A panel of four high energy entrepreneurs addressed a packed house at the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s (OEN) September 8th PubTalk: “Activewear Innovation Mecca” (a.k.a. Portland). Staged at Portland’s Backspace Cafe, the OEN PubTalk’s monthly event was moderated by Rob Langstaff, founder of men's footwear brand RYZ and former president of Adidas U.S. and Japan.

The panel, providing both unique and common entrepreneurial perspectives, included outdoor footwear provider Korkers CEO Sean Beers, “funky” sock distributor and online retailer Sock it to Me founder and president Carrie Atkinson, Ed Dalton, Principal and Co-president of bicycle lifestyle clothing designer and manufacturer Showers Pass, and Bill Worthington, Co-founder and Creative Director of OluKai Premium Footwear.

Activewear Entrepreneurial Takeaway Samples

Biggest Challenges:

• Maintaining a balance of life and patience
• Quality channel partner representation and support
• To partner with other companies in the same markets or to “go it alone”
• Managing growth to maintain operational efficiency

On Raising Capital:

• Ideally find an investor who is already an avid consumer in your product category
• Be prepared to address investor “fashion fears” of short shelf life and turnover

Best Advice:

• Trust your gut
• Maintain a brand strategy, a customer-first focus, and trust your partners
• Do your research first with product naming and branding
• Personally interview prospective dealers on their customers’ demographics and their willingness to merchandise your brand
• Consider regarding receivables: 90-days-after-sale pay terms to reps; credit card charge authorization for aging beyond terms
• “Go as fast as possible”

OEN’s Value: Panelists’ Perspectives

Carrie Atkinson, Sock it to Me

“Entrepreneurs of all levels need information at insatiable levels. OEN provides tremendous value to these entrepreneurs by holding discussions on topics that are core to building one’s business, and by providing a distinct summary of each topic, entrepreneurs are immediately able to distinguish if the discussion is right for them or not.”

Sean Beers, Korkers

“OEN can make a significant positive impact on the entrepreneurial community in Portland by connecting entrepreneurs with the coaching, connections and capital that will enable them to succeed.”

Ed Dalton, Showers Pass

“OEN can provide time saving advice in creating a start-up company and help you to set-up an effective process which may ultimately get you to market faster, better protected from a legal standpoint and more prepared.”

Don't Miss Seed Oregon 2010 Round 1 PubTalk October 13th

The next OEN PubTalk on October 13th will mark this year's first round of OEN Seed Oregon 2010. The event will be held at the Backspace Cafe--115 NW 5th Avenue Portland, Or 97209

According to a 2007/2008 Watson Wyatt “Human Communication ROI Study”, companies with the most effective employee communication programs provided a 91% total return to shareholders from 2002-2006 compared with 62% for companies that communicated least effectively. These internal communication-savvy companies are also four times as likely to report high levels of employee engagement as companies that communicate less effectively.

Why, then do business plans and founders of startups and early growth companies rarely mention the term “internal communication” (a.k.a. “employee communication”) let alone include it among high level business plan strategies and as a future business function? Here are just a few unfortunate reasons:

-Internal communication is considered only necessary and of value in larger, more established companies at the level requiring HR staffing.

-Among the many hats worn by founders and their first hires in management roles, the internal communication hat isn’t considered strategic or measureable enough to consider being worn.

-Many founders and early management have no experience with or exposure to internal communication as a strategic function, thereby not even seeing it on their radar screen.

-“Communication” is often associated “Marketing”-- the omnipresent top line business function. Or, internal communication is often considered so synonymous in nature and role that it gets assigned (often lost) within the more visible and glamorous “marketing communications”.

Internal communication in fact and formally is the strategic facilitation of ongoing, proactive dialogue between an organization's leadership and its employees, and the management of information sharing that takes place in the interest of delivering a common business strategy. Naturally roles and responsibilities vary by organization and those with more employees and success find it “easier” to justify the assignment to those wearing other hats or even employing a hat dedicated to internal communication.

But the fact remains that when internal communication as a business function is at least atop startup founders’ minds then the stage is set for early its implementation, its ongoing development, and most importantly having its own line as a strategic function in the company’s business plan. At least the startup management-backed and tracked foundation is in place to apply the same consideration for more responsibilities and/or resources to the function as the company grows. In the meantime, with so few of startups' early contributors having the time to quantitatively measure its value, early stage internal communication efforts are behind the scenes or under the radar making their contributions to:

-Embracement of change

-Process and policy adoption

-Productivity

-Employee engagement, commitment, recruitment, and retention

-Customer satisfaction – delivering the early promise of the company’s developing brand

Scott Etheredge, Intraspeak, Inc. Internal Communications

Good moves, bad decisions, and the sometimes ugly end result of a startup were shared with attendees of the April 14th OEN PubTalk™.  The PubTalk panel discussion “SplashCast – What Happened?” featured a SplashCast founder and two investors in the company. Founded in 2007, SplashCast’s mission was to help consumers develop videos, text, graphics and music embedded in broadcast "channels." The company raised over $4 million in funding yet closed its doors in 2009.

OEN’s Dave deFiebre served as moderator of the PubTalk panel discussion that included SplashCast founder, lawyer and entrepreneur Tom Turnbull, who held key positions at three venture backed startups and SplashCast investors Angela Jackson and B. Scott Taylor. Jackson, Managing Partner of AB Jackson Group LLC and active angel investor and coach, was Chair of OEN’s Angel Oregon 2010. Taylor, founder and CEO of TAOW, Modern Marketing, author, and serial entrepreneur, was a co-founder of VirtualRelocation.com, which was acquired by Monster.com.

Valuable and candid SplashCast issues and startup takeaways provided by panel included:

--Too many SplashCast investors (approximately 70)—seek fewer investors/larger investments
--Too little initial funding--raise money when you can
--Early business plan wins are key to incremental funding
--Cash reserves are cyclical--whether in favor or not
--Three business models resulted in many changes of direction—cash burned too quickly
--Staffed up too early with no market-ready products
--Hired “the big guy” (expensive vp of sales) too early
--Good communication serves investors well—be as forthright as possible, especially with bad news
--Former entrepreneurs as founders and early hires are key—they’ve been “in the trenches’, dealt with many changes, uncertainty, and ambiguity
--Don’t scrimp on legal advice, but keep a close watch on monthly invoices—they can mushroom
--Be open to creativity—this delivers “brilliant moments of execution”
--Contrary to some current opinions, now is a good time, and Portland is a good place for startups—be optimistic, be “scrappy”

Upcoming OEN PubTalks April 21, May 12

SW Washington PubTalk™  “Pitch Night” April 21st
The Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council (SWWDC) in partnership with the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) will host PubTalk Pitch Night April 21st in Vancouver, WA. Three local entrepreneurs will pitch their start up businesses and engage with attendees, providing an invaluable learning opportunity for entrepreneurs.

When: April 21, 2010 From 5:15 PM - 7:00 PM
Where: AHA! 415 W. 6th Street Ste 605, Vancouver, WA

OEN PubTalk™ "The Art of Bootstrapping" May 12
Five successful entrepreneurs will reveal of the art of bootstrapping in a panel discussion on May 12th. The founders of Jama Software, Paydici, Rumblefish, Reliable Remodeler, and Urban Airship will share how they used creative solutions and drew from nontraditional resources to build their companies with limited capital. The event will be moderated by Rick Turoczy, founder and principal writer of Silicon Florist, Portland's premier blog on technology and entrepreneurship.

When: Wednesday, May 12, 5:15 PM - 7:00 PM
Where: Backspace, 115 Northwest 5th Avenue, Portland, OR 97209

Written by Scott Etheredge

Portland, OR January 13, 2009
Approximately 35% of Amazon.com’s sales revenue and 60% of Netflix’ rental revenue are generated by purchase recommendations provided by these industry giants’ web sites. With a business plan supported by data such as this,   4-Tell, Inc. won Round 3 of the “OEN PubTalk Seed Oregon” event. 4-Tell promises to increase the sales of their midsized online retailer target market with intelligent, automated recommendations of products.
Contact: Keny Levy, Co-founder/CTO, http://www.4-Tell.com ken@4-Tell.com, 509-427-5374

CrowdCompass, Inc. CEO Tom Kingsley made a strong case for his company’s bid for a segment of the $100 billion per year event industry. CrowdCompass technology transforms a smartphone into an “event compass” that assists attendees and exhibitors with event planning, navigating and follow-up.
Contact: Tom Kingsley, CEO, www.crowdcompass.com 503-799-8610

Casting aside all the good intentions and benefits of online shopping, approximately 90% of those shopping for products over $500 begin the sales process online only to travel to a retail store to finalize their review and purchase. vCommerce co-founder and presenter Fritz Brumder hopes to eliminate the need to visit a store via his firm’s untraditional approach to shopping online with a live video retail experience. Fritz returned as a contestant after participating in PubTalk’s opening “5-minute Pitch” on November 12th.
Contact: Fritz Brumder, Co-founder, www.cascadewebdev.com fbrumder@cascadewebdev.com, 503-752-2540

If the shoe fits, wear it. If not, go through the hassles of sending it back and ordering another size. Seth Miller, President & CEO of SureSize, Inc., who delivered this week’s opening “5-Minute Pitch”, hopes to capitalize the high return rates and low profitability faced by online shoe resellers. SureSize is a database company that enables consumers to match their recommended shoe size with the size of their selected style that is most likely to fit. Contact: Seth Miller, President & CEO, www.mysuresize.com seth@suresize.net, 503-913-8672

4-Tell joins Virticus Corporation and ActiveTrak, winners of rounds One and Two respectively, in the championship round to be held February 10, 2010 at Backspace, 115 NW 5th Avenue in Old Town Portland.