Well… that was a lot. In case you missed it (and live under a rock), soon after a speech made by President Donald Trump, angry protestors headed for the US Capitol in Washington DC and somehow mobbed themselves into the building.
The House and Senate were in the middle of debating a move Republicans made to overturn 2020’s election results when suddenly gunshots were fired and mobsters took over most of the building. Unfortunately, a woman was shot and killed, and several others were injured.
Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers were rushed out of the Senate chambers and Washington was declared a citywide curfew starting at 6 pm Eastern time by Mayor Muriel Bowser and the National Guard was deployed and will last until President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
People have been relating this to the civil unrest and violence that happened in Libya years back and everyone is still wondering how the mobsters were able to rush into the Capitol in the first place.
Soon-to-be President Joe Biden held a conference to address the issue and prompted Trump to go live, which he kind of did by posting a pre-recorded video sympathizing with protesters and asking them to go home. Now Trump’s Twitter is suspended (will the two ever get along?) and other Republicans are condemning the violence.
New Year, New You, New City
Is 2021 your time to pick up and relocate? If you’re an entrepreneur, you might want to consider options where funding is flowing and there is lots of hiring talent. No, it’s not just located in Silicon Valley. Salt Lake City, Boise, Reno, and Kalamazoo are all becoming options. Even Elon Musk and Oracle have moved to Texas.
Charlotte, North Carolina is becoming known for startups in fintech, and the local startups there are getting the venture capital to prove it. Housing prices are still low, but on the rise fast. Indianapolis doesn’t hand out as much VC capital, but there’s been a 15.4% increase in employment since April 2019. Plus, the rent is cheap and they have a new transit system.
Huntsville, Alabama is supporting lots of aerospace and biotech companies right now, while Kalamazoo is seeing a rise in craft beer breweries and a 24% job increase since last April. Provo, Utah has a budding tech scene that once was a bootstrap-only kinda deal, but now venture capital has poured in $218 million to the town this year.
Santa Barbara startups have netted $511 million in VC since the start of the year and everyone’s headed to Washington DC thanks to Amazon moving their headquarters there. It’s a great spot for budding talent in the cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and quantum computing scene.
Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute was just built at the University of Utah, helping boost Salt Lake City’s entrepreneurial scene. Washington state, most known for their tech scene in Seattle, is booming for entrepreneurs in Olympia, where they just built the OlyMEGA space (that stands for Olympia makers, engineers, geeks and artists), and Bremerton, which is a picturesque town on the water, is attracting the digital nomad type.
Of course, we’ve heard about Austin, Texas, Reno, Nevada, Vegas, Boston and San Jose with their bustling startup culture.
If you were to relocate, which of the above cities would you move to and why? Hit reply and tell us!
8-Figures Is Easy
Take it from Laureen Asseo, who started her own organic meal delivery company when she was 18. In 2010, with a dream and a drive, Lauren would work 20-hour days, trying to learn everything she could about building a business from the ground up. Not to mention she didn’t have any outside capital to help her get Fresh n’ Lean running! Now the company makes eight figures in revenue.
Back then, the market was still cozying up to the idea of having services and goods shipped directly to her home, so she saw an opportunity in that DTC marketplace. Fresh n’ Lean was built while Lauren was getting her bachelor’s in apparel manufacturing and business management. That lifestyle along with her father’s health issues are what inspired having clean, unprocessed, organic meals delivered to other people’s homes.
Learning about meal prep, delivery, manufacturing, distribution, sourcing, and marketing were all Lauren’s focus. She started by personally developing meals in bulk Tupperware containers. That same year, she would ship overnight through UPS to reach other US states. And when it came to customer service emails and phone calls, plus cold calling? All Lauren, #allday.
It only took a few months before her company was too big to keep running in her apartment, so she rented a commercial kitchen a few days a week and kept a small, lean team. She had to be smart about her risks because there wasn’t any outside capital to give wiggle room for mistakes.
As she kept growing, she would adjust to consumer trends, like getting into Whole Foods or adding animal protein, Paleo and Keto meal options. No matter what though, Lauren stayed true to her vision. 7.2 million meals have been served to her customers and she only wants to keep growing.
Do you want to scale your company into eight figures? Hit reply and tell us your vision!
