Laura and Ryan Vaughn share more than their wedding vows. They share a knack for running their own startup businesses.
Laura has two companies--Blackbird RSVP and Sitting in a Tree. Ryan co-founded Varsity News Network. The couple recently appeared together at Startup Grind in Kalamazoo to talk about what it's like to be married and try to run your own businesses at the same time and to give inside insights into what is working for their companies.
As their businesses have grown the two Western Michigan University grads have experienced the growth of the region's startup ecosystem from almost nonexistent to its current under-construction stage.
The two met in a WMU dining hall. Ryan graduated with a degree in creative writing and Laura has a degree in organizational communications, and Management, which she expected to use selling pharmaceuticals.
Instead, she got an internship with the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce and became enamored of the world of startups. The idea for Sitting In a Tree grew out of her inability to find online wedding invitations that she liked. She has gone on to start a second business, Blackbird RSVP. Both make the most of her high standards for design.
Sitting in a Tree provides templates for wedding websites on which the bride and groom can communicate wedding details to guests. Blackbird RSVP is for those planning events from class reunions and baby showers to corporate events. The special events platform can be used for ticketed and free events and is aimed at mobile users. It now also writes thank you notes after it learns your handwriting.
Sitting in a Tree got early support from Start Garden, the Grand Rapids investor that incubates startups, and now Sitting in a Tree is in a cash-flow positive position. That's allowed her to work on developing Black Bird. She has a group of about 10 people she works with off and on. She found her co-founder through a "co-founder dating site."
Grad school in Georgia was on the horizon for the couple when Ryan learned his company, VNN, had been chosen to be part of the Momentum business accelerator, which came with $20,000.
"It was a 'holy shit' opportunity," Ryan says. "This was a really, really big deal. At the time Momentum was it. There was no other startup ecosystem around us."
As Momentum evolved into Start Garden, Ryan says the experiences of his company have brought about changes in how Start Garden incubates businesses it funds. As Start Garden staff witnessed problems the company was experience that they could address they said "we should fix this," he says.
For example, when the VNN's initial period in the incubator ended, he moved into the "trough of sorrow." The time in the Momentum program was up, the company participated in Pitch Day to secure financing from venture capitalists, then on to graduation from the program.
The company went from getting all kinds of media attention, to being ignored. "Nobody cared anymore. There were no investors." Hence, the "trough of sorrow."
That experience led Start Garden to make changes in the way it funded companies it is working with. Now as companies grow they can receive Start Garden funding are higher levels. VNN has now received $350,000 and mentorship from Start Garden as it continues to grow.
It also has gone on to multiple funding rounds, and has acquired investors from Michigan, Florida, New York, and the countries Israel and England.
VNN is a platform that provides a new way of covering high school athletics, replacing old-style journalism that has disappeared as the newspaper industry has contracted. Its websites are populated by user-generated, high school sports content.
There are over 660 schools now using the platform in 23 states. There are 20,000 schools in the country "and that number is not going to grow," Ryan says. So his company has had to move quickly so it would not get left behind. "We are the fastest growing player in our space," he adds.
The company 75 employees, of which about 50 are on the sales force.
Though the company once called itself the ESPN of high school sports, it now is aiming more for being the Facebook of high school sports.The goal is to create the largest network for high school sports, connecting everybody, Ryan says.
Public schools are notoriously difficult market for businesses to break into, Ryan says. But his company has found a way in. It also attends a lot of conventions.
The couple says that their business styles are very different so it would probably be difficult to be in business together. But the fact both of them have their own businesses creates a level of understanding of what each of them are experiencing that helps. They also share a whiteboard in their home, where they work out solutions to business problems together.
Ryan praises Laura's ability to network and to the find the right people for the jobs she needs done. She says that his job is the more stable, since his company is venture backed and he can draw a paycheck.
That they have gone into business for themselves is related to the fact they graduated in 2008 when there were few jobs to be found, even for new college graduates. That they stay with it has to do with where they are in life. They don't have a house or children. "This is the time in life to do this," Ryan says.
When asked about what the region needs if it is to build a startup ecosystem that can compete with others, Ryan notes that West Michigan is too modest. "We are so modest it harms us," Ryan says. He explains that he knows business owners that have made big exits, they have sold their companies for large sums, but no one talks about it and few know that such deals have taken place in the area.
Otherwise, Ryan says, "Our ideas are just as good and we have a better work ethic."
Kathy Jennings is the managing editor of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave. She is a freelance writer and editor.
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