Michael Dermer knows the isolation of entrepreneurship
His platform, the Lonely Entrepreneur has been rolled out across the U.S. to provide helpful tools to small business owners everywhere.
Michael Dermer knows a thing or two about the loneliness that entrepreneurs experience, and he is focused on providing a tool to help them succeed.
A mergers and acquisitions attorney who spends half his time in Nashville and the other half in New York City, Dermer is focused on finding supporters who share his vision for an initiative to help entrepreneurs turn their passion into success. It’s called The Lonely Entrepreneur, and it has been rolled out throughout the U.S. and now he is bringing it to Tennessee.
“The Lonely Entrepreneur was born from my harrowing experience in the 2008 financial crisis,” Dermer explains. “I watched the business we built for 10 years to over 500 employees – the first company in the U.S. to reward for healthy behavior – nearly get destroyed in 10 days by the financial crisis of 2008.”
That company was IncentOne, and Dermer was the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President. It was the first company in the U.S. to reward individuals for healthy behavior. IncentOne’s customers were the nation’s largest companies – health plans, health systems, large employers, Medicare, and Medicaid including Tennessee-based companies like BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Nissan, and Healthways. IncentOne enabled these companies to realize cost savings by using incentives to drive behavior.
But when the financial crisis of 2008 hit, the companies he spent 10 years acquiring were on the brink of bankruptcy. “We not only survived but went on to sell the company and become an industry pioneer,” Dermer added. IncentOne was acquired by industry pioneer Welltok in 2013.
After his exit, Dermer wanted to give back to entrepreneurs and was struck by something. “Even though entrepreneurship is so important to our society, we never gave entrepreneurs a map.” He believes that we do them a disservice. “We tell them ‘passion, grit and a good idea are enough.’ But it’s not. Being a successful entrepreneur requires you to learn 100s of skills. But even though entrepreneurship is so important to our country, we just told them to ‘fail fast.’”
So, he wondered, “Why isn’t there a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs – one place they could go to get everything they need to succeed.” That led to the idea for The Lonely Entrepreneur (TLE).
Dermer took his Software-as-a-Service technology background and created the first one-stop one for entrepreneurs called the Learning Community. It is a one-stop shop for the knowledge, tools, and support entrepreneurs need to succeed. The platform includes:
- Knowledge: 2,000 learning modules on business and personal issues entrepreneurs face;
- Tools: 100s of templates, agreements, and vendor reviews;
- On Demand Day-to-Day Support: Get questions answered in real time;
- Unlimited Online Group Coaching; and
- Community: A committed community of fellow entrepreneurs
Dermer describes it as “on-demand information and on-demand support,” and his goal is to give it to entrepreneurs across Tennessee for free by having corporations, philanthropists, and economic development organizations provide funding, so entrepreneurs don’t have to pay.
As a starter, TLE has secured a grant through the TN Placemakers Entrepreneurship Fund, managed by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, to provide free seat licenses to those being served by three eastern Tennessee entrepreneur centers. In alphabetical order, they are The Biz Foundry in Cookeville, Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC), and Sync Space Entrepreneur Center in Kingsport.
In a recent issue of The Messenger, KEC announced the availability of up to 75 seat licenses for start-ups in its service area as a way to extend its reach and serve more entrepreneurs.
“The Lonely Entrepreneur provides resources to people who could otherwise not get them,” said Jim Biggs, KEC Executive Director.
Dermer’s goal is the find sponsors that will underwrite the cost of seat licenses, which retail for $99 a month or $999 a year, so that the program can support the thousands of entrepreneurs who do not have access to incubators and accelerators.
The Lonely Entrepreneur is further described in this YouTube video.
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