The

Entrepreneurial

Code

Lessons from an

Ivy League Entrepreneur

Chapter Eleven

When the freshmen class finally arrived at the University for the new school year, the partners scrambled to commence operations.  A reporter from the school newspaper contacted Johnny a few days prior about the possibility of writing an article.  They were excited for any free publicity they could get, but it didn’t go as expected.  The article was a harbinger of things to come.  An excerpt follows:

“Throughout the summer, Dining Services and [Student Agencies] have received dozens of phone calls from students and parents who mistakenly believed that the Bullfrog Card was university affiliated… General Counsel [for the school] said the University is investigating the corporation.  She explained that when something is presented to the public to create the false impression that it is sponsored by the University when it really is not, there could be a problem.”

The article then went on to quote Johnny.

“Jonathan Wiley said that he and his colleagues were responding to students dining preferences.  He added that the corporation’s name was not meant to mislead students or parents.”

The reporter then countered Johnny’s statement with another quote from the University Counsel.

 “It would depend on how the information is presented – whether they use the [school’s] name is not the only factor the court would look at.  If people are getting the wrong impression about a product, it would be of interest to the University.”

The partners read the article that morning and knew the timing couldn’t have been worse.  It was in the first newspaper of the semester, printed on the day incoming freshmen and parents were arriving.  Johnny crumpled the paper and threw it away as he walked through campus.  They certainly didn’t need bad press on their opening day. 

Johnny walked over to the freshmen orientation, which took place in an auditorium, where students signed up for their school-run services.  With Johnny’s U-Card, he was welcome to walk into the auditorium freely.  He planned to spend the day talking to new students about the benefits of the Bullfrog Card program.  He stood next to the table for Dining Services and as students passed, he spoke with them.  If they were interested, he directed them to his offices.  This infuriated the Business Services people, and they immediately had Johnny escorted out of the building. 

Warnings among the Business Services staff were spreading through campus like the squawks of birds through the treetops.  Before Johnny knew it, the campus police were patrolling the area, chasing away Bullfrog Card volunteers, and closing down information tables.  As they explained, the University was private property and they had the power to remove people.

Johnny and his partners were prohibited from handing out flyers, and anyone who refused could be arrested.  Even their giant banner that helped people to find their office was taken down.  Although one end of the banner was tied to the building, the other was tied to a phone booth that was grounded in University property. 

The Business Services office also circulated letters in student mailboxes, warning that the school didn’t endorse the Bullfrog Card.  After all, the fledgling company was holding student deposits and the University needed to distance itself as much as possible if something went wrong.  Unfortunately for Johnny and his partners, these notices stuck out like a sore thumb.  Johnny met with administrators at the school and agreed to use a stronger “disclaimer” in future advertisements, but the Business Services department insisted on issuing its own public statement. 

The saving grace for University Services, Inc. was its on-campus presence.  If parents and students had reservations about the company, they simply walked to the office and spoke with Johnny, Maverock, Abe, or Joe.  In general, most people who came to learn more about them also became customers.  Their office was in a church, their parents were handing out information in the lobby, and they were generally clean-cut students.  It was obvious they were offering a legitimate service.  

Johnny and his partners explained to each customer why they started the program and how much time they had invested.  Most people wanted to support them.  In some ways, the bad press helped because students and parents came to the office to investigate, and put a face to the product.  Once they saw the lines of people being issued Bullfrog Cards, it only added more credibility to the services. 

In fact, the lines stretched down the hallway and onto the sidewalk in front of the building.  It was a miserably hot day and the building didn’t have air conditioning.  The card printer machine caused the long wait.  Even if students already filled out their forms and had their pictures taken, the whole operation was paralyzed until the printer finally spit out the card.  You could hear it slowly melting the colors onto the plastic as everyone waited.  Johnny and his partners hadn’t foreseen the throughput time as such an operational glitch. 

Maverock, always a big believer in customer service, ran out and purchased bags of ice, cases of soda, and boxes of pizza for everyone on line.  He did everything he could to make the best of a bad situation, and people really appreciated it.  Students and parents waited in long lines to sign up for the school’s services, but no one bought them lunch and apologized like Johnny and his partners. 

Understandably, once students activated their cards, they were anxious to use them.  They began presenting them to merchants as payment for purchases.  Abe had been preparing merchants all week to accept the Bullfrog Card.  He showed everyone how to use the terminal, and practiced transactions with them.  Abe even placed a sticker on top of each terminal with basic instructions.  As a backup plan, he distributed clipboards, so that in a worst-case scenario, merchants could write down the card number and the dollar amount of the transaction.

Unfortunately, one of the merchants began turning away Bullfrog Card customers, and demanded cash instead.  It was a huge embarrassment for the company.  Maverock was the first to run over and speak with the manager.  Twenty minutes later, he stormed back in a rage.  The merchant would not accept the card, because he said the machine “took too long” and was “too much of a pain in the ass.”

Johnny went over to speak to him next.  When he arrived, the manager, Mr. Conservative, was busy with a long line of lunchtime customers.  He ranted and raved about how the terminal was too slow and would ruin his business.  Speed was everything for him, because he needed to cram as many customers through his lunch lines as possible.  Evidently, Mr. Conservative had never accepted any type of card before and he was afraid it would take too long.  The wires and buttons on the terminal spooked him, and he was convinced the Bullfrog Card was going to be an operational hazard. 

Johnny reminded him they had a contract and had already printed thousands of brochures advertising his restaurant as part of the program.  His refusal to accept the card was making them look bad.  Mr. Conservative looked like he thought Johnny was going to sue him.  So, Johnny went on to assure him the terminal was going to be “faster than cash” and if that weren’t the case, Johnny would cut off a certain piece of his anatomy and let him drop the program.  Johnny had nothing to lose at that point.

The self-mutilation comment surprised Mr. Conservative and he started to laugh.  Johnny climbed behind the counter and ran through sample transactions with his card.  After the demonstration, Mr. Conservative smiled.  “Wow!” he said.  “That’s it?”  Ironically, as time went on, he became one of their biggest advocates.  Johnny and his partners even had dinner at Mr. Conservative’s home with his family.

Because the first day of student orientation was during the weekend, Johnny and his partners had access to the entire building in which they rented their office space.  The lobby was filled with cardholders waiting to pick up their cards, and if anyone needed to use the bathroom, they were sent to the second floor to use the facilities.  This didn’t go over well with the Reverend Angelo, who had no idea they were using the building that weekend let alone having hundreds of people roaming the floors unsupervised.  It never occurred to Johnny to inform the Reverend, because he assumed, as tenants, they could use the building as they pleased.  Unfortunately, that was not the case, because if anyone was hurt, or if there were any sort of theft, the building owner would have been liable.

That Monday, Johnny received a note from Reverend Angelo saying they needed to discuss some “very serious matters.”  Johnny and his partners were concerned, because getting kicked out of their office space would have destroyed the business.  Both Maverock and Abe refused to go, so Johnny went to see him alone. 

As Johnny entered the office, the Reverend put on a stern face like he was preparing to yell at Johnny.  So, Johnny decided to save him the trouble and proceeded to tell himself off, and assured the Reverend it would never happen again.  The Reverend Angelo just nodded, smiled, and said he was glad they had that talk.  They just called it a misunderstanding, and the issue was never raised again.

Copyright  2005 by Chris Cononico
All rights reserved. No part of this manuscript may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.