We’re going to take a new approach at solving the problems around drop shipping by offering private drop shipping software platforms to ecommerce retailers and wholesale suppliers. We’re leveraging the technology and experience we’ve developed at Doba over that past 9 years. I’m joined in this new company by 10 other rock solid guys from Doba that are jumping on board this new bandwagon.

Doba will keep plugging away solving it’s own problems by helping people get access to an aggregated source of supply through it’s virtual distributor model. I’m still a major shareholder and Chairman of the Board. In fact, Doba is sort of our first customer as we power all of their core data exchanges for virtual catalogs, real-time inventory, and orders.

So check out DropShip.com, especially our Company Overview page, so you can see what we’re going to go do as the Drop Shipping Action Team. Expect some mind blowing and awesomeness coming to ecommerce near you.

Rock n Roll.

I’m on a flight returning from a business trip to London this last week. The week prior, I spent 5 days off the grid in Montana. When I got back on the grid and only had 1.5 days with the family before jetting off to London, I realized it’d been pretty nice to not use social media for those 5 days. So I decided to continue a self imposed social media ban on my biz trip.

Outside of a couple of tweets for LaunchUp, and logging into FaceBook to promote our event page, I have been completely off of social media for nearly two weeks. Haven’t read any tweets, read any FB updates: zilch, nada, zero.

And you know what? My life is better for it.

Coming across this post by Chris Brogan in the midst of my experiment called The Time We’re Losing by Chris Brogan was perfect timing. Chris talks about how everyone always says, I’m so busy, there’s not enough time. But we waste prodigious quantities of time on crap that doesn’t matter in the least bit.

I’m not going back. FaceBook, Twitter, FourSquare, PlanCast, TripIt, Yelp and their hundreds of compatriots that ask you for your “friends” when you signup or use the service just suck up my time, with arguably extremely dubious ROI of any sort. It’s a giant ass black hole sucking your time — i.e. your life — right away from you.

I don’t want to make it sound like I’m addicted to social media. FaceBook has never had much allure to me, I occasionally pop on to skim portions of my twitter feed (where I follow less than 400 people), and I don’t really do much if anything with all those other social services. I can tell by watching some folks that they spend 100 or even 1,000 times more time and energy on it than I do. I don’t know how they do it. A minute on this stuff just seems like 99/100 times is a minute I should have done something more productive: like watch paint dry, or the grass grow, or HEAVEN FORBID…..GOLF! Or in all seriousness: work on my company, spend time with my family, or get to the outdoors.

There are pieces of social media definitely germane to my role of an entrepreneur and executive. My new project is to find ways to work around the black hole and engage solely on my terms. Extract/provide the value I need to in a way there is an ROI. I need a way to put likely relevant things into one pipeline to worry about, and in a great twist of irony, I think that pipeline will will be email and I’ll make my email problem worse in the short run. I’ll set up twitter to email me when I get an @, email certain twitter feeds or searches, continue to use Summify (where I found Chris Brogan’s post) and similar services. But then I can focus on filtering signal from noise in one place. I currently do this by quickly skimming through several eCommerce newsletters I subscribe to, and I also do this by using NudgeMail extensively to manage email as tasks/reminders.

Anyway, I’m sure it will evolve. I just don’t have enough time in the day to worry about social interactions with hundreds or even thousands of people inside of services that are a serious stretch as to whether they deserve to exist in the world at all. (ENTREPRENEURS: if your idea/solution needs to use the word “friends” in any capacity, I’m talking to you!)

Don’t take this the wrong way, but most of what we all spew on the Interweb doesn’t matter to us or to others. Black Hole. So my social media disengagement continues on.

PS – more to come on my plans to nuke my iPhone in most instances (especially when with family), on disconnecting daily, filtering signal/noise, EMAIL, etc. Technology is going to suck our lives away unless we actively fight against it!

Ten years ago today, my wife woke me up by yelling, “Jeremy, get out here, we’re going to war!” She had gotten a phone call telling her to turn on the TV. We watched the towers fall, and knew a lot just changed. I find myself flying to Boston today for the Shop.org conference on the 10th anniversary of that fateful day. And having to fly today makes it an especially sobering and reflective day. I was pretty removed from the situation compared to a lot of others who lost loved ones that day. To all of you: my thoughts and well wishes are with you on this tough day.

For me, today has got me to thinking, both about those specific events, but also just about the last 10 years. An event so impact-full happens in your lifetime and you can sort of mark your life by it. It puts a concrete time frame to things. Provides a point of reflection. At least today it did for me as I waited to board a plane.

First of all, since it was such a major event in United States history, I ought to comment on my country. But I won’t be able to say it better than Connor Boyack, so I’ll just link you to Connor’s post 9/11, 10 Years Later. He nails exactly my thoughts about America in the last 10 years. Not good. Not good at all. Go read what Connor says, then consider if the next 10 years of America’s history gets better or even worse. I know what way I see it going: downhill, probably faster and faster. I wish it wasn’t that way, as I love America.

But no need to spend today on that. It is what it is, and I can’t change it. What I do want to do is summarize my last 10 years. So here’s what is in my head at the moment.

GearTrade – we were about a year into GearTrade full time 10 years ago. Like all good first time entrepreneurs, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but thought we did. Had made some good progress (we thought). Right around now was when all our efforts to raise additional $ or find a bridge failed, we ran out of money from our friends/family/angel round, we laid everyone off (13 if I remember right), then shortly after merged with WebOutdoors (Ryan Nichols who was living nearly the identical story), found someway for the 3 or 4 of us to hang on for another year, and then sold the assets in Oct of 2002. Definitely not a success. Definitely not a catastrophic failure. And the lessons learned? Priceless. One thing I’m most proud of? GearTrade is still running today. We might not have executed right, might have been wrong on timing, might have misjudged the size/scope of the opportunity, but the problem/solution we identified was real. If I ever could find time to blog, I could fill 100′s of posts about those 2 years. Maybe a goal for the next 10 years?

Doba – we started the entity that would become Doba October 22, 2002–the day the asset sale for GearTrade was signed. That’s 9 years ago in 5 weeks. 90% of my professional life the last 10 years have been spent working on and at Doba. We started as Secure Offer doing email marketing, lead generation, and SEO products. Anything to make $ so that we could spend it to solve virtual inventory and drop shipping on the B2B side of eCommerce. We launched that first solution as Wholesale Marketer, and then changed the name to Doba in 2006. The entity is now TriHoldings.co and we run Doba, Simple Source, and are launching our next product/biz model DropShip.com at aforementioned Shop.org tmrw. Over those 9 years, we exploded and were the fastest growing company in Utah, #23 on the Inc 500, and #6 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. We have won Utah Business best companies to work for 3 times in the last 4 years (we forgot to apply the year we didn’t get it.) We have 65ish awesome employees who bust their butts to make our company go. We will have our most successful and profitable year in our history this year, all while investing significantly into these new opportunities (Simple Source, DropShip.com). And the proudest thing of my entire entrepreneurial career? We did all of it without any investment capital. Not. A. Single. Dollar. of outside funding. I honestly can say I never thought I’d be at any company I started after 9 years plugging away. But I am, I’m pumped, and the next 10 years for the company are going to be super great. We have lots more big problems to solve. That 90% has been a major defining period for me, has taken a ton of my energy and faculties, and I’m grateful to have been (and to continue to be) part of it.

LaunchUp – I started LaunchUp.org in 2009 after talking with lots of people about the need for Utah to have an event that got people out of their offices, their homes, their entrepreneurial silos to get together and geek out on entrepreneurship. The mental image I had was of community barn raisings of yesteryear. Then I heard Barack Obama talk about two things: one, give back and be part of something bigger than yourself; two, that we need to support the doers, the risk takers, the makers of things for America to be successful. Two days later, LaunchUp: Barn Raising for Entrepreneurs was born, we had the LaunchUp site up, and we started doing events a couple months later. We did a couple, then after a many month break due to a life curveball (see below), started at the end of 2009 going every month. We’ve done 22 events in Utah. We average over 100 attendees each time. We are starting events in Las Vegas this week, Seattle and Northern Utah before the end of the year, and hopefully lots more next year. We’re setup as a non-profit, and there’s a great number of people donating time and money to make this work. Almost 70 companies have presented at our Utah events. Some have failed. Some have succeeded. Some entrepreneurs have gone through the entire lifecycle, and we think LaunchUp has been a positive influence in the community. It’s my labor of love, and I hope others will try to find something altruistic to get involved with and give back.

Amy – we’d been married just over two years 10 years ago. We just celebrated our 12th anniversary this June. Hasn’t always been great, in fact at times has been the opposite of that, but we are awesome now. I love that woman, and I can tell you that ANY success I’ve had as an entrepreneur is because of her unfailing support and willingness to let me do what I do. That everyone could be as lucky as me to find someone to go through the highs, the lows, the mistakes, the failures and joys of life.

Kaitlin and Alex – didn’t have kids 10 years ago. Weren’t even sure we would have kids. We consciously decided to wait, as Amy was supporting us by working since I wasn’t getting paid much at all in the first year of GearTrade, and didn’t get anything the second year. If GearTrade had ended with me having to pay back the $150,000 and change of biz loans, leases, credit cards, etc I’d signed my name on for the biz, who knows…..but I digress. KK and Alex. Who knew how much you could love another human being? My kids are awesome. Although I joke with people that if you have kids, and if you’re honest, seriously honest, 50% of the time you think it was the best thing you did, 50% you wonder if it was the worst mistake. OK. It’s probably more like 60/40. But in all seriousness I love those little kid weeds like the dickens. That everyone could be as lucky as me to have healthy, smart, little versions of themselves. My favorite and best times in the last 10 years have been when we’re together with our small family on some adventure somewhere. It’s what life is about.

Life – I had quite an adventure in 2009. You can read all about the Curveball that was a large boulder picking a fight with me on Mt. Nebo. I got lucky. Had a near miss and it helps you reassess and focus on the right priorities in life. — Hint (especially for all you entrepreneurs out there): it’s family and friends, it’s why I put that last above, best for last and all that. — None of us know how much time we have, so go out and be awesome in whatever you spend your time doing. Do what you love, love what you do, and love those you’re with. Give back to others and the communities you’re part of. Don’t waste your time, you don’t know how much you’re got.

I think that’s the major stuff. Take a few minutes today and do your own reflection on your last 10 years. And write it down. You don’t have to publish to the world, but get it written down. Otherwise, no one will ever know what you thought. (BTW, a few tweets DO. NOT. COUNT. This stuff is way too serious/important for 140 char)

I’m off. Got lots to do, and only 3,650 days to do it in before I’ve gone through another 10 year life window. Maybe one of those to dos is more blogging so I don’t go 10 months between posts.

I know, I know. Probably the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

Why does my face look like this?

First, because it is AWESOME! Who ever said mustaches weren’t the bomb?!

Second, it’s because this November I jumped on team Movember UT to donate my face to raising awareness about cancers that affect men as part of the worldwide Movember and Movember US initiatives.

I started on Nov 1 clean shaven, and have gone about my business this month with this on my face. Reckless, I know.

I’m doing this because:
1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in his lifetime
1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime

This is a cause that I feel passionately about and I’m asking you to support my efforts by making a donation to support the great work of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG.

Click the button above or Donate to Me to donate online using your credit card or PayPal account. You can also check out my custom MoSpace page at http://us.movember.com/mospace/515904/

Thank you for your support! I’ve been crazy busy this month, so I’m coming from behind in my efforts to get some money raised and help push Team Movember UT towards it’s $5,000 goal.

Mo on!

The money raised will help make a tangible difference to the lives of others, through the world’s most promising prostate cancer research and LIVESTRONG’s programs that support young adults and their families battling and surviving cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please visit http://us.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/.

Next week I’m going to be at Incubate 2.0 in Cupertino, CA. Here’s a Prezi about Incubate 2.0

It’s coordinated by StartupCause.org and is being planned during Global Entrepreneurship Week. StartupCause.org is an initiative to bring together the leaders of local initiatives that help entrepreneurs create more and better businesses.

I love entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. At an early age, I told everyone I wanted to be an inventor. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, just didn’t know the word yet. Now, when people ask, what do you do, I say: “I’m an entrepreneur.” It’s awesome.

I also spend as much time as I can helping other entrepreneurs. No entrepreneur in the history of the world found success without standing on the shoulders of others and drawing from a larger community who gave time/money/mentorship/resources/advice to help them succeed. I’ve coined a term that I use to describe me and others like me: Entrepreneurial Instigators. This drive to give back and to “open source” is why I started LaunchUp.org. It’s why I spend a lot of time helping entrepreneurs and their startups.

I’ve met a lot of Entrepreneurial Instigators in the past few years. People like Geoff Domoracki who runs MidVentures in Chicago and runs their annual Launch event. Like Sanjay Parekh who helped found Shotput Ventures and runs Startup Riot every year. Like Robert Wuebker who started The Foundry at the University of Utah. Like Jeremie Berrebi who started Kima Ventures in France.

StartupCause.org and what they’re trying to do is Religion for us, and Incubate 2.0 is our Revival. I’m extremely amped up to attend. There are a few tickets left. You an instigator? Join us next week in Cali!!

Eight years ago today, me, Brandon Williams, and Dave Gray started what would become Doba. I can’t believe it’s been 8 years! And that we (and me) are still plugging away.

Every year, in October, we celebrate our birthday with our Doba Day celebration. It’s a major part of our culture. The culture that’s helped us win Utah Business Best Companies to Work For two times and that just makes Doba an insanely awesome place to spend your time each work day.

Doba employees rule. I consider many of them to be great friends. Doba Day 2010 is in the house, and it’s crazy.

You can watch my Twitter feed @jeremyhanks today for pictures and updates of the nuttiness.

I’m so excited about our plans that are shaping up for 2011 and beyond. Here’s to a lot more Doba Days!!!

- The Doba Dude

This Thursday is the Salt Lake City stop for the Small Business Technology Tour 2010. They’ve already been to Bay area, and are heading to Boston, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta next.

I’m speaking on “How Entrepreneurs Leverage Technology to Build a Successful Business” at 10:30 a.m.

Other Utah based speakers are Jesse Stay (Social Too), Brock Blake (Funding Universe), Tom Dickson (WillItBlend from Blendtec), Kelly King Anderson (Startup Princess), Jyl Pattee (Mom it Forward), and Brandt Page (Launch Sales and Marketing).

The full agenda is on the Small Business Technology Tour Salt Lake City page.

Try and register with the code DOBA for a free ticket (only 20). If those are gone, use DOBADISCOUNT for 50% off.

Hope to see you there.

It’ll be well-worth a day of your time.

Tuesday was my 36th birthday. Or as I put it in iCal as a recurring appointment (hey, I’m a forgetful person) a few years back: Greatest Day in the History of the World.

I got thinking that in a lot of ways, birthdays and the process of aging can teach us some things about startups and entrepreneurship. Here’s what I came up with:

– Time
Birthdays mark the passage of time. They signify an annual marker that combined will be your lifespan. Some lives are very long. Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997) lived to be 122 years old, and had the longest unambiguously documented lifespan (I’m 29.5% there). Some lives are cut short. But every year, without fail, time marches on, you get older, and although your total is unknown, you have one fewer marker left. A birthday is really just another day out of 365 in a year. However, having a day each year in our life to mark this passage of time is valuable. Startups are no different. Their lifespan is also unknown. It’s on average significantly less than human lifespans. And that lifespan marches on with or without active participation. Some startup lives are cut short. Mistakes or outside forces or innovation can disrupt a startup. So be grateful and reflective of the time you’ve had as a startup. Just as in life, you should find ways to mark passages of time in your startup. At Doba, we mark passages of time more frequently through various traditions we’ve built over the years. We have a monthly all-hands meeting. Quarterly board meetings. An annual BBQ. Christmas party. And yes, we do celebrate Doba’s birthday (Oct 22, 2002) with Doba Day every year. It’s how we keep track of time as it speeds us forward. It helps us make better use of the time we have. You should do the same in your startup.

– Pain
I know I’m not really that old. Someone told me Tuesday “welcome to the old man club.” I’m 36. I’m actually a far way from old. Not even to middle age yet. But you know what? I can tell I’m getting older. My body tells me through pain. I can only imagine how I’ll fill after riding my mountain bike 10 miles or hiking 50 miles or working towards 100 pushups if you tack on another 10, 20, 30, 40 years. Whoa. “Growing Pains” is the perfect way to describe it. Your mind is maturing and your body is aging. You have to adjust and react. One of my favorite quotes I came across last year during my recovery from my run in with a giant boulder was: “Make friends with pain and you’ll never be alone” – Ken Chlouber, founder of the Leadville 100 and quoted in Born to Run. Startups are full of pain too. The older they get, seems like the more varied and different the pains get too. Embrace the pain. Work through the pain. Find and look forward to the pain in your startup. It’ll make you stronger.

– Reflection
As I get older, and especially on my birthdays, I find that I’m more reflective and introspective. I think about the last year’s milestones, crisises, achievements, and failures. I also find that my priorities tend to undergo what I’d call more tectonic shifts when this day comes along that gets you thinking about the past year. It’s a good process, this reflection and realignment. Figure out how you can do this as an entrepreneur with your startup too. An annual “retreat” or “offsite” is a perfect time to go through this process. We do one at Doba at the end of every year.

– Overindulgence
I know every year on my birthday I can fall into the attitude that “I can do/eat what I want today by damn, it’s my birthday!” You really don’t need to overindulge to celebrate. (Exceptions for cake, see below) It’s better to be lean and mean. So every year I have a reminder that I am in control, and that while it is my birthday, I don’t need to go crazy to enjoy it. But a little craziness once a year isn’t going to cause too many problems.

– Goodwill
It’s a human tendency that when someone hears that it’s your birthday, they immediately say, “Happy Birthday!” With exuberance. To complete strangers. Restaurants give you free deserts. Family and friends send well wishes. All of this goodwill is generated because you’ve hit this annual marker and are a year older. In my experience, being an entrepreneur and having a startup generates a continuous stream of goodwill. 24/7/365. It’s like a birthday every day. Goodwill = muy bueno.

– Gifts
What do you get on your birthday? Presents. What’s the equivalent in the world of startups and entrepreneurs? Mentors, advice, services. Take advantage of the help of experienced entrepreneurs. When you’re involved in a startup, people will bend over backward to help you–to give you gifts. Take them. Be thankful always, but take as many as you possibly can.

– Cake
Overindulgence aside, on your birthday, you get to celebrate and eat cake. You’re commemorating a year’s worth of living. Startups should be the same. Have fun. Celebrate the ups and downs. Life should be about being able to have your cake and eat it too every once in a while.

Can you think of any others? Look forward to your thoughts in the comments. Happy Birthday to me! One year down; ?? years to go!

The folks at JetBlue woke up one day last year and said, stop the presses!! We’ve got an idea. Let’s sell a pass where in a typically slow time of travel, for a fixed fee, customers can fly ALL THAT THEY WANT for 30 days.

They called it the All You Can Jet (AYCJ) pass. They sold out several days early. This year, they brought it back. They’ve got quite the social engagement of people on their Facebook page for All You Can Jet.

I had some travel I needed to do for Doba in Sept; specifically, attend the Shop.org Annual Summit in Dallas and meet with some business partners in the Bay Area, etc.

Feature Creeper got a hold of me, and I booked the AYCJ pass with JetBlue. And then I booked 10 flights or so. Why’d I do that?

Well, long before LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter and all the latest Social Networking services du jour, if you wanted to build or grow a social network, well, you went places. And met people. Face-to-face. Crazy I know.

Back in January ’09, I posted 2008: My Year of Travel. And 7 Reasons Why Smart Entrepreneurs Will Make 2009 Theirs Here are a couple of the reasons I gave then that are still solidly behind my All I Can Jet decision:

1. GTD. For those unfamiliar with those 3 letters, it stands for: Getting Things Done. There’s an almost cult-like following that follows David Allen’s methodology/book. IMHO, sitting down with someone face-to-face is significantly more efficient in getting things done that anything else. I know, it’s 2010. There’s Skype and IM and the telephone still works too. But I’ve said before that sometimes you have to get on a plane or hop in a car. If you want to build relationships and turn those relationships into something getting done that benefits your business, travel is a home run.

2. Conferences/Trade Shows. Actually, quite genius. It’s like they’re providing a ‘people platform’ to bring people together to get business done. In a couple of days (sometimes only 1) you can accomplish more business than in weeks and weeks. Do your homework in advance and set up all the meetings you want. They’re going to be there, you’re going to be there, it’s like this uber confluence and vortex of GTD. Especially if you’re a new entrepreneur looking to develop or bring products to market, you HAVE to attend the relevant conferences/trade shows/events. It’s like the key to unlocking markets; you’ll learn more and meet more people in a concentrated time than any other way.

3. ROI. Track your travel expenses to the penny. Then look into your business for deals that got done and business activity that progressed, and I guarantee you’ll see a positive ROI on that expense. And then compare that to the deals that are hung up and not moving forward and the relationships that are going stale and not doing you or them any good, and you’ll see that you haven’t had face-to-face communication either ever or at least recently.

4. People are Social Creatures. We just are. Relationships are stronger when you have that face-to-face time. You want to know who your real friends/followers/contacts are? Log onto Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or your “social network” of choice. Think about it then. Skim through all that data. Guaran-damn-teed people you’ve shaken hands with somewhere sometime are infinitely more connected to you and your life and ultimately your business dealings and entrepreneurial success.

Here’s my schedule of cities. If you want to “connect” with me, the good old-fashioned way, or know someone I should meet with, let me know!

Boston: Sept 11-13
San Francisco: Sept 14-15
L.A.: Sept 19-20 
Seattle: Sept 23-25
Austin: Sept 27
Dallas: Sept 28-30

I’ll update with how many miles I traveled and how many hours I spent working like a fiend on my iPad or MacBook Pro in giant aluminum flying tubes of death at the end of Sept.