While fear is inevitable in the life of an entrepreneur, it does not control me. Rather it is part of what motivates me. Fear actually goes hand-in-hand with confidence. I can be fearful, but I can also have the confidence things will work out.

I can jump out of plane without a parachute as long as I have some fabric, a needle, and thread — I’ll build the parachute on my way to the ground!

Of course, the moment before jumping, I am filled with fear. I balance that fear of jumping with the fear of staying on a plane where I may not control the destination or how it gets there. I’m at someone else’s mercy. So in essence I balance the fear of not being in control versus the fear of failure. An entrepreneur inevitably has a greater fear of the former than the latter.

But once I decide to jump from the plane, I have to get to work. There is no time for fear! I cannot let fear paralyze me. I only have a finite amount of time to build my parachute. Once I build it, I can see everything from where I am and I can control the direction I go and where I decide to land.

Much the same as my analogy, as an entrepreneur, one must decide to stay in a career, or risk it all and jump into a start-up. The moment right before the jump is the most fearful. The entrepreneur must be sure he or she has the bare minimum tools to succeed (the fabric, thread, and needle) but doesn’t need to have the solution to the problem (the parachute) because he has the confidence he can build it.

Like the freefall from a plane, there is a finite amount of time in a startup – usually the amount of time before money runs out or investors stop investing in the company. The time from the jump to the time the parachute is built is critical. You want to be sure you build the parachute while you still have enough altitude so you can still control your landing location. If you build the parachute too close to the ground, not only is your ability to go where you may want to go limited, but you may also build it too late and crash anyhow.

Obviously, this last part relates to the problem your company is trying to solve. You must create a solution while you still have time left to go sell it and go the direction you planned. Building the solution too close to the point where money runs out will result in failure.

Fear is what provides the adrenaline – the fuel for the entrepreneur to solve a problem that will allow the business to capitalize a market. It is something that should not be dreaded, but rather welcomed for without it, an entrepreneur is simply an employee in a career.

Despite being connected to the Boston area startup scene, I had only heard of an “incubator” a few times in my life. I met one Boston-area guy a while back that said his company was in an incubator and that it was really cool and he invited me down to “see the space.” I never followed up.

Glenn Butler, CTO

I had left a big company with a vision to start something new. I had a small nest egg and COBRA that could take my family through some “no income” times. I setup a consulting company to pay the bills and had about 5 different startup ideas. I worked them all, but the one I was most passionate about was exploring how digital signage and vending would converge. I knew that the vending experience was generally horrible for consumers, and I thought long and hard about exiting the industry all together, but I really believed it could be re-invented.

I met Paresh first on an industry standards committee that we both served on. At the time I thought it was kind of odd that he was a member because he was actually a vending operator, and everyone else was a supplier from the vending industry. Later, Paresh reached out to me to see if I was interested in helping with his “VendScreen” concept – and this is the funny part – I responded to his e-mail by saying that I was involved in a lot of things and there may be a conflict of interest, but I was interested in meeting anyway. He emailed me back with two sentences and after reading them I realized we were both working on the EXACT SAME THING – a touch screen smart device and a new vision for vending machines where the consumer experience would be so much better.

We agreed to meet and had a somewhat awkward conversation about what each of us was working on (at this point we were likely competitors). In the end, we agreed to meet in Portland to see if we had the synergy needed to succeed in a partnership.

The meeting went well. I could see the potential given both of our backgrounds. We clearly both brought a lot to the table. Also, and perhaps just as important, Paresh seemed very much like the kind of guy I could trust. So we reached a quick deal to combine our IP and work together on getting this thing to market ASAP.

So it started. I initially agreed to work part time on VendScreen and participate on the board, but I already had discussed informally joining another established company that offered a salary, equity, and health insurance – something that anyone with a young kids and stay-at-home wife can relate to.

Soon afterward, Paresh e-mailed me about the Portland Incubator Experiment and, after discussing it, we decided not to apply – we figured it was best to stay “under the radar” for now. Then Google joined as one of the mentor partners, and we figured since our device was using Android and VendScreen might support NFC and Google Wallet — it was worth a shot to apply.

The application caught us a bit off guard when it required us to include our Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook profiles – because we didn’t have any. My best response to the application on my Twitter account was: “N/A but want to learn.” It left me feeling a little old:) As most entrepreneurs, we were busy and didn’t expect much would come of this. But we knew Wieden and Kennedy worked with Coke and Google and our solution would be an ideal platform for both, and we wanted the connections to these brands.

We interviewed in person at the PIE in Portland. It was an incredible meeting for us because we had just picked up our initial prototype and functional device only hours before the meeting. When we got there, there were bikes, dogs, well used couches, and many people in the space – it was vibrant. Before we met with the folks at PIE, we tried to read all we could about the interview committee. Best we could tell – there was one guy with only one name and some tattoos, two guys from Wieden and Kennedy, and Rick, who was the co-founder. We did our best and showed off our brand new prototype device hoping it would work (it did).

I am not sure what our expectations were, but we waited for a reply. After a few notifications that the admission process was delayed, we were got the notice – we were in!

Below are some photos of the PIE DEMO DAY where we unveiled VendScreen to the world. Enjoy.

The PIE Guys

Paresh on stage

Paresh makes the case for VendScreen

Paresh and his Power Point

Last night at the TIE Oregon event where I was a panelist, I spoke briefly about how I believe in the butterfly effect (in which one small insignificant event can cause major consequences elsewhere). More specifically, for the first time ever, I shared how Cloudability, our sister company at PIE, set in motion events that actually led to our $12 million fund raising round.

Until last night, even they didn’t know how they had impacted us in such a big way.

Here’s the short story…

The morning of December 22, 2011, I’m sitting in my nook at home eating breakfast and reading the Oregonian. On the front page the business section, there is an article announcing Cloudability raised $1.1 million.

While happy for them, I was ticked! We were set to close on $1.0 million in our convertible note round by December 31 – just nine days away. I immediately snapped a picture of the article (actual picture attached here!) and sent it to Glenn via text. I said to him, “Clouadability announced $1.1MM. We need $200k more NOW.”

I figured if they raised $1.1MM, we couldn’t announce a $1.0MM raise, we would need $1.2MM.

That set me in motion. I immediately fired off a few emails asking for meetings with investors for that day! Luckily, I already had Rains Marketing (our marketing company) working on editing the slides into my practice pitch from the 12/16 W+K atrium event. We uploaded that to a private YouTube link and forwarded it onto a handful of selected investors.

Without going into details, by the end of the day we had the $200k.

But it didn’t stop there. Investors were so excited by the opportunity and that practice pitch, they wanted to invest more than what we were originally asking. We went from raising the additional $200k to $12MM total in 3 weeks. In fact, we received our Series A term sheet before our convertible note round had even closed!

It was an unbelievable three week period. But looking back, it started with that article in the paper and who knows how things would have played out for us had that article not set me in motion. So thank you Mat, J.R., and Jon, our classmates at PIE from Cloudability!

Paresh

Paresh Patel, Ph.D, MBA

Wow, what a month it has been! VendScreen went from a relatively unknown startup, to one that is now getting national press. It has been highly suggested by people we respect that Glenn (my co-founder) and I start blogging about our experiences and thoughts as they relate to our VendScreen, and the vending industry as a whole.

Now realize this: this is a huge stretch for me. While I might be able to present well on stage in front of an audience of 500, I am a highly private person. It is not in my nature to share personal thoughts and feelings! But at the same time, I recognize there are people out there who would like to learn from our experiences, and also gain some insight on an industry where I have spent my entire professional career.

Social media is a thing that is new to both Glenn and I. The first week at the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE), we received an email from Rick Turoczy (co-founder and general manager of PIE) asking all companies to send their Twitter and Facebook information to him so he can compile it.

I remember this moment vividly. Glenn and I were sitting across each other working on our computers when we both got the email at the same time. It was a Kodak moment. We look up at each other with almost deer-in-headlight eyes, and I say to Glenn, “Looks like we need to setup Twitter and Facebook accounts.”

Mind you, every other startup in PIE not only had all of their social profiles setup, but they also had been active in social media for quite some time! In the social space, we were like pre-schoolers in a college class.

Well, we have advanced considerably since that first week. I now have a Twitter account, and I’m even writing a blog! With this blog, Glenn and I intend to tell our startup story, to share our entrepreneurial insights, and to log the things we have learned and will learn along the way. We also intend to shed light on the vending industry and to share how VendScreen will help transition this industry into a new era. We’re glad you’re here. Thanks for joining us on this exciting journey.

Paresh Patel
Founder and CEO
@DrPareshPatel