Our team has worked incredibly hard to get us to this point and we are excited to take the company to the next level.  The small business lending market is so painfully inefficient that it’s difficult for small business owners across the US to get the capital that they need.  We’re anxious to help both the lenders (banks, credit unions, lending institutions) and small business owners so that they can connect more efficiently.  Goal:  make small business loans simple!

I’m especially excited to add Glenn Michaels (Highway 12) and Brian Hirsch (GSA VP) to our Board of Directors.  They are incredibly talented and have already added a ton of value to our strategic goals.

Finally, I’m especially grateful to my incredibly patient wife (that puts up with an entrepreneur that doesn’t stop), our mentors and advisors (you know who you are), and the entire Utah entrepreneur community.

This is only the beginning.  The best is yet to come!

Graphic Designer

Position Summary: utilize strong production and design skills to create high quality marketing materials from inception to completion for the Marketing and Sales departments.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design and produce professional marketing materials (direct mail, magazine/newspaper ads, and printed collateral) and online creative in accordance with global style guide and Lendio marketing standards
• Create banners for web to maximize appeal and click-through rates
• Create event marketing materials/signage that fully represent the Lendio brand
• Create online components, emails, banners, and landing pages to promote campaigns and brand messaging
• Work with head graphic designer to ensure that creative design reflects strategy and is within budget
• Post/retrieve electronic files to FTP site and share content with team as needed
• Attend to multiple marketing projects and meet all production schedule deadlines associated with the projects
• Update existing creative designs and copy to reflect current campaigns
• Work with third-parties as needed to complete projects
• Other duties as required and assigned

Qualifications:

• Experience: At least two years of graphic design production experience required
• Technical Skills: Strong production skills required; flash skills required; complete understanding of Mac platform and all Mac-based software applications (Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat) required; knowledge of web based applications preferred; solid understanding of image formats (EPS, TIF, GIF, JPEG, PDF) required; understanding of graphic compression tools and their use required; prior experience with FTP required; basic understanding of Microsoft Office applications as well as Google Applications; working knowledge of four-color printing process, digital production, and pre-press delivery formats required
• Communication Skills: Strong written and verbal communication skills required
• Other Skills: Ability to multi-task and be flexible in a high-pressure, fast-paced environment required; ability to work additional hours to meet deadlines required; strong attention to detail and ability to solve problems required; ability to work in a team environment required
• Other Requirements: Ability to sit for long periods of time with reasonable accommodation required; ability to look at a computer screen for long periods of time

If you know someone, please have them contact me at bblake “at” fundinguniverse.com.  Thanks!

What’s interesting about these company histories is that our site actually ranks higher in SEO than a lot of their own sites which means that we get a decent amount of traffic of people that think that our company history page is the actual company’s website.  As a result, we get quite a few emails from customers that are meant to be sent to some random company, but somehow got sent to us!  Over the past few years, we have received some pretty funny email “complaints” from these customers and so I thought that I’d post a few to provide a nice laugh.

to whom it may concern. i am a faithful purchasers of sckters sneakers. i must have about ten pairs. in the summer i purchased two pairs of shape ups one pair in pennsylvanis and one in new york the pair i purchased in pa. where black ones. the right sneakers open up on top of of the sneakers right to the back, the material just opened straight to almost the back, i am very suprised. all the years buying sneakers from your company this never happened. i am hoping if you people can replaced them for me . thank you so much , mrs ____

I was trying to find out from Chock Full of Nuts Coffee if they stopped putting the coffee scoop in the cans of coffee, I know in the 70\’s when I lived in N.Y we only drank this coffee ,but here in LasVegas its Folgers or Max.House, but the tip of my little blue coffee scoop that I have been using sience 1976 broke off,I still use it of course its just a bit of the handle,so I asked my daugther to buy me a can of chock full of nuts and there was no scoop in the can I couldn\’t believe it. Did I get a bad can or did they stop putting the scoop in the cans? Thank you for your time

Hi my name is _______, I have a friend who drives a 95 chrystler I know it\’s a 4 door. I was woundering if you do or know someone who work on cars to fix a water hose that is leaking.

I have been using Labatt\’s Blue for over 30 years and today after work I came home for a cold blue and when I opened it the whole top of the botte came off. Now that is a waste of a beer. What a scam!  What can be done about this?

I had a bad day at __________ in San Angelo,Texas this weekend. Refuse to serve my party because being from Oklahoma. This weekend was the Texas and Oklahoma Game. Befor I cashed out I was noticing every Oklahoma fan was getting the same treatment. it felt like some kind of scam.  I will never go back into __________ to watch another game.

Since most of our management team is copied on the customer service emails, you can imagine how funny some of these are when they arrive in your inbox.  Hopefully, you think some of these emails are as funny as I do!  :)

She said, “If we are not the first person that the CEO calls (outside of the internal management team) about questions, problems, good news, etc.; then we feel that we are not doing our job.”

That explanation painted a very clear picture of how important it is to their firm to really partner with their portfolio companies.  That is a real compliment to the team at Volition and their philosophy.  Since then, I have asked myself the question of who do I call?

Obviously, first I start with our executive team.  We all get along very well and it’s a normal daily occurrence to have us talking on the phone at night and/or passing emails back & forth until the late, late nights or very early mornings.  Next, I usually call my wife.  While we don’t get into as much detail, she is definitely aware of what’s happening and provides a nice sounding board.  Finally, I usually call one of my brothers.  I have several brothers that are business executives (Adobe, Wal-Mart, BeachBody, etc.) and another that is an attorney.  It’s nice to get the opinion of someone that is un-biased and can bring in an outside perspective.

So… who do you call?

Well, that first introduction has now led into bigger and better things… and we are excited to announce that Michael Gerber will be the keynote speaker at FundingUniverse’s upcoming Angel Investor of the Year Award luncheon!  Here’s why Michael is such a stud:

• He’s authored 13 books on entrepreneurship — the most notable are the The E-Myth Revisited and The Most Successful Small Business in the World.
• He’s appeared on BusinessWeek’s best seller list for 28 consecutive months!
• Currently a NY Times Best seller
• Founder of E-Myth worldwide with over 70,000 clients in 145 countries

As you can see, we are pretty lucky to have him here in Utah!

We are also excited for our 2nd annual Angel Investor of the Year event.  Last year, Scott Frazier from the Utah Angels won the prestigious award with Greg Warnock being named the Mentor of the Year.  If you know of any angels in Utah — please nominate them here.  If not, plan to join us on June 23rd at the Grand America for the luncheon.  We had over 300 people in attendance last year and we expect around 500 this year.

As of 5 pm this afternoon, you now have the chance to post your business/business idea onto IdeaPitch and win $2,000.  We just released the new FundingUniverse Facebook app that will be a idea competition that happens every 2 weeks.  It’s simple…

1. Record a video
2. Post it to FundingUniverse IdeaPitch
3. Get as many people as you can to vote on the video
4. Video with the most votes (after 2 weeks) wins $2,000
5. Rinse & repeat!

There are no strings attached — we don’t get equity in your company, nor do we expect you to pay it back as a loan.  For the next two weeks, we are opening up to friends and family — so get your ideas & videos going.  Good luck!

BoomStartup, a mentorship-driven investment program for Utah, needs you startup software business’ application now.  Startup software businesses can receive $15,000 of capital investment, $15,000+ of in-kind services, and mentoring from some of the state’s most successful entrepreneurs and mentors.  In exchange, BoomStartup gets 6% common equity in your company.  This is all based on successful models working around the country, like TechStars (www.TechStars.org).  The deadline is this coming Sunday (April 25) at 11:59 pm, but it is highly recommended to get the application in earlier so it gets the most consideration possible.

Who is Eligible?

• 4 awesome companies that pitched to a crowd of 450+ audience members.  Companies included:

1. 1. TripWare — cool technology that books your entire trip & creates an expense report in 3.5 mins.
   2. Regreet — a green greeting card company that allows you to re-use greeting cards and track their journey online
   3. Xit Poll (Cleva Technologies) — kiosk-like portal that takes surveys from customers in a retail location
   4. HighPoints Learning — online technology that provides affordable tutoring to k-12 students — WINNER OF THE $50k in prizes that we gave away!

• Star-packed panel of heavy hitters included:

It was a lot of fun to see the FundingUniverse brand gain so much traction in the national spotlight.  Michael & Norm had a great time on the panel — in fact, they were having a “Grumpy Old Men”-type -spat in front of the audience which made it fun and interesting.

After the FundingUniverse CrowdPitch, Alex and I had several discussions with Michael Gerber and his team and are excited about some potential partnership opportunities that may arise their.  Michael is a brilliant man that knows the world of small business.

Let’s just that entrepreneurship is alive and well among Utah’s university programs.  I’ve seen so many fantastic entrepreneurs with great ideas and I love being a part of that.  I guess that the reason that I’m so passionate about helping student entrepreneurs is because I truly believe that the best time to start your entrepreneurial career is either while you are in school or just after you graduate.  Here are a few reasons why:

1. Getting out and starting a company could be the greatest learning experience that you’ve ever had.  I’m not sure if there is anything that compares to real-world entrepreneurial experience to teach you about business.  It becomes apparent very quickly what is “academic” vs what is “street smarts.”
2. You don’t have a lifestyle to maintain.  Most students are used to living in apartments, eating ramen noodles, and riding the bus.  This type of lifestyle is key to the success of a boot-strapping entrepreneur because you are doing everything that you can to stretch your dollars.  On the other hand, those that start their business later in life have a mortgage to pay, kids to support, and a lifestyle to maintain.
3. You won’t waste a lot of time wondering whether or not your are an entrepreneur. How many people do you know that have spent their entire corporate career wishing and/or talking about getting out on their own on being an entrepreneur?  All too often, those same people make the jump only to find out that they don’t really like being an entrepreneur (for whatever reason).  If you give it a run just out of college, you have the opportunity to figure out if this is the type of lifestyle you want to live and still re-vert back to a great corporate career if that’s the decision you make.  I’d also venture to say that the experience will set you apart and help you land a corporate job.
4. You’ll have time to recover. Going along with #3, you’d still have the ability to recover financially the rest of your career if you start and fail young.
5. You have more energy. Entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs, high mountains and low valleys, exciting times and disappointments, early mornings and late evenings… you get the picture.  When you are young, I’d venture to say that you have more energy to be able to handle all of the challenges that come with entrepreneurship.
6. It’s sexy! Ok… I don’t really know how else to say this, but you all know what I’m talking about.  There is definitely a group of young entrepreneurs that attract attention from the community and form a bond.  I know that I am good friends with a lot of other young entrepreneurs because we are all going through some of the same challenges.

If you can’t tell, I’m a big proponent of starting your entrepreneurial career when you’re young.  In fact, I just realized that half of our management team started their entrepreneurial careers when they were students!

We’re super excited about this announcement as this technology is one small piece to our ever-growing strategy to help small business owners.  Over the 2 years, we have really expanded our vision from the original idea to help entrepreneurs connect to angel investors.  That is still at the very core of what we do, it’s just that now we can do so much more.  We’ve taken a broader focus to small business funding and have added over 400 banks across the US to our platform.  We can now help business owners navigate their way to obtain SBA loans, unsecured lines of credit, business credit cards, equipment loans, alternative loans, and equity investments.  This alone has made a huge impact on our ability to increase the number of companies getting funded.

We’ve also expanded our product line as to help business owners grow their business.  For example, it many cases, business owners need to lay a stronger foundation before approaching a bank to get a business loan.  This may include getting a website, writing a more solid business plan, and/or improving their marketing & sales strategy.  We can now identify the needs of the business owner and then figure out efficient ways to offer them what they need.  By so doing, this improves the business owner’s chance to succeed.  A by-product of that is an increased chance of getting approved for a business loan.

That’s where TwitJump comes into play.  We are excited about the opportunity to really help up and coming companies increase their social media strategies to increase their customer base.  Unlike anything theretofore, social media has evened the played field to allow small businesses to play on the same level as large companies.  If used correctly, we feel strongly that small businesses can use social media strategies to attract new customers and increase sales.  We have already seen many case studies from clients (chiropractors, restaurants, tech companies, etc.) that are proving out our assumptions.

You’ve also heard that we are expanding across the US.  We have already hired reps in Arizona and Colorado, with the hopes to get 3 more reps hired within the next couple of months.  It’s an exciting time right now at FundingUniverse and I’m enjoying the ride!