SM: At that point, who was helping you to get the company established? PG: Around that time I did start to create my technology advisory team. There is a saying that you can see further if you stand on the shoulders of giants.
SM: When did you actually get Rearden started? PG: I wrote the business plan at the end of 1999 and hired my first employee in March of 2000. One year later, to the day, Microsoft unveiled their version of this.
SM: How long did your efforts to revamp venture capital go on? PG: I did it for almost a decade. In 1988 I sat down with Burt and told him I was tired and despondent, which was completely against my nature. I was not helping my companies or doing anything I set out to do.
SM: Where did you gain traction? What types of investors were willing to support you? PG: I started working with other investment banks and high net worth private client groups. We started scaling up and investing in companies.
SM: Valuations seldom work out in favor of the entrepreneur. I have written extensively about this. PG: There is a book called “Venture Capital at the Crossroads” which documents a lot of these issues. The book has case studies which showed that the average entrepreneur wound up with 3% of their own company at the
Imagine the scenario of a senior executive on a business trip. Before the executive heads out to dinner a restaurant selection is in order. Enter Rearden Commerce and their virtual personal assistant. The executive simply opens the platform and receives restaurant recommendations. How? The platform already knows meal preferences, price ranges (per diem rate) which
In case you missed this morning’s Entrepreneurship As A Career roundtable, here’s the recording:
SM: What is going on in the market that justifies Enquisite coming into it today? MH: At the highest level, you have people switching off newspapers and magazines. Everyone is under a lot of pressure to deliver revenue. A lot of things are shifting to electronic commerce world and electronic advertising.