Since we’re now actively seeking sales pros right now (please forward to others), I figured I would post a few things I consider as non-negotiables.  (Hint: If those who are applying are smart, they’re search my name and find this blog, read this post and reference it in the interview.  Just sayin’.)

1. Attitude – In a small any organization, attitude will affect others negatively.  Pessimism can’t be tolerated and let’s be honest, we prefer to spend time with happy people.  Getting excited about working with good people is infectious and I’m thrilled we have that in spades today.
2. Resourceful – I may value this trait over all others.  To be able to “MacGyver” something with limited resources is critical for our business.  We have to solve problems that can’t just be searched on Google and sometimes with no budget for a customer.  It’s a tough thing, but keeping to look Learn to do things on your own and not wait on your co-worker to complete a task.
3. Customer love – I’m not talking about being cordial or pleasant (that’s a given).  My friends, Deryl and Rusty share this sentiment with their company, DormBuys.  Both of our companies are committed to a level of customer service unmatched by others.  We both MUST have people who love serving others.  Not everyone wants to do this and I truly get that, but don’t apply with me.  For us, I’ve seen the challenge of some geeks love the tech toys, yet hate the users.  I’m happy to let those types stay in the ivory towers of corporate tech because small, nimble companies need and WANT the customer to be first.

I found even just this small list helpful as we filtered through too many resumes.  I recognize I haven’t covered things like integrity, morals or honesty, but I’d hope those are a given for any candidate.  So what are your top traits you seek out?  How do you stay true to those even when someone looks great on paper.  Please, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

His podcast includes an entrepreneur guest, call in questions, live conversation tracking with the hashtag #twist and weekly news roundup. I particularly enjoy the phone call questions and stories from guest entrepreneurs. I do love video podcasts, but I actually listen to this one as it averages well over an hour per episode. If Jason could drop the news and cut it down to 30 minutes, I’d be a more avid fan. If you haven’t been watching/listening, check out the video below.

Here are five companies that were out pimping their ideas to the SXSW crowd.

1 – WebbChange.com – They dressed this guy up as Elvis and handed out Webbchange t-shirts. Not super creative, but humorous and the t-shirt’s quality was pretty good. Sadly, I never learned what they did.

Update: I received an email a few hours after publishing this post from Bill Clanton, CEO of WebbChange offering me a personal demo of their site. That personal touch far outweighs any promotion I saw.

2 – JungleDisk.com- This group easily stood out with their two costumes and I heard a few people chattering about their shtick, so it must have had some level of success.

3 – Other Inbox- The creative folks at OIB had a large booth in the Expo and dressed this guy up as Mr. Spam. I took this picture right before he pitched their concept to Kevin and I. The best part was Mr. Spam offered to take off his mask after I obviously couldn’t stop laughing at a guy talking about MX records with his mask. You can also see his cape here.

4 – Smule.com- By far the most memorable as “The Mule” (his card said it) wore an all-white outfit with the company flag on his back. He also demonstrated their product (see video here and here). There’s no question he will not be forgotten, but it takes a special person to wear that outfit.

5 – LostZombies.com- These guys weren’t the best at promoting their product (mainly b/c I couldn’t remember what their site was), but their stickers seemed to be strategically placed at parties. The warning message definitely caught my attention and the last line “DO NOT REMOVE THIS STICKER” made me laugh.

Flickr photo by: delitefulimage

I spent a good bit of my March in Las Vegas (LeadsCon) and Austin (SXSW) at conferences (which I paid for) and loved sharing startup stories with fellow entrepreneurs (Hint: everyone wants to tell their startup stories). Upon my return, I stopped by the bank and after reviewing my trip, she said, “You entrepreneur guys will get so rich.” While I appreciate the encouragement (her statement was more of a blanket for business owners than my deposit size), I realized people really have a skewed perspective about an entrepreneur’s life.

I’m a huge advocate of people with j-o-b’s starting their own ventures (preferably not as a consultant… individuals don’t scale), but I think some see it for what it’s NOT. It is not always fun and just downright sucks at times. I don’t like fixing a customer issue at 7 pm on a Thursday night, which I just did, but I’d still wouldn’t trade it for another path. So here are the top five misconceptions I seem to run across.

1. Entrepreneur’s get rich – Sure, the tales of a business selling for millions reach the headlines, but if we were to print a daily business obituary the newspaper industry might just be profitable. The statistics are NOT in the favor of starting a new business and the bailout you’re hoping for probably isn’t coming. If you’re only in it for cash, it’s not worth it. You’ll burn out and a “career” in Multi-level Marketing might be a better avenue for your treasure hunt.
2. Just write it off – I’ve been to numerous lunches with friends or customers who say, “Let Todd’s company pay for it. He can write it off, right?” Yes, I can write off some expenses, but it’s my company’s money which ultimately means it’s MY money. An expense is an expense, no matter who pays. If you’re used to your employer paying for meals, conferences (very costly) and happy hours… you’ll likely re-think the idea when you’re “writing it off.”
3. Have tons of leisure time – I know many people who work crazy amounts of hours in their j-o-b. I know people who have jobs work hard and sometimes the structure they required to operate within can be restrictive. Personally, I rarely watch the clock at lunch and book many coffee meetings that last past 10 AM. Managing my own time is a HUGE benefit for me as an entrepreneur, but just like those who work for a company… it varies. I would mainly say we have more control over our work structure, but the obligation can also be higher (golf a lot, payroll doesn’t get met).
4. Be your own boss – Speaking of payroll, I am responsible for the livelihood of several people (which is scary for most at first), but we all answer to someone. For me, it’s usually my clients. The expectation of a customer is drastically different than an internal co-worker (some dorks call their co-workers clients… dumb). Some of my entrepreneur friends answer to investors and some answer to the clock (i.e. – burn rate). I struggle with this one as really want to make sure my employees like the work and the structure. It’s not perfect, but they’ve learned I make many decisions influenced by the company’s circumstances not my opinion.
5. Startups are fun – Yes, startups can be VERY fun. I love the camaraderie with our team. The people make the work even more enjoyable. However, the implication by some is it’s all jolly good times. The reality is it’s also scary, it’s tough and driving the early momentum is just brutal. Remember: you’re building a business AND the internal infrastructure simultaneously! Like most things, you take the good with the bad, just acknowledge every job, project gig has its bad.

I realize these five points only scratch the surface and to be clear… this is the path I love and the one I plan to continue. Climbing the ladder wasn’t for me, but it by no means makes it wrong… just as launching your own company isn’t THE measure of a good business person.

To me, it’s about personal choice. I will not stop encouraging people to flesh out their ideas and leave their j-o-b’s (when appropriate), but if you do choose this path just know it’s not perfect. While, I don’t want to take away or downplay all the fun of being an entrepreneur (it still rocks for me and many others), but try reading Dave’s post before taking the plunge. (Warning: his words sting.)

Finally, what misconceptions have you heard, been told or encountered? I know there are many, so please share them with everyone in the comments.

Flickr credit: Basegreen

After several months of development, Kevin and I have launched our new business, MoneyPath.  If you’re not aware of this new venture, read this post.  We are still adding more banks (starting in the Louisville, KY region) to our lender network, but we’ve started accepting loans and banks will start bidding on these loans in mid-February.

We’re bridging the divide between lenders and businesses, so both can eliminate their search for one another during the lending process.   Banks spend a great deal of money attracting new commercial clients and businesses spend too much time finding a bank to lend money.  MoneyPath brings these two parties together through a proprietary matching algorithm.

Have an existing business loan?  Find out if another bank can save you money with a better rate by entering your existing loan information.  Also, If you need some money to expand or stay afloat, simply enter in your desired loan amount and some current financial figures to find your match.

Kevin and I are really excited about MoneyPath and how we can help save people money and banks find great customers.

In a professional boxing match, a round is three minutes long. In my startup life, some rounds felt like they lasted 30 minutes from the pummeling I’ve taken, while I’ve also been fortunate to knock an opponent at least down (fine… it wasn’t a standing 8 count, but I still clocked him).

One might call the repetition of losing as dumb or crazy or just call them the Cubs, but I think for startup folks the difference can be the accumulation of what you’ve learned. I started MoneyPath with a different approach than any other venture and my gut says it will pay off. Here are a few ways that will make a difference.

• Customer Input First – The best thing I’ve done for MoneyPath is go talk to prospective customers before anything and I mean anything else. I didn’t have a business name, wire frame, business card, powerpoint or even an outline. I just offered to buy coffee, lunch or stop by a bank branch to chat. I briefly spelled out what I thought could be beneficial and then I listened… and listened some more. Maybe I was just lucky, but I was amazed at how open people were about their needs and what a solution would entail.
• Logo Can Wait – I’m lucky to employ a very good graphic designer, who’s done great work for my print design needs, but I’m rare in that regard. For the first two months, we didn’t have a logo or even a “look”. Did we not care about our look? Of course not, I’ve stated your corporate look is important, but remember, you’re building profits, not a design portfolio.
• Names Matter – Buying a domain name is very hard with likely options being create a new word, purposely misspell or choosing from awkward alpha-numeric-hyphenated domains. We tried and tried many iterations for the perfect name, but MoneyPath kept sticking out to us. MoneyPath is the first domain I’ve paid “real” money to acquire. I balked at first at the price, but we’re in love with the name, got great feedback from customers and I’m glad its ours.
• Due Diligence, Then Just Do – I probably spent too much time doing due diligence on the industry/competitors and I know some will argue it’s never enough, but at some point you just have to start. Kevin and I built a very nice piece of enterprise software in a really short time frame, but we would’ve been even faster had we just started. Always dig to better understand your market then just get going.
• Meet Them Wherever, Whenever – Want help fleshing out your idea? Go find smarter, more experienced folks with different perspectives than your own. I drank more cups of coffee, ate more meals out and bought more rounds of beers in the last 100 days than in the past two years. Thank you to everyone who heard us go on and on about our early steps and a big thanks to my brother, Scott who continues to drop serious knowledge on us about the immense amount of nuances of the banking industry.
• Profits Start Now – Our goal was to make a profit when the first quote goes through our site and we’re set to reach that mark. Sure, we put up money to get this going, but operationally we’re staring at the black early on. It feels good mainly because I’ve tried several models… the content play, the brokerage play, the retail play and others that didn’t or just couldn’t reach early profits. Our MoneyPath model would never have been possible without listening early on and finding the REAL problem to solve for both parties.

So those were the early steps I took and now my old cuts are healed, the bell has run and here I am back swinging. Maybe I like the boxing analogy because Louisville is home to a boxing legend they simply call “The Greatest.” Every startup dreams of the big win and MoneyPath is no different, but I suspect my rounds of ups and downs continue to prove beneficial.

I’ll end this post with a request for your comments and input. What have YOU done to start things off right? If you did get knocked out what did you do wrong? Have you seen or heard of others doing things right in the early stages to set up a win? Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, you’ve worked on task forces, class projects, committees or department planning sessions. I’d love to hear your thoughts and stories.

On the surface, MoneyPath is Lending Tree for commercial loans. MoneyPath matches a business wanting a new loan (or refi) with banks that want those specific types of loans. The easy description still is Lending Tree due to banks competing for loans, but we view it more like eHarmony because we took loan competition one step further.

Our algorithm truly matches your loan details to the criteria a bank looks for in a loan prospect such as revenue size, ZIP, loan size and industry. We view it as a win-win, as the business gets banks that want THEIR loan and banks get warm, qualified sales leads based on what THEY want. I could go on and on about the other reasons it works, but the true “win” happens because we’re letting both parties submit criteria of what they want and connecting them.

Who’s Involved?
On August 20, 2008, Kevin Frey and I met for coffee at Heine Brothers on Chenoweth. For several weeks prior, I had already been meeting with regional banks to define concretely what I thought was an opportunity to create what we now call MoneyPath. I invited him to coffee because we had had drinks with some mutual friends and I was told he’s a software stud (and he is). He probably thought this was just a normal coffee meetup , but I was on the hunt for a CTO.

So, after almost two hours of talking about the initial idea, we departed with the knowledge I’m looking for a CTO to develop some software banks say they want. You can read my follow up email here. Following that first meeting, I dug around the web for the scoop on Kevin. I asked mutual contacts, friends and a few of Kevin’s co-workers and the answer was consistently he’s REALLY good at software development, fun to work with (very imporant) and liked more than just writing code. Lucky for me and MoneyPath, all those things have turned out to be true.

Kevin and I continued our discussion over IM, email and of course more coffee and meals. After refining the idea, collecting additional feedback from banks and fleshing out our roles we decided to build MoneyPath together.

Kevin works as a Lead Software Engineer for a very successful, Louisville tech company and is not going to leave his job. We’re bootstrapping MoneyPath and taking customer’s payments to fund our growth (novel concept focusing on profits, eh?). It’s been exactly 104 days since that coffee meeting and we’ve spent an immense amount of time creating OUR product and getting to know each other over Louisville football games, Ryder Cup rounds, BW-3 happy hours and of course, more Heine Brothers coffee.

Kevin and I’ve talked quite a bit with each other on Twitter, so most of our friends there will just see this as explanation for all our back and forth. MoneyPath is set to launch in January, but in the mean time, here’s how you can get involved.

Request our demo

Rather than just give a wide-open testing site, we’ll just let those who want to play with MoneyPath, request a demo. You can click the link at our site or email us, demo AT moneypathDOTcom. Maybe that’s not 2.0 enough for some of you, but just drop us a line and well give you a login. Please don’t assume because you’re friends with us that we know you want a login. We’re interested to see which of you wants to know more.

Read our company blog and grab our feed!

I know Kevin and I both struggle to keep up a steady blog pace, but there’s so much going on with MoneyPath’s progress, the credit market and the economy, we think this a great way to keep up with us. The URL is http://blog.moneypath.com.

Tell a friend

If you know a business owner who recently completed a business loan or might need one, let us know. If you have connections to folks in banking, we’d love to talk to them too. We’ve talked to numerous banks and business owners, but it’s never too many. Even if you know someone who runs a business association, we’d love to get feedback on MoneyPath.

Follow @MoneyPath on Twitter

If you prefer to keep up with MoneyPath in 140 characters or less, follow @MoneyPath on Twitter.

So, now the cat’s out of the bag. We’ll continue to post about how we got here and some of the (what I think are) interesting stories that led us down this path. There are too many people to thank in just this post, so I’ll save that for another day. Just know that Kevin and I both appreciate all the support, feedback, encouragement, criticism and input we’ve already been given and expect nothing, but heavier doses of the same since anyone can test MoneyPath.com (with a request).

Finally, if you’re one of my current clients reading this, please understand that I’ve planned for this. I haven’t kept a business going for nine years without a little foresight. I am not closing down and have a great staff in place and other resources available to keep everyone happy.

Howard says… it’s a bad time to start a startup. Andy says… start with a profit with first customer. Charlie says… he loves the challenge despite the odds. Mark Peter says… the strong will win big.

No matter what anyone says, the prevailing thought for a startup should be to show profits. If you’re showing profits, NOT just revenue, then investors, employees and anyone else pays attention. They say revenue covers all sins, but I would argue profits resolves issues, not just cover them up.

This week, I’m going to blog about the new startup I’ve created with another local entrepreneur. We’ve been quiet about it for many reasons, but have decided it’s time to talk. We’ve let prospects test our software and a handful of web friends give us early feedback. We think now’s the time to let others play with our software and see what happens.

I’m not trying to be coy about this, I’ve just approached this idea with a very different mentality. Rather than talk and talk (quite typical for me), I went to prospective customers first and listened to be sure I was actually SOLVING a problem. After that was concretely evident, I sought out the best co-founder to build the solution.

Armed with an immense amount of customer input and a very talented co-founder, my idea escalated very quickly into OUR company in a matter of three months. We’re fortunate to have a group of advisors and friends to help us navigate this perceived tough time (we think it’s perfect timing) to launch a company. Lucky for us, as this post’s title states we’ve aligned early customers and we’re focused and starting our company with profits. Much more to come tomorrow.

Our personalities and skill sets are at times so divergent people are surprised by how we’re such good friends. We do share a love for problem solving, have successfully created and sold our own web content and we both separately encountered business partners that didn’t quite fit. From those successes and failures we are very aware of being fair to others. Finally, we are frequently accused of working too much (little do they know we don’t find it to be “work”). There may be a few more, but none will say we’re cut from the same cloth.

Rob is the more analytical, number-crunching, patient scholar who can out-think anyone. I, on the other hand, am the high-strung, marketing-minded, obsessed with content, press-the-flesh, offline/online networker. Even all the personality tests show wildly differing profiles. So where do we connect? There is a formula to our mismatched success.

1- We define areas of control. Sometimes Rob gets the final call in a financial decision, sometimes it’s me choosing functionality of an app. Either way, the lines are established from the outset.

2- We’re focused on the same goal… building profitable ventures. When things are at an impasse, we examine how the outcomes affect the goals. When in doubt, follow the path to the goal.

3- We discuss and debate without friction. This may truly be our secret sauce. I’ve never formed a partnership where so many differing opinions can be fleshed out without feelings getting hurt or impeding progress. I cannot overstate the value of #3, it’s worth more than all our ideas combined.

Yes, there are times where it’s nice to hear an echo of your same opinion, but differing views, interests and consideration for each other are what makes us such a strong team. We think (possibly over-think) possible pitfalls, opportunities and outcomes which has better prepared us for competition.

I’ve had almost 10 other partners with differing levels of success, but my advice is ultimately about teamwork. When considering a partner in any business don’t always look for just a complimentary skill set or background. Be sure you can make it as a team. Your startup will require many more hours than you plan or expect and it’s that teamwork that will get you through the long, hard slog.