Young Successful Entrepreneur

Name: Brenton Gieser
Company: http://convospark.com/
Blog: http://brentongieser.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/brentongieser

Today I speak with my good friend Brenton Gieser about relationships, startups, and his experience with building a digital marketing agency.

The first video dives into detail about our relationships as entrepreneurs.  I feel Brenton is unique in his relationship in that his girlfriend is deeply involved with his startup and acts as his driver and motivator.  They often work together at coffee shops and support each other in every way.

The second video is about Brenton’s experience with building a digital marketing agency.  A lot of the advice centers around the fact that Brenton was able to leverage his previous agency experience to build Convospark.

Hope you guys enjoy the videos!  Below you will find summarized recaps of our talking points:

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3 years ago, I left my corporate job to pursue Future Delivery full time with Yu-kai, Stephen, and Joseph.  Back then, we had no understanding of how to run a company, how to finish a product that people would pay for, or how to sell our product.  The result: two failed startups.

A year ago I was given the opportunity to build a digital marketing agency.  In one year, my agency team and I grew it to a $1.2 million company and I was making as much money as my investment banker friends.

A sophomore in college once told me:

“Jun, if you had made it as an Investment Banker, you would never have become an entrepreneur.  The money is all that matters.”

I used to doubt myself.  What if I had become an investment banker?  Would I still blog or be an entrepreneur?  Or would I settle down with my nice salary and live a long, comfortable life?

You can’t possibly know who you are until you’re put into the situation.  3 years out of college, I was given the choice:

Follow the money: Stay with the agency and make a high 6-figure salary by the end of this year
or
Follow my heart: Leave the agency and work side-by-side with my startup team on Viralogy

I now know who I am.  And I’m so very happy to be the person that I’ve always wanted to be.

I left my agency last week - all the money in the world can’t hold me back from following my heart.

There is only one goal on my mind right now: To have a successful exit with my startup and to do it with my team

And you know what, we’re closer to reaching this goal than ever before.  We’re so close that we can taste it, and it tastes so good:

1. We have successfully launched our product
2. We have validated that our product works and increased revenue for our clients by up to 15%
3. We have paying customers
4. We currently building more and better features for our product

For those of you who are curious about what my company does, this video will tell you in detail:

The team is ready to receive an angel round of funding that will allow us to increase inbound leads, scale our infrastructure, and increase our product features. If you or someone you know has money to invest, the following sections detail the pain we solve, the market opportunity, the business model, the milestones we’ve hit, and what we plan to do with your invested dollars:

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This is an Entrepreneur Spotlight guest post from Maren Donovan from Escaping the 9 to 5

I’ve been on an entrepreneurial path since the age of 19, and its felt like I’ve been fighting an uphill battle for the majority of the time.  People around me don’t understand why I’d rather work for 10 hours straight than go hang out with everyone at the river and enjoy a beautiful day outside.  I tell them it’s because I’m battle born, which usually brings odd looks, but being battle born isn’t a bad thing and if you understand it it’ll change the way you do business forever.

Nevada, the place I currently reside, is nicknamed the “Battle Born State” after their induction into the Union during the Civil War. Similarly, the battle born entrepreneur is launched into struggles and challenges before they’re necessarily ready.  It’s because of these hardships that the entrepreneur learns the value of patience, diligence, and persistence, attributes that you’d never find if your path in life was laid out for you nicely with a little map.

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Does a startup succeed for the same reasons that a relationship succeeds?

Does your ability to build a successful startup translate over to an ability to maintain a healthy relationship (or vice versa)?

I asked the community a question:

“What is more difficult to achieve: A successful relationship or a successful startup?”

I was surprised with the feedback that I received…
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We have made more progress in the past 3 weeks than in any other point in time in our startup lives.  We’re closing deals, setting up investor pitches, and finishing the product.

I should be ecstatic right now;  I should be on a total high because we’re so close to hitting a milestone that we’ve never hit before: a finished product that is bringing in revenue for the company.

And yet, I’m not fully enjoying myself.

I’ve talked about this before, as for a time I felt like I couldn’t pursue what I loved to do.  But I can tell you honestly and whole-heartedly right now that I am loving my career choice.

So what is it?  What’s causing the empty feeling…

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I’ve never had a mentor.  Sure there are influential people that give me good and bad advice, but there has never been a go to person that I can turn to in my time of need.

I personally view a mentor as someone older and more experienced who takes the time to personally give guidance, advice, and takes an emotional investment in your success.  A mentor is someone who follows up with you with an email or phone call to ask how your venture went, or who is able to meet up with you once a month to offer advice via coffee.

I’ve never had that.

Maybe its my fault.  Maybe I just come off as an arrogant 20-something that thinks he knows everything and doesn’t need the advice of someone older.
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Let me start off by saying that I truly appreciate every email that I get from my readers.  I may not be able to get back to you right away, but if you put time and effort into connecting with me and asking a very good question, then I will put an equal amount of effort in my response.  Hence, the person who emailed me last week gets a blog post and video response because of his sincere email and enthusiasm to connect.

If you have any questions about entrepreneurship, relationships, or business, please shoot me an email at me [at] JunLoayza.com and I promise to respond to you with an awesome, well thought out answer.

View the video above to see my video response.  Click on “Read More” below to view my text response.

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