Today's Quote:
"I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution."
--Wernher von Braun, German-American rocket scientist
Tulsa Holiday Party
Thursday, December 3rd
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
1800 S. Baltimore Ave., Tulsa
Please join us for drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the Community Room followed by
champagne and dessert in the penthouse.
RSVP to Valerie Renz at 295-7434 or vrenz@spiritbank.com. |
Mayor Kathy Taylor, Jeremy
Green and Ted Cundiff
Photo Credit: Sylvia Williams Photography courtesy
of GTR News |
Entrepreneurs Land Awards
By Laurie Winslow, Tulsa World Staff Writer
And the grand-prize winner of the third annual Mayor's Entrepreneurial Spirit Award is: Real Time Rehab.
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On Tuesday evening, contestants along with their families and friends, community leaders, other entrepreneurs and organizers of the competition mingled and waited expectantly at the Tulsa Community College Center for Creativity downtown to learn the names of this year's award winners.
The third-annual contest, which kicked off in April, attracted more than 85 entries before being narrowed over several months to the final seven.
Earlier this month the finalists had one last chance to impress judges during two-minute presentations.
Mayor Kathy Taylor said every one of the finalists was a winner.
"You're producing jobs, you're helping our economy and you're in control of your lives and your businesses," she told the gathering.
Months of waiting and diligence paid off for Jeremy Green of
Real Time Rehab, who received a $30,000 check from
SpiritBank. Also as the first-place winner, his company
receives a free year of space at the Tulsa Collaboratorium,
a downtown resource center for entrepreneurs provided by
Kanbar Properties.
"I don't know what to say here. I know they told us to prep," Green said after stepping up to the podium to accept his award. "Obviously, thank you to everyone - to the contestants, judges, coaches, but most of all family, friends and investors.
"This has been a 3 1/2-year process for us. It started in physical therapy school with the simple question: How can we improve physical therapy?"
Green said the prize money will be used for development of his company.
The $5,000 second-place award went to Part-Time Pros, founded by Carey Dunkin Baker and her husband, Brett Baker. The startup connects experienced professionals with part-time and contract employment.
The $2,500 third-place award was presented to Cog Togs Inc. and its creators — Shawna Sims, Melinda Ryan and Jeff Johnson, who also are siblings. Their social networking site for children requires kids to exchange bracelet beads with friends before they can connect safely with each other on the Web.
A newly added "Skunk Whisperer" award, designated for a contestant who didn't win a cash prize, goes to Elote Café and Catering, owned by Libby and Jeremy Auld. The award provides six months of service by an advisory board, made up of judges and coaches from the competition, and a visually driven game plan process graphically facilitated by Sean Griffin, chairman of the Spirit Award.
The award is named after the 2007 third-place Spirit Award winner, Ned Bruha, whose business The Skunk Whisperer provides humane animal removal and prevention of wildlife problems in urban and rural areas. Although Bruha didn't receive any money the year he entered, he has credited the Spirit Award as a catalyst in growing his business through the coaching and promotion he received as part of his participation.
"I think we have some very unique and powerful entrepreneurs here, and it's just exciting to see them blossom through the almost nine-month process they go through with the Spirit Award," said Griffin, who also was a judge for the competition, in an interview before the award ceremony. "Although they can't all win a cash prize, they all are exceptional and that's an important piece of this."
Griffin said Real Time Rehab has a powerful business model that helps people rehabilitate themselves effectively from injury by providing DVDs that demonstrate exercises in a step-by-step way that is much easier to understand and follow than on paper.
"We perceive his business to be not only an innovation in rehabilitation but also one that has great potential to be a very large company," Griffin said.
Starting next year, TCC will begin taking steps to oversee the Spirit Award by 2011. Griffin will remain chairman in 2010, and his team of judges and coaches will also stay on to train TCC for the transition. SpiritBank will continue as sponsor.
Read this article online at TulsaWorld.com.
A Closer Look At Our 7 Finalists
Additional coverage of the Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit Award competition.
On Tuesday, November 17th, after seven months of coaching, presenting and answering a multitude of questions, a winner
was named in the Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit Award competition sponsored by SpiritBank. Of the over 85 entries, the field
was narrowed down to seven finalists: Blue Label Bartending, Cog Togs Inc., Elote Café & Catering, Filters4Me.com, Part-Time Pros, Real Time Rehab and Target Solution Foods.
We asked our seven finalists about their experiences and thoughts on the competition:
Blue Label Bartending
Blue Label Bartending, founded by Garrett Blackwood, provides professional bartenders for private events in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The customer supplies the alcohol, and Blue Label supplies cups, ice, tools and great service. In addition, Blackwood recently opened the Blue Label Bartending School on Brookside.
What has been the greatest piece of advice or best thing you have learned throughout this process?
The judges told me that my focus was too narrow in scope as it relates to the services I offer. This has forced me to be creative in how I can reach more customers by broadening my scope of services. I was just offering one specific service (private event bartending services), but now I offer bartending training as well. I will be adding two additional services in the near future.
What piece of advice would you give to someone considering starting their own business?
Get your personal finances in order, do thorough research on the costs of starting and marketing your new business, and proceed when you have the funds to start and market the new business. Do not be afraid to ask competitors about the costs associated with their businesses – whether through ego or genuine concern they will probably share more information than you would have expected.
It is wonderful that the City of Tulsa and SpiritBank are still hosting this competition, even with the current economic conditions. This is a perfect time for a business to expand and this contest is a great way for a great idea to be funded and refined.
Cog Togs Inc.
Cog Togs Inc.'s founders, siblings Jeff Johnson, Shawna Sims and Melinda Ryan, are parents as well as professionals, which is why they developed a business that is safe and fun for children. Kids can trade personalized beads with their friends, wearing them on bracelets or key chains, and then connect online at the kid-friendly social site CogTogs.com. The site offers games, videos, blogs and news in a safe place impervious to strangers.
What made you decide to enter the contest?
We heard about the contest from several different places. Reading about the coaching sessions, opportunities to network and, of course, the awards made entering the contest an easy decision. There was a lot to be gained, and another opportunity to get "fresh eyes" on our project.
How do you feel this competition affects the City of Tulsa?
Obviously, any time a new business gets support from people of the judge's caliber, there can only be good feelings associated. New business is what will drive the economy of Tulsa, and of Oklahoma as a whole. Supporting new businesses sends a great message to those looking for a place to set up their business, and will potentially attract new business to the area. There are a lot of fantastic programs in our area that are offered to new businesses. It makes us proud to be from Oklahoma.
What piece of advice would you give to someone considering starting their own business?
We would say don't give up, and don't settle. It is hard to start a new business, but those things you don't know, you can learn. Find and learn from those people that have the knowledge you seek, and keep trying until you succeed.
Tulsa and SpiritBank should be proud of the Spirit Award, and of the message it sends to new entrepreneurs. This has not just been a contest; it has been a genuine effort to help our business succeed. We greatly appreciate this opportunity, and will encourage others starting a business to participate.
Elote
Elote Café & Catering, founded by Libby and Jeremy Auld, serves fresh, innovative Mexican food in the heart of downtown Tulsa using local ingredients and sustainable practices. Elote's mission also includes educating the public about the benefits of eating seasonal, healthful, local foods.
What has been the greatest piece of advice or best thing you have learned throughout this process?
The best advice I was given was to know my clientele and market to that audience. I thought I already did but an outside opinion from a professional consultant is pretty valuable.
What piece of advice would you give to someone considering starting their own business?
My advice to anyone considering starting their own business is to take a vacation because you might not get one for another year or so. And have enough money in the bank to survive without an income for one year (just in case). But don't worry it will be the best job you will ever have and you will be glad you made some sacrifices.
Filters4Me.com
Filters4Me.com, founded by Rick Butefish, provides residential customers with air filters that are mailed to their homes when it's time to replace them. The filters are priced comparably to those available in big box stores but offer the added bonus of convenience. Both the filters and packaging are manufactured in Tulsa.
What made you decide to enter the contest?
We believed we had a world-class business model with recurring revenue, a national market where capital will flow to Tulsa, and high gross margins that would appeal to the venture capital community, provide jobs to Tulsa, and leverage the capabilities of 3 local manufacturers.
What has been the best experience with regards to the contest thus far?
The opportunity to meet with resources to enhance our plan that we wouldn't have had the opportunity without it.
What piece of advice would you give to someone considering starting their own business?
Get as much outside assistance as anyone can muster up for you. Start-up businesses are ALWAYS cash and resource poor. Oklahoma is a great place to start one with available assistance.
Part-Time Pros
Part-Time Pros, founded by Carey and Brett Baker shortly following the birth of their daughter, connects degreed, experienced professionals with part-time and contract employment. By doing so, they provide professionals with flexible, rewarding work and employers with quality personnel at a lower cost.
What has been the best experience with regards to the contest thus far?
There are two things:
- The pitching process. Giving a 7 minute, 5 minute and then 2 minute pitch has been a huge help to Brett and I as we continue to sell our business to prospective clients and potential franchise owners. Because of this process we are much stronger marketers of our business. Anyone in sales or who owns their own business should practice their pitch in 7, 5 and 2 minute intervals. In addition, having an opportunity to have the undivided attention of professionals who are solely focused on your business is HUGE. There have been questions thrown at us that we had not thought of before and it has truly helped us think about our business differently.
- The Business Plan: Prior to entering the Spirit Award competition, Part-Time Pros had a business plan but it was not as comprehensive as the one we have now. When you are in a business that is up and running it is very easy to get "reactive" and simply go through each day reacting to what takes place that day. The Spirit Award competition forces us to step back and set goals and think strategically about how and where our business makes money and how we are going to grow.
How do you feel that this competition affects the City of Tulsa and/or the state of Oklahoma?
It truly provides a springboard for many small businesses to hit the ground running. The submittal process and the stages are all necessary in creating a sustainable and profitable business. Small businesses are the backbone to our nation's economic well being and Part-Time Pros applauds SpiritBank for their support of small business growth and their commitment to trying to strengthen the city and state economy.
It has been a lot of hard work but at least we know 10 years from now we will not be asking "what if."
Real Time Rehab
Founded by Jeremy Green, Real Time Rehab provides physical therapists and clinicians with personalized rehabilitation programs for their patients. The programs are burned onto DVDs, providing patients with clear, step-by-step demonstrations of exercises, to ensure a speedy and complete recovery.
What has been the best experience with regards to the contest thus far?
The best experience so far has been the coaches and judges questioning everything. It has made us find additional opportunities that will help grow our company.
What has been the greatest piece of advice or best thing you have learned throughout this process?
It is who you know sometimes, and remain flexible. Your company will change a lot!
This process has been a learning curve, challenging and fun.
Target Solution Foods
Lisha Williams, a personal trainer, founded Target Solution Foods to inform others of what she already knew: When it comes to weight loss, eating well is as important as exercising. Her business offers frozen, convenient healthy foods that taste good. Her first product is D'Lisha's Naked Waffuls, low-calorie, nutritionally dense frozen breakfast pastries.
What has been the best experience with regards to the contest thus far?
This has been one of the most amazing, but most challenging experiences of my entire life. I have received, in my opinion, the equivalent of a MBA education in the short months I have been going through this process. The feedback from so many professional people on the judging panel just really makes you think about what you are trying to accomplish. It has pushed me out of my comfort zone in so many ways and also made me do some inward soul-searching to find out what I really am made of.
What has been the greatest piece of advice or best thing you have learned throughout this process?
I've been told at least a dozen times to trust my gut instinct, that little voice inside of you is usually right. Trust yourself!
Catching Up With Our Previous Winners
Additional coverage of the Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit Award competition.
As the 3rd annual Mayor Kathy Taylor Entrepreneurial Spirit Award sponsored by SpiritBank comes to a close, we were able to catch up with our past two winners, SeekingSitters and Grocio, to see how their businesses have changed since winning the award.
SeekingSitters, the inaugural Spirit Award winner, is a nationally recognized babysitting service that does the work for you. The company, owned by Adrienne and David Kallweit, began in 2007 after the couple discovered a unique solution to the age-old problem: finding a good babysitter when you need one. Through their services, customers can make a request for a last minute, one-time, part-time or full-time sitter that has already been background screened and personally interviewed.
How much growth has SeekingSitters seen since their participation in the Spirit Award?
The exposure from the Spirit Award definitely helped boost SeekingSitters' nationwide growth as well as within our local market. The Spirit Award gave us the recognition that we had a great business model and this recognition gave us the boost to continue to move forward with our business. At the time of the spirit award we had 6 locations across the US and today we have 40 locations and still growing!
How much growth has SeekingSitters seen in the past year?
We've nearly doubled our size. In 2008 and 2009 we opened new locations in 10 different states. We now have 40 locations in 14 states with 21 different franchise owners.
What are the expansion plans for the next year?
Our goal is to be in all 50 states in the next 5 years. We are eager to expand into new markets. The unique thing about SeekingSitters is it can be successful in very different markets. Locations like Lubbock, TX and Las Vegas, NV are very different demographically, but they will both be successful in spite of the difference. We are currently opening two or three locations a month and we foresee this trend continuing in 2010.
What advice would you give to start-ups?
Entrepreneurs are the backbone of our nation. If you have an idea – something you think will benefit your community, jump into it. Put it on paper. Success has to start somewhere and once you've laid a good foundation, you can expand your business from there.
What advice would you give to those in the competition?
Take the resources from the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award and utilize them to learn all that you can and jump into growing your business to its full potential. The Spirit Award gives you the opportunity to look at your business in a way that you wouldn't normally and make a plan for the future.
Any new ideas/services that are currently being implemented or will be in the future?
We are now offering corporate accounts where businesses in any of our locations can sign up and offer babysitting hours to its employees. We've found there is a huge need for this as employees cannot always find last-minute child care in case of emergencies, weather or illness. We hope to make this new feature as common as insurance, retirement or any other type of common benefit businesses offer its employees.
How has your business been affected by our current economic conditions?
No business is recession proof, but SeekingSitters has taken necessary steps to adapt to the economic conditions. SeekingSitters is an innovative business and we approach budgeting, marketing and advertising with the same strategy. We've put a lot of time and research into social networking. Twitter, Facebook and other online networks are a great way to target our consumers without having to increase our marketing budget. We find we don't have to have a huge budget, we simply need to do our research to ensure we're sending the right people the right message.
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Grocio, our 2nd annual Spirit Award winner, is a comparison-shopping search engine for groceries founded by Gerald Buckley. With your zip code and grocery list, Grocio will tell which grocer has the least expensive total checkout amount while providing valuable coupons matching the purchases.
How did winning the award affect your business in 2009?
Winning the 2009 Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit award accelerated everything - networking, execution...everything really. It opened so many doors along the way. For instance, the validation carried all the way to Los Angeles where our first outside angel funding came from. It's been a huge enabler.
What advice would you give to start ups?
My single bit of advice to aspiring start-ups... Have a plan, execute quickly, bootstrap for longer than you think is reasonable and be willing to learn from your failures. Rinse and repeat often. The advice I have for local startups (all of Oklahoma, really) is stop for a day and realize just how progressive Oklahoma is for the entrepreneur. This past year has opened my eyes to just how much of an advantage our state (and our local leaders - political and business) has given us. We have a lot of eyes paying attention to what's going on here in Oklahoma from an entrepreneurial point of view.
What advice would you give to those in the competition?
There is no advice I could offer those in the competition: They're putting their all into what they're doing and have the right stuff. The only thing I'd ask them is to blow our socks off, make Oklahoma proud and keep their businesses headquartered here.
Can you state any growth numbers/projections?
We have had a lot of growth in the past year:
- The Grocio iPhone app is under construction
- 19,000+ registered shoppers in all 50 states
- We have widgets and local sites now for Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Dallas
- Secured an OCAST Technology Business Finance Program Award of $100,000
- Attracted Seed Stage equity funding from private angel investors in Tulsa and L.A.
- Grocio is now my full-time job
- Enjoying partnerships with several local blogging sites including
918Moms.com
I know you have gotten some national publicity, describe how that has affected your business and how it spotlights Tulsa.
A particularly neat effect happened the night of the Spirit Award and for the following week or so. Free registration went bonkers and I had a really tough time keeping up with it. My first year projections for registered accounts were met within six months and that's in large part to such favorable media coverage locally (which was picked up nationally very quickly).
Projections are important tools for businesses. But when your business experiences bursts of intense activity it's hard to say "In March we'll have these numbers. In April we'll have these numbers." They're always wrong. Sometimes high. Sometimes low. In the internet business people call that sort of thing the "Digg effect" or in traditional media it's called the "Oprah effect"... sites get swamped when a major publicity event like that happens. The trick now is to stick to our plan, launch all our products and live up to everyone's expectations. We're definitely in growth mode - seeking a Series A funding round of $2 million, we'll be hiring staff and working our tails off to make the best of the hockey stick growth we're architecting for.
How has your business been affected by the recession?
VC and angel investors often ask, "How does a down economy affect Grocio's plans? Are you recession proof?" And the honest answer is, when families have to tighten their purse strings, Grocio's value proposition probably rings louder and clearer. So, if things get really bad, Grocio will certainly see an acceleration in growth. Are we recession proof? I suppose we're well positioned. The bigger question may be, "How will Grocio do post-recovery?" Grocio's intent is to provide an amazing service that people would enjoy using any time.
Any plans for the future you want to share?
There really aren't too many secret plays in the play book. The product path I have in mind for Grocio still includes the nationwide comparison shopping engine, the budget oriented meal planning site and the iPhone app. What's really interesting is how other products came along and reordered the order of projects. For instance, our local widgets are a hit with the bloggers and Facebook users. People are putting those in their pages like crazy. The local sites like
Tulsa.Grocio.com and
OKC.Grocio.com are definitely pulling very well for us and are achieving several important objectives in very easy to implement ways. These mini, local Grocio sites are keepers. Some of what we're doing is VERY ambitious and hard as hell to pull off for a lot of reasons. Just like everyone else, we have to earn our reputation, do the things we say we're going to do... and execute really, really well at internet speed. It's a ton of fun and I'm immensely proud of what's going on in Tulsa, in Oklahoma City, Norman, Stillwater... all around us are amazing thinkers, risk takers and "do'ers."
Best Places' Rankings Validate State Efforts
By: Tom Walker, NewsOK.com
Oklahoma City and Tulsa recently were ranked among the best places to launch a new business by editors at Fortune Small Business magazine in conjunction with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
The rankings — Oklahoma at No. 1, Tulsa at No. 19 — certainly validated the economic development efforts of our state.
Oklahoma City topped the likes of Pittsburgh, Raleigh, N.C. and Houston for the No. 1 ranking. As pleased as I was to see the rankings, I was curious about what was the difference-maker that put Oklahoma City atop the list.
I discovered a list of criteria on the Fortune Small Business magazine Website, but found little that could tell me why Oklahoma City ranked higher than every other city in the nation.
So, I asked an editor at Fortune Small Business magazine, for a clarification. Her answer can be boiled down to one word: "affordability."
Now that we've topped the Best Places to Launch list and are in the top 20 for both large and mid-size locations with our two major metropolitan areas, I thought it would be interesting to see what the entrepreneurs starting new businesses look like.
Data supplied by the Kauffman Foundation reveal that the average entrepreneur's age is 39, with 70 percent of those married and 60 percent with children. Most have at least six years of work experience, with half working 10 years or more.
Ninety-five percent possess a bachelor's degree or higher but less than 25 percent said they were interested in entrepreneurship in college.
The Best Places to Launch ranking is an important achievement. Oklahoma's affordable business climate and focus on small business are paying dividends. Our universities offer entrepreneurial development programs and the Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup collegiate business plan competition and the i2E Fellows Program contribute to homegrown entrepreneurship.
The companies launching today will drive our economy in the near future. Keep in mind a significant number of today's Fortune 500 companies were founded during economic recessions.
Bottom line: Oklahoma is a great place to launch a new business. But of course, our thriving entrepreneurial community already knew that.
Read this article online at NewsOK.com.
Heartland Haven: Oklahoma City
By: Alec Foege, Fortune Small Business
Craig Shimasaki was skeptical when, 20 years ago, his former Genentech colleagues urged him to leave San Francisco and help launch a biotech company in Oklahoma City.
"When I thought of Oklahoma," the 52-year-old entrepreneur recalls, "I thought of cowboys and Indians." Two decades and two startups later, he sees his adopted home as a different kind of pioneer state: a place where young, ambitious companies can grow and thrive.
In 2002 Shimasaki co-founded InterGenetics, a life-sciences firm that won three rounds of angel investments totaling more than $10 million (70% from Oklahoma-based benefactors), plus $2.5 million in federal and state research grants. By 2007 the company had 25 employees.
Last year disaster hit. An eleventh-hour FDA rule change derailed InterGenetics's marketing plans for its first major product: a genetic test to assess the risk of breast cancer in women.
In a less nurturing environment, InterGenetics might have gone under. The company was forced to lay off all but three employees, including former CEO Shimasaki, who remains a board member and 7% owner of the company. But the startup survived, thanks to city- and state-subsidized office space and to technicians who could subsist comfortably on salaries of $25,000 to $30,000 per year (compared with $60,000 for similar jobs in California).
When the FDA suspended its rule change earlier this year, InterGenetics was ready to roll out the product immediately. Shimasaki anticipates $1.1 million in revenues in the coming fiscal year. "We are already marginally profitable," he says.
Stable and affordable, Oklahoma City is a haven for entrepreneurial risk takers. It boasts the second lowest foreclosure rate among large U.S. metro areas (one for every 305 housing units, according to foreclosure data firm RealtyTrac), along with the second lowest median rent ($728 per month for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). Through the Great Recession this former Dust Bowl capital has been spared many hardships, with a diverse local economy spread across medical research, energy, education and government. In 2008 it boasted the fastest per capita income growth (5.4%) of any large metro area, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Oklahoma City also benefits from a high concentration of deep-pocketed local investors, many of them veterans of the oil and gas industry, who are willing to take a gamble on companies that might spend 10 years bringing a new product to fruition.
"Oil speculators understand they may need to spend $100,000 each on 20 new wells," Shimasaki says. "Nineteen will fail, but the 20th will pay them back fiftyfold."
And the city itself has been a powerful friend to life-science startups, funding the 1996 construction of the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park. The complex -- 700,000 square feet of space in seven buildings on a 27-acre site -- has attracted an influx of innovative biomedical firms. With its Class A wet-laboratory facilities -- necessary for any serious life-sciences operation -- and its reduced rents, the research park currently houses 35 companies, including CoMentis, which is testing a drug to treat Alzheimer's disease, and Orthocare Innovations, a cutting-edge prosthetics company that moved its headquarters here from Washington, D.C. to rein in operational costs.
"Our mission statement is very simple," says foundation president Michael Anderson. "We accelerate bioscience research discoveries to solutions that enhance human life."
Oklahoma City has its drawbacks. Among the most tornado-prone cities in America, it has the dubious distinction of getting hit in 1999 by the worst twister on record, with winds topping 320 miles per hour. And forget about entertaining your visiting clients with top-notch sporting events: Oklahoma City has only one professional franchise, the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, which had its first season in 2008 and finished 26th in the league.
For Shimasaki the biggest challenge is the prejudice of outsiders, who may still think of Oklahoma City as some kind of tumbleweed town out of a Walker Evans photo. "Once they get here, they love it," he says.
Read this article online at CNNMoney.com.
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