When in your own entrepreneurial journey did you start contributing to a larger ecosystem?
For background, back in 2008, I did a three-month volunteer trip to Cape Town, South Africa, where I got my real exposure to working with nonprofits. I realized it gave me tremendous energy and wanted to figure out how to dedicate a career to applying passions I was discovering about myself — internet, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship.
So, I went back to business school and dedicated my entire time there to finding the intersection of those three passions.
Not easy.
No, it was very much against the grain for the average business school student going into investment banking, consulting, and big marketing. But it was refreshing to be able to take two years and to explore those intersections. Throughout that time, I was involved in many other entrepreneurial communities.
When I moved to Charleston in 2013, my natural tendency was to look for similar communities. I would say it was still early on in Charleston's growth as an entrepreneurial community, and what I was looking for didn't really exist. So, I went from looking to join an entrepreneur community to putting in the building blocks to start my own.
I discovered Startup Grind in my research and decided to create a Charleston Chapter that year.
What were you looking for that you felt wasn't available?
It's evolved over time. At first, I was just trying to surround myself with like-minded folks who were trying to build businesses and to learn from each other. Then, as leader of Startup Grind, there was this other energy of being able to lift up and support other entrepreneurs on their journeys.
We have a whole team of volunteers whose job is to introduce themselves, figure out what individuals are working on, and connect them with others and resources that might help with whatever problem they’re trying to solve. I think everyone throughout the culture of Startup Grind is very selfless in that they're looking to help others before themselves.
You probably get a lot of requests for help because you've put yourself in that public position.
Yeah, I get a lot of requests for help and to just help people understand the startup ecosystem in Charleston, so that they can figure out additional places they can be spending time.
They’re trying to either determine whether this entrepreneurial world is right for them, or to build that network of support on the entrepreneurial journey, which can often be very lonely at times.
What kinds of things are people confused about?
Often it is trying to understand the different players and entities that are here collectively working to build an entrepreneurial community. Startup Grind is just one part of a much larger ecosystem. So, a lot of where my conversations start is letting them understand the lay of the land, understanding what they're trying to accomplish, and pointing them in the right direction to take that first step.
What do you think is the biggest factor that has an impact on Charleston’s entrepreneurial community?
It’s people willing to dedicate their time and service to others. Before I started GoodUnited full-time, I often used Startup Grind as an opportunity to build my network and to get a sense of how I could accelerate my learning through others’ experience. People were very gracious with their time if you sent a very thoughtful email on why you were reaching out and what you wanted to learn.
Do you find it challenging to keep up community-focused efforts along with your other responsibilities as an individual and a business owner?
Yeah, absolutely. In addition to GoodUnited and Startup Grind, I have two daughters ages 3 and 6 and a wife, who require time and energy as well. It’s this constant balance of trying to give everyone my all in the moment while not doing everything half-ass.
For the first five years of Startup Grind, we did 10 to 12 events a year. I got to the point where I just couldn't balance that with growing and scaling GoodUnited. So, for two years, I brought in two directors to lead Startup Grind, while I moved to an advisory board position, coaching them.
What were the signs that you needed to step back?
It was just that the stress of planning the events added a level of anxiety to my life that I couldn't balance with two younger girls at the time. I get tremendous energy and love everything about the day of the Startup Grind events; all the planning and the coordination in between is not what gives me energy. So, having to go through that on a monthly basis was very difficult.
Not very sustainable. Even though I do have a good team surrounding me, I still take on a lot of the day-to-day work.
Did you feel guilty stepping back?
I didn't. I thought it was the right decision to have four very high-quality events that I knew I could throw my all at, compared to having 12 that might not be the same standard for which we've built and grown the organization over the years.
When both directors ended up moving out of Charleston during Covid, I thought long and hard about where I was and what I wanted to do.
I really missed being the director hosting those events. So, this year I transitioned it from monthly events to quarterly events. That feels like a much more sustainable pace in which I can give it my all four times a year, continuously growing GoodUnited, day in and day out, and be a good father and husband.
How have other people come to leadership in Startup Grind?
We've been very fortunate that the individuals that typically volunteer their time have the exact mindset that we're looking for that I had myself when I started this.
They’re here, they're hungry, they're looking to help in any way that they can. We're always looking to build our roster of people with the right mentality to continue to grow this over time.
What would've been helpful to know when you decided to build a community for other founders?
The most important factor in my experience is you can't fake it. You have to be really driven by the impact you’re making in order to dedicate the time and to get energy from it. It's a lot of work. There's a lot of stress. If you’re doing it for more superficial reasons, you're gonna burn out and you're not gonna be able to achieve what you had hoped.
So, I think the most important thing is to find what you are truly passionate about. And once you identify that, don’t worry about coming up with the perfect plan. Just figure out what that first step is, jump in and continue to build the plan as you go.