Jbellefeuille
New Contributor
Hello Everyone.
My name is James. I am an entrepreneur in the rideshare/automotive space.
I joined this forum back in 2007, and am probably one of the few members with a negative reputation. I don't remember why that is, but it's probably deserved as I was a know-nothing jackass in 2007.
When I joined the fastlane forum I was convinced it was a place for money chasers, and not the value creator that I wanted to eventually become even at that time. That was until Unscripted was recommended to my by a friend recently I decided to give it a shot again and perhaps the best first step is to introduce myself and provide a brief update.
I was supposed to graduate in 2008, the height of the recession, I worked full-time while going to school in the evenings which delayed my graduation. Which was probably a good thing considering the recession.
I had the benefit of being let go from an F500 corporation and becoming a law clerk at a bankruptcy law firm in 2008, I learned a lot about life there and developed my initial skills in online marketing managing their campaigns during the recession and business was booming.
I soon realized that I was making a lot of money for this firm and I could hang my own shingle as a marketer for law firms, but I was interested in doing a pay-per-performance model, which in hindsight was probably a mistake for a couple of reasons. I left my job and was unable to bring the firm on as a client. My company got about 3 customers before it soon folded and I was out looking for work, luckily one of the law firm marketing competitors that I respected a lot was in a good position to hire and brought me on as employee #2.
I moved from Minneapolis to Chicago and started a new chapter of my life. I was still licking my wounds from my first real attempt at starting my own business. I stayed at the firm for two years before starting my current venture in 2015.
In 2014/2015 I had the idea for VUGO. Vugo is focused on improving the passenger entertainment experience in for-hire transportation. Essentially a Amazon.com or Visual Car Radio of the car. Vugo has become successful by event focused measurements including raising over $1 million dollars in funding being featured in Fast Company and other press, some customers along the way, and more recently winning a 1st amendment lawsuit defending freedom of speech against NYC, and creating entertainment solutions for passengers of self-driving cars. but there is still a lot of work to be done and I would like to share my process with anyone who is interested but I will save that for another post as I am still dissecting what exactly helped me get this far and where we still have to go. During this time I have developed some lessons, some rules and a few musings on entrepreneurship.
It's been a long road since 2007... thanks for being patient, hopefully this post improves my rep score to a positive number. In the meantime I am happy to answer questions about my experience if I have knowledge to share. - James
My name is James. I am an entrepreneur in the rideshare/automotive space.
I joined this forum back in 2007, and am probably one of the few members with a negative reputation. I don't remember why that is, but it's probably deserved as I was a know-nothing jackass in 2007.
When I joined the fastlane forum I was convinced it was a place for money chasers, and not the value creator that I wanted to eventually become even at that time. That was until Unscripted was recommended to my by a friend recently I decided to give it a shot again and perhaps the best first step is to introduce myself and provide a brief update.
I was supposed to graduate in 2008, the height of the recession, I worked full-time while going to school in the evenings which delayed my graduation. Which was probably a good thing considering the recession.
I had the benefit of being let go from an F500 corporation and becoming a law clerk at a bankruptcy law firm in 2008, I learned a lot about life there and developed my initial skills in online marketing managing their campaigns during the recession and business was booming.
I soon realized that I was making a lot of money for this firm and I could hang my own shingle as a marketer for law firms, but I was interested in doing a pay-per-performance model, which in hindsight was probably a mistake for a couple of reasons. I left my job and was unable to bring the firm on as a client. My company got about 3 customers before it soon folded and I was out looking for work, luckily one of the law firm marketing competitors that I respected a lot was in a good position to hire and brought me on as employee #2.
I moved from Minneapolis to Chicago and started a new chapter of my life. I was still licking my wounds from my first real attempt at starting my own business. I stayed at the firm for two years before starting my current venture in 2015.
In 2014/2015 I had the idea for VUGO. Vugo is focused on improving the passenger entertainment experience in for-hire transportation. Essentially a Amazon.com or Visual Car Radio of the car. Vugo has become successful by event focused measurements including raising over $1 million dollars in funding being featured in Fast Company and other press, some customers along the way, and more recently winning a 1st amendment lawsuit defending freedom of speech against NYC, and creating entertainment solutions for passengers of self-driving cars. but there is still a lot of work to be done and I would like to share my process with anyone who is interested but I will save that for another post as I am still dissecting what exactly helped me get this far and where we still have to go. During this time I have developed some lessons, some rules and a few musings on entrepreneurship.
It's been a long road since 2007... thanks for being patient, hopefully this post improves my rep score to a positive number. In the meantime I am happy to answer questions about my experience if I have knowledge to share. - James
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