Browse > Home / Archive for October 2008

My article on Startup Weekend

October 30, 2008

My article on Startup Weekend for Business Lexington is now published.  I am going to occasionally guest write on entrepreneurship for the magazine. We are looking forward to a great Startup Weekend event in Lexington. Hope to see you there.

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Events, Startups |  

Geeks Night Out

October 28, 2008


 

Intelex along with the Spring Stage network is sponsoring another geeks night out.

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Events, Startups |  

Register Now for Startup Weekend

October 27, 2008

Startup Weekend Lexington is less than one month away.  Now is the time to register.  Click Here to do so and send me a cooment if you are attending.

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Events, Startups |  

Kentucky Highlands Gets a million

October 24, 2008

Kentucky Highlands Investment corp has received a million dollars to build a business incubator in London, KY. The money is courtesy of US Rep. Hal Rogers who is a main funding source, securing federal dollars for KHIC. In fact when writing this post I discovered that Rogers has recently secured an additional $10 million in new markets tax credit authority for KHIC in addition to the million above,.

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Politics, Startups |  

Start-Up Profile: Conexxus

October 23, 2008

Conexxus is a software start-up based in Louisville, KY.  

1) Give me your thirty second elevator pitch on what Conexxus does?

Conexxus is a software development company providing compliance solutions to accounting, finance and similar departments. Our back office and compliance monitoring solution saves companies time and money from growing compliance burdens, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, etc. 

The product, CONEXXUS, was designed to bring automation to repetitive manual financial workflow processes, improve documentation management, and create a link between existing disparate software products (process, document retention, and general ledger systems). CONEXXUS is a unique best of breed, real-time, continuous monitoring system for internal controls, compliance and policy/procedure requirements. Our real time monitoring allows our solution to identify if critical procedures are being followed and completed with appropriate proof via underlying documentation and approvals. No solutions on the market today can monitor such manual processes, which typically comprise 75 to 95% of critical financial controls for Sarbanes-Oxley.  

2) Your management team and advisors have ties to Advanced Imaging concepts, how did you get hooked up with them, what are the advantages of working with a team with a previous entrepreneurial venture under their belt?

While I (Jeff), was at E&Y, I won AIC’s annual audit for 2001 and 2002.  During that time I established a great working relationship with AIC’s Founders: Jeff Amrein, John Reinhart, Jim Orms and Ed Kenney. I helped document AIC’s story which led to their team winning the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  AIC’s product was a high speed imaging and workflow solution for physician offices which eliminated the need for paper medical charts and allowed back office staff to work more efficiently.  I had discussed similarities in back office workflows for accountants at that time with AIC’s founder Jeff Amrein, but that was simply a discussion. AIC’s founders went on to grow AIC from start-up to a $20 million exit.

After leaving an electronic working environment at E&Y and moving into industry, I experienced the pain of manual, paper-laden processes, especially with Sarbanes Oxley legislation just being passed.  I knew there was more efficient way to work, but could not find a solution in the market to help me as a Controller.  Recalling my previous audit client, AIC, I reached out to AIC’s founders about creating an Enterprise Manual Processing Monitoring Solution.  The new solution would combine AIC’s technical know-how with my audit knowledge.  After these discussions, Mr. Reinhart and Mr. Amrein joined the Conexxus Board, Mr. Kenney helped with the initial business plan and market analysis and Mr. Orms came on-board as the President and COO, with over 20 years imaging, workflow and technical operations experience. 

The experience the AIC team brought to the table has been invaluable to getting Conexxus off the ground.  In fact John Reinhart was able to help us move forward with starting the business, from a coaching and mentoring perspective.  It just may not have happened without his guidance.  Overall, the value of their insight, as a team who has been in the trenches before and won, is immeasurable and has greatly impacted the speed at which we were able to bring the Conexxus solution to the market, but almost more importantly better prepared Conexxus for the highs and lows of being an entrepreneurial start-up.

3) What have been the advantages/disadvantages of founding a high-tech start-up in Kentucky?

Kentucky wants to have companies in the new economy and is working to incentivize creation of such technology jobs.  Conexxus has been blessed to be a recipient of grants and awards to date, but we have noticed that many incentive programs are designed from older business models which require large capital investments, such as manufacturing, so certain incentives are simply not feasible for the virtual companies of today.  As a technology company, there are a smaller number of people that understand the business model and thus raising capital has been challenging at times.

However, for Conexxus, founding a high-tech start-up in Kentucky has been advantageous to date.  Aside from connecting a local experienced group of individuals to develop and launch the company, local and state representatives have proven to be extremely supportive and resourceful. 

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Startups, Venture Capital |  

The Call of the entrepreneur

October 20, 2008

Below is an invitation to the premier of a film on entrepreneurship

Celebration of Economic Liberty! 

The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions

proudly presents the premier of 

The Call of The Entrepreneur

Kentucky Theater, downtown Lexington

214 E. Main Street

Wednesday, October 29th

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Showing 

“A merchant banker.  A failing dairy farmer.  A refugee from Communist China.  One risked his savings.  One risked his farm.  One risked his life.”

Why do their stories matter? Because how we view entrepreneurs—as greedy or altruistic, as virtuous or vicious—shapes the destinies of individuals and nations.

Trailer

 

Seats are limited, so please RSVP to smith@bipps.org and we look forward to celebrating our economic liberty with you!</p

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Events, Startups |  

Joe the Plumber

October 16, 2008

The only thing I know for sure in this election is that Barack Obama, John McCain and all of the pundits discussing Joe the Plumber know absolutely nothing about small business, how taxes impact small business and why it matters.

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Politics, Startups |  

Blog Update

October 16, 2008

I have had many readers comment that it is hard to find my content on this site other than the one highlighted post on the left hand side of the main page. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that it is a part of the Startup Blog Network also known as the Spring Stage network.  In the coming months, the sites will undergo a redesign that will bring more functionality and highlight the local content in more visible fashion.

In the meantime I wanted to highlight the ways you can find and track the local posts in case you are not aware.  In addition to the post featured on the left hand side of the main page (where this post will originally reside) you can always click on the blog link above which will bring up a list of all of the local content posts.

If you want to track the local content and don’t want to have to come back to the site, you can follow this blog in the following ways:

Use a feed reader and subscribe to the RSS feed: Local Feed

Get updates on new posts via Twitter: Twitter Account

Or you can always do it the old fashioned way and put your e-mail address in the the box to the right.

Also if you would like to track the discussion and comments for any post, we use intense debate to manage the comments which will allow you to be pinged whenever a new comment is posted.

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Blog Action Day

October 15, 2008

Today is Blog action day. The topic is poverty. To help fight global poverty, how about providing a loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world. The tech site Techcrunch has a fund raising team set up on kiva.org. You can make a loan to entrepreneur anywhere in the world. Often just $20 can make a difference. Remember, this is a loan that could be paid back so it is not just charity it is business. I think we ought to apply this type of lesson to fighting poverty in our own country as well. Many in appalachia in Kentucky could use a small loan to get an independent business off the ground.

UPDATE:  I know Prosper.com operates in the US but I am looking for site geared to small entrepreneurs in porr communities around the country, providing “extreme micro-loans”

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Politics, Startups, Venture Capital |  

Angel Investors are Overrated

October 13, 2008

Angel investors get a lot of publicity as the key to the growth of high-impact start-ups. A recent study by Scott Shane and the US SBA office of advocacy has statistics that show this impact is overrated.The key passage“…It finds that the angel capital market is smaller than previously estimated, and that most angel-backed firms are not potential high-growth start-ups”  This was first highlighted here. In addition, a previous post here highlighted the different types of angels and Venture Hacks gives a good look at the value different investors here.  Key takeaway:

“ Smart money is money plus the promise of help that’s worth paying for, dumb money is money plus hidden harm, and mostly money is mostly money. Weed out the dumb money with diligence. Evaluate supposedly smart money with the smart money test. Finally, assume your investors are mostly money: unbundle money and value-add to get money on the best terms possible and value-add on the best terms possible.”

Written by Richard Stump · Filed Under Blog, Venture Capital |  

Next Page »