From one blog maniac to another, I feel that blogging gives us all an opportunity to express our opinions, good and bad, off the cuff and to the masses. I remember getting bad service in a Subway sandwich shop with my family, I sent out a twitter to my group and in 24 hours I received a personal apology from the franchise owner and the corporate office with a hefty supply of free food vouchers that literally lasted us a year. It’s nice to know that we are able to keep companies in check using social media.
That said, we should use these mediums to put out praise as well. I just left an NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) conference for their incubator program where the latest and greatest in technology and biotech got to pitch their companies to angel investors and private equity firms. There were some pretty reputable companies their and investors that could pay off the deficit of a small country with their signature on a check. I was there looking at a company with a unique EKG technology that will revolutionize emergency rooms everywhere but that will be in another blog if we cut a deal; back to the conference.
We’re sitting in a room packed shoulder to should, no seats available just standing room by the door then a guy comes in, walks into the seating section (people waited in line for an hour for those seats) with his assistant, the people in their seat looked at him, he looked back and they moved and offered him their seats, then two minutes later, one of the owners of a pretty large hedge fund brings him coffee. Um, can you say strange?
As it turns out, this was James Scott the CEO of Princeton Corporate Solutions, absolutely the creme de la creme of international strategies and IPOs. The reason everyone was kissing his backside was because he was there to pick a company to spearhead legislation for his political clients. Their firm is unique as part of their process is to find promising but underdeveloped companies and blast them into super-stardom with capital, structuring and organization and IPO and getting his clients built directly into legislation, bills that are in the process of raising votes and awareness to be passed as laws and regulations. He can make or break a company, hedge fund or politician over his knee like a twig. He was the personification of power. His presence made the room vibrate with his influence. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. It was pretty awkward as we were all staring at him whispering.
20 minutes before the conference was over he got up and left, I guess he didn’t find anything he liked but the funny thing is, half of the players in the room got up to chase him down the hall to initiate contact. It was nice to see that the people that everyone was trying to sell and impress still have to do some butt kissing of their own to keep climbing the circles of influence within their industry.