Helping Others Spark a Startup

By Susan Kim, MANAGING EDITOR



For an entrepreneur, what's the next best thing to starting your own company? Evidently, it's helping someone else start theirs, whether that means serving on company boards, working for a local or state government or operating a nonprofit.

Ronald Monford, former president and CEO of the Baltimore information technology services company Mind Over Machines, compared the feeling of helping other entrepreneurs to the feeling athletes get from coaching the next generation.

"I think it's a pretty normal reaction if you have learned how to do things well in life - whether it's athletics, business or music - to want to pass that knowledge and wisdom on to others who are coming up behind you in that particular area," said Monford.

Monford has managed to pass on his flame of knowledge to entrepreneurs in Maryland even though he relocated halfway across the country to Austin, Texas. He is now serving as CEO of the software firm Mindover Corp., and still offers consulting services to businesses in Maryland and throughout the mid-Atlantic.

During his stint with Mind Over Machines, he oversaw more than a five-fold increase in revenue. Monford said he simply finds it fulfilling to help others carry through an idea and turn it into a business.

"It is rewarding to work with someone who has a terrific business idea but no knowledge of how to run a business. It's rewarding to help them add to that good, solid business discipline."



'They Won't Always Listen'

Some seasoned entrepreneurs find a place in local governments, where they can observe the local economic scene and help entrepreneurs find a niche.

Vic Hess is entrepreneur-in-residence at the Howard County Economic Development Authority's Center for Business and Technology Development.

Looking back on his own career, Hess said he wants to help today's budding entrepreneurs avoid making the mistakes he made. "The challenge is that, in today's environment, things move so fast that if you don't help these people, a large number will fail - and that would be tragic."

Hess's many successful startups, along with his sense of humor, are known throughout the region. "These entrepreneurs won't always listen, by the way," he said. "But passing on my knowledge to others, in my view, is good for the economy if my mentoring helps someone succeed."

Hess said he still has that rush of excitement when he helps someone open the door to a business - without the sleepless nights worrying about payroll. "I'm able to do something I've done in the past without that constant accountability."



Starting in the Nonprofit World

Other serial entrepreneurs find that starting a nonprofit lets them combine their business knowledge with a sense of giving back. In Rockville, Renee Lewis, chief catalyst for Path Forward International, has just launched the Path Forward Center for Innovation, a nonprofit that will serve entrepreneurs in Maryland and across the globe.

"This nonprofit will be for women who want to build businesses and contribute to the economic development and jobs in their local communities. We will be bringing local entrepreneurs into certain areas to support women as they expand and grow their dreams," said Lewis.

Lewis is also an instructor for University of Maryland Baltimore County's ACTiVATE program, which trains mid-career women to start companies using technologies developed at area universities and research institutions.

With the new Center for Innovation, Lewis hopes to support mainly technology entrepreneurs. "There are so many wonderful, educated women with nowhere to go to get the business knowledge they need, and the help they need to put together the infrastructure."

Lewis and her colleagues have already been working in South Africa to help women entrepreneurs launch their ideas. "We are not trying to impose ourselves, but we trying to be a resource," she said.



'Birds of a Feather'

From presentations to the Chinese Space Agency in Beijing to a talk before Greek CEOs in Athens, Tom McCabe is a globetrotting serial entrepreneur who loves helping up-and-coming entrepreneurs make that first step. As founder of Columbia-based McCabe & Associates, he said today's entrepreneurs have more mentors than entrepreneurs of a few decades ago.

"Helping other people start businesses brings back a lot of fond memories for me - memories of what it was like making that first step. And it brings to the table something that was missing when many of us did it at first," he said.

Experienced entrepreneurs often reach out to others because they are simply kindred spirits, he reflected. "I think they are birds of a feather. Oftentimes, the people who will take that step are philosophically kind of similar."

McCabe now serves on the boards of several U.S. and European companies, and he's leading a project to apply mathematical analysis to the DNA double helix.

"True, pure entrepreneurs - we never stop," he said. "When you talk to someone who is about to do it or has done it, you get much more gut and primal issues."