President Strauss opens the conference
News & Events
2004 HMC Entrepreneurial Conference Highlights
Saturday, January 10, 2004
During the conference seasoned and budding entrepreneurs heard about legal issues facing entrepreneurs, managing technology teams, digital theft, and the latest from the venture capitalist community. Attendees also had the opportunity to hear pitches from four Mudd-related companies and give their much-appreciated feedback.
One of the highlights of the day was President Jon Strauss presenting Rick Sontag '64 with the 2nd Harvey Mudd College Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Rick purchased Unison Industries and grew the company from 65 employees to nearly 1,500 to become the market leader in aviation engine components. In April 2002, he sold the company to General Electric. Currently he is the President of The Spring Bay Companies, a venture capital company located in Florida.
During his presentation Rick summarized 25 years of learning about entrepreneurship and business into a 25-minute talk. The full presentation is available byclicking here; the condensed version is:
Create a concise, thoughtful business plan. In business, clarity and brevity always trump volume.
Presentations to potential funders: don't regurgitate your business plan; distill your main ideas into short, digestible bullets. You only have a short time in which to get your point across in a presentation. Never pass out written materials for your audience to read while you speak; prepare a take home package to give them at the end.
Learn the basics of business finance. Financial statements are the language of business, so take a course in accounting or at a minimum, read a primer on the subject.
Rehearse your presentation over and over before giving it to potential venture capitalists and make sure you can convey your concept in simple terms and then be able to follow up that presentation with cogent answers to tough questions.
The most important factor for success, outside of having a good product or service, is the caliber of the management of the company.
Pick your senior people carefully. Intelligence, motivation, good judgment, interpersonal skills and a dose of humility are the personal qualities I look for in my management team.
Be very cautious about entering into business with close friends and relatives. Have a written agreement that outlines what will happen if things don't go well.
Random bad luck. It can come quickly and stay for a long time. Be prepared for it. If you are not prepared for this kind of thing, you probably should stick with taking a safe job in a stable company somewhere.
You make good luck for ysourself through persistence. If you keep at it you make your own good luck, and in the process your character is strengthened by your failures.
In the end analysis the story of almost every successful entrepreneur is a story about good judgment combined with an ample dose of good luck.
In closing, Rick cautioned all entrepreneurs “to keep their priorities straight. Struggling and succeeding as an entrepreneur is a wonderful experience, but it won't necessarily be the most important thing you do in life. More likely than not, that honor will go to something you do for which you receive little or no praise. So, keep your priorities straight as you launch forward.”