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Say Hello to the Future
Bill Whitley Age: 38
Company: Mindblazer.com
Why he's here: Helped create a ground-breaking Internet learning firm
Thirty-eight-year-old Bill Whitley grew up in Hampton, Virginia and graduated from Campell University with a degree in business and trust management. I was going to be a banker, he laughs. But Whitley soon realized his two passions, technology and sales, did not synch well with his sheepskin.
Whitley s first job out of college was with First Union, which brought him to Charlotte in 1984. I did not last at First Union that long, he admits, because I knew I liked technology a lot, and I wanted to be in sales, and there wasn t an opportunity for that at First Union. So I was kind of a frustrated employee.
Whitley soon found what he was looking for right across the street at Broadway and Seymour--a young, fast-growing company which sold technology to community banks. Whitley became one of the company s top sales representatives, launching a new sales method. Frustrated with lugging a slide projector and 188 slides around five states to demonstrate the company s IBM software, Whitley developed a more effective and less cumbersome demo by transferring the slides to a laptop computer and color monitor. Before long, other companies began asking Whitley to build the same system for them.
In 1989 The Whitley Group was born. I started writing the business plan in January, and by June I was ready to take the plunge, he says. The new company built programs to simulate large computer systems, front-ended with an interactive sales presentation. Broadway and Seymour became his first customer.
Working from the guest bedroom in his house, Whitley hired a partner to do graphic design and programming while he went out to sell the system. With a laugh he remembers, I d sell one and he d build one, and I d sell one and he d build one. Soon Whitley had to hire another employee, and he also had to find another office. At that point my wife sort of threw us out of the house, he chuckles, because now we were not only in the guest bedroom, we were taking over the dining room table, too. Whitley set up an office at the Ben Craig Center, a local business incubator, and such high-profile clients as Turner Broadcasting and AT&T signed up.
The Whitley Group was acquired by iXL in April 1997. Whitley stayed with iXL until this past August, when he started Mindblazer.com with co-founder Patrick Thean. Mindblazer.com is an Internet learning company. It brings corporate training sessions, via the Internet, live and direct to a company's boardroom or conference room, or an individual's desktop computer.
Mindblazer.com offers interactive management and business seminars and touts the convenience and cost-effectiveness of its live virtual learning classes which can bring visionaries to the bulk of employees, not just a select few.
Whitley credit his success with two things: fear and passion. I ve always been terrified of not succeeding, he admits, and I can honestly say that I have always allowed myself to be guided by my passion and what interests me.
As for his personal goal, the husband and father of three young children says, I want to help other people achieve their ultimate potential. I get a real joy out of making a difference in someone s life.