Friday, February 18, 2011

The makings of an overnight success

Almost a year ago to the day, I mentioned on my blog that I would be hosting a Pitch Deck Study Hall.  My offer was for people to send me their Pitch Decks, and I would try to provide some feedback.  Many entrepreneurs took me up on the offer, including NYC's Mike LaValle

Mike, bless his heart, sent me one ugly deck, whose cover I'll post here.  (Don't worry - he's given me the okay to post about him!)


His deck inspired a follow up post of mine, where I instructed entrepreneurs that their pitch decks should strive to be like a perfect date:  they need to have a great personality, and be good looking. 

Despite Mike's less than overwhelming powerpoint skills (wink) there was some great content there and Mike and I started to check in with each other every few months.  Each and every time I caught up with Mike, the progress he was making at Gojee exceeded my increasingly high expectations.  First it was the technical team he recruited when so many entrepreneurs in NYC struggle to recruit one developer, let alone a team.  Then it was closing a large supermarket chain.  Then it was recruiting the uber talented "interface slayer" KC and designer Adam Meisel.  Each time we spoke, I asked how Mike did it all, hoping to learn some new trick, but it always came down to plain ole' hustle and hard work.

When I check out Gojee now, it's awesome to see how far the company has come from that first pitch deck.  So often in my job, I have the privilege of working with entrepreneurs as their business start to hit an inflection curve and take off.  From where I sit, very often these companies look like they are overnight successes.  But the truth is that behind every overnight success is an entrepreneur like Mike who has been working his/her butt off for several months before it finally starts to work.

The other day, Mike sent me an email mentioning yet another impressive milestone.  I won't steal Mike's thunder here but suffice to say, I have a good feeling that Gojee will one day be an overnight success as well.  It's been pretty inspiring to watch.

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