Launch - Summer 2008 - (Page 18)

Tim Hunt Successfully Unemployed Entrepreneur Risk: Unpredictable financial conditions. Reward: Being able to make a difference. Teri Sundh CEO and Co-founder, Podfitness Risk: Venturing in unknown territory. Reward: Leaving a lasting legacy. After more than a decade of negotiating multimillion dollar contracts at Franklin Covey, Teri Sundh bowed out of corporate culture and into the unknown realm of entrepreneurism. After launching seven businesses, each with highs and lows, she is now successfully at the helm of Podfitness, maker of customized audio workouts. “My story has had its ups and downs,” says Sundh. “There have been lots of challenges and, frankly, disastrous failures. But I love to take ideas to the market. For me, the greatest risk is wondering if consumers and investors are going to buy the idea. Once they do, the next hurdle is figuring out how you’ll survive the building and development stage. With Podfitness, it wasn’t too hard to persuade consumers and investors that MP3 space is a hot space. It has fun, sexy and attractive rewards. You don’t have to do much talking before people get it. It’s fun to be a part of something that doesn’t require a lot of convincing. “In business, there are huge ebbs and flows. Your business model may totally change and you must learn how to survive, be flexible, revise and adjust. It takes longer than you plan. Nothing happens as fast as you want it to happen — from funding and shareholder expectations, to launching and seeing a return. We thought we’d be at break even at 18 months, but we just hit our three-year mark and just made break even. Setting realistic expectations requires disciplined management. “For me, the great reward is hearing an idea in your ear and seeing it fulfill its potential. Podfitness is cooler today than what I thought three years ago.” After working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 14 years, Tim Hunt took one of the biggest risks of his life by launching Lingotek in 2006. The language translation company did so well that investors bought him out with enough money for him to walk away as a comfortably “unemployed entrepreneur.” But the experience didn’t come without its risks and challenges. “I went the first nine months at Lingotek without a paycheck,” says Hunt. “I worked as an adjunct professor to pay the bills and mortgage. And I worked incredible hours, usually from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m. I could have quit. I could have failed. But it wasn’t in me. I kept at it, and in the end I feel good about where we came out. “For me, the great reward is being able to make a difference in the world. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m more philanthropic, but I enjoy doing something that make people’s lives more productive. I enjoy raising the money and putting teams together. With Lingotek, the intent was to create a simpler and easier way to do translation work. In the end, I could decipher and translate documents from languages I didn’t even know. “Becoming an entrepreneur is an education and sometimes ignorance is what makes you walk into it. You get an education unlike any you’d get anywhere else.” Kent Millington President, IPDevPro Risk: Potential failure. Reward: Satisfaction of success. Kent Millington started a wholesale distribution company in Texas several years ago, which eventually went through bankruptcy. He wasn’t prepared for the business failure or the significant amount of money that was lost. “But money was all I lost. I didn’t lose self-respect or enthusiasm,” says Millington. “I went on to enjoy many successes and see businesses flourish, which has been a source of great satisfaction. Now I have investments in five companies. There’s great fulfillment in being able to pull it off. 18 launch summer 08

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Launch - Summer 2008

Launch - Summer 2008 Contents Editor's Note Dashboard Marketing Column Funding Column Sales Column Risks vs. Rewards Myths of Entrepreneurship Opportunities vs. Ideas Funding Options for Startups Making Sense of Term Sheets

Launch - Summer 2008

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