Innholdsfortegnelse for Dec-15 i Entrepreneur Magazine

There are people and there are trends. Behind both? Thought. And the reinvention of thought. Trends and people can never be separated. The people part represents the soul—the heartbeat. What are trends? That’s the thing: They are created by humans rethinking the known ways of doing things. People are the force behind new ideas. And one thing we’ve learned here is that behind invention is humanity. There’s math and there’s something more: people and thought and passion—and the fire in the belly that lights the two. Yes, we have trends and the things that will define our future economy, but almost always, without fail, people define the trends. And the trends define the future. You, as entrepreneurs, are the future. The two are inextricably connected. Trends without the intellect are…

Shout Out No. Dear god, no. You did not just order the ravioli at a business lunch. Friend, you need help. Who better to give it to you than our very own Esquire Guy, Ross McCammon? His hilarious new book Works Well With Others (Dutton) will fill you in on the business skills and etiquette you need to know to get things done (or at least fake it) without being a jerk. We couldn’t be more proud. GrowthCon 2015 Entrepreneur on Dec. 15 in Long Beach, Calif., for a day of how-to sessions and networking opportunities. You’ll come away with fresh ideas, hands-on tools, powerful insights and strategies that work. Plus, we’ll present a total of $50,000 to…

KEEPING CLIENTS HAPPY is a year-round challenge, but at holiday time the stakes are high. You want to show your appreciation through a gift, but how do you account for varying tastes among a disparate (and perhaps not well-known) group of people while remaining true to your company’s personality? The three design firms featured here answered that question by creating promotional gifts that address a universal need: the desire to escape from work. —Lynn Haller Clients of Tenfold Creative in Auckland, New Zealand, received a mysterious, unbranded box with messaging about switching from work to holiday mode. Inside was a pie chart rendered in chocolate—a perfect hybrid of business and pleasure—to help ease the transition. “The core idea was that we work hard to help you achieve the best results—the…

KATIE MOUSSOURIS Chief policy officer, HackerOne, San Francisco Why she travels HackerOne’s Bug Bounty platform, which rewards hackers who help get rid of bugs, simplifies the process of vulnerability coordination. Moussouris spends about half her work time traveling from the company’s headquarters in San Francisco to Washington, D.C., for policy and regulation functions—and eventually home to Seattle. A piece of advice Having the right app on your phone can be a lifesaver. “The one app I wouldn’t know what to do without is HotelTonight. Once I realized upon landing that I forgot to book a hotel and took care of it while waiting for my baggage.” What she carries with her “I’m constantly on this device,” she says of her MiTone portable battery charger (sold at airport…

Q How do I set realistic sales goals for my employees? A John Doerr, co-president of Rain Group, a sales training and consulting firm in Framingham, Mass., offers this approach. 1. Determine your company’s goals. “The toughest thing for entrepreneurs to ask is, ‘All right, if I get to this level, will I be happy?’ The first step is to figure out where you are and what you want.” 2. Assess market potential. “That’s going to influence how big the quota should be. If [you’re] in a brand-new space, the quota could be really high. You have to adjust your goals to the overall market potential.” 3. Evaluate your salespeople. “You want your goals to be an incentive that people can reach. You don’t want people to be discouraged. What’s…

IF SPIDERS HAVE taught us anything, it’s how to build better thread. Above all else, this is the inspiration behind Bolt Threads, a fledgling company in Emeryville, Calif., that has leveraged technology to crack the mysteries of spider silk and replicate the recipe commercially. The company, which plans to spin its silk into sportswear and other forms of apparel, is aiming for a 2016 release of products that will harness proteins found in nature to create fibers and fabrics with both practical and revolutionary uses. There are many ways entrepreneurs are leveraging science into success. Some call the thinking behind these types of businesses “biohacking” because of the way they reference biological processes in a bid to build better products. Others prefer the terms “synthetic biology” or “next-gen biotech.” All…

The light bulb went on for Jeff Greenfield, co-founder and COO of media analytics firm C3 Metrics, on a rare vacation. It was the first one he had taken unplugged, without his phone or computer; his major activity while in Camden, Maine, turned out to be sleeping. One day he conked out at 5 p.m. This prompted his wife to suggest that he shed some entrepreneurial hats. In the crystallizing absence of digital distractions, he realized she was right. “It was time for me to step away,” says Greenfield, whose Portsmouth, N.H.-based company uses sophisticated software and algorithms to measure the effectiveness of advertising. “I told myself I’m not going to be reactive anymore.” He removed himself from the help desk and from having a hand in every sales lead,…

Can going to school make you an entrepreneur? It’s a burning question for people deciding whether to jump straight into business or spend years—and a lot of money—on a degree from one of more than 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities that offer entrepreneurship courses. While there’s no shortage of opinions arguing both sides, there’s no consensus. So we sat down with two researchers to get their take. “ Years back, students were afraid to say they were focusing on entrepreneurship.” What do students get from entrepreneurship programs? Things are changing, and students are finding that what they learn has transferability to organizations of all types and sizes. When you look five or 10 years out, that’s when students have a greater propensity for starting businesses. We have a glamorized view…

TOP 20 NATIONALLY — NINE YEARS IN A ROW $ 145,000 IN CASH PRIZES AWARDED IN UNIVERSITY SPONSORED COMPETITIONS $ 2.4 MILLION — THE GRANT THE KERN FOUNDATION GAVE UD TO FOSTER ENTREPRENEURSHIP $ 220,000 THE AMOUNT OUR STUDENTS HAVE INVESTED IN LOCAL TECH COMPANIES THROUGH FLYER ANGELS 140+ THE NUMBER OF FOR-PROFIT COMPANIES STARTED BY STUDENTS DURING OUR SOPHOMORE EXPERIENCE 29 NUMBER OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP-SPECIFIC CLASSES OFFERED 4TH LARGEST STUDENT-RUN BUSINESS IN THE NATION — FLYER ENTERPRISES 98% THE PERCENTAGE OF OUR BUSINESS STUDENTS WHO FIND SUCCESS WITHIN SIX MONTHS OF GRADUATION A TOP-TIER CATHOLIC RESEARCH UNIVERSITY. udayton.edu…

If time is money, why waste it? That’s the idea behind New York City-based Perssist, started by Harvard Business School grads Evan Britten-Bozzone and Albert Wang. Contact their nationwide network of on-call assistants via phone or email, then hand off mundane time-sucks such as lining up a service call with your internet provider, researching the right preschool for your child or following up on invites to your product-launch party. The first hour is free; 15 hours per month runs $140, which works out to less than $10 per hour.…

THINK BACK to your last charitable act. Was it impulsive—such as a cash donation to a Salvation Army Santa or a purchase at a charity auction? While these good deeds make a difference, being strategic about your charitable giving will enable you to make more of an impact, maximizing what you can give as well as what you will receive come tax time. Your first step is to consider what philanthropy means to you. What do you hope to accomplish? What causes are you passionate about? Answering these questions will help you to stay focused and establish guidelines that lay out the amount and schedule on which you want to give, your income and tax needs, funding abilities and most effective giving methods. Let’s say you are about to sell…

A: WHEN FACED with hiring for a key position, you’ll logically start with a job description. You can find sample lists of general duties and responsibilities online, and your outside CPA firm undoubtedly can weigh in. The list should cover the basics: handling transactions and the operations of the accounting staff and software system, and being able to produce monthly financial statements—income statements, balance sheets and cash-flow statements—that are complete, accurate and timely, as well as any other reports you need to make business decisions. You should specify compliance-related responsibilities and whether they involve the government or audits. Depending on the level of outsourcing used, these could include payroll and payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, insurance and other requirements. Finding a person with QuickBooks experience is easy. If you use higher-level…

JUDITH PUCKETT-RINELLA Our photography director is new to us, but has made a career at titles such as BlackBook, Details, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and Vanity Fair. Judith is also an entrepreneur: founder and president of design emporium Whisper Editions. BRIAN HIGBEE A photographer on the rise, Brian was the mastermind behind our stunning Kelly Slater cover. He’s a collaborator, a poet, a dreamer. His first instinct on the cover assignment was “Let’s get Kelly in his element—water.” And it worked.…

SOMETHING happened to all of us about four years ago. Quietly, and without our approval, a new responsibility was added to our job descriptions: brand ambassador. It happened to each of us the first time we made a company- related post on social media. The Facebook post of colleagues at a bar after a conference in 2011. The Instagram shot of the dangling M&M’s bag in the candy machine with the hashtag “#soclose” in 2012. The tweet “Bored at work” and accompanying photo of a (legitimately impressive) paper-clip sculpture. We were involved in acquiring this responsibility—we practically gave our companies no choice but to confer it. But this responsibility was never agreed upon. And therefore, the ramifications of failing to meet the duties associated with it haven’t been fully considered.…

WHO: Bolthouse Farms partnered with New York’s Little Big Brands to name, brand and design a new line of organic, cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juice blends— a super-premium product aimed at the mass market. WHAT: The firm turned to the past for inspiration, naming the product 1915 for the year Bolthouse got its start as a carrot farm in western Michigan. WHY WE LOVE IT: The 1915 name is pleasantly nostalgic, reminiscent of a time when food was simple and made by hand. The clean packaging depicts instantly recognizable key ingredients on bottles that play up their natural colors. There is a subdued elegance to the 1915 bottles. The square top references old glass milk jugs yet is strikingly modern, positioning the brand as high-end. The matte finish sets the…

Google OnHub Wi-Fi Router ($200) Program this router to prioritize certain devices over others. Best for: The office data hog who streams video of his dogs through his smartphone all day. What it says about you: You don’t expect him to stop, but this smart router will ensure that the rest of the staff has the Wi-Fi juice to get their work done. Origamica Blossom Duocolor Light ($124) This DIY paper lampshade gives off a soft, natural light. Target recipient: The account exec who’s a maker on the side. What it says about you: You understand her desire to handcraft her environment—and you believe she has too much free time on her hands. Kikkerland Acorn Bluetooth Speaker ($80) It’s a desktop speaker that doubles as a work…

Another year is in the books. Big ideas, big gambles and big changes dominated 2015. Some businesses looked to the cloud; others looked to the stars. Emerging brands broke into the mainstream, established firms reinvented themselves and a 25-year-old pop phenom tangled with almighty Apple—and won. Here are the entrepreneurs behind the milestone moments that defined the year that was. Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon JEFF BEZOS CONTINUED rewriting the book on retail in 2015. Long the world’s largest internet retailer, Amazon.com in the second quarter toppled brick-and-mortar goliath Wal-Mart to become Earth’s biggest retailer, reaching a valuation of $272 billion. The company credited its growth spurt to increased product selection in emerging catego- ries like fashion, as well as citing a direct correlation between higher spending and accelerated…

When Wi-Fi gained dominance over the Ethernet cable, it obviated the need to plug in for an internet connection. So have you ever wondered why device charging still largely relies on USB cords? With the rise of wireless charging, that is starting to change. Here’s how it works: There’s a base, connected by wire to an electrical outlet, with a magnetic field that varies constantly. That variance vibrates a receiver in the device, powering the battery. Plop your phone down on a desk with such a base, and it automatically charges. It’s a century-old idea, first put to use in motors and generators during the industrial revolution. These days the push is toward implementation in personal devices, with more than 200 brands—including Microsoft, Samsung, LG Electronics and Verizon—agreeing to a…

Fewer than 100 miles of ocean separate the U.S. and Cuba, but the nations have spent the last five decades in different worlds. Ever since John F. Kennedy signed Presidential Proclamation 3447 on Feb. 3, 1962, declaring “an embargo upon all trade” in response to Cuba nationalizing U.S.-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation, Americans have been effectively blocked from doing business in the country. That’s finally changing. On Dec. 17, 2014, President Obama announced plans to renew diplomatic relations, pledging to ease trade and financial restrictions. In July, both countries reopened embassies, and already a handful of U.S. companies, including Verizon, Netflix and Airbnb, have expanded into the Cuban market. But don’t light those celebratory cigars just yet. As of this writing, the Cuban trade embargo is still in force.…

In April, mere hours after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, humanitarian and filmmaker David Darg found himself on a flight to Kathmandu. Along for the ride were six GoPro cameras, a tripod and a 3-D-printed camera rig—all the gear he would need to shoot a virtual-reality film. The resulting production, The Nepal Quake Project— released within two weeks and narrated by Susan Sarandonwas the first VR film shot in a disaster zone, giving viewers a 360-degree look at rescue efforts amid the ruins. Falling rubble had damaged one of the cameras, leaving a blank spot in the visual field, but even so, the film received tremendous media attention. People lined up to see it, then took out their checkbooks and asked what they could do to help the…

Reality check: The fact that you’re streaming songs from the cloud means you’re listening to a mess of facsimiles of the original recordings. Short of reripping all your CDs at a higher bit rate or repurchasing high-def versions of the digital library on your phone or computer, there hasn’t been much you could do about it. Enter the magnet-powered Oppo PM-3 headphones ($399), which can resurrect the quality of your jams. At the heart of these cans is an old-school planar magnetic driver, a speaker tech- nology lauded by audiophiles for emitting consistent sound, where the high notes are never too high, the lows never too low. Until Oppo began reengineering the 1970s tech- nology, planar magnetic headphones were bulky and leaked sound like a sieve. But the comfortable PM-3s…

If there’s one thing software company Ebsta understands, it’s customer relationship management. The San Diego- and London-based company sells a $10 per month per user Chrome browser extension that syncs customers’ email accounts to the Salesforce database to streamline the onerous task of updating a CRM system. But finding new prospects for Ebsta is difficult and, as vice president of sales Bernhard Peters points out, expensive—especially for a company with roughly $1 million in annual revenue. • “We’re still a tiny company,” Peters says. “We have to be careful who we chase; we don’t have a lot of money or manpower to spare. Buying lists never works; they’re out of date. And data-mining companies charge at least $25,000 upfront, with no guarantee of ROI.” The Fix Peters was in a…

As CEO and president of A&M/Octone Records—home to such acts as Maroon 5 and Flyleaf—James Diener had a front-row seat to the habits of music creators, specifically the monetary shenanigans and squeezes that could derail their careers. After selling Octone two years ago, Diener decided to do something about those problems, coming up with a financing idea that would offer minimal risk to artists. Diener and his partner, financier Howard Lipson, launched New York-based Alignment Artist Capital in April. Backed by investment colossus BlackRock, AAC provides structured capital (from $5 million to $20 million) to music artists, songwriters and producers. In return, it takes 15 to 20 percent of adjusted gross income from the artist’s core revenue streams: record sales, touring, publishing and licensing—over a four- to five-year period. “We…

$,180,000 We were experiencing significant growth nationally, and our primary supplier—who handled our logistics and warehousing—was struggling to keep up. In addition, we found ourselves paying much higher fees for this à la carte supplier’s experience in our sales channel, which we needed at first but are no longer relying on as we continue to grow. We decided to move the business to three suppliers who were each superior in their core competencies. We did have to add some administration expense to manage three suppliers instead of one, but overall the result was a $15,000 reduction in our monthly costs for logistics, warehousing and other related services, which works out to $180,000 per year. —As told to Grant Davis…

MORTGAGE REFINANCING IS a headache. From finding the right lender to filling out reams of paperwork, it’s time-consuming, confusing and expensive. After 11 years in the mortgage business, Jason van den Brand couldn’t believe that a process so convoluted hadn’t been addressed with new technology. So he left his position at a brokerage firm and started Lenda. Dubbed “TurboTax for mortgages,” San Francisco-based Lenda (originally called GoRefi) lets borrowers apply for and complete a mortgage refi online. The company has a $20 million line of credit with an undisclosed Texas bank, allowing it to make loans directly; it then sells the loans at a small premium to institutional investors. (Van den Brand says Lenda is in talks with other banks.) Lenda claims that its refi clients save an average of…

WHAT DOES the future hold for the franchise world? Every December we like to make predictions for which categories will lead the way in the year ahead. Our 10 picks for 2016 range from practical services like outdoor pest control and property management to personal indulgences like baked goods. Some, like fitness and children’s enrichment, are well- established but still-growing industries, while others, like salon suites, are newer ideas just coming into their own. Whatever their differences, they all have one thing in common: potential. You’ll find all 10 trending categories on these pages, along with a list of franchise opportunities available in each category—and some insight into how they made it onto our radar for the coming year. This list is not a ranking and is not intended as…

Visit entrepreneur.com/freeinfo now to receive more information from the franchise and business opportunities advertisers in this month’s Entrepreneur® . Simply take a minute to quickly enter your selections online to learn more about any of these opportunities! 1. Bricks 4 Kidz 2. CarePatrol Franchise 3. CruiseOne 4. Cruise Planners 5. CycleBar Franchising 6. Discovery Point Franchising 7. Growler USA 8. H&R Block 9. Hungry Howie’s Pizza 10. iDropped 11. iLoveKickboxing.com 12. Jimmy Johns Gourmet Shops 13. Kumon North America 14. Le Macaron Franchise 15. Liberty Tax Service 16. Lil’ Orbits 17. NTY Franchise Company 18. N-Hance 19. Orangetheory Fitness 20. Petland 21. Pet Supplies Plus 22. Pillar to Post 23. Retro Fitness 24. Rosati’s Pizza 25. Sculpture Hospitality 26. Sport Clips 27. Strategic Franchising 28. TBC Franchising 29. The Eco…

The first rule of business is Fun. This may sound like completely reckless and irresponsible business advice, but to the contrary, without Fun there’s no commitment, enthusiasm or energy for the hard work at hand. Without Fun you’re merely one of the “Working Dead,” just dragging your ass through the motions. If you don’t love what you do and enjoy the process, the long hours necessary for success will feel … well … like work. And if it feels like work to you, what do you expect your customers to feel? Your excitement breeds excitement in others—and this makes for passionate and loyal clients and customers. Face it, Fun is good business. James Victore is an artist whose work has been exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, a…

It’s a Hit Thank you for running “The Hit Man” (November) about will.i.am and his tech companies. I get your magazine not only for myself but also to share with co-workers. Most of them are Millennials, and at least a third are African-American, so having someone like will.i.am telling them that they can and should pursue interests in developing, launching and running businesses is very important. Seeing someone else succeed who looks like you and comes from your background is essential to developing the confidence to step out in the world and take the kinds of chances necessary for success. Please continue to feature people of color on your covers and in your “centerfold” articles. Jane M. Smith TEMPE, ARIZ. New Look Just reaching out to say that I love…

The Twitter disclaimer “Opinions are mine alone” does not fully disclaim your ties to your company. Especially when the first thing you list in your bio is your job title. Before posting something on social media about your company, ask yourself: If my company were a person, would it appreciate this? You’re not harming the company when you post something that isn’t “on brand.” You’re taking away its brandness altogether. You’re “un-branding” it. In fact, you’re humanizing it. But you may be humanizing it in ways it doesn’t want to be humanized. Especially when you tweet from the restroom.…

Q Partners and employees at my company are expected to pool contact information for clients and prospective clients in a database. We find that having information easily accessible maximizes partner relationships in making deals. But some partners aren’t cooperating. When my client needed confirmation of market data, I asked another partner for assistance. He confirmed the data analysis through a client he refused to name, leaving me—and my client—without a reference point. My partner’s lack of transparency is unethical. But he’s a rainmaker, and as our company’s driving value is making money, other partners aren’t concerned. What are my options? A Lack of transparency isn’t the only problem here. It may be hard for other partners to see being disrespectful, evasive and withholding as a big deal when the firm…

WHILE SALES OF legacy brands are stalling at America’s leading packaged-foods companies, mission-driven “healthy” brands are boasting double-digit growth. But keeping up with soaring consumer demand is harder than it looks. While additive-free, non-GMO, organic brands are killing it at specialty-foods stores, these innovative companies often lack the financing, marketing muscle and global distribution to go head to head with traditional brands in supermarkets. Increasingly, the solution is to sell out. Smaller brands are finding the support they need by forming what used to be considered unholy marriages with food conglomerates. In September, Niman Ranch, a natural pork, beef and lamb producer, became a division of poultry giant Perdue Farms. That followed the $775 million sale of Applegate Farms, a producer of “natural” deli meats, to Hormel Foods. A year…

Find out what three small-business owners are doing to secure their networks and data, fight cybercriminals, protect employees and more in this final installment of Comcast’s four-part webinar series. Watch all pre-recorded events in the series at entm.ag/comcast2015 Securing Sensitive Financial Information As a single-employee investment advisor managing portfolios for a wide range of clients, Liam Timmons says effectively implementing cutting-edge technology in daily operations is a requirement for his business, not an option. At the same time, unauthorized access to online accounts and client files is a constant threat. He relies on multiple solutions to help meet that challenge, including multi-factor authentication, a robust password policy, secure online communication, removal of sensitive information from emails, and antivirus software and firewalls—updated and upgraded on a regular basis. Defending Against Ransomware…

Earlier this year, Boston-based 3-D printing company Voxel8 raised $12 million in Series A funding. Among the windfall were contributions from Autodesk’s Spark Investment Fund—the software company’s $100 million 3-D printing investment initiative—and In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture fund for intelligence-related innovations. Wireless intercom company Nucleus scored more than $1.6 million in seed investments this year, $100,000 of which came from Philadelphia’s $6 million StartUp PHL fund, which makes equity investments in local entrepreneurs. And Back to the Roots, a San Francisco-area sustainable-food company, raised $650,000 two years ago from Fund Good Jobs, a $2.53 million philanthropic venture fund focused on job creation. These unconventional VC groups aren’t anomalies. In recent years, corporations, municipalities, university alumni groups and philanthropic groups with agendas beyond reaping financial rewards have jumped into the equity…

WITH THE RISE of data-crunching agricultural software, farmers these days are digging as much in data as in dirt. “It is as frothy as I have ever seen it,” Adrian Fortino says of the ag-tech software market. In 2012, as an investor with First Step Fund, Fortino invested in a seed round for FarmLogs, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based developer of software to help farmers map and predict crop yields, rainfall and other essential data. “But in the course of the last three years, we’ve seen a dramatic explosion,” says Fortino, who now leads the Ann Arbor office of venture capital firm Mercury Fund. That is due in part to an attitude shift among the farmers themselves. “You always have this adoption curve for technology, and ag is not any different,”…

RAM scraping, phishing, keylogging—you may not be familiar with all the schemes hackers use to invade personal data and business systems, but chances are you have been affected in some way by cybercrime—or soon will be. Security firm Gemalto estimates that data breaches increased 49 percent in 2014, and its stats for the first half of 2015 reveal a 10 percent uptick. Following high-profile meltdowns at Sony, Target, eBay, Ashley Madison, Anthem and even the U.S. government, businesses large and small are having a come-to-Jesus moment about cybersecurity. And there are plenty of well-backed companies hoping to help navigate the maze of threats; cybersecurity startups have seen $4.6 billion in investment in the last two years alone, according to CB Insights. “The media has done a great job of scaring…

Academics and Requirements Schools were asked if they offer an entrepreneurship program, major, minor, dedicated center for entrepreneurship or courses in the subject and to specify the total number and type of classes offered. Other academic requirements that affect the ranking include availability of internships, externships, experiential and cooperative learning and consulting opportunities for small-business owners. Schools were also asked whether their program uses a team-driven approach in which students from various disciplines are paired together. Students and Faculty Schools were asked about the number of students enrolled in entrepreneurship offerings and what percentage of the total student body was enrolled in an entrepreneurship-related course. Schools were asked what percentage of entrepreneurship students developed an actionable plan to launch a business while at the school. They were asked for the…

Smartphone users visit or use an average of 25 apps per month, but they spend a whopping four out of every five minutes (or 80 percent of the time) glued to their three favorites, according to a U.S. survey by the web-ratings tracker comScore. For tablet users, the loyalty is even stronger, at 87 percent. Not surprisingly, Facebook and YouTube are among the favorites. The numbers point to the difficulty of attracting attention on customers’ mobile devices and the gatekeeper status of apps from Facebook and Google. Source: comScore, “The 2015 U.S. Mobile App Report”…

The Entrepreneur James N. P. O’Brien, co-founder and president of ShaveFace, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that makes shaving strops for disposable razors. “Aha” Moment When a friend told O’Brien that disposable blades could be sharpened on denim, he was hooked by the idea of saving money and throwing away fewer razors. While on the road with his band, the part-time singer took to carrying a scrap of an old pair of jeans with him. But soon he decided he’d prefer something nicer. As a favor, a tailor friend made O’Brien a prototype of a strop—traditionally a strip of leather or canvas used to straighten the blade of a straight razor—out of denim. This highly styled version was trimmed in leather with brass attachments for hanging on a towel rack or…

WHEN GARY DARNA and Jaime Rump secured $650,000 in seed funding for CompleteSet, the online collectibles marketplace they founded in 2012, they were happily operating in a co-working space provided by Cincinnati startup catalyst Cintrifuse. But the pair soon realized that the growth sparked by that cash would require a move to something bigger. “We went from two people to almost 10 in about two months, and it became clear we needed our own office space,” Darna says. “We had too many people to make a co-working space economically viable, and we had vintage toys, board games and displays all over the place and didn’t want them getting in other people’s way. So we took the leap and got our own space.” It’s a familiar scenario to many startups: The…