The University of Montana’s Entrepreneur Club Hosts Three of Missoula’s Best and Most Successful Entrepreneurs

Have you ever hung up on a caller three times before figuring out it’s a company that wants to buy your company?

How about measuring the linear footage of books at Barnes and Noble to figure out the focus of your new startup?

Ever considered the real problems you’re opening your company to by getting a patent?

How about the Missoula company with no debt, no investors and only 5 employees making millions with an 85+% profit margin that is now part of Dell?

These and many other very interesting topics were discussed on Thursday afternoon by three of Missoula’s most innovative and intelligent entrepreneurs at the University of Montana Entrepreneurs Club meeting. Steve Saroff, Glenn Kreisel of RemoteScan http://www.remote-scan.com/ and Michael Fitzgerald of Submittable http://www.submittable.com/ offered their hard won experience in developing their companies and contributing to a more entrepreneurial Missoula.

Steve and Glenn had been partners for many years with several successful startups under their belt when one night, Glenn got frustrated with his inability to easily manage his scanner from his computer. For years the duo had collaborated by each successive form of communication from their respective bedroom offices. He let Steve know how frustrated he was. The next morning, Steve found a message from Glenn telling him to install an attached bit of code. Steve did and his screen slowly revealed a picture of Glenn. "What the heck is this?" asked Steve. "You just ordered my scanner to scan my picture from your computer."

Remote Scan was born. Glenn supplied the expert technology and Steve did the marketing including the name which is another great story. Steve and Glenn regaled the UM students and business owners with other great life lessons about partnerships, patents, marketing vs. advertising, creative pricing and that little bit about hanging up repeatedly on the company that would eventually buy Remote Scan. Dell Comes to Missoula, Montana http://www.matr.net/article-50930.html.

Among other things, Glenn and Steve now have Jaded and Cynical as a way to invest in new new ideas. If you think you can do everything and have a burning passion … and think half an orange at 3 in the afternoon is an adequate lunch, get in touch with them. http://www.cynicalandjaded.com/

Along the way, they were approached by a fellow who was struggling, to say the least, but who also had a dream. Michael Fitzgerald applied to work at Remote Scan and Glenn and Steve were interested because he could do everything. He could code, build a website and knew marketing and sales. He was the ideal candidate that they had been looking for but… he only wanted to work part time because he "had this other thing on the side".

He left dejected not knowing how he was going to pay his mortgage and raise his two kids. He was almost broke but he had impressed the partners enough that they began the process of getting to know him better. Little did he know that they had already decided to invest in his "thing on the side" because of its brilliance and his capabilities. You’ll have to guess what great stories we heard about how that relationship was built. It reached its "ah ha!" moment when Steve invited Michael to take a trip with him to Barnes and Noble in Missoula. You can imagine Michael’s confusion and concern if you know Steve. He always has more great ideas at any one time than a handful of people can easily handle.

They eventually started walking through the store with Steve telling Michael to take his tape measure and start listing the linear feet of shelves for each subject. Cooking, Yoga, Hobbies and several others were high on the list with many feet for each. Surprisingly, they weren’t the biggest though. Publishing came out on top.

The Internet had revolutionized how people got published. Submittable was a way for authors to submit their articles to publishers but with the advent of email, they were being inundated by tons of submissions that were less costly to submit than the historic method of the U. S. Mail. Michael took Steve’s advice and changed the focus to publishers to help them manage the submissions and the rest is history. An invite to join Y-Combinator http://ycombinator.com/ in Palo Alto, Ca was a highlight of a meteoric rise.

Startup getting Silicon assist: Missoula-based Submittable invited to prestigious tech incubator in Calif. http://www.matr.net/article-50909.html

Submittable, used by NPR, MIT, Good Magazine, and thousands of others is the most widely used submission platform in the world.

This was the kind of interaction between students and entrepreneurs that is the keystone of a successful entrepreneurial community. Missoula should be proud that there are many more conversations like this happening every day throughout Missoula. Our entrepreneurial activity quotient has never been so high nor have we ever seen so many companies with so much potential. This creative and collaborative environment is drawing more who want to build the next new new thing and see the success the Michael, Glenn and Steve have attained.

If you’re a student, entrepreneur, wanna-be entrepreneur, business owner or professional, I strongly encourage you to attend the next UM Entrepreneurship Club meeting. It’s a wonderful way to learn about how to do it better and meet Montana’s future leaders.

Next meeting – Dec. 4 with Alex Philp, founder of
GCS-Research and TerraEchos TerraEchos , and Joe Fanguy,

Contact:

Ivy Dong

UM Entrepreneurship Club President

PharmD/MBA candidate

[email protected]

602-349-8357

There are other upcoming events where your participation and and attendance is encouraged:

Startup Weekend Is Coming To Missoula Montana! Jan. 18-19, 2013 http://www.matr.net/news.phtml?cat_id=159&catlabel=Startup+Missoula

Ignite Missoula – 5 minutes-20 slides rotating every 15 seconds to talk about whatever you’d like. Exciting! (expected in late January or early February 2013) http://www.matr.net/news.phtml?showall=1&catlabel=Ignite+Missoula&cat_id=125

John Ruffatto Business Plan Competition http://www.business.umt.edu/DegreesPrograms/MADE/MADEprograms/bpc.aspx – Don’t have the exact dates in May 2013 yet but you should start developing your startup now! Open to all Montana college students. What great tech transfer opportunities are in the Montana University System research labs that you could commercialize?