Hey guys! Welcome back to Top5 brought to you by DefinedTalent. We are a results-driven service working with clients to connect them with quality talent as well as working to make an impact within the recruiting industry. We talk straight about today's professional world with real world professionals, experts in recruitment and job seekers, business owners alike. Have a question for us? Send it in and you might spur our next conversation. I'm Tara Thurber, Director of Talent Innovation
here at DefinedTalent. Joining me today is a founder of multiple businesses, organizations and events. Aaron Price CEO of Tech United and founder of Propelify is going to share his Top5 Tips for the Modern Entrepreneur. Aaron Hey, how are you today?
I'm great. How you doing?
I'm doing wonderful.
I know people can't see us. But you got some super cool glasses on. So setting the tone right? (laughs)
(laughs) Thank you. Thank you so much. So let's just kick this off. Your background is extensive, to say the least. Can you share with us just let's start with the beginning of your story?
The beginning of the story. To me entrepreneurship runs in my veins. I was the guy doing snow shoveling around my neighborhood and selling lemonade and those sorts of things. And my first - my brother and I patented a weightlifting device in high school, which turned out to have no real commercial need. But it was a really fun and interesting experience. My first real tech company was in college in 1998.
I started a company called Deliver You which was online food ordering like long time ago, 20, whatever five years ago and flip phones and flip pagers.
(laughs)
And anyway, that's this, I could keep going. But the start is I've always been really interested. And to me, the web in particular, like the World Wide Web, the internet...
Right.
Is a dramatically like democratizing scalable opportunity or platform that I was I was fascinated with from, you know, web one.
In you know, just as we're getting to know you as well with starting with the World Wide Web and just you being an entrepreneur from out of the gate, you know, let's kind of put you on a little bit of the spot, though I think you might be able to tell me, describe yourself in three words.
Fun, ambitious. The third word I struggled with because you prep me for this question, I wasn't sure where to go.
(laughs)
I think empathetic.
Oh, I like that.
That's a very, that's a trendy word. But I believe that to be true anyway.
I love that. becoming an entrepreneur. Yeah, is not easy. That's for sure. And, you know, after knowing - getting to know you as an individual and as a business owner. For you, what are some of your strongest motivators for yourself for your team? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Well, those are different things. The motivator for me to become an entrepreneur, was when I wouldn't call now a fallacy of freedom. That I wanted to be able to control my, my time, my
Right. life, and the way that I was, I was able to spend my time. My dad is a doctor. And I was very aware, especially when I was younger, how demanding of career that was and how little control he had over his time. Mmm hmm.
I thought, Well, maybe if I do this other thing, I'll have a lot more control over those sorts of things. I think entrepreneurship is the key to be successful requires an insane time commitment that just doesn't quite give you that same sense of freedom perhaps on you know, a giant financial exit - opportunities come up, or things get a little easier.
Right.
The drive for me started out that way about control of time. Now my drive is a lot more around, you know, my family, my legacy, the impact that you know, the organization that I'm working on has in the community or in the world. For my team, I you know, I hope that that impact piece plays a significant role. I think we do you know, our our values, our ambition, accountability, and fun not so far off from my own personal notes.
Right.
But you know, I think we are ambitious, I think we are accountable, and I do think we have a lot of fun and so I hope those are things that drag people here.
That's really awesome. And I like how, you know, the control control of time is huge in in a lot of people's worlds and as you're an entrepreneur growing in today's day and age, there's a lot of sort of look for there's a lot of competition out there. And people are struggling to control that time I find, but I think what I what I also see is people become entrepreneurs, because they're passionate, they're passionate about what they
believe in. And as long as they're able to drive that it's the control kind of allows them to tailor that as they need. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, I mean, it that we do have control over the things that we focus our time on.
Yeah.
How creative that we can get on, you know, different projects. And when we get interested in something, we have the flexibility to pursue it.
Yeah.
It's great. The bigger the organization gets, or the more bigger or more stakeholders in our case, we have a large board and other sponsors, and it's the variety of stakeholders. Managing the managing those those stakeholders can be can be a challenge.
Yeah. Yeah (laughs).
It can also be a super, super gratifying and they can. But it's, I think, for early for people who are considering entrepreneurship or early in their entrepreneurial careers. I think there is this - there's potential like glamorization of what does it mean to be doing this, and you're this like high flying tech CEO person. And that sounds awesome. You raise millions of dollars. It's - difficult things are difficult for a reason. And they can be extremely wearing on an individual on an
organization. And they can be extremely gratifying for that individual. And for that organization, I'm not trying to discourage anyone, I just think people should go in with a clear understanding of the level of effort required to be successful is significant in anything being an entrepreneur or anything else.
Right. Currently, going back as a founder of Propelify, it's one of the most if not the most, tech networking event, successful tech networking events in New Jersey. Can you just share with the audience a little bit about the history of Propelfiyand what's maybe in the future for Propeilfy?
So it kind of goes back to that origin story?
Yeah.
In 1998, and 99, and 2000. In the early internet days, or my early tech entrepreneurial days, it was a very isolating career path. For me, most of my friends were doing more traditional things at the time. And so I'll skip ahead a few years, you know, we had had some big wins a few things that kind of didn't go anywhere. But it was not. It was not being pushed, and I certainly needed mentorship. And so I got involved in the New York Tech
Community a bit. And for the first time in a New York Startup Weekend felt like, you know, these are my people, these people get what I am trying to do. And there were very there weren't that many of us. So we were it was all in one room. And it was amazing. And so I started the New Jersey Tech Meetup in Hoboken, because that's where I live in currently still live.
Yeah.
And it just exploded, kind of by accident, or certainly not on purpose. And that grew into why don't we do something much, much bigger for the tech community here? Why, you know, why are we offline to other places? There's plenty of us here. And so we launched the Propelify Innovation Festival in 2016. And my hope was, we'd have 3,000 people attend, we had 8,000 people attend. Gary Vee was our, you know, our as our inaugural keynote that year, and
it's been growing each year. And then in 2019, it got acquired by what was called the New Jersey Tech Council, which is now called TechUnited in New Jersey.
Yeah.
And it's been an awesome ride. So what's in store for now is, how do we take what we thought about a lot last year after the event was, first, we've been doing a relatively similar format now for several years. We just want to shake it up in general, also, with an event of that scale, how can we create more small room
networking opportunities? And so how can we create sort of events within the events or at least opportunities within the event where we're getting the right people in the right room at the right time? And so there's a lot we're thinking about this year, but how to make those sorts of interactions happen.
It's fantastic. I'm excited for this year, and it's being at Propelify 2022, and just seeing the innovation in the expansion, especially after COVID. I mean, you guys didn't have it one year, right? And then you had it but it was I think it was just at a lesser scale. Am I correct?
Yeah.
And now, post COVID in the post COVID world of you know, I don't even want to go into the craziness of this or that butfor Propelify and what you're trying to do next, how are you innovate? How are you kind of expanding these ideas with virtual, on-site? Are you kind of expanding out of that or opening that thought?
I don't. So I think, you know, it's such an interesting time where we've all thought about sort of this future of work and how we individually would like to work and show up. We have pushed to the limits on online experiences, and I'm very proud of the work that we've done. In 2021, 2020, and 2021, we were virtual, I thought
Absolutely. (laughs) I remember that one. we did a great job given you know, where the world was, and the tools available. But in-person events, just I don't think that that can be replaced that experiences and certainly the serendipity of bumping into people in a live experience, I mean, literally, the touch, feel, smell the actual experience of a live event. So I don't expect us to replace that as a lot as a virtual
experience. As an organization we're doing lots of things virtually, but Propelify itself. I don't expect to be to change. We, you know, we do tend to stream it, we wanted to be accessible. But really our focus is on that in-person events, and how do we maximize the experience with all those who are there? And how do we make it a - How do we really push the limits of what that means? So I like to say it's like the most fun business event you'll go through. It's still a business
event. But you know, we did hiring interviews on a Ferris wheel one year.
Dunk tanks, you know, we try to make it. We've all been to these very stale conferences.
Yeah.
We just want to make sure that, you know, you spend your time with us for that day, you get a lot out of it. And it's really enjoyable.
It's enjoyable, and it's memorable. For all of the ones that I've ever attended, and people that I've spoken to, that have attended Propelify, there's so many memories that come out of it, and you're still talking about it days, weeks, months later, and then it's the next year. And you're like so when's Propelify coming up? Again, make sure you get it on the calendar, you know, so I know there's there's that and being together on site. You're right, there's magic. It's the energy that comes from
it. It's the energy of the day that really can explode and create even bigger and better memories for people. It is that X factor where I describe it as the magic that happens when you bring everyone together because that really is what it is you can't define - you know, you can talk about great speakers and great networking opportunities. But that feeling that happens when really excited, ambitious, interesting people get together is an extremely unique thing.
And then we have really cool fireworks at the end, which for me, like kind of caps it all off. I mean, the fireworks this past year, were mind blowing
They were pretty baller fireworks. I'm not gonna (laughs). lie. I thought that was over like three times he just kept going. So that's pretty awesome.
It was it was. So for our younger entrepreneurial listeners, can you share one of your failures, or some of your weaknesses, and perhaps how you overcame those obstacles?
Failures or weaknesses. I mean, even though we had an exit from Deliver You the company I shared with you earlier, that company did not turn into Seamless for one of the or GrubHub or something others that in my view, sort of could and should have.
Yeah.
And so I don't look back at it with regret. But there were many things I would have done differently, including surrounding myself with more mentors more deliberately earlier on raising capital when we were sort of steered away from it by a professor at school who had his own personal you know, experience with that, that didn't go so well. But we really could've used the money in the mentorship. So that was that was
disappointing. I mean, I had another business where I sold Harley Davidson motorcycle parts, primarily on eBay. Which started as like a little side hustle and really exploded. That's a long story.
(laughs) What haven't you done?
I sold excess inventory for retailers but Harley Davidson motorcycle parts became a really strong category. The company was called Moto Recycle. The mistake there was leveraging eBay and not building a direct consumer brand. So the barrier to entry for someone else to get involved in that were very low. Anyone go still today, obviously in post I name these marketplaces, including me. And if I was it was a great business. We were kind of printing money. We sold things very quickly high demand
products, super high margins. It was great. But there wasn't a lot of value in that business. Because we didn't actually create a brand we really just leverage the marketplace. So that was you know, again, it was a mistake. I mean it worthwhile at the time, but it would have been worth investing in a direct to consumer brand. Um, I'm sure we could have built a lot more value in that company if we if we became known as motorcycles the place to go buy these things.
Right, and having that brand. I think that's great advice for anybody that's kind of out there, putting themselves out there to build something. As the CEO and founder and business founder, how are you? How do you create the perfect team that will align with your principles and create success? And I know you had mentioned, Tech United's principles. How are you finding? How are you building that perfect team to make sure you uphold those principles?
So first, I'd say we have a fantastic team. The second I would say is, I don't think I'm great at hiring us about weaknesses. And I get excited about people who want to work with me.
Right.
And I look, I tend to overlook their weaknesses, or their misfits for that particular role in our organization, I've made hires, where I just get excited about the root of this is for a long, long, long, long time, I couldn't afford anywhere near a market rate of a salary. So anyone that got even remotely interested in this sounds like a cool thing I want to get involved was very exciting for me, because I really needed to
help. And I still carry around that thinking even though we now can, within reason, afford people at a reasonable market rate. And so I think that's a weakness that I'm working on. When you asked that question earlier, the people that we have that who are around the team
Tech United. They represent the spirit of the community, this is this is a community of people who we can give before you get kind of somebody sitting across from me here now was a volunteer at Propelify many years ago, and now works with the organization.
Jasmin, who, you know, who I know, you know, is a rock star on the team comes from the tech world, ran around a tech tech events had a very similar spirit around like, let's make these fun and awesome, and also has a very high bar of excellence and ambition, which I think works really well in organizations.
Yup.
So as much as I can attract people who I think see who aren't in it purely from themselves, who see the benefit of raising the bar for the tech community, that in doing so we can help elevate the region who want to have fun with the process. Though, you know, when I do my best to seek out those people, and I do my best, and I'm always great at this and letting them do what they do best and not getting in the way. That's a hard thing to do. But that's, that's constantly on my mind.
I love that. And you know, having a small team, it's even more important because you want to hire those people that have the same beliefs and have the same fire in your gut, almost right? But you also want them to have their own fire, that's going to excel them as an individual on the team, but also bring the team up to another level as a whole. Right? And that's just from knowing you and working with the team at Tech United, I see that and I can feel that in everybody that I
speak to. So you know, you're definitely doing something right there. And I, you know, there's ups and downs, I get that. And it is a matter of finding those right people. And when you can find those right people, you feel it, you feel it from within, and you can have those people join with the fire and know that you don't have to watch after them. You don't have to, you know micromanage because that's not who you are, or the team is it's really coming together as a team, not an individual self.
The people are on a team that is the game that is the company that nothing work will follow. You know, the sum of the parts. That's, that's it. And I think entrepreneurs tend to make a flaw that they can do everything, it's when you really lean into the idea of empowering the people around the table, that you actually can be significantly more successful.
100% I couldn't agree more. I know we're coming up on time, I want to ask one more big question. Building off of the modern entrepreneur, if you could speak with one person from history, who would you speak with and why?
This is a question I really struggle with because there's so many, you know, like, Christopher Columbus is an interesting one. I couldn't imagine that. In particular, you know, that? Christopher Columbus is I can't imagine the idea of going off on some voyage where you are thinking there's an excellent chance you're going to not make it.
Yeah.
And what may or may not you discover on the other end of this. And it's to me entrepreneurship is there are parallels it's not life threatening, but there are very high stakes game. To me, I'd love to understand the thinking and the courage. A lot of you know, I have two young
daughters. And we don't say this much now, especially when they were younger, and they were little, you know, people, they would get upset about something we talked about like, okay, is this a big problem or a little problem?
(laughs)
I need that. I have sometimes because there are people dealing with big problems, real problems.
Yeah.
And for the most part, I don't have many of those my life, but it can feel especially as a business leader, like all of these things are big problems. And so you, I'm reminded that Christopher Columbus sense of like the scope of that endeavor, versus, you know, the things that many of us are trying to do. Helps keep it into perspective.
I love it. Oh, Aaron, I love it. Just to wrap this up. I would love it if you could share your Top5 tips for our modern entrepreneurs out there.
Top5 tips. Number one is follow up. There is no doubt in my mind that the reason I've been successful, and
Yup. whether it's sold deals or attracting great speakers, is persistence. So you specifically use tools like follow up, then
Or if they're all good, you'll get a good sense of that that I think it's follow up then.com. But there are follow up tools that will bring to the back of your at the top of your inbox Yes, where there's a whole bunch of these emails, X number of days later, if the other party hasn't responded, follow up this king. Use tools on the internet to make it your superpower. So you know, whether you're using, you know, Trello, or tragedy PT, or I just share a follow up then.com Or a
bazillion of others. Make sure you're thinking about how you only have so many hours in the day. How do you leverage the tools available to you to get to get more done. If you can't afford people use a site like Upwork or Fiverr. And some specific advice there, which is be extremely clear on what you're looking for. I've done a
lot of work on Upwork. And a lot of entrepreneurs who use the platform, my recommendation is their work product regardless and be able to move forward with post the full job has what you're looking for, but the actual service you're looking for in that first hire is a subset of whatever you can afford for that first piece of it, it's a $500 chunk of the larger scope of work, hire three people to do that scope of work, and then see how that goes.
Because you'll find likely two of them will make promises that they miss, one of them will respond to an email and then the third one around should do a good job. one up work can be a major hit and miss marketplace. So make sure you're really crystal clear
on your expectations. Go with your gut there every scenario that I've looked at, and you know had to fire someone or done to you know, a client relationship didn't work out whatever it is, every one without fail, I can look back and say, you know, I knew I say I was trying to make this work. And I thought I could and especially as an entrepreneur, you want to sort of will it into
existence. But let those things go or listen to your gut on the people or the relationships with the clients that maybe aren't the right fit and focus on what matters. Focusing. So that's the next one is focused on I forget what I'm up to I might this might be for but focusing on what matters like, again, 100%.
The reason I was successful, especially the first year for Propelify is I tuned out every single thing in my life in that particular year, the first year, probably a little too much, including some some personal things. But I was had obsessive extreme focus on what I needed to do and how I needed to get there. And again, easily to be pulled and distracted into a variety of other things. But focus, I think is is king. Is that four?
I've got follow up. And then I also the work smarter, not harder using other things out there.
Yeah.
yeah, up work fiber, go with your gut focus on what matters. So about four or five, give us one more! Give us
I would add to the Upwork and leveraging an extra one! technology. Using tools like virtual administration services, I use Fancy Hands for a variety of things, things, the awakened tools and services to get things off your plate Fancy Hands is real people who do small tasks. It's $5 a test. I send them maybe eight hours a test whatever it is, but I send them a ton of stuff. I don't know because I paid monthly for a certain number of tasks and I forget what it is.
(laughs)
But it's extremely reasonable for research for data entry for a variety of things. The fifth one I would say is it really should be the first which is make time to enjoy the wins for many, many years. I think part of what comes with strong ambition is you always want more. The problem with that is anything can have a more element to it. So you win some $100 client, you want the $500 client - turns into $100,000 client, you want the million dollar
client, whatever it is. And I have had that, I think curse my entire career. And more recently, it made a very active effort to try to stop even for like a literal moment. It's not doesn't mean you have to stop and you know, all of a sudden your guard is down, because I think that's the reason that I didn't do it. But I've stopped for a moment to try to really celebrate those wins. And I think entrepreneurs need to do probably we all need to do more of that, but certainly I do.
Complacency is one thing, but there's nothing wrong with like taking a moment and celebrating that you got somewhere.
Definitely I love that. I think celebrating, everybody needs to celebrate a lot more than they do today. Slow down for a quick second, give some high fives, do a little dance, and then keep going.
Take like a real mental, you know, take a deep breath in the mental note and like, and then yeah, get back to the 1000 emails. But like that's an important thing to do.
Awesome. Aaron. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm so happy we were able to kind of steal you away for a couple minutes. And I'm excited for getting this out there and I'm looking forward to what 2023 holds for Tech United and Propelify.
Thank you. It's great to be with you. And if any of those who are listening are curious. It's October 5 on the Hoboken waterfront - Propeify.com and I'll see you there.
Alright, awesome. Thanks. Have a great day. You too. Bye. Bye. Bye. We are DefinedTalent, a DefinedLogic service coming to you at Top5. Make it a great day.