Lessons Learned From a Failed Ivy League Entrepreneur

A "Case Story" By Chris Cononico
 

Chapter Twenty-Three

The university campus card market, like any marketplace, had a circle of professionals that socialized at trade conventions, exchanged ideas, and communicated afterwards via e-mail or phone. Unfortunately, word-of-mouth could have been working against our company. For all we knew, Ed and Larry from Penn had called around and warned other schools not to work with us.

Therefore, we needed to establish a positive image for our company within the industry. It was George’s idea to position us as “Wharton whiz kids,” who took a management project and turned it into a successful business. We likened ourselves to a company by the name of CyberMark that started as a research project at Florida State University, and now served the college debit card market. 

To anyone who would listen, we touted how our program enjoyed the highest usage rate in the industry and we raved about how popular we were with the local merchant community. We began referring to QuakerCard as our “prototype” that proved our business model. We also did our best to spin our conflict with Penn as a positive too, because we had been successful without the school’s assistance.  "Imagine how great we would have done if we had been in partnership with the school?"  The fact that we were so young was also spun as a positive, because we were “in touch” with student needs.

As my partners and I began attending industry conferences, we exchanged business cards with potential customers, and promoted our new image.  It's no wonder the Business Services people from Penn avoided us like the not-so-cool little brother, who embarrasses you in front of all your friends. We put our story into full effect at our first NACCU conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was my first conference and I carried my suit in a plastic bag from Today’s Man. My lack of experience was visible in my double-breasted olive suit that my mother purchased for me a few years back. I wore an ecru dress shirt without collar stays (so my collar would curl upwards) and an earth tone tie that reminded Mark of puke.

Meanwhile, George and I teased Mark for his sophistication. He had a travel bag for his blue suit, wore matching cordovan shoes and belt, and brought his dress shoes with a pair of shoetrees inserted. George and I thought Mark’s “shoetrees” were the most ridiculous things we’d ever seen.

We were the youngest people in the conference by 20 years. The first night kicked off with a lobster dinner in the hotel dining room and we were seated at a table with twelve other attendees. They were all university officers, and any one of them was a potential client. George chummed away with them, while I was more concerned with the whole lobster staring up at me from my plate. I never had lobster before and I didn’t know how to eat it. All I knew was that it was rumored to be expensive. We were certainly living the high life now!

Lobster reminded me a lot of a giant bug. I would’ve preferred if the server just brought out the claws and tail. The man across the table looked to be eating the body of the lobster, which confused me. Was that why they brought out the whole thing? Where we supposed to eat all the crap in the body? I was afraid to embarrass myself. George obviously didn’t have much experience eating lobster either, because he grabbed a fork and dove into the guts. Neither George nor the man across the table looked like they thought twice about it.

Fortunately, the gray-haired man sitting to my right noticed my dilemma, and leaned over towards me and advised me to stick with the claws and tail. The man across the table happened to be looking up at that moment and saw what had transpired. “I just eat everything,” he said. “It’s lobster!” The Business Services people were not the most sophisticated bunch, I decided.

Throughout the conference, we listened to speakers as they presented topics relating to campus card programs. George was happy to mingle with the crowd and exchange business cards. He raved at length about our tremendous success at Penn. George had a knack for this sort of thing, and seemed to be connecting well enough with the other attendees.
By the next year, George would have our company become a NACCU conference ID sponsor. Although on that day, I still felt like we were the black sheep of the affair.
 

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.