Sean Henry, President and CEO of the Nashville Predators is your five minute mentor today.
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👋 Hey letter getters, I couldn't find a place where founders in Nashville share their startups or projects, and I also couldn't find a reliable place to find startup jobs outside of engineering. So I made a Slack group for founders, investors and community members. It's new and you should join!
Cofounder of EVAmore,
Makenzie Stokel
In our third issue of LaunchLetter, we covered EVAmore cofounder Channing Moreland, who mentioned in her unpopular opinion to consider waiting to raise capital until you are a few steps further than you think you need to be. Today, cofounder Makenzie Stokel continues sharing the story of how EVAmore is scaling in Music City, home to many artists the company's booking platform serves. Meet your five minute mentor, Makenzie Stokel.
Is waiting a while to raise capital a good idea?
It really depends on your business, and since neither I nor Channing or Makenzie know your business, maybe this article from Inc. can help. If you are raising capital for your startup, consider this Medium article about all the things to know about raising capital as a first time founder. If you want to see funding from the VC perspective, I'd recommend Mark Suster's Both Sides of the Table blog as a good place to start. Here's his take on changes in VC from earlier this year.
MS: Scaling at the right speed. We are a marketplace so we have two sides. Artists and event planners. We have to grow them out equally so one side isn't waiting around for the other.
MS: Management. Managing people's expectations, managing employees, and managing my day. It's a lot! Everyone is different and has to learn what works for them and their team.
MS: Slow down. Take a second, every day to just stop what I'm doing and be quiet. Often I feel like I'm racing to complete a task only to start on a new one and I may not be spending my time on the right things. Prioritizing and slowing down help.
MS: Pivoting is necessary. If you refuse to pivot you will inevitably fail because you aren't following the market needs. You can't be too stuck to your idea.
MS: Willingness to fail. I think there's a stigma with the term failure that scares people. Failing is what makes people learn how to do it better the next time.
Makenzie Stokel is the Cofounder of EVAMore. You can find her at @evamoreco and @kenzie_stokes.
Recent Achievements:
EVAMore just hired their first employee.
We are partnerning with Otterbase to bring you high demand/quality jobs in Nashville. Unless otherwise noted, jobs have a salary of over 100K.
Think you are great for one of these roles? Send Hunter from Otterbase an email at hmitchem@otterbase.com.
C#/ .NET Framework Job in Nashville TN
Well-funded startup backed by a Silicon Valley VC
Nashville award winner for Startup of the Year
Heading to becoming cash positive within the first year of being funded
Full Posting: https://southernalpha.com/?p=730
Senior Software Engineer
This position supports new and existing software and system development of clinical, financial, and analytic-based solutions designed to support innovate healthcare delivery models.
Full Posting: https://southernalpha.com/?p=734
Metro Council approved Amazon's incentives package on Tuesday. Per the Tennessean: "Metro will pay $500-per-job incentive — up to $2.5 million every year — for seven years. While there previously was no cap to the number of jobs the city could grant incentives, the council voted Tuesday to limit them to 5,000." The cap means that Amazon will need to address Metro Council to approve incentives for any jobs beyond these.
Are the Amazon job salaries all really $150,000? Unlikely. When Amazon announced the Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville, they promised “an average wage of over $150,000.” In this resolution, Amazon confirmed 3,000 jobs projected in Business and Financial Operations, 1,500 in Computing and Mathematical Operations, 400 in Office and Administrative Support, 50 Management Occupations, 25 for Legal, and 25 for Other (Tech support, Network Specialists). 40% of total jobs will be for residents of Davidson County.
However, some are pointing out that Amazon was also vague about salaries and salary ranges in the resolution, opting for their own language. They posted Davidson County’s median annual wage for each category of job, and promised their jobs of the same category would be higher. Consider that Amazon may be planning for growth. Critics say though that it still doesn't add up to what Amazon originally promised. CityLab has a good overview for further reading. Maybe now is also a good time for all of us to review Mean, Median and Mode.
Change Healthcare will raise $100 million (or more) in preparation for an IPO, according to an S-1 registration statement. Read more in this overview by Seeking Alpha.
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LaunchLetter is a weekday newsletter from Southern/alpha, a website that features collections of stories and resources for underestimated startup communities.
LaunchLetter is for founders getting started on an idea or business. Our goal is to share the perspective, habits and positive messages of more experienced founders and CEOs. We hope you find it relatable and delightful as you get focused for the day on your own goals. Enjoy the ride.
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