Company: Entrepreneurship Rising
What they do: ?Conduct workshops about entrepreneurship; ?private consulting
Goal: To contribute to the conversation about entrepreneurship
Revenue: $1 million
When 19-year-old Louis DeAngelo opened his first restaurant, he had no one to talk to about business. The first time he conversed with another entrepreneur, he was surprised to find they had much in common even though they weren’t in the same industry.
“They touched on a few things that really resonated with me, and I was like, ‘God, it’s not just me. Other people think like this, too,’” DeAngelo says. “I wasn’t as messed up as I thought. I was normal as much as an entrepreneur can ever be normal.”
It took a while, but he now fills that role for other business owners. DeAngelo, known for his successful chain of casual Italian restaurants, conducts workshops and private consulting under the brand Entrepreneur Rising.
But starting a second career by talking about entrepreneurship was the last thing DeAngelo expected. As he became less involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurants, he became aware of a desire to impart his hard-earned knowledge.
DeAngelo accepted speaking invitations, and local business owners solicited him for opinions on their operations. He identified a need among entrepreneurs for advice. Remembering that conversation from long ago, he realized his experiences—from dealing with management tensions to working long, relentless hours—might be useful in helping other people solve similar problems.
“The content of what I do today is different than the content of what I did as a young cook in the restaurant and a young business owner,” he says. “But the context is the same. That’s where people get it instead of saying, ‘You’re just a pizza guy. What do you know?’”
DeAngelo’s newest project is a downtown workspace called EHQ, where budding entrepreneurs can form a community to support one another as they work on startup companies.
The partnership includes Tiger District founder Jared Loftus and commercial real estate agent Chad Ortte. The search for a location continues, and DeAngelo hopes to open in the first quarter of 2011.
“The intangible benefit is the community, the interaction, the brainstorming and ideas,” he says. “The actual product is shared workspace, but the benefit is so much more than that. I wish I had a place like that when I was 19 to go and learn from other people.”
