The Education of an Entrepreneur

My first business venture was a lemonade stand which I had on the corner of Laurel and Columba St. It was an okay spot but I realized there was more traffic at the intersection of Columba and Grattan so I moved it. I was probably seven or eight years old.

Around the same time I started delivering papers for the kids in the neighborhood who were older than me and had routes. I helped Michael F. with his morning Republican route, Danny O. with his afternoon Transcript Telegram route and Billy B. with his Sunday route. When Billy went away to college I acquired his route and every Sunday for years my father drove me and my sisters Kim and Pam around while we delivered 125 papers. I had the route until I was 14 and old enough to get a job at Bradlees.

Kim, Pam and I also started a business selling colored salt. We would take chalk and color the sand and then layer it in glass jars. When I couldn't get them to focus on doing what I wanted with the business, I tried to buy them out. I was probably ten or eleven years old.

I also bought and sold baseball and basketball cards. My best return ever is when I bought a box of 1979 Topps basketball cards for $12. It had six Larry Bird/Magic Johnson rookie cards which I was able to sell for $100 a piece. I still dream of that deal!

In high school a couple of my friends and I financed keg parties. We would pool our money, buy a keg and sell cups for $5. Usually a good business where you got your money back and a pretty good profit, except for when the cops showed up. This was my first experience with financial risk.

I started my first company in college, doing research for my fathers clients who needed help finding information. I was also a pretty good writer in a fraternity with many guys who were not so I wrote term papers for $10 a page. My girlfriend at the time and I had a good number of conversations regarding the ethics of such an enterprise but ultimately agreed it was being done in the spirit of brotherhood. I guess she realized the benefits of me having money to take her out to dinner!

In 1999, I started Fisher, Tilton & Vann, Inc. because I realized I didn't do well working for other people. We also acquired Split Rock Capital from Bill Mazzeine. In 2003 we incorporated the Vann Group and in 2004 we acquired Client First Associates. I briefly invested in a property management and landscaping company and have since started several other smaller companies that are in various stages of development.

Despite all of this activity, I never considered myself an entrepreneur because nothing I was involved with was ever designed to scale and therefore, in my mind I wasn't building a company, which is what entrepreneurs do. Over time I have learned that this thinking is incorrect as it does not matter what size a company is, if you have the courage to take a risk your an entrepreneur. Nonetheless today I pleased to announce that I am meeting my old definition of an entrepreneur. Over the coming months within this space and in other places on the web, you will get the opportunity to learn about many of the ventures we will be launching.

In doing so, I want to make it clear that this does not signal a departure from what we do best. Quite the contrary as much of what we are focusing on will be geared towards helping transitional companies unlock their value. This will be done by leveraging the web and social media in ways that will allow us to provide tools and advice to companies across the globe - its going to be exciting!

We've also got great partners who are teaming up with us to make all of this a reality. Partnerships are a hallmark of the Vann Family's history of business success and we are really excited about their involvement. Their operational, industry and technical experience will allow us to do what we do best - make companies (ours and yours) grow.

With that said, I'm pleased to announce our first venture - NextUp Careers. You can link here to the press release for all the details about the first career portal dedicated to helping reliability engineering and predictive maintenance professionals find career opportunities and companies find the right fit. What we are building is pretty amazing, and I'll have a post soon on what makes it unique in the world of web-based job and career sites.

In the meantime, please continue to watch this space for progress on all the exciting things we are up to. Also, please keep us in mind as you think about how your going to transition your business from what it is to what you want it to be. We can't wait to help you.