Jon: Big countdown.
Jay: Hi everyone, my name is Jay Aigner. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. Today, I am lucky enough and this is going to be a fun one. Uh, my friend Jon Mercer. Hello, buddy.
Jon: Hey, AJ. Oh,
man.
Jay: President. Uh, board member, co founder of Startup Bucks, which is, uh, an org that I love. Uh, I wrote the little tagline down here. It's an organization that pairs economic development and venture funding to support and grow innovative, scalable startup businesses.
How'd I do? Pretty
Jon: No, very good.
Jay: All right. I can do your advertising. Um, so, uh, I, I've been on Founder's30 a [00:01:00] bunch of times, we can get into that, but, um, you know, I didn't really realize you'd founded, you know, a few different things, and, you know, uh, you're down in the city, so you're definitely, like, living the Philly vibe.
Talk to me about where you grew up, um, and where you went to school, and then, um, you know, did that have an impact, kind of, on your entrepreneurial journey as you took off?
Jon: Yeah, it did. Um, yes, I grew up in Woodbridge, New Jersey, which is, uh, depends who you ask. If you're talking to people in Philly, it's North Jersey. If you're talking to people in Jersey, it's Central Jersey.
Jay: Mm hmm,
Jon: If you're talking to North Jersey people, it's definitely Central
Jay: mm hmm,
Jon: Um, yes, I grew up there. Born and raised.
Public school all the way through. Parents, both entrepreneurs. Um, mom from Jersey City, New Jersey. Dad from Canada. Originally, mom owned beauty salons, spas in New Jersey. Dad was like a, kind of do it all general contractor type guy. Never wanted to work for himself, never worked for himself. Stubborn. Um, yeah, so then I went to, um, University of Michigan for a year and a half.
Right out of school. I was in the undergraduate business school. Wasn't really sure that's what I wanted to do once I got [00:02:00] into it. There was, there was mental health stuff, too, as it
tends to be when you go to college first. So I took a semester off and took some classes at Rutgers and, um, in state tuition was very attractive.
Found it relatively comparable. Yeah, and 20% of the cost.
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: stayed at Rutgers. I did economics, information technology. I don't know if you care about my majors. I don't know if they matter
Jay: mean, I'm curious, I was curious, I did see the IT background. I'm curious, uh, what, what made you want to go after that path?
Jon: I wasn't sure what I wanted to do,
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: I knew I wanted to stick with economics because I came out of the business school. But then, um, honestly, the way my credits transferred from Michigan, they had four credit classes. Rutgers had three credit classes. Um, they basically had room for a double major.
Jay: Mm hmm. Mm
Jon: Otherwise it would have been a bunch of throwaway classes or I could double major.
I just looked at the list of majors in, uh, on the Rutgers website and said, Yeah, I.T. Informatics. That sounds pretty cool. I talked to a few people and that's the way I went. Um, and then ultimately ended up with Johnson and Johnson [00:03:00] in IT and
Jay: informatics? I've
Jon: informatics, uh, that's not used anymore, but it's kind of the, I mean, don't quote me, but the study of how I.T. affects kind of human interaction
with I.T..
Informatics. Yeah. I think it's a dated term now.
Jay: Yeah, I don't hear it. It seems like a dated term.
Uh, I don't, you don't hear it very much. Um, so tell me about that, I mean, the, the mental health thing is interesting just because, uh, I still find it, and I'm going through it now, I was just telling you, my son's graduating high school, and it's like, it's a weird thing to be 18, and to be like, hey, what do you want to do for the rest of your life?
And just go figure it out now. So tell me a little bit about that, that transfer from college life to the real world for you. You went to J& J, what was that kind of transition from college to, to real, you know,
9 to 5 life for you? Mm
Jon: college to the real world world was was pretty good. Actually. It was more the transition from high school to college. That
Jay: mm hmm, mm
Jon: been away from home for too long. I'm gonna travel a lot when I was kid parents So I did like an [00:04:00] exchange program in high school, too But but depression and anxiety were always a thing.
I didn't realize what they were It was always kind of there I come and go and then especially like after in high school like after after puberty and then I guess things kind of And change a little bit, but never addressed it, right? And it's funny to say, but like back then, it wasn't something you talked about as much.
Um, and then, um, got to Michigan, there was the stress of, like, tuition, and loans, and my parents were helping a little bit, so that was, you know, felt like a weight as well. Um, you know, and you're with, like, a whole bunch of people that are, like, super high caliber. Um, and you're, it's competitive, right? And I did okay.
But, uh, and then there's the, the, You know, the extracurriculars with fraternities and drinking. I didn't realize at the time how much that affected me in terms of multi day like depression after. So all those things, and then, yeah, the stress of like, not knowing, like, some, some people, a lot of kids coming in were like, I'm gonna be this, I'm gonna be an accountant, I'm going for finance, I'm going, neither of my parents went to, graduated college, so I was the first as well, so
I didn't [00:05:00] have a lot of like, benchmarks there.
And then there's also the pressure from parents, ironically, uh, entrepreneurial parents and family of like, gotta get your degree and make sure it's something that can trans, that's transferable to a career, and, so it doesn't really give you that, that time to figure that out.
It was all those factors. And then it just was like, you know, I'm not feeling right.
Something doesn't feel right. I was, I was working a 30 hour job at Michigan, which at the tele fund, raising money for alumni funds, became a manager there. So like on the, like externally everything was great, like got into the business school undergrad, but just didn't feel good. Like didn't feel like anything was like satisfying.
Like even when I got the letter that I got into business school, I was like, I don't know. I think I feel like I should be excited about this, but I'm not. It's all those things, so it became something I needed to address, and came home, started, you know, therapy, and eventually realized medication, because it's, it's a condition, you
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: Anxiety's a condition, you gotta accept that, too, so. Then, um, yeah, but ironically, the transition from school to, [00:06:00] you know, the real world was more like, Alright, this is like, I see where this applies now, I'm actually, like, producing things.
It's not just grades. Um, and yeah, that was a little easier, that was like, less stressful, ironically.
Um,
Jay: Well, it sounds like you'd maybe addressed it by the point you were
going out to the real world. So that probably helped. So you founded a bunch of stuff. Did I read it right that you founded something in Australia?
I don't want to go into it yet. All right. Well, let's get there. But, um, so talk to me a little bit about your J& J out of out of school.
With that, you had a short stint and then a long stint at J& J, right? Like there was two separate ones or were they the same thing?
Jon: no, it was all the same thing, but just multiple different
Jay: Okay. Bunch of different,
different roles there. Okay. And so it was the startup for the, uh, what was it? It was, uh, Leading Minds. Is that the one in Australia? Was that, so that was after J& J,
right? Alright, so tell me about kind of the J& J experience and how that led you into becoming Mr. Founder, who went
off and founded a bunch of things after [00:07:00] that.
Jon: Yeah. I think naturally I kind of like with entrepreneurial parents, I always felt like I wanted to go off on my own and do something. I think the plan I had was like the time I was like 30, 32, do something unless something came along. Um, So I was, yeah, with J& J I was in IT, so digital marketing with consumer brands, so like Aveeno, Splenda, Neutrogena,
it's more on like the, the, I suppose, started as a co op and ended up developing and like reports to analyze the effectiveness of campaigns, things like that, and then ended up in um, Data center project management role which not as exciting as the consumer stuff.
This is a rotational program. I started with so that's why there's I did a lot of There and then I ended up my final placement after the rotational was in IT procurement So like enterprise level contract negotiations for for application development services, so negotiating with like Cognizant, TCS, uh, who else?
Google, even. [00:08:00] Anybody. Anybody that was providing services for change. Globally, negotiate like global rates and things like that. So, I was involved with that. That was okay. Um, I liked the negotiating part. I liked that it was like high level, big dollars. Right?
Um, but I knew I wanted to do something else. I knew I wanted to be more on the business side, so to speak.
Maybe marketing outside of IT. Because when you're in IT, in tech, in... It's not really tech, right, when you're in IT in a big company like that. It's more of just a functional support call center,
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: Um, so, I had the opportunity, just came up from a guy that I was working with on a project at J& J that was from New Zealand, based in Singapore.
He managed IT procurement for the whole, um, Asia Pacific region, which included Australia. And, met, he, he knew that I was interested in international rotation, something closer to marketing. And it just so happened that at the time we had like a global conference where he was, he was here, uh, was in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Uh, and the procurement lead for [00:09:00] Australia and New Zealand was there too. And he had someone going on maternity leave for six months, coming up in a few months. And, um, this guy from New Zealand just connected us and said, Hey, maybe instead of bringing a contractor, you could bring John over, we can work something out and have someone back fill him.
Long story short, it worked out. Ended up in Australia, six month assignment in 2014, got extended to 12 months. Then, um, when I was ready, almost a month before I was set to come back to the States, this role opened up in Australia in medical devices, um, innovation, medical device innovation to develop services to supplement the medical device products.
On paper, perfect.
Jay: Right.
Jon: role, got the role. It was brand new team manager, super smart science guy, R and D guy. In reality, turned out not to be very entrepreneurial. Um, we didn't have much, we didn't have a budget.
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: I think the manager may be being the scientists. That background was like, we're going to figure this out and then bring it to the marketing teams.
I was like, no, we got to go to the marketing teams and [00:10:00] see what they want. So we budget from them. Long story short, it was about it. Yeah. It was about a year in, um, there was actually some mental health stuff at that point too, so it was a combination of that. Um, there was, and also just realizing, you know, it's not, it's not what I thought it would be.
So I, I quit. I resigned. Um, and took some time to travel for a while. Had a couple of things I was kind of stewing on. But I ended up back in Australia, and because of like the workplace mental, the mental health thing I felt like in the workplace, there was never really... It was, it was stigmatized, right?
This was 2015, 2016.
There was people coming out about like with um, like celebrities and like Harry and Meghan at that time. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were talking about it. But it's different in like a corporate structure, right? Worried about right, what if I'm gonna get that passed up for a promotion and people are gonna worry that I'm not gonna follow through on things.
Uh, but I felt like, you know, If you're able to be open about it, talk to your manager, talk to your team, like hey, I'm just feeling anxious from having a bad day [00:11:00] today, you know. It's better for everybody, other than when you're holding it in, it creates more, and it's kind of this, this perpetual
Jay: Mm
Jon: downwards, viral, but um, Yeah, so I had the idea to maybe find some role models and senior business leaders that would share their stories in Australia about lived mental health experience, whether they had to take time off work, or kind of work through it.
And started that, called it Leading Minds, um, Ended up being, becoming a bigger thing than I thought it would be. I thought I would maybe just find some people, get a story produced, and end up finding a job through that in Australia. I wasn't a resident, I wasn't a citizen. We need sponsorship. I had planned on staying in Australia for my, you know, indefinitely at that time.
So I really moved there. Yeah, I had a lot of good friends that I made. I think because you kind of... You connect on being expats and
so I had a good a good crew we can get together every Sunday For like a dinner and everything, right? So yes, I like that I was an only child too. So this felt like, you know, it's kind of had a family there
Jay: [00:12:00] Yeah.
Jon: But yeah, so I ended up running this project It was hard to find people because you imagine nobody's like out and like there's no community for that I was actually talking to a guy that did a similar initiative for, um, LGBT senior leadership in, uh, in Australia.
And he developed, uh, came up with a list of 50 people that shared their stories. It was this whole thing called Outstanding 50. But I met with him first, and he's like, man, you're gonna have trouble, cause... With the LGBT community. There's a community like there's people that know each other and can connect you along He's like, there's nobody out hanging out like about like depression anxiety.
So Anyway, yeah, it was it was tough, but I kept like, you know Just getting referred to one other person another person and ended up finding about 25 people Potential sponsors with Deloitte And EY, I didn't know, like, how to work those conversations at
the time. Um, I was talking with, like, the leading mental health, um, body and organization that was funded by the government in Australia called [00:13:00] Beyond Blue about collaborating with them.
This was about four or five months in, uh, but then my dad was sick back in the States. He really had no family other than me, so I had to come back on short notice. Uh, he had passed pretty quickly. He's had cancer for a long time, but didn't tell anybody. Um, and, uh, yeah, I ended up sticking around, had to get his affairs in order and continue to run this project from Australia.
Ended up getting it published in, uh, the Australian Financial Review, uh, as of, like a, a, a, a whole series where they did a lot of the photography and interviews and things of
leaders across, um, the big four consulting firms. So EY, um, blank on the last one. I always forget one. KPMG. PwC. EY Deloitte, there you go.
So it was cool to see like competitors like alongside each other saying this is more important.
Um, so yeah, it ended up well. Um, and then I was, yeah, back in the States, back in New Jersey. And, I'll pause there, sorry that was a whole like,
Jay: hmm. Right. Yeah. But my number one question, do Australians think that the American accent is cool like we think the Australian accents are cool?[00:14:00]
Jon: Yes, to an extent.
Yeah, I would tell him it was,
Jay: I mean, my buddy's Australian, and like, he just, he's in marketing and sales. He crushes because of that. I
mean, not because of it. He's also an awesome salesman, but like, it definitely adds like a little bit of extra flair to it, for
Jon: Yes, it was, it was helpful and I would hear people like on calls for work and things that multiple times people would say, Wow, you sound like you're, you're from the movies because they see that most of the movies are American, American movies. Um,
Jay: That's great.
Jon: American thing didn't help much. This is, you know, it's a time when America, like maybe 20 years before it would have been
Jay: True.
I guess, what are
you, 2015, 2016?
Jon: Yeah, it's 2015, 2014 and 2017. So. Yeah, I thought with like, yeah, I was single at the time. I thought it would be like, oh American
Jay: Yeah, Mr. American...
Jon: No didn't help. I think also Sydney apparent. I mean Sydney like it's metropolitan cosmopolitan um, very diverse, but like they're not as interested in [00:15:00] people that aren't from there like people that are from Australia and Sydney and yeah, whatever.
Jay: Right.
Hmm.
Jon: Whereas, like, I would go to, like, New York sometimes, and I live, being from New Jersey, and they would hear I wasn't, like, from Brooklyn or New York, and be like, the bartender would be like, oh, where are you from?
Like, in Australia, it was just,
yeah,
Jay: Yeah. Cool.
Jon: I don't they don't get tipped there, so they didn't really care about
Jay: probably, that probably,
yeah, it
doesn't, the small talk doesn't really matter as much when you're
Jon: you out.
Exactly.
Jay: Um, so that was a whirlwind tour, and then you came back to the States. Um, did you, did you work anywhere else? I saw the, the professor thing at Temple for a little bit, um,
and then Stacks was kind of your next. Uh, was that the next kind of move for you when you came back? Mm hmm.
Jon: Yeah, I had, um, got into kind of multi family property thing, investment property, so I did that for a little while. Yeah. Uh, and then, yeah, Stacks, it kind of aligned with the multifamily property management kind of stuff.
But yeah, I just found myself in Doylestown, in Ducks County. And, um, the girl I was dating at the time was from there.
And I was still running this, uh, this was early, no, [00:16:00] late, uh, 2017, early 2018. I was still running the project, Leading Minds in Australia. And wanted to be around other people, other entrepreneurs, and, um, just... Kind of coordinate and organize meetups for people to get together, bars and restaurants a couple times a week.
And so many people were coming out after a few weeks. I thought co working space. This is when we work, like we work is really popular.
Jay: hmm.
Jon: Um, so I just started talking to people that were coming out and asked would you join a co working space and I started one and they're like, absolutely. So I had 12 people signed up before I even opened the doors, found a, found a place, this is like in March when the idea came up.
It was opened by May,
June 1st was the official opening, um, 12 members and then grew to within a year and a half to like 85,
Jay: Wow.
Jon: got events and things there, expanded the space, um. Yeah, but there were a lot of challenges too. Issues with landlords and the property itself.
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: Some of the members that came in that ended up not like bigger like larger groups of people and ended up not [00:17:00] wanting to be, share things.
Dealing with that so, um, but no, it grew pretty well. led to Startup Bucks.
Jay: So I'm curious, uh, from The First Customer perspective, that always comes in different flavors. The one I want to talk about with that one specifically is the sale. Right? How, I mean, essentially, you know, the, the sales process, you know, you could argue is, is, is, was a customer of, of your business, right? I mean, you had to present this to them, they had to want it, and you had to, so tell me about that process.
How did you sell it? Like, who was it? I mean, you don't have to name names, but like, how did you, how did you make that happen?
Jon: Yeah, um, so I originally started looking into selling it in late 2019. So only year and a half
And, um, because it was a good, a good point and had grown quite a bit, I started, I was already kind of working on Startup Bucks and, and like that. Um, not necessarily more or less, but wanted to focus more on that. And, um, yeah, I approached a few people that were actually members of the space that had mentioned maybe [00:18:00] partnering at one point.
Um, and just really had to put all the data together, uh, on membership, revenue, of course, and expenses and costs and present that to them in a nice package. And that's something, uh, if you're considering selling a business at any point, even though, I mean, I would say don't necessarily build a business to, to sell it with the objective of selling,
especially in startup world.
When you're raising venture capital, I mean, you probably eventually want some sort of exit or conversion event, but make sure you're keeping it organized. So if you're trying to sell it, it's nicely packaged. So at that time I wasn't as organized with things. So it was kind of going retroactively and pulling things together.
But the biggest thing was that the people that I first approached that were approached me were in it, right? They had been there. They had seen the product. It's seen the value of it. So as much as you can kind of get people to either, whether it's a product that they use it, they understand it. Um, those are the people, the people that like it, Right.
Then you're already using your product or involved or in some way. [00:19:00] I imagine on stats, but are often the people that you sell to,
um, at small business level, I'm sure different with, uh, big corporates too. But a lot of times it's, there's people that probably work for one company, move to another company and know that other company that they acquire.
So, but yeah, that would be my advice. If you're looking to sell, kind of first approach the people that understand it. Um, anyway, so I was in a few conversations then. And, uh, the pandemic happened.
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: Shut things down for a while, those conversations went away. Um, could have just walked away at that point, really, when the pandemic started, because we couldn't, just couldn't operate.
Uh, didn't know it was supposed to be two weeks, right? And then it ended up being several months.
Um, and in hindsight, if I had walked away, it would have, probably could have focused on other things more. Uh, but it kind of went on with, like, life support. You know, just keeping things alive, keeping things going.
There was, like, a song and dance of, like, reopening, closing again, different requirements of constantly adapting. So kind of learned a lot [00:20:00] through that. Um, but it was really mostly breaking even that whole, that whole time.
A lot of bucks was growing, so that was a welcome distraction, diversion. Um, but yeah, in hindsight, it probably would have been better to walk away.
But, um, yeah, toward, I mean, early 2022.
I knew the lease was coming up, and had the option, could have, didn't need that much space anymore. Could downsize a little bit, sort of increase the margins. Um, and there was a place available right around the corner. So you kind of, the natural buyer, uh, was the owner of the building. The first person to approach.
And I talk to business brokers to kind of help that out. That's something that's important too, I think. If you have a business broker, that kind of plays that, the middle person. So you're not, um, takes out the emotion a little bit.
Jay: Right.
Jon: Um, and, but I talked to the owner, I said, Hey, I'm either going to move out, or if you want to make an offer, let me know.
Um, I didn't think somebody would necessarily want to buy at that point, considering the pandemic and the history of that, anyone other than the owner,
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: um, and just the, the [00:21:00] uncertainty of what could happen. Even though it was a couple of years into the pandemic and the size of the space and everything. So talk to the, the owners, they made an offer.
It felt like it was good and just went ahead with it. Um, there was due diligence process. So fortunately I'm going to head at that point, cause I was considering selling before I had things being organized,
processes and things weren't that well organized. The folks that had been working for me were. Um, well versed on the day to day, but they really were helpful with putting processes and things together too, as it got to it.
Um, so yeah, yeah, natural buyer. I kind of think of who the, who would be the best fit, who has the most to gain or lose
in that case. It probably a unique situation. Um, so yeah, it worked out. I stayed on for six months after, kind of relatively very part time. Um, if they needed anything, they reached out and then was done by like October of, um, 2022.
Jay: Wow.
Jon: Out of the fray, yeah. Yeah,
Jay: Which may have been around the time that I found Startup Bucks. It may be a little bit
Jon: yeah.
Jay: that. I'm not sure. So, that naturally takes us into Startup
Bucks. So,[00:22:00] uh, tell me where the idea came from. I think you co founded it. So,
who's the co founders? And, um, how'd Mm hmm.
Jon: Yeah, so that was the out of stacks co working space. There were a lot of entrepreneurs working out there. Folks in the tech kind of space, potentially either, uh, with venture backed start ups they've started, were working on, or were service providers that were working with start ups. And really, I mean, a few of us were talking and felt like there's really nothing for those types of companies.
For venture backed companies, for startups that are looking to scale, doing something a little different, uh, in Bucks County. You had to go to Philly, this is in 2019, right, you had to go to Philly, you had to go to, uh, New York for any, like, community like that or events. Maybe Princeton, right, if you're lucky there's something happening there.
So the first thought was like, you know, let's, let's start, let's just run an event. Like weekly, like meetup and um, I don't know if you've heard of 1 Million Cups,
Jay: yeah. Yep.
Jon: yeah, so that was the, a friend of mine [00:23:00] mentioned that to me. Um, he was in, he started like TEDx J& J, TEDx Penn State. and he also had a friend that was, started a thing similar to Startup Bucks in Fargo, North Dakota.
And he used the 1 Million Cups as one of the things they ran. So we looked into why I was looking into that and it just so happened like the day after I was looking into it one Of the guys that was working on space John Kantz who had founded a health tech company and exited that He approached me in the hallway at Stacks and said hey, I was thinking, you know I was involved when I was living in Dallas Fort Worth area this 1 Million Cups thing I think what do you think about doing something like that here?
I was like dude, I just Literally had a call with them yesterday. So just the serendipity and that's a lot of this stuff Just like tangentially or the side like the serendipitous stuff you miss from being in like a workplace or a co working space with others versus Mostly remote stuff, um,
so yeah that, that happened.
A few of us, uh, Michelle [00:24:00] Bizon, who was a freelancer, was working, um, part time for Stacks as well. Uh, Candice Yeager, who now she's in Florida, but she was, um, her and her husband had a solar company, solar, um, brokerage, essentially. And, uh, she was a, like a business success coach as well, mentor, advisor. So the four of us started 1MillionCups.
We were hosting it out of stack starting in summer of 2019. Uh, early 2020 or along the way more and more people were coming out. About 30, 35 people in person every week. We're just finding startups wherever we could. A lot of people coming out from Philly, New Jersey, New York. It was all in person at the time, right?
Um, and then, uh, the county, the county government folks, commissioners, chief operating officers, economic development people started taking notice of it that there were companies like that in Bucks County. They didn't realize that. So it was eventually approached by, um, Guy Pete Krauss, uh, who is the executive director of the Industrial Development Authority, which is one of the economic development entities in Bucks County, quasi governmental.
And he [00:25:00] came up to, he went to the event, one of the 1 Million Cups. He came up to me. He's like, I had no idea these companies existed, uh, in Bucks County. We have some, some funds that could go toward them, but we don't really understand these types of companies. And at that point we had started the nonprofit and had a good board with including angel investors, lawyers, entrepreneurs that.
I had experience with startups and, um, he said, do you think you could put something together to get funding and support to these types of startups? And he said, absolutely figure it out. I mean, I had no idea how to do it at that time,
but it was 250, 000. They had that could be given as 25, 000 loans really.
But, um, and it was came from some federal funds. He sent me all the, all the documentation requirements. You can imagine hundreds of pages. On that, on how you could use it, and we found this clause called microenterprise, which he knew about, uh, but that it could be any financial instrument that could be used for it.
So we ended up going with a convertible note, um, and which is, you know, essentially a loan that could [00:26:00] convert to, to equity,
uh, sometime, some point down the road. And then we established the, the application process, the screening process with the Industrial Development Authority's input, all the criteria, had a screening panel together.
And, uh, the first, well, then the pandemic again, so we weren't sure what would happen, uh, with that, and ended up that they actually, Pete Krauss, who was, again, his vision originally of what he passed, um, Earlier this year. Um, but yeah, he was really, he's been involved with so many things in Bucks County with, uh, you know, the Pennsylvania biotech center.
You were, I think, at their, one of their galas. Um, he was very instrumental in getting that started. So, so many things he had his hands on at some point, but really it was behind the scenes. Never wanted to credit. Um, and yeah, he was, it was his vision. He was supportive all throughout. And, um, we, yeah, we got off the ground in late 2020 was our first application round.
He felt like, you know, this is even more important. Um, Uh, with people going more remote, we might not be able to support in person businesses, right? Coffee shops, breweries, things like that. So this is super important. Um, yeah, put that together. It had the economic development component where there needed to be [00:27:00] some hiring as well.
If a company wouldn't be based in Bucks already. And since then, there's been two, two tranches of, or four tranches of 125, 000 each. Uh, there's been 19 investments. We still got one more to go for, um, that's carrying over from last year. And so, and then, um, grants that have supplemented the program that were sponsored by Penn Community Bank.
Uh, so all up, there's been over 300, 000 that have gone into early stage startups in bucks. A ton of great success stories over... It's getting close to 15 million total raised across the companies. Um,
And we can't take credit for all of that, but we support them for at least a year as per like the agreement with the IDA And we have regular check ins.
We have um, it's not an accelerator per se. There's no like curriculum. It's industry agnostic but we're more like an advisor we treat it really more like Like we're not the investor per se the start of bucks is not the investor but the idea is but we treat it like it's an investment that that we're making we're an advisor to them.
We have a stake in that so They [00:28:00] call us any time they need us to sit on a meeting with the supplier, uh, service provider, help them with negotiations, whatever it might be.
Apply for more funding, get connections to investors. We're, we're there for them all along the way. So even beyond the 12 months as well.
Jay: Right. Wow.
Jon: um, yes, there's been a lot of cool stories, a lot of cool companies that have come out. And they, um, we call it, it's like a, you know, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, right?
Um, it's like a baby Ben, we call him,
so. We had kind help bridge companies to them and others.
Jay: How does the Founder's30 fit into that?
Jon: Yeah, so Founder's30 was was 1 Million Cups.
So 1 Million Cups we went on. We went virtual after the pandemic all online on Zoom, which actually ended up being a good thing 'cause it had more reach.
But with 1 Million Cups, you're limited to the format. You have to have two on two presenters every week. We didn't like that. It was supposed to be about getting feedback to the presenters, but we didn't like that.
You had to, you had to wait till the end.
of the Q& A period to ask the founders what the [00:29:00] community could help them with.
It seemed kind of counterintuitive to wait,
have everybody just ask them questions, and then give them like 30 seconds to tell everybody what they need, and then, you know, how do you actually get them the feedback on that when you have to just get to the next presenter.
So,
we were making the format our own. We had one presenter a week. It was started with their questions, which you've seen on Founder's30, right? It's all about them, all about their questions. There's the, and getting answers from the, the audience rather than the audience asking more questions.
Um, so we just called it founders 30, cause it was, um, usually about 30 people originally, and also 30 minutes of feedback for the entrepreneurs
for the founders.
So founders, apostrophe S, uh,
Jay: Ah.
Jon: intentionally, right. Branding.
Jay: I didn't, I didn't catch the location of the apostrophe, but it makes, it makes a lot of sense now.
Um, no, those are fun. They're
always a good time. They're always a great time. And, uh, I've recommended people check it out. Um, I missed the one, was it last week with Trip B? I think it was
the... [00:30:00] Yeah.
okay, yeah, because I met her at, uh, the PSL Expo.
And,
Jon: cool. Yeah.
Jay: um, that's a cool product. I like that.
Um... So, uh, lots of stuff there, um, but I wanna, if you had to, um, if you had to start, start up Bucks again tomorrow, with everything you've learned so far,
um, it's unique, it's not necessarily a business per se, you know, the normal question I ask is what would you start off with again tomorrow, but it is, it does, it is still applicable. Um, what would you do? So, tomorrow, uh, first step, if you were gonna start, Startup Bucks over again.
Jon: I might not have gone the nonprofit route because it Yeah, it was more obviously was focused on Bucks County
Jay: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Jon: The originally we started the nonprofit when we were doing 1 Million Cups really just because we said it's probably more we can do But if nothing else we could at least kind of collect donations for coffee and tea and some of the events and things Um, we thought that was the way to go.
Didn't really consult with probably enough people. We thought, we kind of looked at Philly start up leaders and thought, okay, kind of something [00:31:00] like that. Um, but it didn't need to be a non profit to run, uh, and start the Bucks Build Fund. Probably helped a little bit.
We could have, we were essentially consultants, right?
And there's a lot of things you gotta be concerned with with a non profit, obviously. It's not easy to start one. It's much easier just to start a business. Start an LLC. Open an LLC. There's a lot more reporting required. You've got to worry about how much your directors or executive team is making. Our executive team was basically doing all the work, so we couldn't really balance that.
This is stuff I'm actually learning now with a new director coming in. You only want like 10 15% of your revenue going to... Your executive your leadership team
Jay: hmm.
Jon: terms of it's not a law or anything But it's in terms of like other organizations looking to give you grants and things They might look at that,
but it's tough to do when when your leadership teams have one doing running the programs do [00:32:00] Yeah, might not have gone the nonprofit route Probably would have started with an LLC But then maybe kind of bolted a nonprofit on that,
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: but I don't know I can't say that for sure that just would have been more would have considered that more
Jay: Alright, that's fair.
Jon: But if we hadn't gone nonprofit, then we wouldn't have been able to get like the Penn community bank, um, grants from their foundation, things like that.
So a lot of good stuff had come from it.
Um, our board is great. I probably would have gotten more entrepreneurs involved in the board. We had really two entrepreneurs out of like 12 board members
Jay: Mm hmm.
Jon: or three. Um, but it was mostly like anybody that was just involved right in there. Like kind of the people that showed up
would have started with a smaller board and grown it.
Growing over time as well, because it just becomes a lot to kind of wrangle. Our board members actually early on, when we had our first meeting, we're not interested in getting funding to startups. It's only when the Bucks built or the, the Pete Krauss approached me that that became an opportunity.
And that's something I had always [00:33:00] wanted to do.
That was my priority. But once you have 10 board members in the room and they're like, nah, I don't really have much say in it. So, that'd be one thing.
Jay: a smaller board to start, uh, sounds like a, a good one. Um, all right, let's switch gears a little bit. Um, Give me three tips, health tips, that you're working on, um, to increase your longevity. And that could be anything, mental, physical, whatever, but what are three things you're kind of working on to keep yourself tuned up for as long as possible?
Jon: Gotcha. Um, one thing is, I mean, actually, obviously fitness exercise, um, I don't, I don't go too, too hard on it, right? I don't think you need like super intense stuff. I also had a, a neck injury from high school football, so can't really do heavy weights or anything, but um, I just do enough, right? I don't, I'm not running, I used to, I got into running a lot, 5Ks and that when I was in Australia, uh, but I found myself like more tired, cause you gotta know your body, right?
I felt like I was more like... Brain fog when I was like recovering, recovery days, so just feel that balance. Um, I don't say I gotta [00:34:00] work out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or any particular days or times. I have a whiteboard actually in the bathroom that I just kind of track things.
So it's like always there. You know, you always brush your teeth, right? You always, hopefully always take a shower and you always kind of see it.
In front of you. So that's something like if you're trying to stick to it, just have it somewhere where you can see it all the time. Don't just have it on a phone.
You're like a list in your phone or anything on your computer because you're not, again, it's not in front of you all the time. It's easy to close it up and not think about it.
So I've got a few things I do, like I can pick from. I run, I like running stairs here. We're on the seventh floor of this building.
So I run stairs. Um, I do, I don't run as much because that was giving me some, some like hamstring issues too. But I found my body likes the short burst sprint stuff. So I'm doing stair sprints. Um, elliptical now and then. Um, and then anytime I get the chance to take the stairs or a walk, rather than take an elevator, I do that too.
That adds up.
I also don't track anything other than the whiteboard. Um, I think that could kind of make you, make you crazy a little bit and upset you if you don't hit your [00:35:00] targets.
Um, eating as well. Eat as healthy and clean as I can. Um, I got to be selective with the things I eat because I like with like dairy upsets me, peppers, onions.
So it kind of helps me a little healthier. I guess that's number two in the
Jay: Yeah.
Jon: tip. Um, what else? What's the other health thing? I mean, probably, I mean, friends, family, community, right? Be around people, you know, have that support network. Um, and being open about mental health, how I'm feeling, how I'm doing.
And having those conversations, I mean, that goes a long way.
Jay: Yeah, no, I agree. I think these are all great. Uh, this is the first bathroom whiteboard I think I've had on the show, so that's a good, but I, I love having, just having, I mean, when I'm back at my, uh, house, uh, my whole backdrop is a backboard. I'm a whiteboard. It's
a giant, I'm a wall is a, is a whiteboard. So I'm totally in tune with you of just like having your stuff in front of you and like it's much easier than keeping track of on it's own.
I love all three of those. Um, Last one, uh, uh, last thing is the mystery question, um, I've switched up a little bit recently just [00:36:00] because I like to, I don't want to make it too easy because if I, if I don't, then it's easy to make the answer. So non business related, um, if there was one thing you could do that you knew you wouldn't fail, what would it be?
Jon: Non business related.
Jay: Yes, like, people, like, will say, well I'll make my business, like, you know, I'll go make a non profit and make it the best one in the world, or what, I, non business related, personal, something personal for you, maybe it's a bucket list item, maybe it's whatever, what's one thing you would do if you knew you couldn't fail?
Jon: Oh, that is a good mystery question. Oh. I don't really have a bucket list. To be honest, that doesn't come into play.
Jay: Alright.
Jon: I don't really have any desire to climb any mountains or anything. And
I would do that even if I knew I could fail. I mean, that's part of the excitement and the challenge of it.
Um, maybe, this is maybe an odd one, but, I do [00:37:00] want to have kids, but have kids.
Jay: Wow.
Jon: I mean, am like, like,
Jay: one.
I will, that's a good one, I like that.
Jon: Probably not going to have kids for another five years or so. My girlfriend's younger. She's 27 on, she's focused on her career too, so, but yeah, I'm always, well, you know, there's always a hesitation. I mean, I don't know if you've had, you've had that before. You had kids have
like,
Jay: I did not. I had mine at 19, so there was actually negative hesitation. I think that was the wrong... You're talking to the wrong guy
about hesitation having kids, but, uh, No, I, that's a great one. I love that.
Jon: Yeah,
Jay: I do, I do like that a lot because I think there is... A lot of, I feel like, friends and family, you know, that, that are very, don't have kids that are just, and they haven't because they're hesitant to have them. Um, but I think you'd be a great dad, dude.
Jon: thank you. Yeah, I hope so.
Jay: think you've got a lot of, uh, stuff, you
know
uh, positive things going on.
Jon: if there's anything. Thanks, man. Yeah, I don't know if there's necessarily like success or failure in having kids, but I think I don't want to look back like I've heard from many people that I look back that [00:38:00] really feel like they could have spent more time with their kids and more quality time or included them more.
Um, I don't know if it's a work life balance thing. I'm not a big work life balance guy. Kind of like if you like what you're doing, you know, you can include your kids in that and focus on the quality time. Yeah, I think that...
Jay: I love that answer. Well, let's wrap it there.
This was great. I really enjoyed getting, uh, the, the full... picture of Jon Mercer. I had no idea, uh, about the trips abroad and the Johnson Johnson back. So very cool, man. Uh, I, I, you know, how can people find Startup Bucks? How can they find John Mercer? What are the best ways to do
Jon: Yes, uh, startupbucks. org O R G And, um, founders30. com Don't put the apostrophe in the web address. It doesn't work.
Jay: do that.
Jon: And, uh, if you want to email me, Jon Best place to get me, J O N at startupbucks. org That's the email I'm in most of the time.
Jay: Alright. Well, that was great, man. Thank you for giving me some of your very valuable time. You're a busy [00:39:00] guy. Uh, so thank you for that. Uh, enjoy the summer and we'll, I'll definitely, we'll come to the next, uh, Founder's30 in person event because I think you've been having those. Are there any of those coming up anytime soon?
Jon: We're gonna do happy hour, uh, last Wednesday of every month.
So, and then, um, you know, we're going to eventually do some Founder's30 things in person, probably more like, uh, biannual kind of like recap, check in summit
kind of thing with startups that are presented,
Jay: Okay.
Jon: um, in person.
Jay: I like that. I love that. I'll definitely be at those. All right. Well, be good, brother. I'll
talk to You Thanks for being on. Have a good rest of your
Jon: Yeah. That's right.
Jay: Thanks, Jon. See ya.