About The Purpose is Profit

Ed “Skip” McLaughlin Ed is the founder of four businesses and is currently running Blue Sunsets LLC, a real estate and angel investment firm. He bootstrapped his first business, United Systems Integrators (USI) Corporation, a corporate real estate outsourcing firm, and grew it into an Inc. 500 company. In 2001, Ed earned Entrepreneur of the Year honors from Ernst & Young. In 2005, he sold USI to Johnson Controls, a Fortune 100 company, and at that point, became CEO of JCI’s Global Workplace Business for the Americas. A member of the Board of Governors for Tufts Medical Center, Ed founded its David E. Wazer Breast Cancer Research Fund. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. Active in philanthropy, Ed lives with his wife in Connecticut and has three adult children. Email: Ed@ThePurposeIsProfit.com LinkedIn: www.LinkedIn.com/in/EdSkipMcLaughlin Twitter: @purposeisprofit --- Wyn is the founder of Upstart Business Planning, where she works with entrepreneurs to develop plans that answer the questions investors ask most often. Previously, she was Managing Director of Business Plans International in New York and Co-Director of the Small Business Resource Center at Norwalk Community College. Wyn has an MBA in finance and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in economics from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She serves on the board of a local nonprofit she helped found, At Home In Darien. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and has two adult children. Email: Wyn@ThePurposeIsProfit.com LinkedIn: www.LinkedIn.com/in/WynLydecker

How to Build Your Network & Strengthen Your Business

By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker As the owner of a small business, you are responsible for the basic care and feeding of your business, but there’s another vital element at play. You need to reach out and increase your business network in order for your business to grow and develop. A recent Knowledge@Wharton article, [...]

By | November 3rd, 2015|

4-Step Incubator Plan for Corporate Entrepreneurs – Empower Them or Lose ’em!

Previously Published on LinkedIn By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker There’s a fire in the belly of members of today’s corporate workforce to start their own businesses. This means that corporations have an increasing opportunity (and responsibility) to foster ingenuity within their own ranks with corporate incubators. Indeed, in today’s startup culture, the decision to [...]

By | October 27th, 2015|

Entrepreneurship: a Steady & Patient Climb to the Top

  By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker The media are filled with stories of “change-the-world”, high valuation companies – particularly like those born in Silicon Valley. All this publicity has the potential to create false beliefs about what constitutes a worthy business idea: If your startup isn’t going to skyrocket into the public eye, it [...]

By | October 22nd, 2015|

5 Things Investors Look for in Startup Founders

Previously Published on LinkedIn By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker Meeting with investors to ask for funding can seem like going before “the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz.” But if you understand what investors are looking for, then you’ll have the knowledge, tools, and ability to shift the odds in your favor. While there [...]

By | October 20th, 2015|

Who’s the Startup Behind the New Star Wars Droid?

Previously Published on LinkedIn By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker Tech startup, Sphero, rose to prominence, drew national attention, and secured brand advertising on the big screen of one of Hollywood’s most popular franchises. How did they do it? They turned an ordinary ball into a high tech learning toy, and then they caught the [...]

By | October 15th, 2015|

Zuckerberg vs. Thiel – Is Luck, Hard Work or Skill the Key to Startup Success?

  Previously Published on LinkedIn By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker What makes an entrepreneur become wildly successful? Is it luck, hard work, skill, or a combination? In a Town Hall Q&A talk earlier this year Mark Zuckerberg attributed Facebook’s success partly to luck: “There was no reason why a group of college students should’ve [...]

By | October 13th, 2015|

Startup Funding: The 7-Step Angel Funding Process

  By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker Even though I am not a big believer in the two-minute funding pitch, I have come to learn that it does serve a purpose in culling and sorting potential angel investments. Once I have selected my investment targets, the real opportunity to build a bridge between entrepreneur and [...]

By | October 2nd, 2015|

What Is Your Startup Culture? 5 Keys to a Winning Workplace

  Previously Published on LinkedIn By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker How can you create a productive and satisfying workplace for yourself and your employees when there are goals to achieve, investors to please, and pressure to perform? Can you encourage a mentality where everyone can’t wait to get to work and wants to do [...]

By | September 29th, 2015|

How Do Major Tech CEOs Deal with Email?

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker Have you ever wondered how many emails CEOs get and how they manage them? Apple’s Tim Cook says he receives 700 to 800 daily and that he reads each one and answers the majority. “I’m a workaholic,” Cook revealed in an ABC News [...]

By | September 25th, 2015|

When Is the Right Time to Fund Your Startup?

Previously  Published on LinkedIn By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker Amit Shah is a young entrepreneur who founded AIT International Corp. when he was a sophomore in high school. He started the business with $0.00 and grew it into a thriving company. When he was a junior in college, he received a letter of intent [...]

By | September 22nd, 2015|