Summit Series Recap: Day One

My first night in Aspen, Colorado, at the Summit Series Aspen ’09 Conference, and I’m inspired! 115 ambitious, creative, brilliant minds in entrepreneurs under the age of 35. Every person here is making a significant contribution to their community, society, and the teams they lead.

Many are Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year winners or finalists. Even more have made BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs under 25. Most have multi-media businesses, or are on their way. Some came with bodyguards, and others have appeared in major motion pictures.

With representatives from healthcare, technology, venture capital, retail, entertainment, philanthropy, and much more, Summit Series Aspen ‘09 has surpassed my wildest expectations.

There is no way to get through all the great entrepreneurs that are here, so I thought I’d highlight a few that I’ve gotten to personally know thus far, with a tidbit you won’t find in their bio. Most exercise humility, generosity in their giving, and a “no-is-not-in-my-vocabulary” tone. Join me in celebrating their success!

Michael Simmons: A BusinessWeek Top 25 Entrepreneur Under 25 winner, Michael, CEO of The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, stands a good foot taller than me, so I am grateful when he and entrepreneur Adam Witty, CEO of Advantage, also 6-foot something, both let me stand on the stairs while we chat. Gracious, brilliant, and savvier than the number of candles on their birthday cakes might suggest, I am intrigued by how they got their start.

Michael spearheads entrepreneurship on college campuses, and has touched more than 60 schools nationwide. He just wants to help young people succeed--it oozes from him. Adam joined him early in the effort, then spun off his own business, Advantage. They let the little detail slip that they used to be partners, and still have a terrific friendship. Adam’s company helps CEOs publish books that will help them market their ideas, their company and their expertise. A hybrid between a traditional publisher and self-publishing, Advantage seems like a no-brainer to me for a person wanting to leverage the power of authorship to communicate your vision. As you might assume, both Michael and Adam have authored successful, well-marketed books.

Anderson Schoenrock, co-founder & CEO of ScanDigital – has what everyone needs: an easy way to transform old hard copy slides, photos, and videos into digital format. He’s one of many entrepreneurs who I met who got their start on Wall Street, and turned that great experience into entrepreneurship. I think it’s a trend…Anderson is so likeable, affable, and focused; his business is one to watch. This may not be for you, but it might be PERFECT for your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. who are sitting at home wanting to immortalize reel-to-reel and VHS tapes. As an aside, I was going to talk about the fact that according to his roommate, he is quite neat, and doesn’t snore, but he has a more compelling passion to share: bananas. He'll eat (and drink) anything with bananas.

Keith Lemer, President, WellNet Healthcare – talk about a man on a mission! He’s articulate, sharp as a whip, bold, and determined—thus destined—to change the face of healthcare management. He’s staking a claim in a new territory self-described as Healthcare Performance Management (HPM)—a way for CEOs to take control of their own healthcare programs. Watch out for him…

Nadeem Kassam, director of private equity company Zynik: Nadeem sneaks up on you…he has an “aura” of success about him but you have to drag it out of him. One might think his successes would place him in his mid-30s, especially since he’s started seven (or was it eight?) companies, including two in college before he was even a sophomore. That’s when you realize what a huge impact he’s made at a very young age. After making many investments with other people’s money, he’s now proud to make private equity investments with his own, which gives him a greater connection to the entrepreneur. Oh, and he hasn’t revealed his age, but I’m guessing the first number is a “two.”

Ryan Allis, Co-founder, CEO of iContact: Ryan and I found each other like any good virtual networkers would do – on Twitter before the conference even started. But he should be good at connecting – he owns a $10M email marketing firm that is heralded to be one of the best email campaign tools in the business. Watch for a switch to iContact here at SpeakerBox. Another BusinessWeek Top 25 under 25 award winner and 2008 E&Y Entreprenuer of the Year, he wrote a bestselling book Zero to One Million after he had done it himself three times.

Jay Gibb:, Co-founder of ArizonaBay: they’re baaaack! The technology incubator model is back in full swing with ArizonaBay. Talking to him about the companies they select, they take on about 1 out of every 20 companies that approaches them, primarily to be selective to their mission. ArizonaBay has 40 technical staff members who bring a product to market in return for an equity stake in the company. Jay believes his biggest asset is the ability to talk “geek” and “street” to make sure there is alignment on projects. Inc. Magazine recently ran a story that I found on my own about ArizonaBay…take a look.

Other notables (running out of space) that I have enjoyed getting to know: Bo Fishback, VP of Entrepreneurship, Kaufman Foundation: an entrepreneur himself and a person who travels the world advancing innovation and a winner of the BusinessWeek Under 25 accolade; Jeff Fissel, Co-Founder KZO Innovations, a DC-based success story, and an attendee to the Summit Series White House Summit; Brain Smith, Principal at In-Q-Tel who is looking for great companies to bring into their portfolio.

- Elizabeth Shea