Entrepreneur's Startups Fall 2017

Josh Goodman was on “a problem-solving quest.” Pushing 30, he had lost his enthusiasm for his career in IT staffing and was looking for business ideas. One night, he met some friends at a crowded bar in Baltimore but couldn’t get a beer. It happened again the next time they went out. And again. Goodman thought, There’s got to be a better way to get a drink. He envisioned a simple solution: a self-serve beer tap system, where customers could fill up a debit card, pour their own drinks, and be charged by the ounce. Like an ATM, but for beer. This was 2007. “I thought I’d be sipping mojitos on an island in the Caribbean by 2013 or ’14,” he says. And the entrepreneurial gods laughed and laughed. What followed…

ESTABLISH A ROUTINE “I have a set routine I never break: Get up, walk to a coffee shop, have an espresso. It gets my brain ready to prepare for everything I am doing that day. When I’m home, I take my son, and when I’m traveling, I get to explore a new place.” —Shane Patrick Quinlan, CEO, compliance management software company Convercent “At 6 a.m., five days a week, I ride for an hour on a stationary trainer. The meditative state I achieve while working out always sparks new ideas, so I’ve started capturing those thoughts after my rides, either with Siri notes or old-fashioned pen and paper.” —Neil Grimmer, founder and CEO, personalized nutrition brand Habit “The Keurig is set to go on at 5:30. I like to have my coffee and…

A FEW YEARS AGO, I began laying out my week on a spreadsheet—all 168 hours of it—to see how I allocate my time. It’s an eye-opening exercise. About 30 percent is sleep, and 30 percent is work. Then family and friends get 25 percent, and the rest is learning and general maintenance. I also realized I wasn’t always making the most of those hours; I was squandering time, which is the one thing I can’t get more of. For example, I have three young children—but getting home to put them to bed at 8 p.m. wasn’t quality time. I’d rather be around from 3 to 8 p.m. And sometimes I was so busy working on my own projects that I had no time to relax. So I came up with an…

THINK AHEAD. “If I’m traveling through time zones, I prep my body by taking on that eating schedule 24 hours before I get there. I don’t have time to feel jet-lagged.” SETTLE IN. “Great wi-fi is key—I’ve even brought my Eeros with me on trips where I’m staying in Airbnbs. If I’m in a hotel, I make sure there’s a decent gym and a great café nearby. Having a small routine on the road helps it feel less foreign.” HYDRATE. “I stay awake on international flights and pound water so I’m adjusted when I land. It’s a hard reset. My colleagues hate it because I get a ton of emailing done without distractions.”…

INBOX INFINITY The day I realized my email was not my to-do list but just other people’s to-do list for me, I had this incredible realization: Constantly managing an inbox is like doing someone else’s homework! The minute I stopped running my day based on my email, I immediately became more effective. And it’s not about ignoring messages; being responsive is really important, and it’s indicative of your work ethic. Of course, there’s a line between knowing your priorities and being responsive. I start every day with a list of the three to five critical things I need to do and slot them into my calendar. When I feel like I’m on track to achieve them, I’ll check my email. I delete anything I know is marketing and then look for…

You want numbers? Peter Dering has numbers. Peak Design, the camera accessories company he bootstrapped in 2011 with $25,000 from savings, has now raised more than $14 million. It has generated 90 to 100 percent growth for five years straight. But here’s the most exciting number: Dering still owns 100 percent of the company. “The traditional model is to give away equity before anything about the business is determined,” he says. “I didn’t consider that.” Instead, Peak Design grew via crowdfunding. A Kickstarter presale campaign for each of its six product launches secured a healthy cash injection at every pivotal moment and helped build a rabid fan base. Its most recent campaign raised $6.7 million. It’s not that VCs are a bad option. But, many entrepreneurs say, equity investors are better suited…