[quote style=”boxed”]Helping people earn money always makes you money.[/quote]
Steve Huey is a dynamic, results-oriented leader with a proven track record of sustainable performance in high-tech industries. His recent accomplishments include co-leading the expansion of The Learning House, Inc., where he helped triple the size of the company in only three years; co-leading the turnaround effort at RentalHouses.com, where he helped triple the company’s sales as well as position the company as a market leader, increasing the company’s value by more than 160% in less than six months; initiating and leading the acquisition of a $7 million anti-spyware software and services company where he launched four new products in the first 60 days, resulting in a profitable $10 million growth in business and turnaround; leading a $210 million cable product business, where he reduced customer churn by 171 basis points, which resulted in a savings of $25 million and initiated the “Save the Customer” strategy, which resulted in a 331% increase in program retention and added $7.4 million in annual sales.
Steve graduated from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University with a Master of Business Administration. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Accounting at Miami University, Ohio. He was selected to attend Harvard Business School’s Executive Education, Corporate Governance.
What are you working on right now?
I am CEO of Capture Higher Ed and working on a social media company called Blurb It!
Where did the idea for Capture Higher Ed come from?
The idea for Capture came from a failed acquisition attempt where we were the target to be acquired.
What does your typical day look like?
Up at 5:30 a.m. to work out (aerobic activity).
7:45 a.m. – At the office; catch up on email and do daily planning until 8:30 / 9:00 a.m.
9:00 – Begin meetings with team; ideally spend 30% on growth opportunities, 30% on operations and 30% on people development.
Lunch at 11:30 a.m., typically with people interested in startups or the like.
Leave by 6:00-6:30 p.m.
Arrive home by 7:00 p.m.; eat dinner and play games with daughter.
Bedtime for daughter is 8:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m. – Work out (weights).
9:00 p.m. – Watch TV or read.
Lights out at 10:00 p.m.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Find people to share the idea with and those who share the passion of the idea. From the combined passion, move the project forward in small iterative steps by holding passionate people accountable and by them holding me accountable.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Ray Kurzweil’s theory on logarithmic progression and the streaming of video via You Tube, Netflix, etc.
What was the worst job you ever had, and what did you learn from it?
That as an Asset-Based Lending Auditor for a bank. I learned that small business people were not that heroic and that I could be one of them, too!
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
Major in Marketing and Sales in college.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Build systems around people—hiring processes, reviewing processes and goal setting.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
We had a sale of our business fall through. We doubled down our effort and focused on the fundamentals of the business. Sold it a year later for $10 million more than the first deal.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Helping people earn money always makes you money. If you can invent something that helps someone feed his or her family, you have a product idea that may be better.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?
Reduce our need for fossil fuels, promote the development of battery technology and solar power
Tell us a secret.
I am afraid of becoming irrelevant and out of touch with current technology.
What are your three favorite online tools or resources, and what do you love about them?
1. Amazon.com book search – I shop for books at least once a week.
2. Nutshell CRM – Cheap, easy to use and enough for a startup.
3. Google Voice – New business phone instantly piped to your cell phone.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It frames wonderfully how to build a product using a fast feedback loop.
Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?
Tim Ferriss – Interesting stuff geared to the lean startup type of person.
Tom Peters as it is fun to think about what corporate America is doing.
No one else, as I do not follow Twitter and read it only as a time-waster.
When was the last time you laughed out loud? What caused it?
At my eight-year-old daughter as she outsmarted my mother-in-law.
Who is your hero?
My wife. She’s a Harvard M.B.A., Bain Consultant, mother, daughter, wife—she does everything and more, and her perfection is near 100%.
Who is your current favorite author?
Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, because I see that she has predicted many aspects of our time and she holds up builders, doers, people of action as her heroes.
How do you want to be remembered?
As someone who helped start over 100 companies that successfully employed people and added to the public good.
Connect:
Steve Huey on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/steven-huey/0/b0/580
(Interesting note: Steve was one of the first users of LinkedIn and has been a member since 2002.)
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.