Episode 17. Gordon Daugherty joined the Trap with deep expertise in guiding early-stage entrepreneurs and their companies through the challenges of building companies of worth. As co-founder and chairman of Austin’s Capital Factory, Gordon is well-known in the business community for his sage wisdom, level-headed and positive approach to mentoring leaders through the numerous challenges they face on the company building journey. This episode is essential listening for new CEOs and leaders at all levels. Some of the themes are universal to the challenges of discerning feedback coming from all sorts of directions and making the critical decisions to move the interests of the enterprise forward. Gordon is calm, cool, collected, and really on his game! In fact, be sure to listen to how he “yells” at his mentees by saying, in his calm manner – “honestly, this is when I’m yelling at you…though it may not sound like it, I’m really yelling.” Gordon wields influence with great respect for people’s dignity.
Gordon Daugherty is a best-selling author, seasoned business executive, entrepreneur, startup advisor and investor. A proud native Texan, Gordon grew up in a small town and graduated from Baylor University with a computer science degree. He spent the first ten years of his career in brand-name companies such as IBM and Compaq and then progressively gravitated towards early-stage and high-growth companies. Gordon spent eight years in the videoconferencing industry, including four years as president of an Israeli-based company that grew from $5 million to $36 million in a short few years and went public on the Euronext Stock Market.
Gordon oversaw most company functions while serving in executive capacities, but his primary focus was on strategy, marketing, sales, business development, and M&A. He was a senior executive for Austin-based NetQoS, which grew rapidly to more than $55 million in revenue before being acquired by CA Technologies for $200 million, and he was a founding advisor for digital advertising pioneer MediaMind, which reached $65 million in revenue and a NASDAQ IPO in 2010.
Gordon has vast experience with early-stage fundraising from both sides of the table. As a venture fund manager and angel investor, he has made more than 200 investments. He has also helped raise more than $80 million in growth and venture capital as a company executive, fund manager, board director, and active advisor. Fundraising is the focus of the first book he authored, titled “Startup Success: Funding the Early Stages of Your Venture”.
Through his content creation practice, Shockwave Innovations, and as co-founder and president of Austin’s Capital Factory, Gordon now spends 100 percent of his time educating, advising, and investing in tech startups. He serves on the board of directors for several Austin-based technology companies and is a managing director at SoftMatch, a corporate innovation advisory firm.
Over the years, Gordon has given personal advice to several hundred entrepreneurs, and more than 1,000 startup founders have completed his Founders Academy boot camp. He has published more than 150 startup advice articles and is the producer of a video library with 50 streaming titles of educational content for startup founders.
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Hosts: Dr. Kris Potrafka and David Hughen