12 People You Need to Know in 2015: Devin Dillon

Devin Dillon’s passion for entrepreneurism is spreading.

Co-organizer of 1 Million Cups Springfield, Dillon has helped lead the weekly event at The eFactory downtown to become one of the largest in the country based on average attendance, behind only Kansas City, where the Kauffman Foundation created the national program centered on connecting and educating entrepreneurs over conversation and coffee.

 “We spent some significant time planning it, and fortunately we teamed up with a lot of local companies, different institutions and entities and had a really big launch. It really took hold here,” Dillon says.

First launched Feb. 26, 1MC Springfield now averages about 100 guests per session, according to the Kauffman Foundation, during which entrepreneurs pitch their early stage, scaleable companies.

“The entrepreneurial community and/or startup community was very fragmented,” says Dillon, who also is founder and managing trustee of foreign currency trading firm DK Financial Group. “As an entrepreneur, there’s so many things that we need and have to have in order to continue building and growing our businesses, and we lean on each other. That community is priceless.”

Opening DK Financial five years ago, the private investment, firm has about a dozen clients with undisclosed assets.

“It’s going well. We stopped fundraising over a year ago, so now we just manage the book of business we currently have for a small amount of private investors and seek annual returns for them,” he says.

For 1MC, Dillon says it’s difficult to put a numerical value on the program’s effect for presenters. So, the organizers invite them back four months to a year later to give the community an idea how their business has changed. Dillon points to Springfield-based granola manufacturer Granolove LLC, The Original Cone Chips and telecommunications firm Sprocket LLC as program success stories.

“People are getting large investment dollars, partnerships are being made. People have even sold off divisions and companies, bought companies,” Dillon says. “That’s really how we measure success. It’s not necessarily on how many people are coming, but it’s the effect that we’re having on entrepreneurs who are involved.”

Dillon says he volunteers up to 15 hours per week along with organizers Sterling Huff and Chad Carleton to prepare for some 100 startups to present each year. 1MC held its last session of the year Dec. 17 at MSU’s eFactory, and the weekly event picks back up Jan. 7.  “We’re all there to support these businesses. There’s no event I’ve ever seen in my life that’s really like that,” he says.