Marc Gorlin is a self-described “serial entrepreneur,” and that’s about as accurate a two-word description as you could come up with for the University of Georgia graduate.
He was involved with his first startup right after graduating from UGA 20 years ago, and he’s been launching companies ever since.
That first one was PGP, or “Pretty Good Privacy,” catching an early wave of what remains a hot field — Internet security.
But that was yesterday, and Gorlin has moved on more than once since then.
A few years ago, he was a co-founder of Kabbage, a company that began as a curious question, he explained to UGA professor Keith Herndon’s class in entrepreneurial journalism Wednesday.
“What would happen if eBay and a bank merged?” was the question, said Gorlin, a graduate of UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “What kind of horrific offspring?”
What came of that question was the data and technology platform that offers financing for small businesses.
Fast forward about six years to February 2015, and Kabbage appears in a UGA press release. The company ranks no. 1 in this year’s “Bulldog 100,” a list of the 100 fastest-growing companies owned or operated by UGA alumni
It’s raised about $100 million in venture capital and offers more than $3 million loans daily.
That’s one key to entrepreneurship, Gorlin told the young Grady College students Wednesday.
“You don’t have to focus on the answers, just ask the right questions, and the rest will take care of itself,” he said.
Being number one on the Bulldog 100 list is great publicity for any company, but Gorlin’s already onto something else, another question, another idea, something he thinks could be really, really, big — a new company called Roadie.
It’s kind of like Uber, but with ordinary people hauling things instead of people.
The idea came to him in February 2014, when he got a call from a contractor installing tile for him down in Florida; the tile arrived all broken, which would delay installation.
Gorlin was on I-65 in rivers of traffic — one river headed toward Birmingham, another traveling away from Alabama’s largest city.
What if someone was headed toward Pensacola, Fla, and had some extra room in his or her car or truck? What if they could pick up a few extra bucks by hauling someone’s tile, or a painting, or a kayak, road bike, grandmother’ furniture, whatever, to a place where they were headed toward anyway?
“There’s something leaving everywhere, going everywhere else, all the time,” he said. “It’s a more powerful transportation heat map than FedEx, UPS and the post office combined. It’s almost a natural resource, but no one’s tapped into it.”
Roadie launched earlier this year, and its future is ahead of it.
But it’s off to a good start.
“Right now the sharing economy is white hot,” he said.
More than 135,000 people have downloaded the app that allows you to be a shipper or hauler with Roadie, and the brand-new company has attracted millions in venture capital, including money from the transportation giant UPS, Gorlin said.
And maybe most important of all is the agreement they’ve got with Waffle House. Under the agreement, the ubiquitous restaurants serve as a safe meeting place for Roadie buyers and sellers.
One student asked if Roadie works better for bigger things, which would likely cost more to ship with the giants of parcel delivery.
But Roadie’s strong point is its right-now capacity, he said.
“It works better for same-day urgency,” he said.
Gorlin, whose father and brother are also lifelong entrepreneurs, had more advice for the students, tips important for both journalists and entrepreneurs, such as learn how to interview people, always consider yourself on deadline, and protect your sources — or as Gorlin paraphrased, “Take care of the people who take care of you, and it will pay dividends.”
And communication is of paramount importance, according to Gorlin.
“You’ve got to capture people’s imagination. Above all, tell good stories,” he said.
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