MENA entrepreneur Shashi Menon of Nervora shares his experience in digital media & advertising

By Salman Hatta, Wharton MBA Class of 2014

Shashi Menon is the CEO and co-founder of Nervora, currently the Middle East’s premier digital media and advertising firm. Started in September 2009 with co-founder Nick Gonzalez, Nervora has built exclusive ad sales partnerships with such iconic brands as Condé Nast, Hearst, Viacom, CBS Interactive, and Gawker Media. Nervora connects regional advertisers with Middle East visitors to these publishers in unique and meaningful ways. Nervora Studios, Nervora’s creative arm, develops executions on various web and mobile platforms (Facebook, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.).

While working as a management consultant in Dubai prior to starting Nervora, Shashi recognized that, while consumer demand for the web had finally hit critical mass — more than 50 million people from MENA were accessing the web via computers each month — there wasn’t enough structure or efficiency on the media/advertising side of the web. There was a huge quality gap online between Arabic language content and English language content. Nervora was built to address that.

Shashi has been kind enough to share some background on his experiences, including what a typical day is like, and offers other pieces of advice for a budding founder. 

SH: What’s a typical day like?

SM: Given the nature of a startup, I’m not sure that I can say that there’s ever truly a typical day, but on average, I probably spend my time about 50-60% on sales or business development, 10-15% on general management and growth/strategy initiatives, 10-15% on organizational planning and recruiting, and 10-15% on client / partner / relationship management.  This means lots of meetings, lots of email, and lots of presentations.

Over time, my schedule has shifted somewhat, but these days, I typically get into the office between 8-8:30am and leave sometime after 8pm and often do some work from home after that.  I typically get to bed sometime between 12-1am.  Both breakfast and lunch are typically at my desk unless I’m eating out with a client.  Weekends are generally less full-on than they used to be, but most weekends involve at least some work, with perhaps one weekend a month that is a full working weekend.

I do lots of meetings with clients during the week, either during or after normal working hours, so I’m often out.

SH: What makes you excited to get up each morning?

SM: I wake up each morning and am excited to go to work because I’m very fulfilled by what we’re doing at Nervora, what we’ve been able to achieve so far, and where we’re going.  This has been simultaneously the most challenging and the most personally and professionally rewarding experience of my life, and I’ve learned a ton about business and about myself in the process.  Doing deals with billion dollar companies like Condé Nast, Hearst, Viacom, and CBS Interactive is something that I would never have expected, and it’s an amazing experience.  Being able to just call senior executives from these companies and have them answer the phone is a really cool feeling.  And we got there because we’re able to offer them something of value, which is, of course, critical.

SH: Describe some of your most interesting recent experiences.

SM: Besides some of our recent deals (including one that we just announced with Viacom), I’ve really enjoyed learning more about the cultural landscape of the Middle East and spending time in Saudi Arabia, which is a really distinct cultural experience.  On my most recent trips to Saudi Arabia, I’ve been meeting with a Princess (a member of the Al Saud family), with whom we’ll be doing business.  Most surreal experience: the first time we met, we almost instantly bonded over our mutual love for In-n-Out Burger.

SH: What are some challenges you face both in general and particular to your region?

SM: We face a lot of the challenges that most startups face, regardless of region, such as raising capital, building a base of clients when you’re a small company, and recruiting.  As we’ve grown, the sorts of challenges we face have evolved.  Building and scaling an organization is a really difficult thing to do, and that begins with finding and retaining talent, which is an ongoing challenge.  The Middle East doesn’t have the same embedded startup culture that the U.S. has, and it can be really difficult to find people who are intrinsically motivated and prepared for startup life, which is fundamentally less structured than traditional corporate roles.  We’ve found that recruiting expatriates from other markets (and particularly those with startup experience) and young, driven people (often straight from college) to be most effective.

SH: What are your key takeaways on work-life balance in a startup?

SM: While I do believe it’s possible to have some semblance of work/life balance at a startup, and certainly as a company becomes more mature, I definitely don’t think it’s the norm.  I also think that if work/life balance is the most important aspect for you, there are far better ways to optimize for that outcome than working at a startup, especially if you’re a founder.  Similarly, if money is the most important aspect for you, there are far better ways to optimize for that outcome, too.

As a founder, be prepared to work long, arduous hours on often unglamorous activities, especially at the beginning.  If you’re not prepared for that, don’t do it.

But if the thought of building something from nothing excites you, do it.  If the idea of creating structure from something unstructured excites you, do it.

I would consider myself to have a pretty bad work/life balance, but I find myself fulfilled in other ways, so I’m ok with it.  Evolving to a more balanced lifestyle is something that’s an ongoing goal and challenge for me, but is not my number one priority.  Still, it’s gotten somewhat better over time, and I think I’ve discovered ways to mix work and pleasure (drinks with clients, team outings, short weekend trips, etc.) to make it easier.  We’ve also gotten a lot better at celebrating the highs, such as our recent deal with Viacom, which we celebrated with champagne in the office at 9am (as soon as the release went to press).  

Follow @shashimenon and @Nervora on Twitter! 

Salman Hatta is an incoming Wharton MBA student in the Class of 2014. He is originally from San Francisco but has spent the past three years in Washington DC and Dubai, focusing on infrastructure investments for the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank Group). An avid traveler, he has visited nearly 40 countries so far and wants to pursue his passion at an online travel startup.

Online Marketing 101: Betillion’s Mariya Nikiforova shares her experience

By Mariya Nikiforova, Wharton MBA Class of 2013

Mariya Nikiforova is an MBA candidate at the Wharton School of Business, with a concentration in management and entrepreneurship. Prior to pursuing her business degree, she was a project manager with isoTree, a startup in the lead generation and search engine marketing space. For the Summer of 2012, Mariya is engaged in an internship with Sony Music Entertainment, Digital Distribution & Licensing Group, leading a project that links consumer digital behavior to monetizing music in TV commercials. In addition to her internship, Mariya is also the online marketing manager with Betillion, a social betting and trading gaming platform (property of Bet.Tra.de).  In her free time, Mariya is an aspiring mountaineer, and at present training for a Mt. Elbrus attempt this August!

Mariya provides valuable insights into online marketing for the Wharton eClub blog here. 

What is the significance of online marketing for a brand?

Online marketing is essential for every brand, be it a behemoth like Coca Cola or a small startup like Betillion. The purpose of online marketing is to engage the user on all levels of the traditional sales funnel – through raising awareness, satisfying interest, affecting decisions, and driving specific user actions. However, the growing social interconnectedness and innovative customer analytics inherent to online marketing make it a formidable rival to traditional media by extending brand presence beyond 30 seconds of air time or print ads.

What are the various types of online marketing and how do I know which one is right for my startup?

Online marketing has grown infinitely more complicated, and basic search engine marketing and optimization are no longer adequate. Advertisers and brands can utilize a variety of platforms, search engines, devices, and cross-media channels.  However, I found that it is much more effective to seek a deeper understanding of the behavior of your target audience than to invest in a specific medium.

For example, is your audience mainly male or female? Women are 30% more active on social networks then men, and make over 80% of discretionary purchases. They are also nearly twice as likely to make a purchase online as men. Browsing habits cannot be simply described with age demographics, but rather by lifestyle. A soccer mom will visit sites that are vastly different from a career-climbing woman of the same age, thus it’s important to understand marketing from the perspective of user behavior.

That said, there is no silver bullet, and online marketing strategy will depend heavily on the goals of the startup at a specific point in time. Are you trying to generate buzz? Do you need sales leads? Are you building your brand? Are you addressing an urgent PR issue?

What is your role with Betillion? What recent projects have you worked on?

As the online marketing manager with Betillion, a social betting and trading gaming site, I am responsible for a three-prong strategy encompassing paid, owned, and earned media. Paid media refers to traditional direct-response channels that include search engine marketing and other forms of paid advertising (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, FacebookAds), aimed at purchasing traffic with a keyword-, context- or lifestyle-targeted approach. Owned media comprises branding, positioning, search engine optimization, social media representation, and any activity that grows Betillion’s presence organically (in the “free” environment).

Finally, “earned” media can be best described as the viral component of the overall online marketing strategy. Earned media is arguably the most unpredictable component, and near impossible to fabricate, as the brand can inspire the word-of-mouth, but not control it in the traditional sense. At this stage of Betillion’s life, I am primarily focusing on the paid and owned factors of the media strategy. My last project involved several Google and FacebookAds marketing campaigns in conjunction with an A/B testing initiative that allowed me to determine the best positioning for Betillion.

How do you address competition as a small startup?

Betillion is entering a highly competitive market of online gaming. As we introduce this social betting and trading game to our audience, we will focus on awareness, education, and customer analytics with the ultimate goal of competing with the likes of Zynga. That said, we monitor the practices of our peers closely. For example, we keep track of their social networking and organic content; we also follow their relationship with other brands. As we build our reputation, we must maintain a certain unspoken standard that comes only through consistent research of the market and its top and rising players.

How do you adapt and innovate online marketing strategy as the startup grows?

It is important to continuously seek the next big trends in not only advertising, but also in internet user behavior across the board (be it rage comics, memes, top tweets, or trending Google searches). I am also very interested in following the new media of expression, new devices, and new platforms. Now more than ever, it is important to stay flexible and to follow the preferences of users, rather than to target any specific outlet just because it may be the most popular at the moment. With Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple encroaching on each other’s core competencies, it is anyone’s guess where advertising, media, and ecommerce will go next!

My advice to startups is to really think about the main vision of the company and define it in terms of milestones on a timeline. With every milestone, you will find that your online marketing strategy will have to be adjusted. The worst thing to do is to rely on one approach for every situation based on past success – fluidity is key.

Jerry Jao, Co-Founder & CEO of Retention Science, shares a day in his entrepreneurial life

by Marissa Hu, Wharton MBA Class of 2014

Jerry Jao is the CEO and co-founder of data science startup Retention Science, which recently announced the closing of its $1.3 million seed round and great press from PandoDaily as a company that “has built a product impressive enough to attract the investment of some of the brightest data science minds around.” They also were just awarded the title of one of the “10 Coolest Big Data Startups of 2012” on CRN.com. 

Retention Science is a team of five, working out of their office at MuckerLab, an accelerator in sunny Santa Monica, California. Not a bad place for an office! The company is a retention marketing platform that “helps online businesses analyze huge volumes of data to build customer loyalty and prevent customer churn.” (CRN.com)

Here’s what Jerry’s day looks like:

8AM – I wake up and start my day. While I’m still in bed, I start going through all of my emails (I’m a bit crazy in that I try to answer all emails ASAP), the less urgent ones I’ll leave to return at the office, but the more important ones, I reply to in bed while I might still be half-asleep – contrary to what one might expect, this has worked out okay for me so far.

One of the perks of working at a startup is that I get to wear whatever I want! T-shirts are par for the course at Muckerlab, so it doesn’t take me too long to get ready. We’re in the process of designing our Retention Science t-shirts, which will likely be bright orange with our blue logo. Once we get them, I’ll probably wear that every day!

9AM – I get to the office and take a quick glance at my calendar for the day. My mornings are usually filled with responding to emails, a lot of conference calls with press, investors, potential clients, current clients, and chatting with the team. We all sit around an open office with whiteboards and posters everywhere, so it’s a snap to communicate and make sure we’re all on the same page.

12PM – Time to order lunch! We’re usually too busy to go out for food, but we typically order off of GrubHub, or do a quick run to Subway. It’s nice to get a little fresh ocean air every once in a while, so I really enjoy being able to step out of the office for lunch if at all possible.

12-6 – Work, work, work. A few coffee breaks here and there, but I’m generally either on my computer or in a meeting (sometimes both!). If I’m trying to focus on my computer, I throw on my headphones and turn on a great Spotify playlist to block out some of the chatter around the office.

We occasionally do head out of the office to visit potential clients. Since our services are catered towards e-commerce businesses, I’ve met with some very cool companies like Shoedazzle and Ticketmaster. Many of them have really posh, trendy startup offices!

6PM – The afternoon has been filled with more conference calls, and I’ve been working on product mockups, wireframes, gathering feedback on our features and prioritizing them for the development team. In addition, I spend a decent amount of time answering customer emails, etc.

Fundraising is pretty difficult, and speaking with investors takes up a lot of my time as well, but I’m really trying to focus on designing products and building channel partnerships, which are key factors in building our business successfully.

Another one of the main things we focus on is trying to get as much feedback on our product as possible, and pushing out fast iterations to fix any issues. Sometimes, it’s difficult to gather enough data points to really be able to make meaningful decisions as well, and that results in us going with our gut feeling on some decisions, but that’s the way it goes.

7PM – The team orders dinner! We love Chipotle – it’s cheap and delicious! On Friday nights, we have a tradition of going to a nearby Korean BBQ restaurant – it’s one of our team’s favorite spots.

We often talk about getting out of the office by 8PM on Fridays (which would be a pretty early night for us), but really, we don’t tend to manage to get away until we realize it’s already 11PM. Luckily, our Korean BBQ restaurant is open late, and it gives us a chance to catch up on the week and loosen up a little – our team is really close and spends a lot of time together.  

8PM – Gotta work off dinner, so we try to throw a football around the parking lot after dinner to stay active.

10pm – Okay, so this is when we all started getting a bit tired, which means it’s my job lift the mood a little bit – by singing the most random song I can think of (my favorite is probably Hakuna Matata from the Lion King). Everyone laughs (with me, of course. Not at me…). We brew another pot of coffee and dig back in to work.

11pm – The team re-groups to review same day progress. It’s crucial for us to have this regular get-together – even though we all sit in the same office within just a few feet from each other, this is our chance for everyone to be heard, and to discuss major upcoming milestones as well as any concerns.

12AM – The whole teams tends to stay in the office until about midnight working. In fact, Andrew (my co-founder) and I live close to the office just so we don’t waste any time getting home after a late night at work.

But that’s the startup life! Work-life balance is definitely tough, but we all love what we do, which is what makes it worth it. With such a small team, it is hard to do a lot with our limited resources, so we all put in 110% to get it done. Everyone is passionate about the product, and we all have a blast hanging out with each other. Sometimes, it does turn into a little bit of a mini frat house, but with a purpose! I promise, we do have fun together outside of work as well – in fact, we’re planning a fishing trip in August!

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jerryjao or say hello: jerry@retentionscience.com 

Marissa Hu is an incoming Wharton MBA student in the Class of 2014 pursuing Entrepreneurial Management.  She is currently working on a startup venture in the e-commerce space.  

Startup Life Cycle I: Idea Generation

by Tami Zakaria, Wharton MBA Class of 2014

“The one thing no one has figured out how to do is to outsource the creation of ideas,” said Keith Ferrazzi, the Founder and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a successful strategic consultancy firm that provides strategic consulting and experiential learning services to companies looking to enhance performance. Indeed, idea generation is one of the most challenging parts in the entrepreneurial life cycle, and if well executed, a new idea could be built into the next tech-giant like Microsoft, a Nobel-winning micro-credit institution like Grameen Bank, or a social networking bigwig like Facebook.

We hear interesting stories of people coming up with bright ideas in a flash.  Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse was inspired by a rat in the garage in which he used to work and is now the mascot of Disney’s $28.7B enterprise.  Though these strokes of genius inspire generations, they seldom occur out of the blue.  Brilliant ideas are more often developed through organized thinking, careful observation and extensive research.  Every successful entrepreneur may have a different story behind his/her brilliant idea, but one common attribute to most successful entrepreneurs is open-mindedness – the propensity to explore and the willingness to flesh out a potential opportunity that lurks behind many impossibilities.

So, how do you come across the next big idea? A study titled “Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea,” by Wharton’s Christian Terwiesch and Karl T. Ulrich, and INSEAD’s Karan Girotra, published in Management Science, reveals that the best ideas can come through brainstorming. Constructive brainstorming generates a pool of ideas increasing the probability of choosing a brilliant idea from the pool. BizThoughts has some brainstorming methods for entrepreneurs:

• Problem & solution method: Examine your everyday activities – tedious chores that could be done easier, things that you wish you could get done by someone else, a problem that your friend complains about often. All these could have the potential to be turned into profitable products or services.
• Market-first method: Choose a specific target market you want to serve before even thinking about a product or service. Understand that market’s demographics, psychographics, behaviors, beliefs, needs, wants, and problems. This may lead you to find an unmet need that could be satisfied by a customized product/service.
• Mix & match method: Take two seemingly unrelated concepts, products, or services and see if you can combine them.
• Importation Method: Travel the world. Take note of all the products and services you see. Consider how each could be imported back to your country.
• Borrowed ideas method: There are a number of sources for free ideas. BizThoughts’ Idea Category, Ironic Sans’ Idea Category, A Startup A Day and idea a day are few examples.

For more information on resources on brainstorming, you can also consult with Innovation Tools which is a great website designed to help you locate the best articles, books, tools and software for brainstorming and idea generation.

Once you decide on the industry that you want to play in, it is helpful to talk to industry experts in order to learn more about opportunities in that sector. A successful entrepreneur named Abul Kalam Azad, owner of Azad Products (a print and publishing house based out of Dhaka, Bangladesh) reveals that when he was looking for a job after graduating, he met a street vendor selling posters of ABBA, Madonna, John Travolta and other popular figures of the 1980s.  His curiosity sparked a chat with the vendor to learn about how much his paper posters cost and how much he was making per sale. Following the conversation, the then-aspiring entrepreneur spent almost six months interviewing different people in the printing industry in different stages of the value chain to generate ideas regarding where he could add the most value.  As a result, he started his own dye cutting and lamination business, which grew to become one of the largest printing houses in the country.

Every entrepreneur faces myriad questions and concerns regarding the ideas that they have in the planning stage. It is always a great help to get advice from experts or the people who actually walked the path that you are trying to embark on. Here is a list of resources that you can reference during this stage:

• SCORE: This website can help you find a mentor if you are in need of free mentoring from an entrepreneur who has already been through it all.
• Startup Nation: Startup Nation offers entrepreneurial advice from a whole slew of people who have been there and done that — and have the business to prove it. The site has advice on just about every aspect of creating and running a startup.
• Entrepreneur: This website has a huge collection of information on starting and running your own business. The company behind the site also runs Women Entrepreneurs – a good resource for women looking at entrepreneurship.
• About.com Entrepreneurs: This site offers a regularly updated resource on entrepreneurship.
• Entrepreneurship.org: This site is run by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to provide global resources for entrepreneurs.

To summarize, an entrepreneur constantly needs to be on the outlook for ideas. Brainstorming ideas and researching short listed ideas can occur simultaneously.  Jot down ideas whenever and wherever they occur to you. Once you have a few potential winning business ideas that seem to be workable, the next step is validating the most compelling idea.  Knowing your own product/service idea in detail will later help in all the other stages of the startup life cycle – writing a business plan, financing, marketing and expansion.

Tami Zakaria is an incoming Wharton MBA student in the Class of 2014.  She hails from Bangladesh where she worked as a Vice President at an asset management company. Her area of equity research includes the telecommunication and insurance sectors.  She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and plans to start her own financial consultancy firm in the future.  

The City of Brotherly Startup Love: Philly’s Flourishing Entrepreneurship Scene

By Marissa Hu, Wharton MBA Class of 2014

As an incoming student to Wharton this fall, I’m not only excited about the joining the renowned Wharton community, but I’m also looking forward to becoming an active member of Philadelphia’s local startup community.

From Startup Weekend Philly to incubators such as Dreamit Ventures, there’s something for everyone who’s interested in pursuing entrepreneurship.

Why Philly?

Philly’s relatively low cost of living, strong local talent pool (especially from all the great nearby universities), and rich cultural environment all lend themselves to what has become a thriving and innovative community with abundant resources for startups.

RJMetrics, a business intelligence software startup, shared in their blog last year why they decided to “double down on Philadelphia” and stay in the city despite opportunities to move to NY or the Bay Area.

From day one, we were able to acquire actionable information faster in Philadelphia than we could have elsewhere.  How is this possible?  It’s simple math: time is money and it costs less to do business here.

It’s important to note that this advantage translates to employee development and satisfaction as well:

On a budget that would be razor-thin in many other cities, we can provide our employees with a world-class working environment, top-notch benefits, and some of the most compelling personal development opportunities in the region.

Philly’s central location and proximity to big cities such as New York and Boston also make it appealing to startups, while the smaller size of the community make it easier for entrepreneurs to build strong relationships amongst each other and gain the support they need.

Apu Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Curalate, a monitoring and analytics tool for Pinterest, considers Philly’s smaller startup community one of its biggest strengths:

As a modest, but growing, startup community, Philly’s entrepreneurs are incredibly open, collaborative, and helpful. Getting to know entrepreneurs in this city is very easy, and there is an enthusiasm that is both infectious and encouraging.

In fact, the City of Brotherly Love is often cited for its innate sense of community and valuable networking opportunities.  A Fast Company article cites Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital on just this notion:

Philly is small enough and intimate enough that most of the entrepreneurs actually know each other. There’s an unbelievable sense of community…there are a bunch of great networks and communities that build a really tight net and support groups. Philly Startup Leaders has hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs actively helping each other.

As this ecosystem flourishes with the support of startup organizations, more aspiring entrepreneurs will hopefully stay in Philly to build their companies and draw talent from the countless universities located in and around the city.  As it is, 21 tech companies are located in the N3RD Street vicinity of Philly’s Old City neighborhood, where working spaces are cool and geeky creativity thrives. 

Also a key factor in the evolution of Philly’s startup community is the funding environment. Gupta also emphasizes that the availability of experienced startup investors is still limited, leaving “Philly startups to compete against startups in the Valley and NYC who may have both more money and better access, which together can make for a more compelling proposition for prospective talent.”

What Kind of startups are in Philly?

Philadelphia has spawned successful startups in numerous industries. The city has a strong healthcare and pharmaceutical base, with headquarters for companies such as Cephalon, Cigna, GlaxoSmithKline, and AstraZeneca. There are quite a few startups in Philly within this industry, such as 1DocWay (founded by Wharton alum Samir Malik).

In fact, Startup Weekend Philly just recently held a healthcare-focused event this summer, Startup Weekend Health Philadelphia, dedicated to solving the industry’s unique set of problems.

In addition, Philadelphia is home to startups in a wide range of different categories: e-commerce, mobile apps, fashion, big data, etc. For example, the three startups nominated for “Startup of the Year” at the Philly Geek Awards run the gamut of different business models in new media: Curalate, a social analytics platform; SnipSnap, a mobile couponing app; and ElectNext, an “eHarmony for voters.”

Additional Information and Resources for Entrepreneurs

Accelerators/Incubators

• Dreamit Ventures: An incubator with a focus on strong community and resources for startups, with alumni like SCVNGR, 1Docway, CloudMine, SnipSnap, and MetaLayer
• Project Liberty Digital Incubator: An incubator with a focus on new digital media enterprise formation, operated by Ben Franklin Technology Partners
• Good Company Group: An accelerator for early-stage social impact startups
• Alliance Equals: A mixed-use business incubator and coworking facility
• Novotorium: A unique workspace that provides resources and capital to startups
• Wharton Venture Initiation Program: An educational incubator for UPenn student startups
• Drexel Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship: Interdisciplinary program for Drexel student startups offering mentoring, incubation, student clubs, and seminars on entrepreneurship

Coworking Spaces/Collaborative Spaces

• Venturef0rth: A collaborative coworking space for tech startups and early-stage companies that also serves as a venue for many startup-focused events such as Startup Weekend and Lean Startup Machine
• Indy Hall: A coworking space and community for individuals and companies alike
• University City Science Center: Entrepreneurship programs as well as coworking office space, founded in 1963
• Seed Philly: A collaboratory for tech-enabled seed stage startups
• Benjamin’s Desk (opening 8/1/12)

Startup Organizations/Activities

• Philadelphia Startup Weekend
• Ignite Philly
• Philly Startup Leaders
• Philly Tech Week
• Philly Tech Meetup

Websites/Blogs

• Geekadelphia
• Entrepreneur’s Forum of Greater Philadelphia
• Technically Philly

Upcoming Events

• Jul 18: Philly Startup Leaders BBQ, @ Morgan’s Pier
• Jul 19: SEO Tactics from the Master, Wil Reynolds, @ Venturef0rth
• Jul 24: Annual RAIN Meeting (Regional Affinity Incubation Network), @ University City Science Center
• Aug 17: Philadelphia Geek Awards 2012, @ Academy of Natural Sciences
• Nov 2: Startup Weekend, in Lehigh Valley, PA

Marissa Hu is an incoming Wharton MBA student in the Class of 2014 pursuing Entrepreneurial Management.  She is currently working on a startup venture in the e-commerce space.

Calling all Coupon Clippers: Ted Mann (UPenn ’99) wants you to Stop Snipping and Start Snapping with SnipSnap

By Kimberley Ong, Wharton MBA Class of 2014

5 Fundamental Behaviors of Successful Entrepreneurs

What are the behaviors that set winning entrepreneurs apart?  What are the skills behind those behaviors, and how can they be learned and honed?  Join Jerry McLaughlin (Penn ’85) for an engaging presentation on the five fundamental practices of successful entrepreneurs—based on his more than 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship.  Jerry is co-founder and CEO of Branders.com, the largest interactive and lowest-priced promotional products source in the world, headquartered in California with operations in The Philippines, China, and Mexico.  He and his family recently returned from four years in Manila and Beijing. Previously, Jerry worked at Altos Ventures, a prestigious venture capital firm; served as CEO of Enwisen, the first Internet-based clearinghouse of employee benefit information between insurers and large employers; and practiced law in the heart of Silicon Valley, representing high-flying tech companies at the height of the dot.com boom. 
 
When:  Tuesday, November 15th, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Where:  JMHH 345

eClub Lunch & Learn Series: Chat with Austin Ligon, Founder of CarMax

Monday, Oct. 17 at 12 pm in JMHH 365.

Come meet with Austin Ligon, the founder of CarMax, and listen to his story about starting and growing a successful company.  Austin is currently an angel investor and will share his advice with students on entrepreneurship.

Bio: 
Austin Ligon, along with then CEO of Circuit City Rick Sharp, founded CarMax in 1993.  He is currently enjoying his retirement and encouraging new entrepreneurs as an angel investor. Ligon led the company from its inception within Circuit City through 2006.

The primary focus of Ligon’s community involvement is education. He is a member of the governing boards of the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO), and St. John’s College (Annapolis and Santa Fe). He is advisory board chairman of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University, and an advisory board member of the Yale School of Management. He serves on the board of several venture start-up companies.

CarMax:
CarMax, Inc. is the U.S.’s largest retailer of used cars. The company operates 103 used car superstores in 49 markets throughout the country. CarMax will sell nearly 600,000 retail and wholesale cars, and record total revenues of nearly $9 billion in the current fiscal year. At over $85 million in sales per store, CarMax used car superstores are among the highest volume retail stores in the U.S. CarMax, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (KMX) and was named one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the sixth consecutive year in 2010.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Ligon