W H AT I ’ V E L E A R N E D T H I S S E M E S T E R … A N D W H Y I T

M ATT E R S

S C OTT M A LM BER G

– M E

“It’s going to be so easy to meet people. Everyone will respond to me.”

T H I N G S I D ID N ’ T E X PE CT T O L E A R N …

• Just because I’m a student doesn’t automatically give me access to everyone.

• It’s really difficult to put charm in a limited number of characters on a LinkedIn invitation

• Unless you have an “in” with someone, it’s really hard to get their attention.

• DON’T CONTACT PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE BUSY

IS IT ME?

P E O P L E I WA S A B L E T O C O N N E C T W I T H

• Daren Connel

• Justin Luettgerodt

• Warren Osborn

DA R E N C O N N E L

• Founder/CEO of:

• Connel Capital Management

• Flight Deck Trampoline Park

• Communication Solutions

• CDC Enterprises, LLC

R E M E M B E R W H E N PAG E R S W E R E A T H I N G ? M E N E I T H E R.

• Started a retail store for pagers in a market that was extremely lacking.

• Contract with PageNet for inventory

• Transitioned to phones pretty slowly

• June 1997: bought a dealer of Southwestern Bell (AT&T)

• Currently has 15 stores in the Oklahoma market

C H A L L E N G E S ?

• Finding the right people (common theme across all people we’ve heard from this semester)

• Needed to identify people with solid sales skills, but didn’t have the time or money to pick and choose.

M A I N A DV I C E

• VISIBILITY IS KEY

• Signage

• City

• People need to see you

J U ST IN LU ETT GER ODT

• Founder/CEO of The Aclaime Group

F R O M C O L L E GE S I D E PR O J E C T T O M U LT I - D I S C I PL I NE D PR I VAT E E Q U I T Y F I R M• Four main segments

• Aclaime Dynamics (real estate acquisition and development)

• Obeo (real estate marketing)

• Aclaime Asset Management (investment adviser)

• White Glass Lending (asset backed loan service)

C H A L L E N G E S

• Finding the right people (again)

• Fighting for mentors

A DV I C E

• Don’t try to find the “off the shelf” answers; just go figure it out

• Don’t wait to start something

• You’re never going to have all the information

• Get to 51% and go for it

WA R R E N O S BO R N

• Serial entrepreneur (founded 11 companies)

• Founder/CEO of:

• Osborn Companies

• Stoneway Capital

• Luvaire

• BRAVEN

• Utah Angels

• Seastone (Give-A-Gift)

• SEASTONE Media Group

• The Seastone Foundation

• Pebble Design

• Osborn Video, Inc

• Osborn Soft Water

A RA N D O M M E E T I N G