eROI Days Email Agency

The calm before the storm at #inc5000. Already connected with old friends and Inc magazine staff  http://yfrog.com/0oqxmjj 5:56 PM Sep 23rd from Tweetie

One more photo from Gaylord resort in wash dc. Schwanky. http://yfrog.com/16vonyj 5:57 PM Sep 23rd from Tweetie

#inc5000 conf starting now. Largest attendance ever at 1,700 of us. Aggregate rev of $214 billion http://yfrog.com/0nxn1jj 6:14 AM Sep 24th from Tweetie

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I met Tom Szaky, barely 25 years old at the time, and a pure, scrappy, entrepreneur’s entrepreneur, at the 2007 Inc. 500 conference in Chicago.  He spoke before keynote President Clinton and was clearly the more engaging speaker of the two (a pretty tough feat considering how dynamic Clinton used to be). Tom, born in Hungary, grew up in Canada, and dropped out of Princeton to start “The Coolest Startup in America” called Terracycle where every product and its packaging is made out of garbage.  His story is fascinating and the lessons business leaders and public policy-makers can learn from his success are significant. The irony for Portland, one of the greenest cities on Earth, is that most business leaders and policy folks had never heard of him and were quite doubtful that some young kid would be any good as a keynote speaker at the wildly successful Greenlight Greater Portland annual event – thankfully, Tom proved them wrong with an excellent presentation of how to win by innovating and by being greener, better, AND cheaper. I don’t have his presentation electronically, so until I get it, you’ll have to settle for the YouTube video on his Good Morning America and Oprah appearances six weeks prior.

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I just read the recent Inc. Magazine issue cover story on the most innovative small company in America, Threadless.com. It’s a fascinating story of some geeky web design kids who started a social community website in college with frequent T-shirt design contests whereby the winner would get their design printed on a T-shirt and sold online (to that same community). They started selling a couple thousand T-shirts, dropped out of college, and it has since grown over the past 5 years into a $30 million per year, 50 employee company with great margins.

While the above story is unbelievably compelling and a reflection of the cultural shift of a new generation who shares all online, is transparent, and believes in the online medium, it is one of many case studies in the for-profit world. I recently went to a fundraiser for Portland’s best-kept secret of a non-profit, Friends of the Children. I recently joined the Board, and true to my outspoken, naive youthfulness, thought I could make huge changes right away. What I didn’t realize is how much good the organization does at a magnitude I never imagined before. The positive impact really hit home with me at this 600 person fundraiser, when young adult after young adult got on stage with their mentor / friend, and told of impossible odds of rising above their past of abuse or neglect early in their childhood to be the first ever in their family to graduate from high school, or to get to States in their freshman year in high school, or begin full-time working at a prestigious law firm in town.

What makes this organization, Friends of the Children, so incredibly powerful and successful is its innovative business model. It pays full-time salaries for professional mentors to be with a few kids one-on-one mentoring week after week, for 12 years. That loyalty and consistency in these young people’s lives that have never had that from anyone before is unbelievably rewarding, healing, uplifting. I was a mentor in college for 4 years in a program called Big Siblings in Charlottesville, VA. Up until a couple years ago, I still kept in touch w/ my little brother. I have my own kids now and can’t offer that daily consistency that paid mentors can and do provide and the results and emotional connection that occur from these relationships truly inspire all of us who witness it.

My hat goes off to entrepreneurs like Duncan Campbell who founded Friends of the Children and pours his heart and soul into a beautiful creation that transforms kids lives, and the community as a whole.

Thank you Friends of the Children.

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…