Innovision Spring 2019

14 | INNOVISION MAGAZINE ELC WEEK KEYNOTE SPEAKER: RUSS STARKE On March 26, KU alum Russ Starke ‘96 gave a motivational speech about the trials of entrepreneurship and the steps to achieve a successful business. Mr. Starke is the founder and CEO of Think Company, a service and digital experience design and development firm based in Philadelphia. Think Company was based on the idea that great customer/employee relations and products begin with careful research and evidence-based design. In his keynote speech, Mr. Starke discussed multiple rules that future entrepreneurs should consider when running a business. With 20 years of professional designing under his belt, Mr. Starke has worked with corporate and non-profit clients as an award-winning digital strategist, experienced designer, information architect, instructional designer, business analyst and project manager. Getting to this point in his career was not easy. During his speech, Mr. Starke described his road to Think Company as his “Trail of Tears:” a term he used to describe the list of various companies he’s worked for since college. He talked about how jumping from one company to the next allowed him to take some business techniques from each company and build his own company based off what he acquired. After talking about his work experience, Mr. Starke introduced the creation of Think Company and where it all started. He shared pictures of the small brownstone building the company used as headquarters in the beginning stages and compared it to pictures of the large, furnished creative space that the company uses as their headquarters today. While mentioning how people can build their company and clientele, he said, “It won’t be easy unless you just put yourself out there and start.” To end his speech, Mr. Starke introduced multiple rules for entrepreneurs to consider when owning a company. These rules spanned from employee and clientele relations to creativity pointers to goals and virtues. Mr. Starke believed that following these rules and shifting your mindset will make you a better entrepreneur and create a stronger and more successful company.