Can't find your ideal job? Create your own.
The title of this post probably sounds like something you read from a flyer taped to a telephone pole, but hear me out.
Prior to moving back to Cincinnati five years ago, I was in San Francisco working on a couple start-ups - Flycast and
WebVisible. I always knew I liked incubating ideas, but during my time at Flycast, I really got a good dose of the start-up world - and that is where I caught the start-up bug. That was 1996.
When I moved back to Cincinnati in 2004, I was a little disheartened by the lack of enthusiasm toward start-ups. Local investors and entrepreneurs still seemed a little affected by the dot-com bubble bursting. I figured time would heal those wounds. Cincinnati is a great place to live and grow up for so many reasons. However, at the time, I realized that if I wanted to stay in Cincinnati and remain in the internet industry, I needed to make my own path and start a company.
Enter
Sharkle.com. Sharkle was one, if not the first, of the online video sharing communities. Trevor Wright, a former Flycaster, called me with the itch to start a company.
Trevor had a head start on the Sharkle concept, so we joined forces and gave it a shot.
Starting a company in Cincinnati has many advantages. It is very easy to get people to listen to your idea, which is important as you continue to develop your business model and marketing initiatives. Surrounding yourself with people that will challenge the idea and make sure you are not drinking too much of your own KoolAid is critical. I call these people my smart dummies; make sure you have some.
Cincinnati is also a great town in which to network and build relationships with some of the top executives in the world. P&G, Cintas, Kroger, Cincinnati Bell, Chiquita, Scripps and Convergys are all great companies that, if networked the right way, can be very advantageous as you try taking your idea to reality. As we were building Sharkle, I continued to network and tell my idea to anyone who would listen. A couple people I met along the way that helped were George Molinsky (Partner at Taft) and Tim Schigel (CEO,
ShareThis and former Partner at
Blue Chip Ventures). Since I was removed from Cincinnati for some time, I needed to reemerge as quickly as possible - George and Tim helped me navigate the entrepreneurial scene.
Getting press as you start your company is important as well, and Cincinnati has many accessible technology writers. Laura Baverman, now with the Cincinnati Enquirer and an active blogger, was the first journalist who covered Sharkle on a local level. We had already been growing extremely fast, but her story helped generate a lot of local buzz. Michelle Lentz is also another valuable resource, who writes for a well-known Web 2.0 blog,
bub.blicio.us.
If you are in the process of starting a company or contemplating a new idea, making sure you surround yourself with the right people and leverage Cincinnati’s resources can make starting your own company relatively easy. I encourage you to give it a shot.
Stay tuned for the next blog: Social Media 101.