Dan Gudema began helping entrepreneurs in his spare time many years ago. He found that his experience working for Bell Atlantic, Victoria Secret and Office Depot, as well as knowledge gained while starting up and selling the largest speed-dating company in the United States, was helpful to others starting out. His goal was to assist people getting their businesses off the ground, so he founded a company called StartupPOP that held free startup pitch events for the local community. Startup companies could come and pitch their ideas to a panel of investors, angels and VCs. The attendees found that sharing their knowledge about a myriad of subjects was invaluable to them in their business and personal lives, which lead to JUST ASK DAN being born.
JUST ASK DAN works with one goal: to build and support the community. Lot’s of people around us have valuable insight to information we need. Sharing one’s knowledge and experience with others not only create jobs, opportunities, and better lives, it helps strengthen the backbone of our communities.
In 2001, while working as a web developer for a $1 billion year old-time catalog company, he was asked by a serial entrepreneur if he would be the tech partner in a nascent start-up. He worked the day job and the night start-up for over 3 years. Pre-Dating.com went on to become the largest speed dating company in the US and was sold to Cupid.com in 2004. Since this initial start-up experience he has mentored, partnered and spoken with several hundred start-ups and corporations. He has also published several books about start-ups including Go SEO Yourself, Pitch, and Thinking Like a Startup.
If you have any additional questions contact us or send Dan a direct tweet at @dgudema.
Dan Gudema
Founder