There are tons of great stories in the business world.  The goal of this blog, however, is to capture those that fit a very specific narrative…  new business ideas that scaled to 8+ figures in less than 5 years.

Criteria

Here’s the rubric with which we’ll decide which stories are “in” and which are “out.”

• Entrepreneur / Intrapreneur Driven – Someone took a big risk.
• Started at $0 (or close to it) – The concept was new.
• The entrepreneur can share the story – I’m not looking to fall afoul of any confidentiality clauses.
• The entrepreneur is willing to:
  • Do an hour long interview,
  • Review / Correct the post before I publish it; and,
  • Grant me the rights to do so.

Data Points

To make each post comparable to the other, it should follow a standardized format and set of questions.  These are:

• Executive
  • Where’d you grow up?
  • What was life like?
  • Education
  • Career trajectory up until “the moment”
• The Idea
  • What was the idea?
  • How did it occur when it did?
• The Conditions
  • Timeframe
  • Geographic location
  • Business climate / trends
  • What were you doing at the time?
• The Players
  • Companies
  • Executives
  • Investors
  • Competitors
  • Angels, Supporters, Mentors
  • Gadflies, Devils and Enemies
• What happened?
  • Describe the meteoric rise?
  • What went right?
  • What went wrong?
  • What happened in the end?
• Learnings
  • What was the most important takeaway of this experience?