Mexican Pots For Our Arizona Home
Last month, I ventured my personal blog into highlighting a recent project I undertook which was to upgrade my irrigation system. This month, I continue with the landscaping theme by sharing with you our newest addition to our landscaping, Mexican planting pots. Living in Arizona, a popular landscaping item used to add color and depth to our desert views is Mexican planting pots. After several trips with my daughter, Amelia, looking for the perfect pots, we eventually found several at a local store that would accent our new landscaping well.
My mother, who has two of the greenest thumbs I know, would be proud that her son and grand-daughter are carrying out her landscaping tradition. Below, I highlight the plant choices for our new Mexican pots as well as photos of each pot.
click here to read the full post > > >
That’s It! I’m Overhauling Our Irrigation System!
This month and next, I am departing from my regular technology, business and entrepreneurship topics and going personal. We’re going to talk plumbing. Yep, plumbing!
My wife a few weeks ago texted me a photo of our water bill for February. To my surprise and my wife’s, our water bill which usually runs about $130 was a whopping $378! Something was definitely wrong. After I came home, I checked the water meter and it confirmed my fears. The dial was spinning full speed and the meter was quickly racking up the gallons. The first step was to cut off the water to the irrigation system which I suspected to be the culprit. Instantly, the water meter stopped. So we knew the problem was there (I wondered why our flowers and bushes looked so good compared to our neighbors).
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Life Experiences
Carnival Cruise Lines Defines Service
I often receive comments and messages from family and friends requesting I share more about my family and personal life in my blog. For those of you that are regular readers, you already know I tend to write more about my professional life as opposed to my personal life. So this post is dedicated to those wanting to see more of my personal side. For those of you that follow me professionally, don’t worry because I have successfully mixed business with pleasure.
My family and I took a Carnival Cruise in 2009 to the Bahama’s and Virgin Islands to celebrate my mother-in-law Mimi Priest’s birthday. During the trip, I happen to be reading a textbook from my MBA studies (this was the summer between my 1st and 2nd year of my MBA program at The University of Arizona).
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Business Management,Eller MBA,Life Experiences
Post.Bid.Ship Launching Innovative New Product
Below is an article I wrote for the Arizona Commerce Authority and it appeared on the ACA’s blog. You can read the article below or click here to visit the original post.
Post.Bid.Ship., Inc., launched in Tucson, Arizona by two 2010 MBA graduates from The University of Arizona, has spent the last 20 months building its online platform designed to help commercial shippers across North America buy empty trailer space on tractor trailers. Think of Post.Bid.Ship. as the Priceline.com of the commercial freight industry. Just as Priceline.com sells empty hotel rooms and airline seats, Post.Bid.Ship. helps the more than 1 million trucking firms operating across North America sell empty trailer space.
click here to read the full post > > >
Post.Bid.Ship. Finalizes U.S. Patent Application
Often Jarret Hamstreet, my co-founder at Post.Bid.Ship. and I are complimented for being quick to implement necessary changes at our start-up. These changes by Jarret and me are done in our effort to put Post.Bid.Ship. on stable footing as well as to take advantage of the opportunities we see ahead for the company. In actuality, these often mild but sometimes dizzying changes are done out of necessity because Jarret and I have 2 clocks we watch closely.
The first clock is the amount of “cash on hand” provided by Post.Bid.Ship.’s investors that allow Jarret and me to build and commercialize our offerings. Our current and prospective Post.Bid.Ship. investors know this clock all too well because they can count on a call from Jarret and me when this clock begins to slow.
click here to read the full post > > >
Pitching Post.Bid.Ship. in San Francisco
Over the last 2 years, Jarret Hamstreet and I have worked to build Post.Bid.Ship., an online marketplace helping make the $740 billion commercial freight industry more efficient by eliminating the millions of empty trailer miles operated by trucking companies each year. While Jarret and I have raised over $1.5 million thus far to bring our service to the market, we are still in need of additional capital to bring our vision for Post.Bid.Ship. to reality.
Silicon Valley Bank, a bank that represents many large venture capital funds, has been a partner of ours helping introduce us to several VC’s to consider investing in Post.Bid.Ship. Silicon Valley Bank invited me to San Francisco to share our vision for Post.Bid.Ship. and to help start the process of us locating a VC that could help us take Post.Bid.Ship. to the next level.
click here to read the full post > > >
Why I Enjoy Reality TV
As a little boy and as a young man, I have always been excited about watching other people work. My wife and even one of my best friends Scott Smith get embarrassed by my staring at other people at work. My mother defends this obsession by describing my eyeballing as being ‘in deep thought.’
I remember saying when I was younger “If I could get paid to watch other’s work, I would have found my true calling.” One observer of this quote tease me saying “people do get paid to watch others work, their called ‘managers.’”
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Life Experiences
Crossing The Chasm Is Hard
In last month’s article, I thanked several stakeholders who helped me and my co-founder Jarret Hamstreet start Post.Bid.Ship. What is Post.Bid.Ship.? Like Priceline.com sells empty hotel rooms and airline seats, Post.Bid.Ship. helps trucking firms sell empty trailer space. Click here to read last month’s article.
Last week, Post.Bid.Ship. reached 2 monumental milestones as a company: 1) our innovative online service now has over 1,000 trucking firms as users representing over 180,000 trucks and 2) Post.Bid.Ship. was featured in Transport Topics, one of nation’s largest transportation news sources, for being an innovator in the commercial trucking industry. Click here to read the Transport Topics article.
click here to read the full post > > >
Did I or Government Build My Business?
Thursday night, the Republican National Committee nominated Mitt Romney to be their 2012 candidate for President of the United States. Being an entrepreneur myself and having worked with investors from within the private equity community, Mitt Romney’s professional life in starting and building companies is a world I have been fortunate to experience.
At this time in our great society, a debate is brewing over whether an individual’s or business’s success should be attributed to society or the individuals who founded and built the business.
click here to read the full post > > >
Founders Are Not Heroes, Get Back To Work
Today, I read one of my favorite articles regarding start-up founders and the sometimes often false image of entrepreneurs as heroes. As a founder who often thinks of myself as having hero-like qualities but often gets brought back to earth by my wife, this article caught my attention.
The article features Ann Miura-Ko which Forbes in 2010 called “the most powerful woman in startups.” I love her candidness about how tough it is to be an entrepreneur and that life as an entrepreneur isn’t always as idealistic or romatic as portrayed.
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Entrepreneurship,Technology,Venture Capital
Own, Lease or Share? That is the Question!
I received a great question from Post.Bid.Ship., Inc. board member Base Horner the other day. I decided it was such a good question, I’m publishing my response to him here!
His question was “As Post.Bid.Ship. grows, will we eventually buy our own servers or do you feel we can continue to outsource our hosting?” His question came during a time when our hosting partner for Post.Bid.Ship. was unable to keep our site up because it had grown in popularity (having a popular website can sometimes be a double-edged sword.)
And as timing would have it, Entrepreneur Magazine was featuring my commentary on this very subject in an article on technology so this was something I had given recent thought to (click here to read the Entrepreneur Magazine article).
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Business Management,Entrepreneurship,Post.Bid.Ship.,Technology
David Hornik’s Perspective on Venture Capital
During this season of political debate with questions swirling about whether the US will re-elect the ‘we need an all-serving, ever growing government, wary of business perspective’ held by President Barrack Obama or the ‘government which governs least governs best, business friendly, anti-regulation perspective’ held by former private equity professional Mitt Romney, there will be a great debate over the role private equity plays in capitalism. Questions such as whether the private equity industry is positive, negative or somewhere in between for most Americans and what should government’s role be if any in private equity.
click here to read the full post > > >
Harry George’s Keynote at 2011 Idea Funding
I have had the pleasure to meet many great business leaders and prolific investors over my career as an entrepreneur. One of the most influential and successful in both of these categories is Harry George of Tucson, Arizona.
For the past several years, Harry has been Arizona’s most active venture capitalist investing and serving on the corporate boards of several leading firms in the areas of technology and life sciences. I am very proud that Harry is both an investor and board member for Post.Bid.Ship., Inc., an Arizona-based start-up I co-founded with Jarret Hamstreet where we are attempting to automate the commercial trucking industry (an industry that represents over 5% of the US’s GDP).
click here to read the full post > > >
Points of View Featuring Micky
In January, Micky Thompson with Post.Bid.Ship., Inc. and Jim Goulka with Arizona Technology Investors Forum (ATIF) were invited to appear on Points of View with Ray Torres.
Micky and Jim were invited by host Ray Torres to discuss ATIF’s recent investment into Post.Bid.Ship. and their views on entrepreneurship, angel investors and venture capital. You can watch the interview now below.
click here to read the full post > > >
Should the Federal Government Regulate Executive Pay?
Watching the 2012 Republican Primary has me thinking about the role of government and it reminded me of a debate I participated in during one of my MBA classes.
During my Fall Semester of 2008, I was in the midst of my Management of Finance course at The University of Arizona Eller MBA and the US was facing one of its largest financial meltdowns since the Depression. The US government stepped in with billions in bailout money to save several banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the GM and Chrysler automobile companies. Several US federal officials and politicians proposed that the top executives for these companies should have their salaries and bonuses limited to $500,000.
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Eller MBA,Life Experiences,Politics
Looking Forward To…
My father and I had a conversation several years ago that we both share a fondness for “looking forward to”. We both enjoy greatly “looking forward to” a special event that is happening in the future and that “looking forward to” the event was a major part of the excitement.
Garrison Keillor is coming to Tucson, Arizona this week and my wife 6 months ago bought me and her tickets (mostly for me and her wanting to see me happy). Why 6 months in advance? I seriously doubt there was a run on the tickets. Maybe she knows that “looking forward to” is part of the fun for me.
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Life Experiences
2011 Year in Review for Micky Thompson
The 2010 year saw the end of my time at The University of Arizona where I completed my MBA in Entrepreneurship. I was delighted to end the 2010 year being featured on the cover of The University of Arizona’s Eller Progress Magazine.
2011 started off on the same theme of media where I saw my life highlighted on The University of Arizona’s homepage. I felt very fortunate and blessed to have just those 2 media events happen. For a country boy from Tennessee to be on a cover of a top 20 research university magazine and then be highlighted on their website homepage for my entrepreneurial life was almost unbelievable. I would have never imagined that that media exposure would maintain itself through 2011.
click here to read the full post > > >
15 Tips for Your Next Flight
I am a moderate to heavy traveler and flying has become a regular travel method for me. My 6-year-old daughter is even a world-class traveler. When she was 4, she flew 14 times in less than one year and even earned a free flight from Southwest for being a frequent flier. People always comment how good a traveler she is which makes a daddy proud.
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Life Experiences
The 3 Things Entrepreneurs Do for Our Economy
When the question comes up about who is doing the most for Entrepreneurship in America, you will often hear the Kauffman Foundation mentioned. I am a huge fan of the Kaufman Foundation and this latest video from them solidifies why.
Watch the video below called “The Three Things Entrepreneurs Do for Our Economy” by Carl Schramm, President and CEO, Kauffman Foundation. It speaks volumes!
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Entrepreneurship,Politics,Venture Capital
Aging in Silicon Valley
Every year, I plan an excursion for my birthday and this year was no different. My company, Post.Bid.Ship., had recently purchased Salesforce.com (SFDC) to provide our sales team a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and it just so happened that SFDC had also scheduled their customer convention in San Francisco the same week as my birthday this year. When I shared with our awesome SFDC account manager the coincidence, she hooked me up with a heavily discounted ticket for my birthday and I was able to connect two very vital things: 1. learn more about a software application our company is deploying and 2. spend time in arguably the tech capital of the world: San Francisco.
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Life Experiences,Post.Bid.Ship.,Technology
15 Steps for Attracting Investors
Over the past 3 years, I have been blessed to do the following things…
- work with the Desert Angels, one of the nation’s largest angel investor groups located in Tucson, Arizona, redesigning their website, deploying the web-based deal management system Angelsoft and helping to perform investment due diligence
- volunteer as a business advisor for the Arizona Center for Innovation Business Incubator
- study venture capital at the University of California Berkeley
click here to read the full post > > >
First Commercial Video for Post.Bid.Ship.
Next week, Post.Bid.Ship. will be officially debuting our first ever commercially produced web video. My team and I at Post.Bid.Ship. are very proud of this video and would like to give you my loyal readers an early debut as thank you for following us on this journey. Enjoy!
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Business Management,Entrepreneurship,Post.Bid.Ship.
Who’s that on The University of Arizona homepage?
I was contacted last week by The University of Arizona and informed that I would be highlighted on their homepage. As you can imagine, I was very proud of such an honor.
To read the article that The University of Arizona wrote about my entrepreneural life and how I used The University of Arizona to improve my business skills, click here. (To see a larger version of the homepage, click here.)
click here to read the full post > > >
TruckItNow Featured in Arizona Daily Star
The Arizona Daily Star featured TruckItNow (now known as Post.Bid.Ship.) along with a quote from my business partner Jarret Hamstreet. It isn’t the Wall Street Journal but it is a pretty good start!
click here to read the full post > > >
Filed under: Business Management,Post.Bid.Ship.
Reply
Filed under: Life Experiences