Alan Wizemann
Social Commerce Thought Leader, Internet Technologist, Innovator and Entrepreneur

Building An Enterprise Software Company That Doesn’t Suck

An awesome breakdown of the new enterprise software companies being built now. I like to think ShopIgniter is one of these, as we not only follow some of these very articulate points but have proven them to work in the start-up atmosphere. Continue reading “Building An Enterprise Software Company That Doesn’t Suck” »

Just how many small business are out there?

I thought this was pretty interesting, although from 2007 (would love to see the final 2010 numbers when they are released) it offers a glimpse at the small, medium and enterprise scale businesses operating in the United States. This is pretty useful when you are trying to look at total available  markets (TAM) or other indicators around businesses, employee counts, etc. Continue reading “Just how many small business are out there?” »

Gold Rush

So I couldn’t sleep and turned on the television only to immediately fall, totally engrossed in the closest representation of starting a company that I ever have seen on television: Gold Rush, Alaska.

If you haven’t see it, I can sum it up pretty simply. 6 guys, hit hard by the economic catastrophe sell everything they own to gold mine in Alaska. They have three months before they are totally broke, they don’t know everything they need to know to mine, they are drastically under staffed, and it’s their only chance to survive not only in the wilderness but also in society.
Remove the Alaska and the gold mine and you can pretty much get a sense of starting your own company. Many founders that I met over the years including my own co-founder know exactly what I am talking about and can relate to this show. You fight over seemingly insurmountable issues to build a company, you work 21 hours a day, you burn down all your savings on a chance that you will make it. That chance is what drives most, the success of taking that chance drives fewer, the entire process drives me.

An interview, a job, a possibility…

Having done about 30 interviews in the last few months I can honestly say I still like doing them. There is so much at stake, on both sides of the table, that is up in the air. A company could hire the wrong person and lose time and resources. An employee could not like the job and cost the company and themselves time and money. The possibilities though could be amazing as many people that are hired in a start up stay for the long haul and are deeply imperative to its success. I know I am pretty picky when selecting the people I want to work with, but finding the right ones is the most important to the future of the company and a responsibility to everyone that is already with the company… just a thought I wanted to get out.

Taking time… well, a few minutes

In the past three weeks I have had over 60 meetings, been on 4 different flights and spoke in front of several large audiences (10 people – 100 people). Needless to say I am a little tired. Today is a day I really look forward to because it is our Board Meeting for ShopIgniter. I feel very fortunate to be able to talk to and get advice from the likes of Tom Alberg, Dave Hersh and our fearless CEO Matt Compton. I made every effort today to sleep in, not go to the gym and center myself before the meeting. I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation, but for me right now in this stage of growth for my company it will be all I can muster before next year.

My presentation at the Under the Radar conference. It wasn’t the smoothest presentation I have ever done (had to use the laptop to switch slides) but I got the message across.