Micky Thompson's Blog

That’s It! I’m Overhauling Our Irrigation System!

mickythompson — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:51:28 +0000

This month and next, I am departing from my regular technology, business and entrepreneurship topics and going personal. We’re going to talk plumbing. Yep, plumbing! My wife a few weeks ago texted me a photo of our water bill for February. To my surprise and my wife’s, our water bill which usually runs about $130 [...]

Carnival Cruise Lines Defines Service

mickythompson — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:32:07 +0000

I often receive comments and messages from family and friends requesting I share more about my family and personal life in my blog. For those of you that are regular readers, you already know I tend to write more about my professional life as opposed to my personal life. So this post is dedicated to [...]

Post.Bid.Ship Launching Innovative New Product

mickythompson — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Below is an article I wrote for the Arizona Commerce Authority and it appeared on the ACA’s blog. You can read the article below or click here to visit the original post. Post.Bid.Ship., Inc., launched in Tucson, Arizona by two 2010 MBA graduates from The University of Arizona, has spent the last 20 months building [...]

Post.Bid.Ship. Finalizes U.S. Patent Application

mickythompson — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:14:16 +0000

Often Jarret Hamstreet, my co-founder at Post.Bid.Ship. and I are complimented for being quick to implement necessary changes at our start-up. These changes by Jarret and me are done in our effort to put Post.Bid.Ship. on stable footing as well as to take advantage of the opportunities we see ahead for the company. In actuality, [...]

Pitching Post.Bid.Ship. in San Francisco

mickythompson — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:00:35 +0000

Over the last 2 years, Jarret Hamstreet and I have worked to build Post.Bid.Ship., an online marketplace helping make the $740 billion commercial freight industry more efficient by eliminating the millions of empty trailer miles operated by trucking companies each year. While Jarret and I have raised over $1.5 million thus far to bring our [...]

Why I Enjoy Reality TV

mickythompson — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 19:00:49 +0000

As a little boy and as a young man, I have always been excited about watching other people work. My wife and even one of my best friends Scott Smith get embarrassed by my staring at other people at work. My mother defends this obsession by describing my eyeballing as being ‘in deep thought.’ I [...]

Crossing The Chasm Is Hard

mickythompson — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 04:46:12 +0000

In last month’s article, I thanked several stakeholders who helped me and my co-founder Jarret Hamstreet start Post.Bid.Ship. What is Post.Bid.Ship.? Like Priceline.com sells empty hotel rooms and airline seats, Post.Bid.Ship. helps trucking firms sell empty trailer space. Click here to read last month’s article. Last week, Post.Bid.Ship. reached 2 monumental milestones as a company: [...]

Did I or Government Build My Business?

mickythompson — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:39:50 +0000

Thursday night, the Republican National Committee nominated Mitt Romney to be their 2012 candidate for President of the United States. Being an entrepreneur myself and having worked with investors from within the private equity community, Mitt Romney’s professional life in starting and building companies is a world I have been fortunate to experience. At this [...]

Founders Are Not Heroes, Get Back To Work

mickythompson — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:13:18 +0000

Today, I read one of my favorite articles regarding start-up founders and the sometimes often false image of entrepreneurs as heroes. As a founder who often thinks of myself as having hero-like qualities but often gets brought back to earth by my wife, this article caught my attention. The article features Ann Miura-Ko which Forbes in [...]

Own, Lease or Share? That is the Question!

mickythompson — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 17:00:55 +0000

I received a great question from Post.Bid.Ship., Inc. board member Base Horner the other day. I decided it was such a good question, I’m publishing my response to him here! His question was “As Post.Bid.Ship. grows, will we eventually buy our own servers or do you feel we can continue to outsource our hosting?” His [...]

David Hornik’s Perspective on Venture Capital

mickythompson — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:58:18 +0000

During this season of political debate with questions swirling about whether the US will re-elect the ‘we need an all-serving, ever growing government, wary of business perspective’ held by President Barrack Obama or the ‘government which governs least governs best, business friendly, anti-regulation perspective’ held by former private equity professional Mitt Romney, there will be a [...]

Harry George’s Keynote at 2011 Idea Funding

mickythompson — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:06:09 +0000

I have had the pleasure to meet many great business leaders and prolific investors over my career as an entrepreneur. One of the most influential and successful in both of these categories is Harry George of Tucson, Arizona. For the past several years, Harry has been Arizona’s most active venture capitalist investing and serving on [...]

Points of View Featuring Micky

mickythompson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:47:20 +0000

In January, Micky Thompson with Post.Bid.Ship., Inc. and Jim Goulka with Arizona Technology Investors Forum (ATIF) were invited to appear on Points of View with Ray Torres. Micky and Jim were invited by host Ray Torres to discuss ATIF’s recent investment into Post.Bid.Ship. and their views on entrepreneurship, angel investors and venture capital. You can [...]

Should the Federal Government Regulate Executive Pay?

mickythompson — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:27:52 +0000

Watching the 2012 Republican Primary has me thinking about the role of government and it reminded me of a debate I participated in during one of my MBA classes. During my Fall Semester of 2008, I was in the midst of my Management of Finance course at The University of Arizona Eller MBA and the [...]

Looking Forward To…

mickythompson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:04:31 +0000

My father and I had a conversation several years ago that we both share a fondness for “looking forward to”. We both enjoy greatly “looking forward to” a special event that is happening in the future and that “looking forward to” the event was a major part of the excitement. Garrison Keillor is coming to [...]

2011 Year in Review for Micky Thompson

mickythompson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:09:21 +0000

The 2010 year saw the end of my time at The University of Arizona where I completed my MBA in Entrepreneurship. I was delighted to end the 2010 year being featured on the cover of The University of Arizona’s Eller Progress Magazine. 2011 started off on the same theme of media where I saw my [...]

15 Tips for Your Next Flight

mickythompson — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:50:56 +0000

I am a moderate to heavy traveler and flying has become a regular travel method for me. My 6-year-old daughter is even a world-class traveler. When she was 4, she flew 14 times in less than one year and even earned a free flight from Southwest for being a frequent flier. People always comment how [...]

The 3 Things Entrepreneurs Do for Our Economy

mickythompson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:52:39 +0000

When the question comes up about who is doing the most for Entrepreneurship in America, you will often hear the Kauffman Foundation mentioned. I am a huge fan of the Kaufman Foundation and this latest video from them solidifies why. Watch the video below called “The Three Things Entrepreneurs Do for Our Economy” by Carl [...]

Aging in Silicon Valley

mickythompson — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:25:09 +0000

Every year, I plan an excursion for my birthday and this year was no different. My company, Post.Bid.Ship., had recently purchased Salesforce.com (SFDC) to provide our sales team a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and it just so happened that SFDC had also scheduled their customer convention in San Francisco the same week as my birthday this [...]

15 Steps for Attracting Investors

mickythompson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:09:41 +0000

Over the past 3 years, I have been blessed to do the following things… - work with the Desert Angels, one of the nation’s largest angel investor groups located in Tucson, Arizona, redesigning their website, deploying the web-based deal management system Angelsoft and helping to perform investment due diligence - volunteer as a business advisor [...]

First Commercial Video for Post.Bid.Ship.

mickythompson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:51:10 +0000

Next week, Post.Bid.Ship. will be officially debuting our first ever commercially produced web video. My team and I at Post.Bid.Ship. are very proud of this video and would like to give you my loyal readers an early debut as thank you for following us on this journey. Enjoy!

Who’s that on The University of Arizona homepage?

mickythompson — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:30:44 +0000

I was contacted last week by The University of Arizona and informed that I would be highlighted on their homepage. As you can imagine, I was very proud of such an honor. To read the article that The University of Arizona wrote about my entrepreneural life and how I used The University of Arizona to [...]

TruckItNow Featured in Arizona Daily Star

mickythompson — Sun, 08 May 2011 04:43:01 +0000

The Arizona Daily Star featured TruckItNow (now known as Post.Bid.Ship.) along with a quote from my business partner Jarret Hamstreet. It isn’t the Wall Street Journal but it is a pretty good start! Click here to read the entire article.

Fundraising Strategies for Entrepreneurial Ventures

mickythompson — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:01:40 +0000

This month, we are featuring our first guest writer. Jarret Hamstreet, the co-founder of Post.Bid.Ship., and I were invited to share with the graduates of The University of Arizona McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship our experience transitioning from graduate school to entrepreneurship. After receiving the invitation to speak, Jarret started writing down the most important lessons he [...]