Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal and business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Viveka von Rosen, Co-Founder of Vengreso, located in Loveland, CO, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
In December 2020, we launched FlyMSG for one very specific use case: to support our virtual sales prospecting online training program. Exactly 1-year later, we discovered that one use case turned into 100's more! That's when we realized we had a product-led growth company exploding right before our eyes.
In 2022, after 5-years as a training company, we decided to pivot Vengreso into a productivity management software company with an abundance of not only training but scripts to help not just sellers but every knowledge worker in the world save up to 1-hour a day in lost productivity!
We are not throwing out over 10,000 hours of intellectual capital in our education content. We are embedding it right into our software. Now, with FlyMSG, any seller or business owner can leverage that same great educational content to create more conversations with qualified buyers. Who We Help.
It doesn't matter if you work in sales, marketing, customer service, human resources, or any other department. Everyone has repeatable messages or snippets of content they've written and reused over and over again. With FlyMSG, our SaaS-based technology, you can eliminate wasted time and increase your productivity by 1-hour per day or more.
Tell us about yourself
I've been a serial entrepreneur and a serial educator my whole life. From the classroom to zoom, I've been teaching, training, and educating for the past 30 years. And I've been a recognized LinkedIn expert, speaker, author, and trainer for the past 16 years. When Mario Martinez, Jr invited me to create a new business with him in 2017, I was in! And since then, we've been growing and morphing Vengreso into what it is today, a SaaS product-led growth company.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I was essentially a solopreneur for the ten years I had Linked Into Business, never having more than three employees and never breaking seven figures. I never dreamed I would one day co-found a business with over 40 employees at its height doing a multiple 7 figure business. Working with a team of such talented individuals makes it worth getting up in the morning. And the fact that our business continues to pivot makes it exciting. We have such a talented team helping us to make FlyMSG one of the best text expansion and writing assistants out there!
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Personalities! Of course, you need so many different kinds of personalities to run a successful business. From the CEO to the product assistant, you need to find the right people and the right personalities for the job - but they don't always get along. So it's important to find ways to continue to engage and keep the communication lines open, which is made even more challenging by the distance and time zones of a virtual company. Nonetheless, we have found ways of making it work with company-wide meetups - online and in person. And occasionally, a personality just won't jive. While it's hard to let people go, I believe it ends up being what is best for them and for us.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- If you are thinking of starting a company with partners, understand that you will be spending more time with them than with your spouse! You need to make sure you can work together. Make sure you have complementary skill sets. And if you are not going to be the CEO, let go of your ego! (I had to do that).
- Think outside the box when hiring! Many of our employees are from other countries, and because we are a virtual company, we have a place for these talented people to share their unique skill sets.
- Be open to pivoting! Whether it's a worldwide pandemic or economic indicators - keep your eyes open to opportunities and make the best of every situation.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://vengreso.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoVengreso/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vengreso/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/govengreso
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexpert/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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