Dr. Jeff Cornwall talks about the importance of patience in startups.
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Hello again letter getters. If you have a startup in Nashville, you can add it below. Startups will appear on Southern/alpha and may also be featured in a future LaunchLetter.
Barn Sweetman,
Cofounder of Tithe.ly
Barn Sweetman is an entrepreneur in Nashville who is building a business and raising capital in the Southeast. His company, Tithe.ly, just raised a $15.2M Series F round at a $129M valuation. Tithe.ly, cofounded by his father Dean Sweetman, has over 10,000 churches/organizations as customers. After about five years of building, they are starting to see exponential growth. According to him, the type of fun that comes with real traction is just beginning, and it's a long road to get there. Meet your five minute mentor, Barn Sweetman.
BS: A mobile school where you could travel but have your kids in school at the same time. Not homeschool though, as I'd want my kids interacting with other humans when learning.
BS: Customer acquisition and the size of client to target when getting going. For example, some companies target their largest potential clients first and then move down. Experience has taught me to build with smaller clients first and then move up.
BS: Keep a bite sized TODO list and crush through it religiously.
BS: The whole "hire slow / fire fast" methodology and that you're supposed to hire the best talent for your startup. Doing business has allowed me to build wealth, but I've always been really passionate about creating amazing jobs for people. I love taking people on a journey. It's probably the reason our turnover is insanely low. We've had one person leave Tithe.ly willingly and we've been trying to get her back ever since :)
BS: Building anything of value takes SO MUCH time. I don't think most people realize that when they are starting. Most people don't expect not to take a salary from their own company for the first three years. Also, people tend to get bored of their thing and get the itch to want to start over or move to something else. If it's growing, keep working at it, even if you don't love it because once you get enough momentum, and you can pay yourself more, and you build an amazing team, it doesn't matter what you're building anymore, it gets way more fun and worth it.
"People tend to get bored..." this line really speaks to me, and probably most entrepreneurs. There's a point when you've pitched your idea to death or you've run out of ways to explain to your family what you do for a living. Your friends are tired of listening to you talk about it. Once some of the 'newness' wears off, then what? Well, then it's years of trying and most likely failing, or maybe doing okay, or maybe even humming along just fine. No matter the situation, one of the hardest parts of building a company lives in the mundane everyday goals that founders have to think about to make incremental progress.
Barn Sweetman is the Cofounder of Tithe.ly. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram.
Recent Achievements:
Barn has a friend who approached him about two years ago wanting to learn to code. Barn taught him a bit, but then introduced him to Tithe.ly's Lead Engineer who mentored him for almost a year. Tithe.ly hired him two months ago.
We partnered with Otterbase to bring you high demand/quality jobs in Nashville. All of the following 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
Nashville-based Havenlock will be featured on SharkTank on April 7th. The company just announced a significant partnership with Terminix.
Medical City! Phillips Global Business Services, a medical device-maker, recently made 93 local hires at their new office in downtown Nashville. The company is planning to add around 5,700 total jobs from 2018 to 2025.
Secret rocket company? A representative from Atwater Infrastructure wants to turn 13 acres of undeveloped land that borders TSU's campus into a roughly 140,000-square-foot facility and lease it to an undisclosed aerospace company.
All these jobs have people renting, not buying homes. With home values climbing, potential buyers are now renters by choice, which is starting to affect the regional housing market.
Not a honky-tonk big enough for the NFL Draft Nashville is expected to make a lot of money from the event, but Nashvillians are pretty mad that the NFL and the city made an agreement to remove 21 cherry trees from the river walk to make way for a temporary stage.
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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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