Matt Ackerson wrote a different chapter for his life after graduating from college: He started a business.
By John Exley
May 2009: most college graduates are in full panic mode [http://www.naceweb.org/spotlight/2009/c052809.htm]. The ‘lucky ones’ have accepted jobs with big corporations. Very few are taking a stand against the status quo. Meet one of the exceptions: young entrepreneur Matt Ackerson [http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattackerson]. Having started a couple businesses as a student at Cornell University, Matt is determined to conclude his collegiate career by doing one thing: following his dreams of building a successful startup.
He did just that.
As summer comes to an end, Matt Ackerson has experienced the full-time life of a young entrepreneur. Matt is the Co-Founder & CEO of Bluesky Local, a startup that offers an innovative restaurant marketing software solution. He also writes daily articles on his entrepreneurship blog, Venture Kid.
Matt shares some of the most valuable lessons he’s learned since entering college and from his recent experiences building a startup company.
1. How do you pitch your startup, Bluesky Local?
Bluesky Local offers the world’s first Slow Sales Response (SSR) restaurant marketing solution for independent local businesses and chain restaurants. The problem it addresses is plummeting sales caused by external factors such as time, weather, and seasonal changes. It tracks and responds to these factors in real-time by delivering coupons to local consumers via email, text-message, and Twitter.com, thus boosting sales. (You can follow Bluesky Local on Twitter: www.twitter.com/blueskylocal).
2. What kind of advice would you give someone in high school who is struggling to find his or her passion and can’t figure out what to major in at college?
The only way to fail is not to try. First, figure out your options in terms of adventures to embark upon or, in the case of school, classes to take. Take on whatever sounds cool and interesting to you, even if you think it will be tough to get a good grade. Grades aren’t everything. They count for so little by the time you’re ready to kick-off at the end of your life.
3. What is the #1 piece of advice you would give someone entering college or graduating and entering the ‘real world’?
There are two questions here so I’ll give two answers. For someone entering college my advice is not to worry so much about grades. College is about having new experiences and meeting extraordinary people, whether they are your classmates, professors, or guest speakers. Be like a sponge and soak it all up. Of course, don’t try to cram too much in, it’s better if you can be like a “focused sponge” rather than running around like a chicken with its head cut off, from club to class to another extracurricular activity. If you fill your life with constant movement, you’ll miss the joy of so many little things that only happen with patience and on slow, empty nights where there’s nothing to do but stay up late and talk with your roommate about some random business idea you’re thinking of…
My advice for someone leaving college is not to get sucked into the mindless group-think about the need to compromise to do something (such as taking a job, or going back to school) when maybe that’s not what you want to do. Because, you know what? One day you’ll wake up and you’ll be old and close to the end, and you’ll have to live with the decisions you’ve made about your life. What will you be thinking of that day as you reflect on your life? On that day I know I’ll be smiling, probably looking forward, thinking of some other crazy idea or challenge that I’m excited to embark upon.
Money and grades are important, but you don’t have to comprise your dreams for them. If you’re passionate in life and smart about when to quit and when to stick, you’ll be happy and you will succeed.
4. What is the first story you remember of yourself that foreshadowed your future entrepreneurial aspirations?
When I was a little kid I didn’t know anything about business or investing or start-ups or any of that. I did have this vague idea that I would do something on my own and that I would take risks and work hard in order to see it through. Since I didn’t know anything about business, but I did like to read and write, I started writing novels. I started and stopped writing at least ten different fictional novels over the course of the next 10 years. The year before I transferred to Cornell I took an independent study where the goal was to produce a first draft manuscript of a novel.
I still plan to write a complete novel someday but I’ve put that to the side for the time being. My focus and ambition is solely for the company right now. In the meantime I’m “taking notes” for that future novel.
5. If you could go back to your freshman year of college, what’s the one thing you would change?
I wouldn’t change anything.
6. If you could go back to the moment you started your first business, what is the one thing you wish you could change?
I still wouldn’t change anything, but if I could go back and have my current self meet my past self I would yell at him and say “Hey! Your revenue model sucks! What are you thinking?” Then I’d laugh. My first two businesses were horrible when it came to making money and creating any real value.
7. In the next 5 years, how will you personally define or measure:
a. Happiness
b. Success
c. Self-fulfillment
If we were to cross paths at that time and you observe me to be a traveling bohemian on a motorcycle, who paints and writes daily, you can ask me this same question and I will say, “This.”
8. What does the typical day consist of for Matt Ackerson?
It’s a mix of talking (with my business partner, clients, and advisors), writing, web design, cooking, exercise, sleep–wake the next day and repeat. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Thanks to Matt for doing this interview! Learning about his life as a young entrepreneur straight out of college was very beneficial to my future goals.
I agree that rest is huge…I only get a few hours of sleep each night, luckily I think it is in my DNA to perform on little sleep! Haha, there is definitely an increase in my performance results after getting 7 hours though.
Good stuff!
Good luck to Matt and Bluesky Local.
GREAT interview. You guys are both such motivated and intelligent thinkers.
Matt, I didn’t realize you were so eloquent under the gun! I’m looking forward to reading the novel you’ll publish in 20 years.
- Pete Kistler
CEO, Brand-Yourself.com
Great article and interview John. I am biased, but not that much…very interesting and Matt’s comments are both candid and confident! Getting a solid and intelligent start right out of the shoot of your college graduation is experience not often known. Having the guts to attempt such an endeavor is admirable. Nice work Matt.
I like John Maxwell’s position in his book Failing Forward, his encouragement is to not be afraid of failure and to look at it as a friend not foe. If we are not failing at anything it is only since we are not trying anything new. So essentially, he says, we are all failures; at least the best of us are! Matt realized and learned his “early” revenue model was no good, because and only because he tried one. Now he knows to avoid similar scenarios. His past “failure” is his new found friend.
I had the pleasure of getting to know Matt in our first semester of university and just in those few months, I sensed his determinism and ability to make the most of an opportunistic situation. Wish you all the best Matt! Stay grounded.