"Angel" visits Huntsman School

When someone usually thinks of an angel, they might picture a halo and wings. What you may not know is that recent Lectures in Entrepreneurship Speaker Gary Gigot is a different type of angel, which is one that invests their own funds to provide capital for a business start-up.

Gary Gigot

Gary Gigot was on the bottom floor of Microsoft and Visio Corporation’s meteoric rises where he managed their advertising and PR. But after a successful run in corporate America, he said, “at this stage in [his] career, [he] could not work in a large company … because there are too many things and too many committees and [he] is much more interested in building things and doing things on [his] own.”

He also shared the reasons he has discovered that have led him to continue to pursue and help others pursue careers in entrepreneurship in the following list:

Reasons for being an Entrepreneur
• Independence
• Have an idea
• Questionable fit in large organizations
• Comfortable with risk
• Cash flow and/or value creation focused
• Self-learner/constant curiosity

Gary was adamant about the need for our society, in our current economy, to return to its roots of hard work and diligence in creating valuable enterprises from smart individuals.

“I got asked by Notre Dame Magazine to offer up a commentary on ‘Where are the new jobs going to come from’ … I’ve thought about it and thought about it with the people that I know, and I realized that people need to learn to be self-reliant again,” David said. “People need to realize that professionals and the jobs they’ve had before may be gone out of the U.S. economy for good. People that are getting smarter are going up and recreating themselves with a new business. ”

He also shared his wisdom in what to strive for when one gets to the point where they are looking to have their company bought.

“One of the truisms in selling companies is that ‘companies are never sold, they’re bought,’ which means you want to be in the position where the buyer is pursuing you, you are not putting the company up for sale.”

- Rob Goates