How I Became a Funded Entrepreneur in 2011... at AT&T Mobility

I had a crazy 2011. I joined AT&T in January, after a short stint at Location Labs. I had personal reasons for the move - more time with family, staying closer to home, anxiety associated with startup life, week-to-week unknowns, chemistry - all factors that influenced my decision, which at this time last year, was difficult to make. Looking back on 2011, I'm glad I did what I did and now have more proof that deciding & moving is always better than sedentary indecision. Life is a journey. Still, one of my main worries about the move a year ago was that I might possibly sacrifice stimulating and innovative work by moving to a large corporate bureaucracy. Looking back now, I worried needlessly and probably aged in the process. I won't make that mistake again. Work, like life, is what you make it.

Shortly after I joined big blue in January, I met John Ruckart at The Innovation Pipeline (TIP) inside AT&T. At that time, John had just started work on AT&T Drivemode. I wanted to help John and AT&T with distracted driving issues, so I volunteered my time and energy. It was a fun and familiar project, so I was thrilled to get involved and welcomed the opportunity to work with TIP. That experience was my fist exposure to TIP, and following the successful launch of the offer, I received an IP Achievement Award for my contribution. I had a good start to the year, was hooked ,and wanted to do more, faster... I started looking at TIP more closely for other ways to contribute.

I soon learned that like it's cousin The Foundry, TIP is an internal AT&T organization focused on finding ideas from within and bringing them to market. More specifically, TIP is a kind of 'wisdom of the crowds' crowdsourcing ideation environment. Here's how it works... Anyone inside AT&T (280,000 employees!) can submit an idea to TIP. There's an intranet page. Once submitted, any individual (in 280,000) is entitled to vote on the merits of each submission. Cream rises to the top, and voted-for candidates get short-listed. Short list candidate idea founders then present 10/20/30 formatted presentations to internal AT&T Angel Investors, which include VP, EVP, Group President, and CxO level decision makers inside the company. Sounded good. I wanted in but didn't know where to begin...

Then, one day I reached out to John just to touch base. Every time we talked we shared knowledge, we collaborated, we trusted each other, and we inspired each other. We talked for an hour (as we normally did) and then went about our business. A few days later, John called and said "hey, I got something I want you to take a look at". I of course accepted and offered up my time. John asked about a recently submitted TIP idea that had won priority status through the democratic voting system. He indicated he had a hunch that we already offered a solution for the idea, but asked for confirmation. I confirmed, but noted the solution didn't quite meet the needs of AT&Ts SMB customers. We discussed and others also got involved. After a few exchanges I put together an idea of my own and took it back to TIP. Before I knew what was happening, I was on the docket to present my own idea to the TIP Angel committee. I then presented my offer & plan through a series of meetings with a variety of folks, including John Donovan (CTO) and Bill Archer (President of Advanced Solutions). They both asked good questions and were genuinely curious about what I was proposing we do.

Today I received official notice that my idea received $500K in funding, which was the ask. In addition to the cash, the project will receive resources to help realize it on a fast-track. Fast-track means just that, and for those thinking that big blue doesn't innovate or move quickly, think again. I have tried raising money before for other start-up ideas, but failed. Timing was certainly an issue when I did (I know that now in retrospect), but perhaps the idea also wasn't the right one. I can now acknowledge those ideas weren't that good. I've since learned though that ideas (good or bad) don't really matter - chance, people, and execution matter most. I never thought I would have the opportunity to become a funded entrepreneur inside a corporate environment - but I did, and that's very cool - the cool people I work with helped.