From concept to company: 3 founders share startup advice

From concept to company: 3 founders share startup advice

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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is home to a profusion of successful startups created by founders with a passion to build something meaningful.

While founding a company and sticking with it through the good and the bad isn’t for everyone, three Utah-based startup CEOs said the reward is well worth the pain. They gave advice for those looking to build their own company from the ground up.

Josh Little, Movement Ventures

Josh Little began his career as a teacher after earning a bachelor's degree in education. One year into teaching, Little said he decided he wanted to change career paths and founded Maestro, an e-learning company. He said jumping into the startup world involved a lot of trial and error.

“I learned it was best to show as much as I could for as little as I could,” Little said. “When I thought an idea was good enough to seek out funding, my goal was to immediately show the investors why they should write out a check for my company.”

For those who are moving from the idea stage to the business stage, Little said the most important thing to do first is to raise funds.

“Typically, the first funding you secure is from friends, family and small, angel investors,” Little said. “After the first small funding comes in, it’s best to secure a small number of customers.”

After building two successful companies, Little is now the founder and CEO of Movement Ventures, a startup aimed at providing interactive content tools for online businesses. His team created Boombox, which KSL.com uses to share polls and quizzes.

Even with the success he’s found in the startup world, Little said he would advise anyone looking to start a company to be thorough and thoughtful before jumping in with both feet.

“Validate any fears you might have about your venture, find the source of those fears,” Little said. “But at the same time pay attention to the passion you have for what you want to do and figure out what’s driving you.”

Build a good team and hire the very best and brightest, Little said. These are the people who will propel the company forward and will be essential to creating lasting value.

“We recently went to Hawaii as a team to brainstorm and change up the scenery,” Little said. “While we were there, (technology news giant) TechCrunch wrote an incredibly positive article about our company. It was a great moment to share with the team and hugely rewarding for the work we’d be doing.”

Davis Smith, Cotopaxi

Davis Smith grew up in developing countries around the globe. It was during his youth that he began to realize he wanted to make a difference in the world and build a company that would give back to the community.

“We have endless opportunities in the world,” Smith said. “I have a responsibility to help. I also have a deep passion for entrepreneurship.”

Smith built a few successful startups before founding Cotopaxi, a company he said reflects his lifelong dream of making the world better through business.

“I want to build the next big outdoor brand and make a measurable impact,” Smith said.

Cotopaxi sells outdoor gear from backpacks to sleeping bags and apparel. The company is dedicated to alleviating poverty in third-world countries, Smith said. It is involved in education, health and livelihood initiatives around the world.

Like Little, Smith said one of his first steps when it came to building Cotopaxi was finding the best people in the industry to hire.

“When we first hired our core team of people, we met up in this cabin in the mountains,” Smith said. “We spent two days talking about what we wanted our company values to be and the kind of culture we wanted to build.”

Think outside the box and try to do things that will attract the best, most immediate attention, Smith recommended.

“We were promoting ‘Questival,’ our adventure and service-based race event we run, and so we’d show up at college campuses with these two llamas," Smith said. "Students would congregate to see what was up and take photos with the llamas. Then we could tell them what we were up to.”

Smith said starting up a new company is nerve-wracking and takes a lot of self-confidence.

“At the beginning I had this total fear of failure,” Smith said, “I had to tell myself over and over, 'This is going to work and it’s worth it.”

Nate Quigley, Chatbooks

Nate Quigley grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Business School. He lived with his family in Boston, Paris and Florida before coming to Utah to build his third startup on the "Silicon Slopes."

“We knew we wanted to build our company in Utah,” Quigley said. “It’s been great.”

When Quigley founded his third company here in Utah, he thought he knew the formula for building a successful business.

“We started up the first iteration of what is now Chatbooks in 2012,” Quigley said. “After the first year, things weren’t going as well as we’d hoped. So we altered course.”

Photo: Chatbooks/file photo
Photo: Chatbooks/file photo

Quigley said the process of being, as he called it, “in the wilderness” of building a company taught him the importance of filtering out critique and focusing on valuable feedback.

“You’re always up against the odds,” Quigley said. “There’s a part of your brain that has to be able to listen to the important stuff and important critique. I think you have to be both really good at blocking out the noise and focus on the important.”

The important feedback, in this case, would come from his wife, Vanessa.

“My wife came in and intervened and told me we should build a photo book company,” Quigley said. “She told me ‘I want a book to hold in my hands and look at and give to the kids to hold.’”

Quigley would go on to co-found Chatbooks with his wife and together they’ve built an increasingly successful company. Twelve months after Chatbooks officially launched in January 2014, the company had sold over a million books to customers worldwide.

“My one maxim for business is: ‘Don’t quit. Don’t run out of money,’” Smith said. “It may sound simple, but that’s about all there is to it.”


![Robynn Garfield](http://img.ksl.com/slc/2584/258438/25843896\.jpg?filter=ksl/65x65)
About the Author: Robynn Garfield ---------------------------------

Robynn Garfield worked as a staff writer for KSL.com before relocating to the Bay Area with her husband and three young sons. She currently works as a freelance writer and digital media consultant. Robynn started her career in journalism as a radio news anchor. In her spare time Robynn can be found sewing, hiking, or playing at the beach with her family. Contact her at robynn.garfield@gmail.com or visit her website.

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