Derek Young/quiz

Estimated questions to guest speakers: 20

I really liked the dialog the class had with Derek Young. As far as a well organized presentation... I don't think so. As far as interesting, I think he was the most interesting of all the guest speakers. I believe that the questions that were asked by me and my classmates pulled out the most interesting points of the presentation. When the lecture started, it seemed like there was alot of distractions due to him being soft spoken and the loud hallway noise coming in from the open door. I don't know if its just me, but it seems that most of the guest speakers try to stay vague when it comes to facts and figures about their own business ie. revenues. Derek was no exception. I think if he would have just given the presentation in his format, he would have talked about the products themselves and left out all of his personality attributes and struggles that I think is his most interesting attribute.
I have been wondering how various websites generated revenues other than obvious advertisements and product sales. I never considered the idea of personal networking as is demonstrated by Dereks websites. It's absolutely amazing that based on word of mouth Suite 133 has two fortune 500 clients. I think Derek is a great example for why anyone would want to be and entreprenuer demonstrated in the way Suite 133 has turned out. He likes everything laid back. I asked if there was unlimited printing and his response was basically we run everything on the honor system "just leave money in the jar" if you feel like you've over-run your share.Where else can a person set the laid back low stress environment like that?... just be the owner.
I reviewed his website, exit133.com, and was impressed with the vision for exposing Tacoma to the community. One of the things that's going to change peoples perspective of Tacoma is when they get rid of the pulp mill. This morning on my way in from Puyallup on I-5 I could smell the "aroma of Tacoma" though rare it's still there Ironically it was at exit 133 that I smelled it.
I like the way he discussed the differences in philosophy regarding getting extra operating capital between him and his partners. When he first came in he said they were a debt free company which I thought made a huge statement like "look at us we did it without selling our soul's to mafia". I believe that the partner who came from the family owned business has been key in keeping those freedoms alive. I would say that maybe using a little extra finances to get through a bad month in order to keep employees around is not unreasonable, but I think if it weren't for that partner, I don't think Derek could boast of them being a debt free company like he did at the beginning of class.