"I've essentially bootstrapped my entire racing career to date...It was the most 101 in Business I've ever had...The whole struggle financially, and having to put my business hat on at a young age is what has made me so passionate about entrepreneurship." Collete Davis

About:  Collete Davis - Racecar Driver, Co-Founder of TechDrive, & CEO of Collete Davis Racing

Overview: Young female Indy race car driver, Collete Davis, wows us with her amazing accomplishments, entrepreneurial skills, and involvement with co-founding TechDrive. She shares the ups and downs of competing in a highly dominated male sport and how TechDrive came about.

Highlights:

Getting Started: By the age of 12 years old, Collete Davis was professionaly go-cart racing. By the age of 16, she started college to become a mechanical engineer. Although she was outnumbered in her classes and career, she didn’t let being the only girl make her nervous or shy away from her dreams. She is currently pursuing Indy racing and aspires to win the Indy 500.

Struggles: For Collete, racing has been an uphill battle. It was hard to find sponsors or financial backers to get behind a female racer. Collete bootstrapped her entire career from the age of 15 to raise the funds needed to race. At a young age, she had sell her potential to investors which has taught, motivated, and driven her to form a company around her racing experience.

What is TechDrive: The brand around TechDrive is starting as a new source to focus on everything from green to mobile startups, companies like Tesla, and focusing on the innovation in racing. The short pitch for TechDrive is: More techy, talkier, 2.0. Collete is currently working on a new initiative with Richard Branson- be sure to stay tuned.

Collete's Goals: In racing: winning the Indy 500. In business: providing easy access for startups to go mainstream.

For her consumers: Collete wants her consumers to know that TechDrive is a place where you can find niche content on all things travel. She also feels the importance to provide more and more content for consumers to be educated about going green.

Take Away: Collete teaches us that regardless of your age or gender, it's possible to pursue your dreams in entrepreneurship and create something more through your struggles. She is a great example of persevering to accomplish your goals.

Connect With Collete Davis: 

Website | Facebook | @ColleteDavis | @TechDriveCo 

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“We are disrupting the negative behaviors and dynamics that aren’t conducive to a healthy relationship. – Matthew Arrington

About Forte Strong:  Co-Founders: Matthew Arrington, and Brook Price. St. George, Utah.

Overview: Forte Strong is a powerful startup company helping young male adults ages 18-26 overcome their failure to launch. They work with an average of 8-15 students on a 6 month basis to help break bad habits, teach them social and practical skills, boost confidence, and lead them to the path that will bring them success in the real world. They are driven by their pure desire to help build the next generation of strong men.

Highlights:

Why the need for Forte Strong: Failure to launch is a growing problem that consequently is affecting men more than women. Matt and Brook are determined to help build this next generation of strong men.

Reasons for Failure to Launch: Social anxieties, technology, parenting styles

Details of Forte Strong: It is a 6 month program for male students ages 18-26. They provide guidance and structure while teaching their students social and practical life skills. A typical day at Forte Strong includes: a series of assessments, learning more about their student one-on-one. Forte Strong provides their students with therapists, coaches, and mentors for all aspects of their life. Students come from all over the world to create better lives for themselves.

Hiring process at Forte Strong: Hiring the right coaches is key at Forte Strong. They need people who are driven, empathetic, who can see the type of help that somebody needs; not what the world wants, or the expectation, but what somebody really needs. They need employees who are team players and are invested in their students.

Why Brook and Matt chose to work together: Brook has a resume of experience working with young adults, and Matt has great business experience that give them a good balance in creating a successful company. With their forces combined, they felt very strongly that they could do some good in the world with Forte Strong.

How they overcome disagreements: Transparency. Despite their differences, they focus on honesty and accept that they will make mistakes along the way and use it as a teaching moment for both the students and parents. They trust one another. “We’re trying to emulate what it means to be a real person. For us not to make mistakes is not realistic. But what we can do is use it (our mistakes) as a teaching moment.” They don’t allow their disagreements to get in the way of their real goals.

Profit: Matt and Brooke discuss the ups and downs of striving to become a profitable company. For 2015, they are possibly considering the non-profit route to help as many families as they possibly can. They are also working towards getting insurance companies to help pay for students’ tuition. By the end of 2015, if they do become a non-profit, and are accepting insurance, it should increase their revenue by about 450%.

Goal for Growth: Forte Strong would like to get to the point where they have a large number in St. George, but not too large that they lose the quality of their service. Once they can maintain the right level of students here, they want to open other programs around the country.

Advice for those thinking about a startup: Have a savings. It’s going to be a risk. Don’t do it alone. Understand where your weaknesses are and find someone who will help you fill in the gaps. Educate yourself as much as possible, read as many books as you can, and talk to as many experts as you can to have a base level of knowledge that will give you the platform to move forward. And don’t be afraid.

Take Away: Forte Strong is a much needed company determined to help change the future generation of men by giving them the tools to overcome their failure to launch.

“What’s the path you want to take? Let’s help you get there.” – Brook Price

Connect With Forte Strong:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Youtube

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