Over the past year, I’ve become more intentional about helping rising entrepreneurs, mostly in Atlanta. Without the wisdom of seasoned entrepreneurs and the camaraderie of peers, I would’ve failed. So, I’ve been doing more to help others by mentoring, making introductions, etc. After all, I was in their shoes not long ago.

When I started CCAW, there weren’t many resources available to help entrepreneurs in Atlanta, or in the southeast for that matter. Because of the financial crisis the world was in survival mode, so that makes sense. Today there are in-person and virtual accelerators . . . meetups . . . coworking spaces . . . start-up labs. Entrepreneurs don’t know what they don’t know, but they do know they need help. These resources bridge gaps. They do a great job of introducing startup concepts, creating peer groups, and helping entrepreneurs establish relationships with knowledgeable people. Without a doubt, they are a valuable part of the Atlanta ecosystem.

As I’ve worked with more entrepreneurs, though, I’ve noticed that there’s still a chasm. Some capable founders aren’t able to cross it and get to the next critical phase of the journey. They end up in what I call early-stage limbo. Their idea may be great, but they’re unable to acquire customers or get meaningful traction. “Thanks, but what do I do now?” I imagine them asking. They feel stymied, so they revisit the same resources in hopes of jump-starting their business. This usually doesn’t work. The next thing they know, two or three years have passed.

It seems to me that resources are lacking to help entrepreneurs acquire enough traction to transition from early stage (idea or mvp) to product–market fit in Atlanta and other southeastern cities. My thinking on this is preliminary. I’ll try to crystallize it, but I think there’s an opportunity to fill this void and help more founders successfully navigate the entrepreneurial journey.

I’d love to hear your views (good, bad, or ugly) on my observation.

A friend called me once wanting to discuss a business idea. He’d had a successful corporate career for 15 years. He’s smart, resourceful, and a natural leader. I was super excited about getting to hear about the problem he was focused on, his solution, and his perspective on the space. We agreed on a time to chat and I asked him to send me anything I should read beforehand. He asked me to promise, in writing, to keep the idea secret. I talk with a fair number of people who have ideas and I thought this was odd, but I agreed.

We eventually met and I described my experience building CCAW. Early on, I was like him—hesitant to share my idea. I worried it would be stolen, and also I didn’t want to be questioned about it because there were lots of things I couldn’t answer. My reluctance to share hurt me. I didn’t lose customers, but my progress was slower than it could have been.

As I matured and settled into entrepreneurship, I became more confident and knowledgeable through experience. I began to open up and share my ideas with credible people. And I listened to their feedback. The result? My ideas got better and my company flourished.

Ideas are great, but they’re honestly not worth much. Everybody has ideas. It’s ideas that are acted on that are valuable. The hard part is figuring out how to turn an idea into reality—that is, a company.

After sharing my experience with him, I encouraged my friend to talk with as many credible people as possible about his idea. Sure, someone might try to steal it, but the chances of them executing on it and having success were slim to none. On the other hand, it was quite likely that he would fine-tune his idea or be introduced to someone helpful. My big takeaway: The upside to sharing ideas (with credible people) far outweighs the risks. Share your ideas and be open to feedback—even if you don’t like what you’re hearing. The more you do, the better your ideas will become.

How has sharing helped accelerate your progress?

Today, Memorial Day, I'd like honor the fallen soldiers . Their ultimate sacrifice is for our country is worthy of this day and I'd like to say thank you!

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy memorial day with loved ones!

I read and have been thinking about Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal, which is an excellent book. I enjoy reading detailed accounts of the journeys of impactful people and companies. Twitter’s impact has been profound and the journey to create the company was full of twists and turns. Here are a few takeaways:

• Pivot – Great things can come from pivoting a company. Twitter is a prime example.
• Politics – As organizations become large, politics can take a toll on them. Building and reinforcing a strong culture is critical as you scale.
• Founders – Founders’ relationships aren’t always pretty and in fact can get downright ugly. The severity of Twitter’s founders’ issues surprised me.
• Values – Morals and values matter. Be sure to include them in your evaluation criteria when you’re considering co-founders and early key team members.

I don’t know how accurate Hatching Twitter is, but it’s a great read. It offers a much-needed dose of realism about what building something great is like: It’s difficult. It’s full of emotional highs and lows. Conflicts are unavoidable and must be overcome. But when people do it for the right reasons and persevere, the impact on society can be huge.

I read an article about this past week’s jobless claims report. Almost 39 million people have filed for unemployment insurance benefits in the last nine weeks. I’m hopeful that each of these people will find employment quickly and minimize the financial disruption of their life. But what happens if they can’t? More than likely, our communities are facing prolonged dark days.

When employment options are thin on the ground, supplementing income with side hustles is common. These endeavors start at a micro scale. They’re simplistic and crude. But they can be gateways to lifelong entrepreneurial journeys. A side hustle usually involves testing on a small scale and growing organically as you achieve product–market fit and customer awareness. Then one day you look up and you have a thriving company generating meaningful revenue, with real customers and real employees. You’ve created a company of value that has an impact on people in the company and in the community.

If high levels of unemployment remain with us for long, I predict a surge in people trying their hands at side hustles. I believe that with more awareness, resources, and mentoring, a wave of successful entrepreneurs can emerge from the gloom we’re enduring. They will positively affect their communities via employment and other activities that stimulate the economy. They will also inspire the next wave of entrepreneurs by facilitating proximity to success. Entrepreneurship is one element that, alongside coordinated programs and other efforts in the community, can be a positive force in transitioning a community from troubles to prosperity.

How could we help aspiring entrepreneurs succeed during this difficult time?

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Today marked the end of my tenth week of working exclusively from home. Here are my takeaways from week ten:

• New work normal – I’ve been thinking about what this will mean for me. Working exclusively from home probably isn’t sustainable. I want to start experimenting with new ways of getting things done that feel safe over the next few weeks.
• Video – Video has been great, but I’m beginning to wonder if there’s another communication method.
• In-person meetings – Someone proposed meeting outside with proper social distancing. Not sure how I feel about that yet.
• Productivity – I’ve found that can be productive at home, but my productivity isn’t as consistent as when I’m working in an office. I have more off days.

Week ten was a positive week. My big takeaway: think more about what my new normal for work will be.

I’ll continue to learn from this unique situation, adjust as necessary, and share my experience.

A new entrepreneur asked where ideas about critical features of CCAW’s system came from. These features allowed us to streamline our management of large amounts of data and set ourselves apart from competitors. They ultimately became the foundation for growing rapidly while keeping to the quality standards we were known for. My response? Conflict. The entrepreneur was surprised.

When a challenging problem needed to be solved, I’d have a whiteboard session with company leaders. We’d agree on what the problem was and then begin debating how to solve it. We often were of different minds. Sometimes our disagreements were intense and tempers would flair. Usually, everything worked out—we would come up with an amazing solution that borrowed from everyone’s perspective.

To make sure our conflict stayed healthy, we had to establish ground rules. Basically, we adhered to the golden rule: we had to treat each other as we wanted to be treated. When things got heated and we were about to break that rule, we suspended the meeting until everyone was calm. We reminded each other that everyone is entitled to their opinion and it’s OK to agree to disagree.

My big takeaway from those sessions was that healthy conflict can bring good outcomes. We didn’t see eye to eye, and we each thought we were right, but we respected each other. Genuinely listening with the intention of understanding allowed us to view the problem through a different lens. After hearing everyone out, we saw the problem completely differently. That helped us see a different path to a solution. I often noticed that when they understood a team member’s perspective, people would have a burst of ideas. We fed off each other’s ideas until we reached a solution that we all thought was ideal.

I don’t like to argue, but I have an appreciation for the value of someone else’s perspective. I may not agree with it, but I enjoy the process of trying to understand it. When you’re building a company, you’re often trying to solve problems that others can’t solve. Constructive conflict is a powerful tool that mature teams can use to solve problems in unique ways.

How has constructive conflict helped you solve a problem?

Today I had a great conversation with investors. They mentioned how important it is to say no quickly. Their thesis is simple: you want to have straightforward criteria that allow you to quickly recognize when you can’t move forward. One example: an entrepreneur either is or isn’t a solo founder. An investor who has decided not to invest in solo founders won’t waste time and energy considering a solo founder’s startup. Listening to this reminded me of my early days at CCAW and how I learned this lesson the hard way.

Before we had a steady vendor base, I had to make cold calls and sell vendors on doing business with us. Courting tons of vendors and getting them to agree to partner with a company they’d never heard of was time consuming. Sometimes, after agreeing to terms, I would learn it wasn’t feasible to do business with them. A couple of common issues were that they didn’t have electronic products or couldn’t provide pricing data. They’d say something like, “Just call us and we’ll give you whatever you need.” I’d spent valuable time and energy on a relationship that would never go anywhere. It was frustrating, to say the least.

I eventually created a checklist of questions to ask vendors early on. It focused heavily on their technical and operational capabilities. If their answer to any of the questions was no, it wasn’t a good fit and I walked away. Over time, I refined the checklist to the point that we spent time only on partnerships that were a perfect match.

Define your bottom line and quickly say no when someone can’t meet your standards. You’ll find a lot of value in this, personally and professionally. We all get the same 24 hours; how we use them is what separates us. Walk away sooner rather than later from relationships that can’t progress.

How do you manage your time more effectively?

I’ve had thought-provoking conversations over the last few weeks about what’s needed for Atlanta’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to reach the next level. What’s the next level? A regular stream of companies transitioning from early stage (sub–$100 thousand in annual revenue) to $250 million-plus liquidation events (acquisitions, IPOs, etc.) within ten years. Atlanta has a robust entrepreneurial scene and a community that’s super supportive (local government, universities, corporations, accelerators, etc.). In my opinion, Atlanta is one of the, if not the, strongest areas in the southeast for building businesses. But there’s lots of room for improvement.

The folks that I’ve talked with and I came up with a bunch of things that we think would help. But here’s what I believe could be game changing: people who’ve helped build companies that have had liquidation events exceeding $250 million. Founders, executives, key early employees, no doubt others. People who’ve earned their credibility by experiencing the journey to liquidation. These folks have seen the movie and they know how it ends. By no means am I saying that Atlanta doesn’t have such people. But there aren’t enough of them. I think that once you increase their presence in the city (assuming they’re excited to give back), you can start changing the ecosystem.

Why is that true? Easy . . . proximity to success. Going back to my post about this, it’s game changing for early-stage entrepreneurs to have access to successful people. If more people who know how to create companies that can liquidate for $250 million-plus are available to connect early-stage entrepreneurs with the right people and otherwise mentor them, the newcomers have a huge advantage. They are much more likely to succeed. Larger liquidation events happen more frequently, which attracts more investors, which attracts more high caliper entrepreneurs to the city. It creates a flywheel.

Now that we know what’s missing, how do we get more of these credible people in Atlanta?

I had a good conversation with someone in the fitness industry. As you can imagine, fitness, like other industries, is navigating the pandemic. He shared some great insights. Here are few takeaways:

• Gyms reopen – Where they’re open, usage is nowhere near pre–COVID-19 levels. Cancellations have accelerated. Personal training sessions are way down. So is class attendance.
• Spacing – Gym floor plans were designed to pack in as many machines as possible. That’s not safe now because it makes social distancing impossible. Equipment must be removed. More space could be leased, when feasible.
• Air quality – Hourly changes of air from outdoors, UV lighting, and air filtration aren’t things many gyms have thought about, but they may consider them to make customers feel safe.
• Virtual – Virtual exercise offerings by boutique gyms are surging. Clients have embraced them and these options will probably still be around later.
• Outdoors – With the quarantine, more people are exercising outside (e.g., running) and in groups (e.g., at “boot camps”). People love getting out of the house. Habits are forming and many will stick.
• Trainers – Many trainers have adapted their business models away from revenue sharing with gyms to outdoor boot camps and personal training. More of them are learning to build personal brands and market to attract clients.
• Peleton – Affluent consumers are embracing things like Tonal, Peleton, and other home options.

My biggest takeaway is that there is still a strong consumer desire to work out, but gyms currently can’t meet that need for the masses. This void has upended the industry and created an opportunity to provide new workout options that feel safer. Gyms will be forced to adapt and make investments they otherwise might not have ever considered. Exercise rooms may become more commonplace for home builders. Many people may continue to spend more time outdoors, playing sports or otherwise working out in the fresh air.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I predict that gyms will still be around but their business model will change. I think the home workout category will be the biggest beneficiary, closely followed by more biking, running, etc. and use of public recreational areas. I see scrappy entrepreneurs taking advantage of this opportunity and building the next generation of fitness businesses.