Appreciation luncheon

Yesterday, I had lunch with Ann Arbor SPARK at their mentor appreciation luncheon for their Entrepreneurial boot camp. What a great time! I meet several serial entrepreneurs including Mark Lundquist (Fulcrum Edge, Inc. and SellMyBusiness.com) and Dave Harriman, who now works in the Office of Technology Transfer at Univ. of Michigan. I love talking to productive businessmen creating value for themselves and others. It is inspirational.

I also meet several SPARK staff members who help make the boot camp run smoothly - Scott Olson, managing director of entrepreneurial business development and the person who recruited me as a mentor - Chuck Salley and Anik Ganguly, two of the boot camp's drill instructors. Anik is working with two companies that I may mentor. The first is a business designed to connect service provides (i.e. plumbers, carpenters, etc.) with end consumers by providing web advertising to this generally technology adverse group. The second business is an existing web development company looking to expand their business by selling a proprietary content management system.

The two other businesses I'm interested in mentoring are both web based. One is a web-based virtual trainer. The other is a web-based personal shopper. Both have good potential and I'm interested to see where they plan on taking these enterprises.

I'm loving it. So much so, that I'll probably return for the next boot camp, assuming SPARK wants me back.