In My Ears... Entrepreneur on Fire

Let me introduce you to another podcast I listen to on a regular basis. Entrepreneur on Fire is a popular new podcast created and hosted by John Lee Dumas. The format of the show is every day Dumas interviews an entrepreneur, said entrepreneur gives an intro and answers a set of questions. The questions range from “Can you tell us about a time when you failed?” to “what are you excited about for your business?” Due to the daily interviews of entrepreneurs from various diverse businesses, it is amazing to hear and compare the different answers to the same questions. This is the reason I love this podcast – I can listen to it every day or download episodes to listen them back-to-back. Another reason I love this podcast is it gives me confirmation on a few things about entrepreneurs:

We all fail in life. When I’ve experienced failure, it made me feel I was the only person going through my struggle. I felt embarrassed and unable to trust myself to choose the best for me. Eventually, I learned to move on by moving on. My philosophy is life will not stop for your failure. The best way to get through a setback is to come back and go hard. Surprisingly, I never could relate this experience to many other people. However, hearing day after day each and every interviewed entrepreneur talk about their failures and the ways they over came it, confirmed that everyone has a setback but we all have the ability to recover.

Mike Merrill is a Person and a Stock

Current business news seems interesting enough to tweet about but not to write about. I could write about BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) but a comeback makes a better story than a new phone.  Amazon is buying Goodreads but can be summed up as "I'm looking forward to it because I love both". T-Mobile got rid of contracts exciting new customers and pissing off current contracted ones. Kenneth Michael Merrill’s life is currently trading at $12.80. That’s right, I said his life. “Selling yourself: Publicly traded Portland man lets shareholders run his life” by Amy Langfield of NBCnews.com reports Mike Merrill “started a company that allows the public to make his major life decisions, including who to date…”

The company is KmikeyM and any of us can “buy stock in his life”.  Merrill has been “public” for five years and he has “320 shareholders who can buy and trade shares in him on a private market he set up online.” Merrill says this is legitimate although I thought selling yourself could be against the law.  Shareholders make all of his personal decisions. For example, the article reports he is allowed to date his current girlfriend “after he wrote a report on the first date and submitted it to shareholders as an action item”.

This is the first time I heard of a person selling shares of their life. Definitely makes for an interesting weird business story. Merrill briefly told his story to TODAY (article has link to video) and The Atlantic did a more detailed article on Merrill’s life in stocks.

Andrew Mason Fired as CEO of Groupon Inc.

Today was the last day Andrew Mason served as CEO of Groupon Inc. “Groupon fires CEO, Mason admits ‘failure’ in candid memo” reports Groupon “launched a search for a new leader to turn the company around, the same day its stock slid 24 percent after dismal quarterly results report.” The firing was confirmed by Mason’s brief memo to the company in which he jokingly stated he was let go: “I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today… the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.”

Chairman and co-founder Eric Lefkofsky and board member Ted Leonis will be interim CEOs. The article included a quote from a letter by the interim CEOs: “we all know our operational and financial performance has eroded the confidence of many of our supports, both inside and outside of the company. Now our task at hand to win back their support”.

Andrew Mason was a “quirky”, lighthearted CEO. His playful responses in interviews gave him as much presence as the company itself. However, with the company offering a service easily emulated by others, a “costly international expansion” and a “lost [of] three quarters of its value since its November 2011 initial public offering”, Groupon’s amazing reputation and performance faltered. The media response is that the firing is not a surprise and more of a relief for the company and investors.

Producers of Maker's Mark Experience Social Media Fail

Last week, Beam Inc. made a decision to lower the potency of their adored bourbon, Maker’s Mark.  The company sent an email stating that due to supply shortages they would solve it by diluting the bourbon. The alcohol by volume (ABV) was supposed to be reduced by 3%. According to the article I read last week and used as a source for my post, the shortage was due to international expansion. It came down between maintaining quality to satisfy American customers or reducing it to sell in international markets. Beam Inc. made the decision to reduce quality to expand. While the decision was definitely a slap in the face to customers, it was understandable considering Beam Inc. “reached out to ambassadors”. It seemed these “ambassadors” were prepared and thought out their decision well.

That was a week ago.

Today, Beam Inc. changed their mind. They’ve been “humbled” and the ABV will not change. According to LAtimes.com’s article “Maker’s Mark producer reverses decision to dilute its bourbon”:

"Maker’s Mark Chairman Emeritus Bill Samuels, the founder’s son, said the company focused almost exclusively on not altering the taste of the bourbon while stretching the available product and didn’t consider the emotional attachment that customers have to the brand and its composition"