Last night Silicon Flatirons hosted ViaWest CEO Roy Dimoff at Entrepreneurs Unplugged. Founded in 1999, ViaWest provides co-location, hybrid and managed hosting, business continuity services and internet access to thousands of corporate customers from its sixteen enterprise-class data centers. Speaking to a group of over 100 in the Engineering Center, Dimoff took questions from the audience in addition to queries from moderators Jason Mendelson and Robert Reich, Managing Director of Foundry Group and CEO of OneRiot (formerly Me.dium), respectively. Key themes of the evening included:
- Plato’s Apology: Know What You Don’t Know: Dimoff explained that when he headed his first business at age 26, he quickly came to learn where he excelled (strategy, marketing) and where he struggled (process, accounting). He eventually found a partner who complemented his skill sets in Nancy Phillips, a business relationship now spanning three companies and 22 years. Mrs. Phillips is currently COO of ViaWest.
- Love thy Customer: Dimoff has grown multiple businesses from industry underdog to sector powerhouse. His secret sauce: “Meet with your customers. Understand your customers. There will always be a market for that.” While ViaWest boasts thousands of customers ranging in size from startups to mature businesses, every one of these accounts has access to Dimoff. Focus on the customer must “start at the top and work its way down.” Dimoff believes his success in some markets was largely due to his policy of proactively informing his customers of their worth to his business, rather than waiting until the relationship was threatened by competitors.
- When Hanging by the Short Hairs, Trust in Consistency, Communication: Dimoff stressed that during a crisis, businesses do best when they communicate their position with honesty to suppliers, investors and banks: “I can count at least a half dozen times when, if the banker said “no”, I was done. I was gone.” But he spoke regularly with his banker and survived. Now leading a profitable company, Dimoff regularly gives breaks to those customers who communicate their cash flow difficulties and offer some payment, however discounted.
The next Entrepreneurs Unplugged will be held on February 18th, at 6pm at the University of Colorado Engineering Center. Information on the speaker and specific location has yet to be announced, although the free event will be open to students, faculty, and members of the community. The next Silicon Flatirons event will be a Crash Course on Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs, held on December 3 from 5:00-6:30 PM in Room 204 of the Wolf Law Building. Registration for the event can be found here.
