“Supporting the entrepreneurial community in Kentucky has always been at the forefront of our mission at Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC. I’m thrilled to represent the firm and serve on the board of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Kentucky. We are dedicated to entrepreneurship in our communities, and having this opportunity is truly an honor.”

http://www.facebook.com/googlelex?ref=mf

Why Cloud Engines Joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation

Share

Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 4:30pm

As the co-founder of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, I’m a huge fan of what the Entrepreneurs Foundation is all about.  Two weeks ago, when I was in San Francisco at Cloud Engines’ offices (makers of the Pogoplug and one of our investments) I noticed their Entrepreneurs Foundation plaque signifying their membership in the bay area chapter.  I asked Dan Putterman – the CEO of Cloud Engines – if he’d write a guest post about why Cloud Engines joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation.  It follows.

As a serial entrepreneur, it feels like there is always a reason to sacrifice; spending too much time at the office at the expense of one’s family, not getting enough exercise, eating poorly, and  certainly not taking enough (or any) time to give back to the community, environment or people in need. The rationale is that at some point there will be the ever elusive “exit” and things will
change. The truth is that most of us perpetuate the circle by starting or getting involved in something new right afterwards (being an entrepreneur seems to be in one’s blood). Although guilt can be a great motivator of change, most entrepreneurs just lament amount their shortcomings and soldier forward (tenacity is also one of the traits that makes us successful).

I’ve been trying to break all of the rules at Pogoplug.  Yes, we work hard and pretty much live on email morning and night, but I encourage people to take care of themselves and their family. And I do my best to personally demonstrate this life balance through example. This time around, we joined a wonderful organization called Entrepreneur’s Foundation, a well-run group of high-tech focused philanthropists that help you allocate a little time to give back to your community through events and individual time contribution and actually run a foundation on your behalf based on equity that your company donates to it.

Here’s what’s so cool about this model: the more successful a company is, the more the foundation grows in value.  The team then gets to put the money to good use on a liquidation event. This way, if you selfishly work tons of hours one week, you can put the guilt aside knowing that the growing the value of your company is good for more than just you and your investors. During our last board meeting, I proposed that we put 1% of our company into the foundation.  Everyone unanimously and enthusiastically approved the motion.  With the “big picture” out of the way, we’ve also picked two awesome organizations in San Francisco, 826 Valencia and Homeless Prenatal Program. We’re going to do some group events and spend some personal time helping these organizations, including helping to purchase turkeys for hundreds of families who will prepare their first Thanks Giving meal.  EF takes care of all of the details so all we have to do is show up and get involved.

Thanks to EF, we are giving back and  feeling great about ourselves – and most importantly, we are breaking some outdated and dumb rules about entrepreneurship.

Casey Barach joined Madison E-Zone in July 2001 as the first Executive Director.  Bringing extensive knowledge of New Economy Law, technology infrastructure, and marketing and business development. Casey also works with the Board of Mentors to coordinate the Mentoring Program and actively promotes the E-Zone through involvement with entrepreneurship and technology-related associations.  Casey is affiliated with CincyTech USA and the Regional Entrepreneur Network, a member of the President’s Committee of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, the MSAMS Team for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the State of Ohio Bar.

Prior to Madison E-Zone, Casey held the position of senior vice president of corporate development and general counsel for the Lottery Channel/Lottery.com. Before that, he was senior vice president/general manager of AT&T Broadband (formerly TCI Telecommunications, Inc.) where he had expertise in Internet delivery and products, telephony services, satellite television and cable infrastructure. He began his career in product management with the on-line company, Lexis-Nexis.  Casey earned a law degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, an M.B.A. from the University of Dayton, and a B.A. in political science from the Ohio State University.

We hope to celebrate the same success here in Kentucky.

Anyone interested in learning more, Please feel free to contact us in whatever format your prefer.

The foundation was created to allow entrepreneurs the opportunity to give back early in the creation of their company. The primary means is through a grant of stock options to the foundation though the foundation can work with entrepreneurial companiesin a variety of ways including accepting cash donations.

Another component fo the foundation will be the option to contribute to a STEM scholarship program.

The EFKY is one of many affilitates of the Entrepreneurs Foundation.  These affiliates have over 800 member companies and have provided cash and service to over 650 community organizations.

I need to thank several people who have been invaluable in getting this foundation of the ground:

Vitale Buford with Stoll, Keenon, Ogden has been invaluable in helping with the inaugural event; Anne Nash and Allison Lankford with BGCF for their support and to all of our board members for their contributions.

I also need to extend a thanks to Brad Feld and Ryan Martens for their guidance and experience with establishing EF Colorado.