eROI Days Email Agency

At pdx, waiting to catch plane to wash dc for #inc500 conf. This will my fourth straight year at this awesome conference. Great insights.
10:14 PM Sep 29th via TweetDeck

President Bill Clinton addresses @inc500 conf thru video
5:42 AM Oct 1st via TweetDeck

Gary Hirshberg CEO – Stonyfield Yogurt

Should be good! RT @inc5000: Today’s 1st session is starting! Gary Hirshberg, the CE-YO from Stoneyfield at #inc500conferenece!

Stonyfield Yogurt is up to $360 million in sales now. Gary going to go over his philosophy on triple bottom line.
5:47 AM Oct 1st

Churchill quote “success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”
5:49 AM Oct 1st

If the rest of the world adopted USA energy and total consumption, we’d need 5 Earths to be able to handle it.
5:52 AM Oct 1st

(more…)

I just returned from the Inc. 500 Conference, and I must admit that I am a complete evangelist of Inc. Magazine, Inc. 500, and especially the Inc. 500 Conference. As an entrepreneur and leader of a scalable, high-growth company (eROI), there is nothing better than being around other entrepreneurs who are dynamic, innovative, and going through the same fight in the trenches as I’m in. President Clinton was the keynote and clearly impressed the audience by driving home the value of entrepreneurial mentoring, empowering entrepreneurs from a micro-lending perspective in the global marketplace, innovation in the areas of cleaner, greener, independent energy sources, health and wellness reform from a cultural perspective. I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to hear a U.S. President that could actually speak intelligently about issues that matter (to me).

While Clinton was the initial draw, there were 3 big reasons why this conference was better than any I’ve ever attended in my life:

1. Getting recognized in business happens rarely, and the whole conference made all 1,000 of us (Inc. 5000 was included in the conference which was a huge success) feel like Hollywood stars.

2. I connected almost instantly with 6 other entrepreneurs from all over the country who had so much to offer on a personal and business level, that we ended up talking and socializing until 4am a couple nights in a row.

3. The speakers were THAT GOOD. One highlight was a guy named Tom Szaky who dropped out of Princeton after visiting buddies from his hometown in Canada who were successfully growing very healthy marijuana plants using a liquified form of worm poop (yes, worm poop)! Tom created a conveyor belt system to take a huge amount of food waste and have worms eat it and poop it out into containers. His company, TerraCycle, makes all of its products and its packaging out of waste. It’s 100%, completely eco-friendly. Tom delighted the crowd with a charismatic presentation.

I’ve really been impressed by the meticulous process, screening, surveying, and especially the writing of Inc Magazine and its journalists during this month’s issue of the Inc. 500. This is the first time I’ve been through this process as the leader of a high-growth company, but I’ve been in other award ceremonies, and I’m blown away by the Inc. 500 thoroughness.

Let’s break it down for all of the email and phone contact for information (and I’m missing at least 1/2 the steps and contact points below):
1. eROI submits 2003 and 2006 accrual revenue figures on the Inc. 500 website in April’07.
2. A few weeks later, we get confirmation that eROI could be considered for being an Inc. 500 honoree.
3. Sarah, an Inc. 500 journalists, emails and calls me to interview me and get the entrepreneurial backstory.
4. Sara, an Inc. 500 fact-checker, makes sure that my accountant and tax files and loads of other company and personal information is correct and complete.
5. I get Sarah and Sara mixed up in my head and continue to follow up on this “eROI: Startup Grows Up” potential story (that hasn’t come to fruition yet) with the wrong Sarah. Finally, Sarah and I chat and there is potential to run the story after the Inc. 500 magazine issue.
6. I’m strongly encouraged (multiple times) to take an in-depth CEO survey of my personal, business, and even political preferences, which proves to be one of the most interesting pieces in the Inc. 500 September ’07 issue.
7. Final fact-checking via phone done.
8. June 26th – I received official notification (via physical mail) that eROI will be in the Inc. 500. Elegant presentation of materials and an invite to the Inc. 500 Conference that happens in Chicago next week (9/6 – 9/9). I will be there.
9. More e-invites follow (almost on a daily basis) to the Inc. 500 conference.
10. I just received another survey request last night.

Next week will likely increase in messaging as a huge lead-up to the big event. I’ll keep you posted on what the conference is like. I’d imagine it’s going to be a memorable conference with keynotes like President Bill Clinton. Tune in to the blog for more coming soon…