then we sold painted rocks in our neighborhood. And um, my favorite was like a double toasted tostito that we took chips and we, um, we basically flame broil them over scented candles and sold them to people as flavored to Tostito. And I mean, I know it was a great idea really. And uh, you know, and thankfully my first co-founder was my next door neighbor and he and I, he was, he actually grew up to be an actuary and he was always the numbers guy. And I was always a salesperson, so I didn't realize from even that early on that I was becoming,

MobileServe is a fast-growing mobile app company that helps organizations track and encourage participation in volunteer activities: tracking, managing, and reporting their social impact.  They're a great example of how you can see a problem in your own workplace and then create your own solution that you and many others can use.  They're also a great example of how a Louisville area company can help us participate in the Rise of the Rest of the entrepreneurial startups in the U.S. In this podcast, I talk with Ben Reno-Weber.  Ben and his co-founder Chris Head, started MobileServe to solve a problem that Ben saw while he was working as the CEO of the Kentucky YMCA Youth Center.  He wanted a better way to track the activities and participation of volunteers.  These guys are great examples of how to pick an idea and get started, even while you're still working your day job. Well, they're full time now and chugging along very well with successful capital raises and customer growth. Learn how Ben got the entrepreneurial bug, how they got started, and Ben's thoughts about our startup community. Transcript (Machine transcribed, please excuse the typos!) Alan:                                      00:00                     Hey Ben. Ben:                                       00:00                     Hey Alan. Alan:                                      00:07                     We're recording now. So anyway, just to get us started, I'm going to talk about how we met each other. I think Ted Smith introduced us a while back, didn't he?  Ican't remember now. It's been awhile. Ben:                                       00:25                     I feel like I've known you for awhile. Alan:                                      00:29                     I think maybe Ted did introduce us because I came down to your office in Shelby Park and we sat out on the balcony and it was a beautiful day and we were talking about all the amazing things that we knew that nobody else knew and if everybody else, everybody else just followed our lead. We'd be taking over the world here and we'd be blowing silicon valley or out of the water. Ben:                                       00:57                     Definitely. Yeah, definitely trying to figure out how to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem and as many entrepreneurs in the pipeline as we can and as many investors interested in as we can. Alan:                                      01:08                     Yeah, and you guys, I'm really impressed with what you guys are doing because you're sort of checking all the boxes. I think there are so important these days which is starting a company that's leverageable from what I know, I haven't gone through exactly what you're doing, but it seems to be a very leverage-able company that you know as you continue to improve and it's just going to improve for all your customers and it's something that'll work for a million customers or 10 and if, if I understand what you're doing it, we need more of that and it's something that helps people so we can kind of get into a little bit more about that. But I just wanted to start by throwing you some praise. I think you're, it's good to see somebody building a company that I think is a more modern type company that is very leverage-able. So congratulations. Ben:                                       02:04                     I'll tell you, if I ever write a book about this experience, I'm going to title it Cliche. We've done all the things people said that we would do and experienced all the things that people said we would experience. So I don't know that our experiences are particularly a special but certainly validated a lot of what it takes to get a company off the ground. So I'd say we're off the ground. Alan:                                      02:38                     I want to hear the cliches and here hear the ups and downs and I think that's really good for peop...

Artificial intelligence is quickly affecting more and more of our lives, like it or not.  I personally look forward to the day that lots of "bots" do all my busy work and leave me free to be much more creative.  Could AI take over the world?  Elon Musk thinks so.  But, I tend to focus more on what it will do FOR us vs. what it will do AGAINST us.  I'm a pretty optimistic guy. Well, artificial intelligence is advancing in Louisville, and local entrepreneur John Williamson is at the forefront.  I spoke to John about his entrepreneurial journey and his latest venture, RCM Brain. Listen to the latest Metro Startup Launcher podcast to learn: ♦ How can public speaking improve your entrepreneurial skills? ♦ Do most entrepreneurs start early? ♦ Why clearly expressing your vision and getting others excited is so important for an entrepreneur. ♦ How important is persistence in the startup world? ♦ Does a person's childhood play a factor in entrepreneurial drive and success? ♦ What was John's progression into starting actual companies?  Ups and downs? ♦ How did John get started with his current company, RCM Brain, and what does the company do? ♦ How is RCM Brain using artificial intelligence? ♦ What do we need to do to improve our startup community?  

In the latest edition of the Metro Startup Launcher podcast, I interview Ted Smith, CEO of Revon Systems, Inc. Ted has been a major influencer of our startup community in many ways for quite a while.  He's been a researcher, an entrepreneur, and even the Louisville Metro Director of Innovation.  Now Ted is the CEO of Revon System, a leading developer of software applications for the treatment of chronic health conditions. Ted, Revon Systems, and their associated colleagues at Apellis Pharmaceuticals are doing amazing things to give Louisville a big star on the map in the world of healthcare innovation.  They're setting an excellent example of how we all should think much bigger about what we can accomplish right here in the Midwest. In this interview you'll learn: ♦ What is Revon, and how could their technologies improve healthcare? ♦ What's the background of Revon and Apellis? ♦ How should a local entrepreneur think about raising capital in Louisville for big vision, risky, world-changing projects? ♦ What combination of innovator and business person makes for a great entrepreneur? ♦ How does luck and timing factor into the business world? ♦ What was Ted's route to becoming an entrepreneur? ♦ How can our startup community improve?  

One thing that makes a startup investment in Kentucky extremely attractive is the Kentucky Angel Investment Tax Credit. If you're an accredited investor and a Kentucky resident, you can get an amazing tax credit (40 to 50%) on startup company investments. This is a TAX CREDIT, not a deduction.  In other words, you get a dollar for dollar reduction of your tax for up to 50% of your investment in a qualified Kentucky startup company. These tax credits were designed to encourage qualified individual investors to make capital investments in Kentucky small businesses, create additional jobs, and promote the development of new products and technologies.  And, they have been extremely successful. Tax credits are non-refundable (only count toward actual Kentucky state taxes that you owe).  The amounts that you can claim in any one tax year may not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the total amount of credit awarded or transferred to the taxpayer.  However, any unused credits may carry-forward for up to fifteen (15) years. A tax credit may be transferred by a Qualified Investor to an individual taxpayer in accordance with procedures outlined by the Department of Revenue. The state maintains a list of Qualified Small Businesses, and these businesses must: ♦ be engaged in bioscience; environmental and energy technology; health and human development; information technology and communications; materials science and advanced manufacturing; or other new economy knowledge based activity; ♦ have no more than one hundred (100) full-time employees; and ♦ have more than 50% of its assets, operations, and employees located within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The business must also meet one of the following conditions: ♦ a net worth of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) or less, or; ♦ a net income after federal income taxes for each of the two (2) preceding fiscal years of three million dollars ($3,000,000) or less; ♦ has not received investments eligible for more than one million dollars ($1,000,000) in aggregate angel investor tax credits; and ♦ has filed an application with and received KEDFA certification as a Qualified Small Business in the program. Click here to learn about our tax credit eligible companies! To be a Qualified Investor, you must be: ♦ an individual, natural person; ♦ an accredited investor according to Regulation D of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in effect as of the date of the requested certification; ♦ no more than a twenty percent (20%) owner in and is not employed by the Qualified Small Business prior to making a Qualified Investment in that business; ♦ not the parent, spouse or child of an individual holding in excess of twenty percent (20%) ownership interest in, or who is employed by, the Qualified Small Business prior to making the Qualified Investment; ♦ seeking a financial return from the Qualified Investment; and ♦ an approved Qualified Investor in the program. A Qualified Investment is: ♦ a minimum cash investment of $10,000 made by a Qualified Investor in a Qualified Small Business; ♦ offered and executed in compliance with applicable state and federal securities laws and regulations; ♦ is exchanged for consideration in the form of equity interest in the Qualified Small Business; and ♦ has been approved by KEDFA as a Qualified Investment in advance of actual investment The total amount of tax credits or each calendar year, the total amount of tax credits available for the Kentucky Angel Investment Act program shall not exceed $3,000,000. The total amount of tax credits approved to a Qualified Investor in a calendar year shall not exceed $200,000 in aggregate. Steps to Invest Step 1 - Complete this form: http://thinkkentucky.com/KYEDC/pdfs/Angel_Investor_Application.xls, and pay a non-refundable $25 application fee made payable to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) must be submitted along with the application.

  Local company SkuVault has won a lot of awards and made a lot of headlines lately.  They're one of the local Endeavor companies, and they're a shining example of how to go from scrappy bootstrapped startup to amazing success story. On this episode of the Metro Startup Launcher podcast, we talk to Andy Eastes, co-founder and CEO of SkuVault. If you're interested in being an entrepreneur or investing in local startups, you don't want to miss this podcast. Here's what you'll learn about SkuVault: What does SkuVault do?  Who are SkuVault's competitors?  How do you start a company these days when there seems to be competition everywhere? Do you have to have an earth-shattering, brilliant idea to start a company?  Why a niche mentality and a great "story" gives you an edge. What's Andy's story?  Any early entrepreneurial experience?  How did he become the entrepreneur he is today? Why are lots of small steps and partnerships important to get things started?  Why is very hands-on client interaction critical to early success? What steps did the company take to bootstrap and get started with no funding?  How important are great partners? What's the long-term plan for SkuVault? Suggestions for our startup community, including better communication between all parts of the startup community. What's the motto that Andy learned from an early mentor that will work for any business?