Old Pueblo, New Economy

Lessons about the art of valuations:Listen to and take into consideration expert investor perspectives: Active angels are  seeing 100 or more presentations a month, and as a result they know what valuations are normal, expected and reasonable.Ensure you are able to explain your valuation:   Being able to back up the value of the company with evidence will be extremely important, especially if you are outside the realm of normal, expected or reasonable valuations.There needs to be room for growth: As Brian said, smart investors know not to eat the whole apple. If an investor takes half of the company, what’s left for the entrepreneur?    “The best investors have a very open dialog with founders about a fair valuation and reasonable sized portion”.   Ensure that as you’re putting together your valuation and offer you leave room for growth.Episode Mentions:Books and PapersEARLY-STAGE FUNDING: OPTIONS, SOURCES, AND CONSEQUENCES: A community-based white paper for aspiring and first-time foundersStartup Community by Brad FeldHedge: A Greater Safety Net For The Entrepreneurial Age by Nicolas ColinOrganizationsSunquestMadden Media University of ArizonaFORGEUArizona Center for InnovationDesert Angels - Joann MacMasterCommunity Investment Corporation - Danny KneeCommunity Investment Corporation - Carie DavisStartup Tucson - Liz PocockWeFunder - Johnny PriceJohn Deerie - Center for American EntrepreneurshipKauffman FoundationUA VC - Fletcher McCusker

The key lessons covered in this episode are:Your go-to-market plan will be wrong: If you operate with this belief, then it’s critical to build a learning engine to find a beach-head and ultimately a G2M strategy that works. Legalbreeze has built a learning engine that allows them to review customer data and insights from experiments they run every 72 hours.   They aspire to get this down to a 24-hour cycle which will allow them to learn three times faster.Changing consumer behavior is really difficult:  Use the learning engine you’re building to measure whether behavior change is occurring with your beach-head customers as well as engage with them personally to understand why or why not.   If the evidence (data + insights) from customers suggests that customers are not changing behavior then pivot to a different customer segment based on the same evidence.Explore broadly:  Utilize curve-ball Experiments to help find alternative customer segments.  A great example of this is Legalbreeze skipping digital marketing temporarily and handing out fliers in person to better understand customers.  These guerilla marketing and face-to-face methods are amazon tools to learn lots from customers really quickly.

Dr. Fox is an active early-stage investor and has assisted numerous businesses by providing capital and guidance. He has also founded several successful businesses and has served at the executive and board level for multiple companies. He is a former adjunct instructor at the Eller College of Business of the University of Arizona and holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.Marty was extremely gracious with his time and insights, and here are some of his most important suggestions for entrepreneurs:Don’t take money from someone you don’t have a strong relationship with.  To support that, here are three tactics for deepening relationships: Practice empathy - Similar to how you take the time to deeply understand your customers, you should also take the time to deeply understand your investors.   Why are they investing?  What’s important to them?   What outcomes are they after?   Do you have the right chemistry to work together for the next decade?Give consistently, receive occasionally - When we are consistently giving of ourselves it ensures we’re surrounded by a support network that truly cares and wants to see us be successful.  Think about times when others have behaved in this way:  How did YOU feel?“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?‘” – Brian Tracy, Author Show and prove you think of others - Simply remembering some small detail or important date can deepen those personal connections between two people.   Perhaps an unexpected call or text from you “Hey, I was able to apply that suggestion you made to me last week and will let you know how it goes.  Thank you!”.  Shifting our lens from being constantly focused inward to being frequently focused outward will do wonders for deepening our relationships.Avoid over-diversification -  My recommendation for entrepreneurs is that they get uncomfortably narrow about your first early adopter customer segment.   The more specific you can get, the faster you can move.    To hear a great entrepreneur working through getting specific, check out the Mentor Me Live episode with Aaron Gopp from Patter.See you next week!

Welcome to Mentor Me Live.  I’m grateful to have the opportunity to help Tucson entrepreneur and film-maker, Jeff Brack.   Not only has Jeff directed, written, and produced short and feature films, but he’s also launched a highly successful premium dine-in movie Theater Chain, Roadhouse Cinemas in Tucson, Scottsdale, and Colorado Springs.  We’re going to work together to figure out how Jeff can acquire funding for a new feature film he’d like to bring to our region.  Lessons:Develop Relationships by building empathyLearn the market of investorsMarty Fox episodeAbundance MindsetAnything is possible, just need to get creative about ithttps://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2020/10/09/4-ways-to-practice-empathy-at-work-and-why-its-crucial-to-your-career/#535f1d2921cd  

We have an extremely exciting show today with CEO of the Desert Angels, Joann MacMaster.   Joann has served as a startup founder, mentor, investor, and educator. She’s passionate about regional ecosystem development and recently received the Larry Hecker and Sherry Hoskinson Lasting Community Builder Award and this year the 2020 Women of Influence Entrepreneur of the Year Award.The key lessons from this conversation are:Diversity in entrepreneurship is critical because the people and cultures of customer-bases are very different, so the problem-solvers must also be very different in order to understand the challenges people face around the world.Diversity goes far beyond gender and skin color. There is a diversity of backgrounds, skillsets, thought, age, geographic location, experiences, etc.  So don't just think that diversity and inclusion mean women and people of color. It's much deeper than that.It is unfair to bucket all minority groups into the same category. Women in tech have unique needs and interests different from women of color. Is there an overlap? Sure. But to bucket, all women into the same category for programs and resources misses the mark. The same goes for all other under-represented groups.   Get specific about who is under-represented and develop a strategy to engage them.As a founder, be sure not to think about Desert Angels as a single entity - many different individual investors and affiliates.  Go engage, and learn about the members individually to move your startup forward more rapidly.Good luck and see you next week!Shoutouts and MentionsAngel capital associationUArizona Tech-launch-ArizonaUaVentures Mike Sember Bluestone VenturesDiamond VenturesCommunity Investment Corporation

This Mentor Me Live episode features Eric Bockman, founder of Auction Roo.  He has an early-stage idea to transform how auction houses distribute merchandise to customers.  AuctionRoo does not currently have any paying customers, and Eric is looking for support in finding a business-minded co-founder and narrowing the focus to get his first paying customer.The key lessons for entrepreneurs here are:    •    Self-awareness — Eric has a very strong awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses.  As a result, is will shorten the amount of time it takes him to find a suitable co-founder.  After you clearly understand yourself, the next step is to move toward ensuring you have a strong founding team.   Entrepreneurship is a team-sport, please don't try to ride this ride alone.    •    Don’t worry about the scalability of your idea until you have satisfied customers.  In Auction Roo's case, they don't yet have any satisfied customers.  As a result, their next milestone is to acquire one satisfied customer.  It likely looks like one auction buyer that has successfully had a small number of deliveries using Auction Roo; a returning customer is likely to be satisfied.   At this early stage, it's too risky to send an email blast out to 14k auction buyers.  This is risky to both Auction Roo and the auction house.  Shrinking the size of the initial experiments down to 10-20 customers is probably more appropriate and will help the team move more rapidly.I look forward to seeing you next week!

Today on Mentor Me Live, we are going to tackle fear.  As entrepreneurs, we are constantly facing our fears.  The fear of running out of money, fear of hiring the wrong person, fear of customers rejecting us, the fear of our skills not being enough to accomplish our gigantic visions.A recent HBR research study of 65 entrepreneurs noted that for entrepreneurs, courage is not the absence of fear.  Courage is the ability to persist in spite of it. Here are a few tips on how to be a courageous entrepreneur:Identify the  sources of your fear - If you don’t know where your fears are coming from, how can you address them?  We must strengthen our self-awareness and dig deep to resolve root cause personal issues holding us back.Next, we need to break our vision into small and achievable milestones.  This allows us to take action, feel a sense of accomplishment, and reduce procrastination.Utilize Ulysses contracts and time commitments to force forward motion.  If you haven’t yet ready Annie Duke’s “Thinking in Bets” go grab a copy.  It will changeEach of us brings our own fears to the table when we found a startup, but as Winston Churchill once said:   "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." The power of individuals, of entrepreneurs, and of startups lies in their ability to change, to adapt, and to transform themselves to ultimately accomplish their life-saving vision.Put your fears aside and get back to work changing the world.Shoutouts and MentionsCecily (Danny Knee’s wife)CICKivaWeFunderAnnie Duke - Thinking in BestStartup Boards

ABOUT Janelle BriggsDr. Janelle Briggs is a biracial Black startup founder, feminist, and scholar committed to social justice. Dr. Briggs understands the value and beauty of humanity and, more importantly, how to empower others to disseminate a message of inclusion and social change. She is is the co-founder and CEO of Stackhouse, a Tucson, Arizona-based container living company specializing in eco-friendly, elevated living alternatives to the rising cost of urban housing.

In March and April of 2020, I heard directly from numerous small business owners and understand that the challenges created by COVID-19 are overwhelming. Many described feeling paralyzed and overwhelmed, which has led to inaction and an inability to pivot or make thoughtful plans or decisions. This is such a normal place to be during this unprecedented time and we wanted to help, by offering support to let you know that you are not alone, your feelings are normal and there is a way to start down the path toward action.  On Wednesday, April 22, I led two interactive sessions with local business leaders and experts to discuss ways to begin to re-imagine your business during this unprecedented time.  Unfortunately, as a small business owner, there is a crisis to lead through every few years.  While this COVID-19 crisis is different from anything any of us has led through previously, there are core principles that are consistent to be able to make your own new normal, instead of  waiting for others to make it for you:Get tough  - to get through tough times, business owners need to get tough as well. Set aside your guilt to be able to focus on yourself and your business.Disconnect - Take the time to figure out what’s best for you and focus on that.  Turn off the phone, turn off the computer, pauseCreate a plan - Even though these are uncertain times, business leaders must establish some level of certainty for our employees and customers.  It’s critical for them to see that you’ve got a plan, even if it ends up being wrong.About Greg Teesdale[Photo]  Guidance to small, emerging companies in the development of their business strategies, detailed business plans, and business processes.Specialties: 30+ years at venture-backed emerging growth companies with 20+ years at the C-level.About Lea Marquez Peterson[Photo] Commissioner Márquez Peterson has been an entrepreneur in our community for many years and served as the President/ CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber from 2009 until November of 2018. The Tucson Hispanic Chamber serves the business community in the bilingual, bi-cultural region of the Arizona-Sonora border and was recognized as the Hispanic Chamber of the Year in 2013 by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The chamber represents over 1800-member businesses and in partnership with the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is one of the largest chambers in the State of Arizona.Lea ran for Congress in Arizona Congressional District 2 in 2018 and won a competitive primary race. During her campaign she was endorsed by Governor Ducey, Senator Kyl, Lea enjoyed meeting thousands of people in the region and tackling many key issues impacting Arizona.She previously served as the Executive Director for Greater Tucson Leadership (GTL) from 2005 to 2009 and owned and operated a Business Brokerage Firm from 2005 to 2009 and a chain of six gasoline stations/convenience stores with 50 employees from 1998 to 2005 in the Tucson region.Episode MentionsNational Association of Women Business OwnersArizona Corporation CommissionArizona Commerce AuthorityRio NuevoSmall Business Development Centers (Pima Community College)Local First ArizonaJeffrey Gitomer - Little Red Book of SellingPima County Workforce Investment BoardDowntown Tucson Partnership

ABOUT Zach YentzerZach Yentzer’s been intentional to work at the intersection of neighborhood and housing policy, and workforce and economic development to shape an inclusive, innovative future for Tucson. He’s the Executive Director of Tucson Young Professionals and serves on the Tucson Metro Chamber’s Talent Taskforce. Zach’s the President of the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association, a member of the Barrio Neighborhood Coalition, and serves on the Downtown Neighborhoods and Residents Council and the Downtown Tucson Partnership (DTP) Board. Zach hosts talk show “Tipping Point” on AM 1030 The Voice daily, and was named Tucson’s 2019 40 Under 40 Man of the Year.

Did you know that there is more than $100 million worth of capital available to Arizona entrepreneurs right now?  Were you aware that Tucson ranks as one of the Top 5 Cities for entrepreneurs, according to Entrepreneur magazine, but it has been a long, hard road.  I find it incredible that within the last few years, Tucson has gone from only one or two venture capital firms to over five.  One of those firms is BlueStone Venture Partners where managing partner Mara Aspinall and team are utilizing their “Noses in, fingers out” approach to invest in regional digital health, medical devices  and medical diagnostics startups.  Their Fund primarily focuses on companies that reside within five key verticals including: Medical Devices, Advanced Materials, Healthcare IT, Diagnostics, and Biopharma Platforms.As an entrepreneur, I really appreciate Mara’s hyper-focus on startup teams over technology.  To create an A-Team (insert theme music here) you must:Know your strengths and most importantly your weaknesses.  If you can’t articulate these, how will you be able to build a team that has strengths to counter-balance your weaknesses? Find the right team,: these should be people you trust, and that can consistently be intellectually honest with you.   These team members should also be highly adept at navigating ambiguity as it’s likely to be all your startup will be facing for the first few years.After building your A-Team,  go “do your homework”. Your goal should be to understand your situation and potential future scenarios enough to anticipate what’s coming.  This will help you and the team mitigate the foreseeable errors, and hopefully not worry about the ones you could not have known.   Most importantly, get moving and keep moving.   About MaraAspinall is a healthcare industry leader and pioneer committed to active civic involvement. She is Managing Director and Co-Founder of BlueStone Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in life sciences technology companies in the US Southwest. She is also Managing Director of the Health Catalysts Group, a consulting firm dedicated to the growth of health information technology and diagnostics firms, publishing the popular Health Catalysts Diagnostics Year in Review. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Abcam plc (ABC), Allscripts (MDRX), Castle Biosciences (CSTL), Orasure (OSUR), and Blue Cross Blue Shield Arizona. Most recently, Aspinall was certified in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon University.As President and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a billion-dollar division of The Roche Group, (now Roche Tissue Diagnostics) Aspinall led her world-class team to new financial success, more than two dozen major instrument and assay launches as well as global leadership in companion diagnostics.  Previously, Aspinall spent 13 years at Genzyme Corporation where she served as President of Genzyme Genetics and Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. Genzyme Genetics was a leading provider of diagnostic testing and genetic counseling in the oncology and reproductive markets. Aspinall transformed the business from a small specialized player to one of the top five laboratories in the country while setting the industry standard for quality testing. The business was sold to LabCorp for nearly $1billion. Previously, she led Genzyme Pharmaceuticals and its transformation to an international leader in specialized pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing. 

ABOUT Devon UnderwoodDevon Underwood started The Talent Store after recognizing that recruiting firms and HR consultants are operating the same way they have for 20+ years. This is despite the fact that the talent landscape has completely changed in the last 10 years. She has shifted pricing, service options and delivery, and built a firm that is a true partner in acquiring and retaining top talent. In every piece of service provided, the goal is to help clients discover the people and processes that allow them to grow and meet their strategic initiatives.She knows the technology and best practices available to help companies scale successfully and can develop and implement custom talent attraction, acquisition and retention strategies. She can also help flesh out leadership and key position needs and do the work to discover top candidates. All of this is done with a focus on each companies unique “personality”, culture and skills needs.Devon has provided Executive Search, Recruiting and Talent Acquisition strategy consulting for clients in 40+ states for the last 15 years. She has built, trained and developed recruitment teams and played a key role in employment branding. She is an expert in analyzing current practices and shaping systems and solutions customized for each company’s culture, current processes and resource capacity. Devon is a proud Alumni of the University of Arizona.We both met at the eCircle by Gina and Katina. The post explained by Devon, featuring San Xavier Mission.

So you’ve interviewed customers, run some experiments, and built an MVP.   You launch the Minimum Viable Product to customers, and all you hear is the chirp of crickets.   What do you do next?  How do you decide whether to pivot or persevere?    In this episode, you’re going to hear a mentoring session between myself and Aaron Gopp, co-Founder and CEO of Patter.  We will tackle pivoting as well as the development of a customer advisory board for your startup.

ABOUT Isaac FigueroaSince receiving his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, Isaac has excelled in the real estate profession in Tucson. For three years he served as a residential buyer representative at Re/Max. During that period, Isaac led the sales team which collectively closed more than $150 million in residential real estate transactions.After his tenure in the residential sector Isaac transitioned to commercial and joined one of Tucson’s top commercial real estate firms, Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR as a broker. His expertise included the leasing and sale of professional and medical office properties; he also specialized in investment sales of all property types, including the acquisition and disposition of stabilized commercial real estate investment assets.Isaac was awarded the Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR Fast Start Award for his impressive performance in the office sector so early in his career at the firm. He was also named a 2016 and 2017 CoStar Power Broker for being among the highest producers in his market.Isaac is involved in several community organizations, including the Urban Land Institute (ULI), The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, Emerging Leaders Council with the Tucson Metro Chamber, Tucson Young Professionals (TYP), was a graduate of Greater Tucson Leadership (GTL) Class of 2017, is an Honorary Commander for the 357th Fighter Squadron for the US Air Force, an active member of the Centurions and sits on several non-profit boards including Tucson Children’s Museum, Downtown Tucson Partnership, GTL and Imago Dei Middle School. Isaac earned his Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation, after completing advanced coursework in financial and market analysis and demonstrating extensive experience in the commercial real estate industry.In mid-2018 Isaac joined BFL. BFL Ventures is the real estate investment and development arm of BFL Construction. At BFL Ventures, as the Managing Director of Real Estate Development, he manages all related endeavors, including in-house leasing and sales, development project management and deal sourcing and structuring. He also is the designated broker for BFL Ventures, LLC.In his role as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at BFL Construction, he manages commercial strategy, business development, strategic partnerships, marketing, sales, client relations and drives business growth and market share. He also manages the company’s government and community relations.We both met at a Tucson Young Professional networking event; my personal favorite: CEO Roundtable. In this interview, you will learn:The power of mentorship that guided Isaac through his transition from a successful career in residential real estate to commercial real estate at PICOR; all the way through his critical career move to switch from PICOR to BFL Ventures and BFL ConstructionThe secret to sales success from Mike Hammond at Cushman & Wakefield | PICORHow to build a professional network and sphere of influence as a young professionalThe post explained by Isaac, featuring Los Charros del Desierto!Notable mentions in this interview:Companies & OrganizationsBFL Ventures & ConstructionPima CountyCushman & Wakefield | PICORLarsen BakerBourn CompaniesPIMA JTEDNexMetroPima Community CollegeUniversity of ArizonaMemberships & Networking Tucson Young Professionals (TYP)Men’s Active 20/30 ClubThe CenturionsJewish Federation Young Men’s GroupTucson Metro Chamber of CommerceEmerging Leaders Council (ELC)Mountain Oyster ClubPeople Derrick PolderBilly KovacksFood, Drink & Activities Rocks & RopesLa Cafe Poca CosaPrep & PastryReilly “Best Pizza in Town” PencaTucson Magpies Rugby TeamJohn Henry’s BarBoxyardGet social with Isaac!InstagramFacebookLinkedInCompany Website

Inside access to the Rising Stars shaping our regional economy through how they Live, Work, and Play.Björgvin Benediktsson is an Icelandic-American musician, audio engineer, and entrepreneur. As a musicpreneur, he runs www.audio-issues.com, one of the longest-running audio education sites on the web. Since 2009, he’s run www.audio-issues.com, one of the longest-running audio education sites online, where he teaches thousands of home studio musicians and bedroom producers how to make a bigger impact with their music production.We both met at the EForum in Tucson, which is a growth accelerator for local business owners. In this interview, Björgvin explains that he grew up in Iceland and moved to Tucson with his wife, Liz Pocock. When he got here, he studied at Pima and eventually the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona. Björgvin models his business model after the 4-hour work week, by Tim Ferriss.He is the author of the best-selling eBook, “Step By Step Mixing – How to Create Great Mixes With Only 5 Plug-ins” as well as the creator of other audio production courses and tutorials. He is an expert in online impact through authority building, thought leadership, and email marketing. When he’s not creating content or working on his business, he can be found mixing artists from all over the world, performing live as a professional musician or drinking craft beer, and reading comic books.This episode was brought to you by our mutual friends, peers and fellow young professionals: Dillon Walker and Gustavo Corte, the proud founders of Common Workspace. I personally love working out of Common, given they are uniquely located above La Cafe Poca Cosa downtown. Also, they have 24/7 access once you become a member. They have a ton of perks that come with their membership, whether you are renting a desk for a day, or a corner office for the year! You can learn more by visiting their website. 

Tony FordFor more than 20 years, I have recorded quantifiable achievements driving sales and operational strategies, assessing business needs to develop optimal solutions, making impactful presentations, and amassing productive and top-performing teams. Over the same period, I have acquired clients across industries and businesses manufacturers, service companies and tech startups as well as major e-Tailers and retailers.https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyfordmedia/https://twitter.com/aztonyfordhttps://www.facebook.com/tony.ford Amber SmithCollaborator above all else, I believe most problems can be solved through discussion, respect for different opinions, by finding common ground and working with partners. My passion projects include workforce development, housing affordability and overall bringing people, businesses and groups together to solve complicated problems and create collective impact. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambermooresmith/