Startup Corner: Jeremy Bartley, ThinkDigital

Minimally viable product …
ThinkDigital is a venture-building firm co-founded with Josh Willis. We help other people take an idea and form it into their own minimally viable product, all the while taking it straight to market for stake in the company. The flip side of that is because we have all the entrepreneurial skill sets necessary to take an idea from conception to market, we can take any business and provide professional services for no stake at all.

Hurdles overcome …
A big hurdle that we face every day is turning down the really good ideas for only the very best ideas, because we have to weigh the amount of investment ventures balanced with the amount of service work we can take on to offset the cost. We’ve been adding employees to keep up with the growth and take care of the demand, but we’ve also had to be very selective with what service work we take on.

Biggest mistake …
In our early stages, we got so wrapped up in the projects that we forgot to go out to the world where the people are and sell and market ourselves. That caused some slight cash-flow crunches, especially when 90 percent of our business is from word of mouth.

Next phase …
We have a stake in seven companies and expect that number to grow to 10 by then end of the year. The goal is to increase that to 15-20 ventures by the end of next year and to double our staff.

Problem solving …
There are people who know how to build businesses and have great ideas, but they don’t have the time to take on another venture, and there are also those who have great ideas but lack the entrepreneurial experience to build their idea and scale it. There are also businesses that need outside entrepreneurial perspective to create innovation. They may see the potential of these solutions made into a separate company and then sold to their competitors as another source of revenue. With a stake in some companies, we are tied to the success or failure of the business so we are pressed to make the venture succeed.

Pivot …
Venture building is a continually pivoting process. We are always firing the rocket and changing it midair, making sure its destination is where we intend it to go. Learning from mistakes, changing and being agile is what it takes.

Worst advice …
To focus only on one venture. We were told once in the beginning stages to place all of our eggs in one basket and completely invest in this one company. Had we taken that advice, it would have caused us to lose absolutely everything.