{"id":829,"date":"2018-10-19T13:13:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T13:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williambissett.com\/?p=829"},"modified":"2018-10-19T16:27:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T16:27:16","slug":"charlotte-angel-connection-episode-075-angel-rutledge-signup-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williambissett.com\/2018\/10\/19\/charlotte-angel-connection-episode-075-angel-rutledge-signup-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Angel Connection Episode 074: Angel Rutledge, SignUp Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SignUp Genius<\/a> was born out of the frustrations of a couple, Dan<\/a> and Angel Rutledge<\/a>, who were struggling with the same tasks we labor through every week as parents and volunteers \u2013 coordinating who does what and when.\u00a0 It was born in 2008 \u2013 the worst economic period we\u2019ve had in at least 30 years \u2013 in a growing southern city not known for its entrepreneurial grit, Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Dan had been recruited to Charlotte to work with an entrepreneur (Michael Vadini<\/a>) to build an entertainment company and a website design\/implementation company.\u00a0 Angel is a former middle school English teacher and a mother of four who stepped in to help Dan in 2011.<\/p>\n

At that time, Dan just needed help with hiring and extra help on marketing.\u00a0 A little more than a year later, SignUp Genius was growing by over 40% per week during October 2012.<\/p>\n

Coming out of that period of strong growth, they realized they had something important to the world and valuable as a company.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until 2016, however, when Dan and Angel, and Michael Vadini (Dan\u2019s co-founder) realized it was important for them to raise capital.\u00a0 Given their rapid growth over the previous 8 years, they had plenty of firms lining up to make the investment.\u00a0 They had choices about what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. \u00a0Great choices at the right time.<\/p>\n

Over the years, through all the challenges (and we discuss a few of them) and successes (we talk about those too), they have never deviated from their core mission \u2013 to empower people to change the world by making it simple to organize groups.<\/p>\n

Listen to this local success story with Angel.\u00a0 They had no accelerator program, no outside capital until nearly 10 years old, they were NOT in San Francisco and yet they\u2019ve carved out a very nice niche for themselves.<\/p>\n

Learn when Angel finally told Dan, \u201cyou have to fire me from doing something.\u201d\u00a0 Find out her favorite role, their view of the responsibilities of having investors? Listen to what she tells her daughters about their own lives and much more in this interview with Angel.<\/p>\n

Then come find Angel in the growing entrepreneur and investor scene here in Charlotte.\u00a0 You\u2019ll come away impressed and thankful we have more and more people like Angel coming out to grow and share on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

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Local notes and thoughts:<\/strong><\/p>\n