Interview with Matt Lauzon of Paragon Lake & The Invenio Group

October 20th, 20061 Comment

At College Startup we love hearing out about successful startup ventures that began in college. To that end, we were glad to sit down with Paragon Lake co-founder Matt Lauzon to discuss his experiences with starting and growing a successful business while still in college. In the process, Matt shared some invaluable gems of advice for the burgeoning entrepreneur.

Tell me a little bit about your background and how you got started with your business.

I am a senior at Babson College. My partner and I met two years ago when we co-founded the Invenio Group. The mission of Invenio Group was to bring college entrepreneurs, who intended on starting companies together before graduation, together to share resources, experiences, and eventually equity. The group lives on and Jason and I are proud to be a part of it. I also work for Babson College as an author, and will have published four case studies by the end of this year. Of course, I also blog.

Jason asked me to join the venture about one year ago. His family has been in the diamond industry for almost thirty years and he knew he could leverage their experience. We began operations two months ago and have exceeded all revenue projections to date. Jason and I take a “brutally honest” approach and it has helped us succeed. By this, I mean we acknowledge our mistakes and use them to our advantage. By maintaining complete honesty with each other, we are free to take calculated risks without fear of upsetting our partner or investors.

Paragon Lake is currently concentrating on maintaining sales. We graduate at the end of this academic year and intend to begin making significant investments at that time. We currently have several interns and a staff who handles manufacturing in Los Angeles.

I’ve always believed that being “brutally honest” is one of the keys to business success. As we saw in Enron’s mythical business, it’s not the idea alone that makes money. The idea not only has to be implemented successfully but it has to generate revenue too. Do you have any concrete suggestions for how an entrepreneur can be intentional about being “brutally honest”?

Being brutally honest has a direct correlation with confidence and trust. For the approach to work, all members of the team must have complete trust in one another. This will create an environment where team members can share thoughts and ideas without the fear of repercussions. This ties directly to confidence because any lack of confidence will create tension among team members. A partner who is not confident will perceive any criticism as a personal attack rather than an opportunity to improve the business. This is hugely detrimental to a business, and is very common in startups where the team was not carefully put together.

I’m a big fan of leveraging pre-existennt resources and you’ve nailed one of the best opportunities we all have: family knowledge. Can you describe some of the specific ways that you’ve made use of Jason’s family knowledge?

Jason’s family has provided us important insight as to how the industry operates. Directly, it has helped us form strategic relationships with suppliers and create our own operational facility. Their knowledge has given us a proprietary edge in the process of hand crafting fine jewelry that allows us to produce higher quality at a lower price.

Starting a business is one thing, but letting people know about it is a-whole-nother ballgame. So tell us a bit about your marketing strategies, what you’ve done well, what you haven’t done well, the lessons you’ve learned and what tips you’d give to a new company that’s just starting out.

One of our biggest successes has been having a friends and family newsletter. Each week, we send out a newsletter to about 25 people that outlines our successes and failures of the week. This has inspired many great ideas and led to most of our personal sales. We have not yet identified a sustainable marketing campaign, and have taken almost entirely guerrilla approaches. Early on, we were able to gain sales by posting on free directories and by identifying influential blogs. (Blogs , as you know, can be very powerful)

My biggest tip to new companies is to get out and make personal sales. Personal sales will help you identify the kinks/bottlenecks in the process before you spend serious money driving traffic. You need to solidify operations and make sure your product has some sort of call to action that gets customers excited about making the purchase. You will also gain the confidence and customer knowledge that will inspire great ideas. Only when this I done should you invest in marketing to the world.

When did you realize that you were an entrepreneur at heart and what steps have you taken since then, that others could follow, to realize your passion?

I have always had an entrepreneurial approach. I think it all began when I had my first paper route at age 11. In high school, I found saw the need for weekend entertainment and I held professionally organized dance parties. These provided me the chance to learn about managing people and marketing first hand. I would hire professional security and DJ’s, and 300-400 people would come at a rate of $8 a person. It was quite profitable for a 16 year old to be running. A big lesson I have learned is to trust your gut feeling. If something tells you that there is an opportunity, act on it as fast as possible. Time is money, and every day you hesitate is an extra day your competition has to outperform you.

All business entrepreneurs make mistakes and encounter failures (you know, that big idea that falls flat on its face). Can you share a mistake or failure that you’ve encountered and how you’ve learned from it or even used it to your advantage going forward?

I learned a lot failing on a project called Rib Wrangler. The product was designed to allow people to eat barbeque ribs without getting their hands messy. I still believe the product could be successful, but I realize that I made a lot of mistakes. Designing the product and conducting market research made me realize that there is no such thing as an easy venture. A lot of time and money goes into taking something to market, especially in consumer products. I failed to understand the economics of the business in the early stages and wound up wasting a lot of time. I have been able to apply my lessons learned to Paragon Lake and understand that business I am in. If you can not easily explain how your business makes, and loses, money then you have not done your homework. Three rules to live by.

1. There is no such thing as a product that will sell itself.
2. The first step to success if finding a customer who will buy your product.
3. If you have no competition, there is no opportunity.

So what are your long term plans? Do you see yourself starting any new businesses over the next 10 years or mainly focusing on streamlining and maximizing your current business?

If there is one thing I have learned in life it is that many of your best opportunities can not be planned. With that said, I would imagine that Jason and I will stick with Paragon Lake for at least the next five years. My priority has long been to maintain flexibility in both lifestyle and location. I hope to someday get involved in making angel investments and perhaps explore opportunities of teaching others about entrepreneurship.

Any parting thoughts or words of advice for the readership of College Startup?

In closing — I would like to remind everyone that nothing is easy. Too many entrepreneurs fail to remember that building a business is a long process. Try not to get frustrated when things do not go your way and be sure to maintain confidence in your team. A great team is crucial to success and the best entrepreneurs are the ones who learn from their mistakes and realize they do not have all of the answers.

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