Big Business

Joe Murphy is the director of the Iowa Business Council, which unites 20+ chief executives from Iowa’s largest organizations. Since 1985, the IBC has used economic research to determine key initiatives that help drive lasting progress in Iowa and beyond.

Together, Ben and Joe talk about collaboration amongst leaders, sequencing public policy, intrapreneurship, leveraging different types of capital, building teams that sing the song of significance, and together, activating diversity of thought to stay ahead of the innovation curve.

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Love Letters

“Dedicated to my co-founder in life and our startup that pays in love.”

Cheers to the love of our lives. This opening dedication in You Don’t Need This Book: Entrepreneurship in the Connected Era is fixed on the fact that significant others are elemental to an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

When so much is poured into something we care about, it brings everyone along for the ride. This makes success fun to share, but when dips emerge, tension will test the best of us. Many families build love triangles, but partners building in completely different realms is just as familiar. Loved ones may not understand all that’s surging through each other’s ambitious adventure, but when trust is minted, healthy individuality allows each person to achieve more through a shared appetite for risk.

A < H

To visualize how trust creates exponential opportunity, put your hands together. First, make an “A”. Each hand represents one partner. When relationships are built in the shape of an A, the constant contact actually becomes a limitation. The centering line of trust is established, but the top point limits how far each line can be extended.

Now, use your hands and make an “H”. The center line of trust remains, but there’s now space for individuality. Each of the two horizontal lines can continue to grow beyond what would have been possible alone. Individuality can feel apathetic, but when two people trust each other enough to build their own neon future, a brilliant fabric is set free to shine. This fabric can also become unbreakable, as threads of purpose are woven together with everlasting love.

Risk Appetite

Even with loving individuality sustained by trust, a shared appetite for risk still correlates through the environment, engaged networks, and what our partners provide. The quiet truth is that if there’s a singular source of income, stability is paramount. If there are multiple sources of income, there can be more comfort in the unknowns that come with building something new. Our current situation will always present limitations, but can we produce when others consume? Will we continue shifting gears to keep building without a map?

If such a calling brings you to life, what can we do to increase a shared appetite for risk? If work/life balance is an illusion reserved for the status quo, perhaps peace awaits those who encourage the latest creative season pf their forever friend. Setting an example of unselfish support can translate into positive momentum that benefits our partners, while also adding fresh space for our own exploration. The loving leash is lengthened as each partner delivers on promises (or quit the right things, at the right time) and the strengthened trust brews more freedom to flex.

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I am nothing without the love we share.

Before we ink this tribute to those who support us, let’s play with a paradox. Does everyone have an entrepreneurial spirit? It’s easy to say yes, but my favorite response considers the trust-based privilege of inviting strategic risk. In short, we may all have a creative spirit. When an appetite for risk is applied, the innovative spirit gets stirred into a delicious recipe that can be tasted with endless variety. It’s students tinkering with no permission required. It’s indispensable intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s the side hustles that evolve a leader’s diversified career portfolio and the founders willing to solve problems with pain-killing solutions. While lone wolves build capacity to explore their own uncertainties, exponential opportunity await the team that builds with a shared vision.

Humans seek purpose, peace, and happiness. The family we choose influences our own path toward career nirvana. Be kind to yourself by choosing a partner wisely, then be your best knowing that when the credits roll on a life well-lived, our loved ones will be first, last, and all that’s in between.

Borderless

Kerty Levy is an advisor, investor, and friend who helps entrepreneurs succeed. Kerty and Ben collaborated through Techstars, so we grab the morning oars to first dance with how smooth is fast.

Together, we then glide through the wild experience of accelerators. The value is vast as we continue by discussing why to think big, building a team, ecosystem exploration, founder-market fit, OKRs, KPIs, financial modeling, mentor madness with a #GiveFirst mindset, raising venture capital, perfecting a pitch, quick thoughts on web3, opportunities of a Startup Weekend, and the special bond that is Techstars for life.

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Head Start

The entrepreneurial lifestyle resists definition.

Business owners paint with strokes of curiosity, determination, and innovation. When people build with creative ambition, experience is valuable, but the symphony of desire and attitude plays an equally important role. It takes heart to start and resilience to keep building. Executing early moves, managing focus, collecting feedback, building a team, and maintaining sales is such an art form.

The best part about an entrepreneurial lifestyle is that it’s accessible to everyone. This can be seen as students explore projects that look like work to others, but feel like play to them. It’s intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s startup founders achieving product-market fit with new ideas and others who build on existing momentum by acquiring an established business.

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This caffeinated contribution was written by Sheldon Ohringer. Sheldon has led large sales teams, is an active investor, a board member, and is now building Cocoon Growth to help others buy their first business.

Starting a business is one way to explore the entrepreneurial lifestyle, but buying an existing business is also an interesting way to write your own story. While there may be a cost for the head start, acquiring an existing business presents an interesting side door to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

As you consider a business to buy, avoid future headaches by understanding industry requirements such as licenses, permits, zoning, and environmental requirements. As you work with existing ownership to determine a purchase price, a valuation based on capitalized earnings, excess earnings, cash flow, and tangible assets are all methods to guide fair negotiations. In the end, the right price is one that delights the seller and has the buyer excited.

As details come together, partner with legal and accounting experts who focus on mergers and acquisitions to document the transaction. A letter of intent, confidentiality agreement, contracts, leasing documents, financial statements, tax returns, and sales agreements are all important documents to talk with your M&A team about. Many transactions include a vesting schedule as well, so stay in-tune with these details to avoid unwanted surprises.

There are a variety of strategic ways to acquire a business, but once the transition takes place, new owners are given keys to a kingdom that hails an established team, customer base, and operating procedures. As we see in the Exit section of the Results chapter in YDNTB, there will be challenges during these transitory times, but in the end, virtuous leaders listen to keep the culture balanced. All the good that comes with a business is important to maintain, but an honest audit of negative aspects are important too. Intentional candor with areas to improve allows new owners to build on past success, while charting a renewed vision for lasting prosperity.