LOCAL Houston | The City Guide February 2018 | Page 52

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE
GOOD ADVICE
SEASONED TECH LEADERS TAKE ON THE NEXT GENERATION
AS A HOUSTON NATIVE WITH A 35+ YEAR RECORD OF EXPERIENCE IN TECHNOLOGY (PRIMARILY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING IBM ® , ORACLE ® AND BMC
SOFTWARE ® , WHERE I HELD EXECUTIVE POSITIONS IN SALES AND MARKETING), I RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTORING THE NEXT GROUP OF TECH
LEADERS. I WANT TO SEE HOUSTON BECOME MORE OF A TECHNOLOGY HUB, AND THAT’S WHY I GIVE MY TIME TO STATION HOUSTON AND ITS MEMBERS.
Station Houston has 400 members currently, made up mostly of technology start-ups in the Greater Houston area.
Houston is more focused than ever on bringing together entrepreneurs and creating an environment where they can
get advice, share ideas, raise capital and ultimately sell their products/services. I have mentored at Station for the
last year, meeting with entrepreneurs and giving them advice.
The reality is, most entrepreneurs have blind spots – areas of starting a company that they either aren’t aware of
or they have little experience with – for example, raising money, selling, marketing, creating a business plan, etc.
As an entrepreneur, I have experience in most of these areas or
know people who do. Most of my mentoring sessions are focused
expert ise available that a start-up could never afford on an hourly basis. Without the mentors at
around my strengths that I can advise them on: strategy, selling,
Station Houston, we would not have landed our first sale, and we would not have closed our round
marketing, messaging. I think the best piece of advice you can
of funding. There are mentors for every stage of a company’s development. It’s up to the members
give a start-up is centered on how they ultimately distribute
to take the initiative, determine the right potential mentors from the well-published schedule and take
their product and reach scale.
advantage of the program.“
When you’re an entrepreneur, it’s always good to test your
ideas on many people, see what they think and to constantly
evolve to have the best chance to build something that will be
desired by the market. Many entrepreneurs need to “pivot” their
companies because the market they were going after and the
solution they envisioned weren’t aligned. I view my mentoring
sessions as one of these tests and hopefully I can convey some
ideas that will help progress the companies I meet with…that
is certainly the goal.
At Station Houston, I’ve been working with ANDREW BRUCE,
the CEO of one of the organization’s member companies. He
says, “The mentoring at Station Houston has provided invaluable
advice to my company, Data Gumbo. There is a huge range of
ALEX CHANDY of 2DA Analytics agrees. “We have found mentoring programs to be a tremendous
resource for us as we started to grow our idea into a fully functioning business. Like many start-ups,
we have expertise in the domain where we are seeking to sell technology solutions, but we had our
blind spots across many dimensions of organizational development – from sales strategy, contract
negotiation and financing to employee acquisition and retention. These are critical aspects of com-
mercializing technology and can impair a start-up’s ability to scale to first revenue.”
He adds, “There is no shortage of advice available from consultants, financiers or online in the start-
up ecosystem. The danger is a lot of it can be distracting. Working with mentors such as Leland
has been invaluable. His advice on where to invest time and effort pays dividends not only in the
present but for the longer term and has been one of the keys to our success to date. Such guidance
only comes from those that have had the experience of walking the same path we are on currently.”
For more information, or to get involved with Station Houston as a mentor or mentee,
visit www.stationhouston.com.
01.27.2017
12:20pm
By Leland Putterman
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L O C A L | 2 . 2018
2 . 2018 | L O C A L
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