bignoggins

1

Over a year ago, my friends Roberto, Charlena and I started a meetup for entrepreneurs at South Bay Church. Our idea was simple: connecting entrepreneurs together in community so we could learn from each other. The group centered around business discussions, book studies, and guest speakers who talked about their trials and tribulations running a startup. We had mild expectations, but the concept took off faster than we thought.

Over the past year, some of our meetings had over 100 attendees. It’s becoming clear that we need to take this to the next level, and provide something valuable to the startup community. As we brainstormed, we came to the realization that one of the most important traits in an entrepreneur is leadership. There is only so far you can go on your own, at some point you will need to sell others on your vision. Interestingly, that’s something that is rarely talked about in the tech sphere. Everything you read is about valuations, or financing, or building great products. But how about building great people and great organizations?

Well, not anymore. I’m proud to announce that our group is going to be putting on our very first conference: ELEO. The elevator pitch for ELEO is simple: it’s leadership for entrepreneurs. How do you get people to follow your vision that may be years ahead of its time? How do lead by example and persevere through adversity? What’s the character of an entrepreneur that is worth following? Those are questions we plan to tackle at ELEO.

To help us, we’ve gotten some great speakers lined up. Bobby Gruenewald and Terry Storch founded the YouVersion Bible App, which is one of the most downloaded apps in the history of the app store. It’s closing in on 100 million downloads! Chase Adam is the CEO of Watsi, one of the most innovative new YC startups and the first non-profit they’ve ever funded. Victor Ho is the CEO of FiveStars, another YC company that’s raised $15 million in funding. He was also recently named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Lastly there’s yours truly, who is by far the most unremarkable of the bunch. I think I’m there for racial diversity =)

Anyway, the best thing about the conference is that it’s absolutely FREE. Register today at eleoconference.com. Don’t wait long, because tickets are going fast!

Best,