[quote style=”boxed”]I tell every rising entrepreneur the key to success is to focus on the customer, and focus on your core value proposition.[/quote]
Hoyt David Morgan, Co-Founder & President of Nito: A successful entrepreneur and business leader with multiple positive exits to his credit. While experience and skills are broad, special focus has been in the Internet and entertainment verticals, and on strategy, finance, marketing and operations skills. Hoyt has a proven track record growing businesses, acquiring customers and increasing revenues/profits. One example: as the first marketing employee and VP Marketing at College Loan Corporation, he lead all customer acquisition efforts for the consumer business. During his tenure the company secured more than 800,000 customers, grew from zero to be the 6th largest student loan company in the country and had the most cost-effective and efficient direct marketing program in the entire industry. Hoyt has been on the leadership teams for two entertainment tech companies with significant exits (in addition to his other experience and exits).
Where did the idea for Nito’s animation technology come from?
Working in the content and promotion worlds we identified a strong desire for studios, agencies and brands to have a better way to engage with their fans and customers, and we saw even more that fans wanted a deeper level of participation with entertainment and brands they liked.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
We are creative, and we are salespeople. We work hard creatively to make a better product. We constantly strive to design better, create more characters, and come up with new features and new ideas. As salespeople, we pitch the company and concept to potential clients, partners and investors all the time. We have a morning meeting where everyone gives their immediate goals for the day and asks for help where needed. This keeps us focused and working as a team.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Creativity, software and hard, long days of work are what ultimately brings our ideas to fruition.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The blending of virtual and real life, or augmented reality, is an exciting area of technology. Consumers and fans want to live and experience their passions. We help them do this.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Our efforts are always focused on the customer. Always.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
The most unpleasant job I have held was as a busboy. I learned that no matter how high or low on the totem pole, if you provide good customer service you will succeed in your job and advance.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
If I could do anything differently, I would move faster.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I tell every rising entrepreneur the key to success is to focus on the customer, and focus on your core value proposition.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
Our most successful strategy has been identifying the early market entry points, even if they are not necessarily the way we will grow fastest in the future. We learned not to go off course and to remember there is room for flexibility to enter the market.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I once found myself working with the wrong person. I cut ties in a fair, honest and ethical way, and I moved forward without looking back.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I believe that there is a ton of opportunity to modernize, socialize and improve the medical field, especially the patient experience.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
I have solo-sailed across the Caribbean Ocean.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
We use GoDaddy, Google, Flurry and DropBox. They make us faster, smarter and better as a team.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
There are so many books I would recommend, but I will cut it to three, with one in each category. Business: Only the Paranoid Survive, by Andy Grove from Intel; Pleasure: Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield (about the Battle of Thermopylae (300)); Inspirational: Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
My father influenced my thinking the most. He is no longer around to share his wisdom, and he wouldn’t know how to use Twitter if he was. That said, I like TechCrunch an awful lot.
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Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.