How it took decades to become an overnight success
He finally got the recognition he was looking for all his life.
This happened to my friend Jim Grady at the 2020 Technology of Georgia Summit. His company, HelloPackage, was selected as one of the Top 10 most promising young companies in Georgia. It is an incredible honor. I am so proud of him.
Jim worked for me as a sales rep back in the early eighties. He was a great success. He showed his early gifts of intelligence, passion, and drive. And his greatest gift of all, grit. Whatever he focused on achieving, he achieved. You could not outthink him or outwork him. He is like a dog with a bone.
Jim left our company after a few years.
He went on to another sales job, but he knew that wasn’t his path. He watched Richard Brock, my partner and founder of our company. Jim wanted to be like Richard. Jim and I saw the same thing in this man. He was the real deal. He was and still is one of the greatest entrepreneurs we ever met. Richard was made by God to be an entrepreneur. He didn’t choose it. It chose him.
This is also true of Jim Grady. He left his sales job telling me, “I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start and build a company just like this.”
His first stop was to gain the skills he needed to be successful. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and achieved his MBA. Everyone else in his class went right to Wall Street for the big bucks. Jim came back to Atlanta to join a startup.
Finally, he was ready.
He had the skill provided by formal education. He had the mentoring of great entrepreneurs. It was time. He started his first company. In the late 90’s he believed he locked into a big market problem. We talked. I believed it, too. He gave me a chance to invest, and I jumped at it. I even brought a couple of guys with me.
The company eventually needed more capital after it pivoted to a business-to-consumer model. He could not find the funding in Atlanta, so he made the sacrifice of moving his family to Silicon Valley. He raised super angel money and was off to the races. In the midst of building his startup while pitching VC’s, the dot-bomb hit. As quickly as this business started, it was over. Just like that. The investors flipped the business back to Jim.
He moved back to Atlanta.
He figured out how to make a living from that business for over ten years. But he was never fulfilled. His dream was to start a business focused on a big, complex problem. A problem requiring deep technology and real genius to solve it. This company, he reckoned, would require serious capital, experienced advisors, and great managers. It was the billion-dollar opportunity.
With the help of Merrick Furst of Flashpoint at Georgia Tech, he found it. The problem. The one people could not not solve. The problem they would have to spend money on. The problem impossible to ignore.
The problem Jim discovered.
We all know e-commerce is growing incredibly quickly. Amazon has dominated the retailing headlines for years. Did you ever think about how big a problem this would become for apartment owners? As an example, they have three hundred residents, and they all order online. When the packages arrive, the apartment’s main office is filled to the brim. The people they hired to sign new leases and serve residents are now warehouse professionals. Big problem.
Jim and his team are solving this problem.
They are recognized as the next generation solution for the last mile by the big three carriers and the multifamily housing industry. And this is why HelloPackage is one of the Top 10 most promising startup companies in Georgia.
And it only took Jim thirty years to get there. But there he was on stage, accepting his well-deserved award. Bravo!
Another award was given that day.
David Cummings was inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia. This is a high honor, and he is the youngest inductee ever. He built and cashed out of a $100mm business in his early thirties. He then had the vision to buy and build the Atlanta Tech Village. It is a hub of entrepreneurial activity in the Southeast. In addition, David’s investment savvy has him involved in some of the hottest tech companies in Atlanta. I think he is almost forty years old.
So within a few minutes of each other, two entrepreneurs were recognized by our community for their incredible achievements.
Jim Grady, a late bloomer, and David Cummings, an early bloomer.
I learned yesterday, it is never too late to achieve your dream. Nor is it ever too early.
Entrepreneurs are designed by God to make a difference.
They are here to serve people and make their lives better and to do it at scale. That’s what these two men are all about.