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I'm Brian Helmick, class of 2005,
founder of Algentis which is an HR technology platform.
Particularly focused on early stage companies.
And I've been blessed to say that six months ago, we sold the company.
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I think for me, and this is my humble opinion,
is that luck plays actually a huge role in the entrepreneurial process.
I think a lot of people like to be somewhat guarded around ideas or
strategies or even talking about things being in stealth.
My approach is the complete opposite.
I was very much of, I'll tell everybody and their grandmother what is going on.
So my philosophy is I can't control luck but I can fan the flames of luck.
So there's so many situations where I look back and I said, if I hadn't had that
conversation with that one random person that ended up three or four steps later,
kind of leading to an introduction, a strategic partnership.
So I'm big fan of fanning the flames of luck.
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I think there are plenty of skills that are really helpful.
But if I had to pick traits that are helpful to be
an entrepreneur, I'd say it's definitely grit.
So that perseverance, that willingness to stop at nothing to get something done.
I'd say it's humility, because I think with humility you tend to be more open.
You tend to be more flexible.
You'll listen because you need to adapt many times.
And maybe empathy.
Empathy I think is, at least in my humble opinion has been really helpful
because when you have empathy, you can put yourself in other people's shoes.
Whether that's a customer, whether it's that employee that you're trying to hire.
Whether that's an investor that he needs to write a big check.
So I'd say it's those three traits that I think, at least have helped me.
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I think in the world of starting companies,
you often have a prior relationship with people that you bring into the company.
There's one case which, he was a classmate of mine who joined probably three or
so years after we started the company.
And he's a close personal friend,
to the point were his first child is my goddaughter.
So, incredibly close.
And as we were talking about joining together from a professional perspective,
there's some serious kinda personal discussions there.
I had not only with him, but also with his wife.
His wife even said, Brian, we're friends first.
I said, absolutely.
He said, but you're also the godfather of Savannah.
And I said absolutely.
And I said, let's figure out some ground rules to have, some really open
communication to make sure that we have alignment of vision, alignment of goals.
And we also spend a lot time talking about,
how are we gonna deal when things don't work out?
How are we gonna deal when things, when we're upset with each other,
to make sure it doesn't kinda creep over on the personal side.
And I had to say, it's been it's not always easy.
And it requires a tremendous amount of trust and open dialogue, but I feel very,
very blessed to say that my relationship with Michael Keck, who's a good classmate
of mine and personal friend has actually, if anything, grown stronger.
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The reality is that when you a think of HR, whether it's related to hiring people,
whether it's related to establishing the culture of the company.
It really is gonna come from the founders and management team,
whatever their personalities have, in terms of traits,
that's going to bleed into the entire culture of the company.
So if the founders are people that rise really early and
are in the office by 5:00AM, that's setting the tone for other employees.
So recognizing that and
saying all right, what is the type of organization that I'm trying to build.
And how are my traits going to be helpful to that and, in some cases however,
are my traits going to be kind of counterproductive to that?
So being thoughtful about that, in the long run has been helpful.
But also empowering people.
I spend many times telling people, this is your company.
This is, you are gonna spend the majority of your waking hours here.
So, tell me, how do you want this?
So, creating a culture for,
at least it was really important in our case, a very open dialogue,
open feed back, to make sure that everybody always felt comfortable.
I'll give you a simple example.
When we first started the company, we had little water cooler with cups.
And I jumped on Costco, ordered the cheapest cups I could find and
they're a bunch of these red Solo cups.
And one of our employees said, hey I know you said you want open feedback but
these red Solo cups look like it's a frat party in here.
Even though there's no beer in the cups, it's all a bunch of water.
I'm like that's a really good point.
Guess what, I said take care of it.
Next order, there were clear cups.
So those are the type of examples that you can do very early on, but you gotta,
if you're gonna say it, then you gotta live by it as well.
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If I had to simplify things, I'd say it falls into three categories.
It's time, people, and money.
>From a time perspective, time is the most valuable resource an entrepreneur has.
Where you spend your time, how you prioritize actions,
how you look at your week and you say, all right, here are the six things that I have
to get done this week, now which three am I not gonna get done?
Because there's going to be surprises along the way.
On the people side, it's who you choose as a co-founder.
It's who you hire.
It's how you hire, manage, and fire people to build that rockstar team.
And the last thing is money.
You need to have enough capital, but not too much capital.
You need to have capital from the right people.
You need to constantly balance.
The ratio of fundraising versus operating, and that can be a delicate balance.
Cuz I think it's one of those things where
there's gonna be no shortage of challenges.
In fact, one of the best pieces of advice that I received was,
if you're not ready to be uncomfortable, you're not ready to be an entrepreneur.
So it shouldn't be a question of if there's going to be challenges,
it's just a question of what challenges are gonna show up this week.
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