Wakeup & Startup
“More often than not those who work in restaurants make excellent salesman (and women), but when the tables are turned do they also make excellent customers?”
Momentum Blog: General
Jan122012
Nov232011
Wakeup & Startup
Pomegranate Studios hosted the second Wakeup & Startup Wednesday morning at GRid70.
Wakeup & Startup is a morning networking event that occurs bi-monthly and is completely free. The goal is to create an open network targeting startup conversation. The event looks a little something like this:
Nov092011
Wakeup & Startup
Pomegranate Studios hosted West Michigan’s first Wakeup & Startup at the GRid70 Café Wednesday. The group of 25 met from 7:30 to 9am and was led by Amanda Chocko, Program Director of Pomegranate Studios and Momentum, and Laura Pecherski, the Sales and Marketing Director of Zipments.
Nov022011
Momentum 2012
Planning is in full swing for Momentum 2012. Applications will be open in the Spring. In the meantime, stay connected by checking out other startup focused events…
Jul262011
A chat with Jason Pliml, founder of Mock Draft Central
Rounding out the 2011 Momentum Speaker Dinner series was Jason Pliml, founder and former owner of Mock Draft Central.
Jason has seen it all – turning his passion (fantasy sports) into an idea, raising money, selling his product and eventually his company. While he could have told us about any of those events, he didn’t. Instead, he talked about processes and finances. I know…boring, right?
Wrong. Managing finances and creating processes around startup chaos is the dirty work. It’s not sexy – but necessary to growth and success. Here are a few pointers from Jason:
Finances, Finances, Finances
Constantly keep track of your finances. In fact, as a founder you should be keeping track of your money – not someone else in your organization. Hire an accountant/bookkeeper but always be the one in charge of your expenses. This way, you can see what’s going in and out. Frequently compare your budget numbers and your actuals.
Jul112011
Sage Advice-Lessons from a Serial Entrepreneur
Can anyone believe that Demo Day approaching? I know – me either. The event is on July 28th at GVSU’s Loosemore Auditorium and from what I hear, the guest list will include local entrepreneurs, investors and of course, the Momentum teams. I just registered last week so if you haven’t done that yet, you should.
Last Wednesday, Momentum had Brad MacLean, CEO of Creative Byline (founded in 2008) in to share his experiences in fundraising, finding product-market fit and lessons learned over the years.
Creative Byline is a site that connects book publishers with writers. This Grand Angels-backed company is Brad’s seventh venture that started like most great ideas – from experience. Brad’s wife wrote a children’s book and went through the process of finding a publisher for her book. Brad saw an opportunity for a better and easier way to do this.
Jun282011
Startups: Always changing, but so much stays the same
Wednesday night, Momentum teams and guests were audience to an interview between Rick DeVos, ArtPrize founder and his grandfather, Rich DeVos.
You probably know Rich as co-founder of Amway, a company with massive global success. You probably also know him as the owner of the Orlando Magic or for his family’s generous contributions throughout West Michigan.
What you may not know is that Rich and his friend Jay Van Andel (Amway’s other co-founder) had many ventures before Amway. Throughout the course of his interview at Wednesday night’s speaker dinner, we heard about startups around health food, toys, broadcasting and even ping pong tables. Clearly, they were born to innovate.
Rich shared stories from each venture and what he & Jay learned in the process. This was a huge contribution to Momentum. Why? Because founders never hear this part of the story in the startup world – the part that involves struggle or even (gasp) failure. It reminds me of Eric Ries’ description of tech companies in the movies (like The Social Network): Act One is a brilliant idea on a napkin and some coding, Act Two is a photo montage of activity (usually not more than 5 minutes of actual work) and Act Three shows the now massively successful company worth billions fighting over who owns what. Notice how all the hard work, daily questioning and emotional roller coaster is omitted. Rich shared Act 2 of his startups with us.
Jun202011
Momentum/Aimwest Meetup recap
by Laura Percherski
One constant in Momentum over the past three years is the AimWest Night where each of the teams give their first pitch to a large audience since the program’s kickoff. This night serves as a near halfway point before Demo Day to show what they have learned about their business and perhaps more importantly, their customers.
AimWest hosted these presentations at WMU’s downtown location last Wednesday.
I wanted to give those who couldn’t attend a summary of each team’s presentation. If you haven’t had a chance to talk with the Momentum teams yet, you should check out their video introductions from Startup Stories.
Jun122011
Want to give a great pitch? Go with the FLOW
by Laura Percherski
Public speaking is typically not the first skill of a web-based entrepreneur. In fact, from my experience, many entrepreneurs dread it.
Despite that, pitching is a necessary part of being an entrepreneur. Presenting well to investors, potential customers and even your team at times requires intention and practice. To help this year’s startups, Momentum brought in an expert.
Zoe Carmichael, Communications professor at Aquinas College was on hand to give proven tips on presenting, an example of what she aptly calls a “brilliantly executed and memorable presentation” and real time feedback for the Momentum team pitches.
Sidenote – Zoe is also the better half of Grant Carmichael, who delivered Monday’s Momentum’s workshop on user experience and people focused design. Um, can you say power couple?
Zoe gave us these four steps to help any presentation become ‘brilliantly executed & memorable’.
F.L.O.W.
Jun032011
Customer Development the Zipments Way
By Laura Pecherski
Over the course of Momentum, there are weekly dinners for the teams, mentors and students to learn from local entrepreneurs and experts in fields relevant to starting a web based business.
I’m Laura Pecherski, by the way. I will be guest blogging for Momentum at events like this and other programs throughout the summer. I love creating things, connecting with people and being apart of a community like Momentum that fosters the growth of ideas and startups in Michigan.
This week’s dinner was held at GRID 70 on Ionia Ave downtown and we heard from local serial entrepreneur, Garrick Pohl. I work with Garrick at Zipments so it was particularly interesting for me to hear his perspective on customer development and how it’s changed over the years.
Garrick is CEO & Co-Founder of Zipments, an online marketplace for local delivery services. Prior to this role, Garrick spent five years as CEO of Crayon Interface, a company he co-founded in 2005 that developed mobile applications. In 2010, this company was sold to several parties including Ingersoll Rand and others (including one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S.).