Successful offers in a multi-platform environment. Business models for Latin America. Free and Premium services balance. Taking advantage of communities to monetize and add new services.
Hernán La Rosa, Gerente de desarrollo de Productos, Direccion de Marketing de Servicio de Valor Agregado, Movistar Argentina
Nathaniel Pool, Founder, RoadScout Moderator: Claudio Schapsis – Chief Marketing Technologist – BDNooZ LBS Strategies
A group of over 50 entrepreneurs and techies gathered for start-up boot camp. The first annual IncubateMiami/Startup Weekend Boot Camp was a great success in which 8 new companies were launched within 54 hours. The groups then “pitched” their companies on Sunday night to a group of their peers, a panel of judges and angel investors. VillageHelper.com took top honor, with a close second place finish by Cloudomatic.com. See the elevator pitches: http://cycast.tv/recorded/video/786
Before I begin, I would like to thank Joe Pineda and Jade Chen for their kindness and hospitality. I would also like to thank my friend David Lopez for nominating me to this esteemed Council.
It is truly an honor and a privilege.
My name is Nathaniel Pool and I’ve been asked to tell you a little bit about myself tonight.
I was interviewing for my first sales job when the interviewer suddenly handed me a pencil and asked me to sell it him. I took his pencil, snapped it in two and said, “You need a new pencil!”
After the initial shock, he laughed, and said, “You start tomorrow.”
While not the most conventional approach, I was nervous and I really needed the job.
I wasn’t born a great salesman, but I studied and imitated those that were blessed with the gift of gab.
I immersed myself in biographies and autobiographies of successful businessmen. I learned what made them successful and I saw a similar recurring theme. It was something I had too!
DESIRE AND DRIVE!
The gift of gab didn’t come easy to me, especially since I didn’t learn English until I was five years old.
I was born in Morocco in 1965, on an American Naval base, and shortly thereafter my father was transferred to Honduras for 2 years, followed by another 2 years in Panama, and 6 years in the Philippines, where I first started school.
When I was 10, my Dad was transferred to Kansas City where he eventually quit working for the government to start fulfilling his own entrepreneurial dreams.
During this time, I completed school and obtained my Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Management, from William Jewell College.
Now, I have to tell you a little bit about my Alma mater: It was founded 160 years ago by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and other civic leaders, which included Robert S. James, father of the infamous Frank and Jesse James. In 2001, Jewell was chosen by Time Magazine as its Liberal Arts College of the Year.
Why is this significant? Well, it was the year I graduated and also not the most likely place for a Jewish kid to attend.
My first sales job was as a loan originator for Norwest Mortgage. Being on a straight commission was tough, especially the first year, but DESIRE AND DRIVE, helped me accomplish my goal of making my first 6-figures by the time I was 23. I would also remain on the Mortgage Bankers Association Top 10% list for the next four years.
It was around that time, I received a call from my Dad asking me to come to work at his cable TV and satellite communications company. I seized the opportunity and again, with DESIRE AND DRIVE, we grew 1400% within 2-1/2 years, ranking it Kansas City’s 5th fastest growing company.
Then in 1993, I caught my first glimpse of the Internet. It looked like nothing we know today.
I was magnetized by the ability to instantly communicate with someone across the world without having to pay long-distance charges. I wanted to learn more so I called the only Internet company around at that time to subscribe to their service.
This company had been started by two techie teenagers and they were getting amazing press. I just couldn’t believe that, after two weeks of leaving them messages on their voice mail to sign up for service, no one was returning my calls.
It was then I had an epiphany. If they are so busy that they can’t cater to new potential customers, I should; and I will; and I did.
It took 6 months, but after hitting the streets and knocking on doors to explain this new service, I had convinced nearly 200 companies to commit to our service in advance of our company launch.
So, armed with 2 phone lines, modems, and a server, Q-Networks was ready to open for business. Almost! The only problem is that we needed customer service people to handle tech support calls, and since very few knew anything about the Internet at that time, I did what any CEO would do in times of need. I called my Mom.
She suggested I contact my old high-school.
I convinced the computer lab teacher to allow me 5 minutes to pitch my company and to tell the students about a couple of job openings I had available for anyone that knew something about the Internet. As I was giving them my phone number, three of them rushed to me with freshly printed resumes. Bingo! We now had employees. We were ready to open for business.
We were profitable by our 7th month. Our DESIRE was to provide exemplary customer service. We spent countless hours training our staff, role playing, mastering phone techniques, and taking care of our customers, so no one else would.
We hired people that cared and we treated our customers like an extended family. We did little things that counted like sending birthday greetings to our customers before that was fashionable. We even had a mobile installation team that would go to a customer’s home if they were unable to install and connect to us.
We never lost our DRIVE to provide the best customer service.
We didn’t forget about our employees either. We spoiled them with the latest gadgets and equipment, beautiful offices, their own media room, free soft drinks and snacks, and a jet boat for their use because they gave us a good part of their lives.
They took pride in their work and together we shared in our achievements.
As a result, C-net ranked us one of the Top 5 Internet Providers in the country. Our annual growth rate was a staggering 250% every year, and 93% of our new business came from customer referrals.
One of my most memorable highlights was when Bank of America awarded us Small Business of the Year at halftime during a televised Monday Night Football game.
The key to our success was very simple: We never lost the human-touch.
One day, I overheard our Customer Service team had taken it upon themselves to collect money to pay for an Internet account, for a terminally-ill teenager, named Travis, who needed Internet access to retrieve his homework from school.
The gesture hit me so deeply, that soon after, we launched a program called “Kids-on-Q”, which provided free computers and unlimited Internet access to terminally-ill kids. It was our way of stepping up to the plate and giving back to the community, which had given us so much!
Unfortunately, Travis passed away the day after his high-school graduation. His father would later call, to thank us for making Travis’s life easier, and told me about the kindness of our staff who had remained pen-pals with him until the day of his passing.
That day had opened a new chapter in my life. It was then I realized the true meaning of success wasn’t gauged solely by desire and drive, but that true success is measured by how much you give without ever counting.
I believe that there is a strong lesson in how this relates to our current economic times. Financial titans on Wall-Street, decades old, have crumbled overnight. Everyday we read about another unveiling of corruption or another victim of greed and excess.
Maybe it’s time that we get lean, and take this opportunity to stop and smell the roses and appreciate what we have and the things that really matter: life, health, happiness, family, friends and the HUMAN TOUCH.
For this reason alone, I would like to serve on the Entrepreneurial Council. I feel it important to instill in the next generation the sense of giving and community. It’s not just about the dollar. It’s also about giving of yourself.
I did meet my goal by the time I was 30, and a few years later, I sold my company, and semi-retired to Florida where I met my beautiful wife and we started our family.
Since moving here, I built a private cable TV company. Two years ago, I launched a funding company, called hackseed, that provides mentoring and seed-capital to Internet-based entrepreneurs.
In recent weeks, I’ve been busy with the launch of two more start-ups which are my first ventures outside the tech world – one in the food business and one in cosmetics industry.
I’m blessed to share life with my wife and each day grow up again through the eyes of my son and to try to be the best example to him.
Albert Einstein said, “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
This beautiful University is molding tomorrow’s business leaders and with the threat of global competition, it’s even more important that we get involved in helping groom and mentor these future generations, by instilling the importance of adhering to strong ethical values and integrity.
Having had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most influential people and greatest minds in business and technology today, I hope that I can share and contribute some of those experiences with this Business School and our community.
I thank you for your time and the privilege to be your nominee this evening, and as the great orator Paul Harvey used to conclude: “Now you know the rest of the story.”
Nathaniel Pool 