I am in Dallas for a few days with a group of students from Belmont. They are attending Delta Epsilon Chi (collegiate version of DECA) and competing in various business competitions.
The kick-off speaker for the entrepreneurship competition was Kelly Perdew (former winner of The Apprentice). He did a presentation based off of his book, Take Command.
Kelly is taking his fifteen minutes of fame and leveraging it to create new opportunities in business. He part of a group that has created Angel-Led Venture Partners, which specializes in early stage investing. Angel-Led Venture Partners has built a network of eight angel networks from around the country. Their model is to bring together more money and more expertise to make angel investing more efficient and more effective.
Rather than wallowing in his own celebrity, Kelly has used his success in reality television as a stepping stone to move further ahead in business. He is no overnight wonder. Kelly was a serial entrepreneur long before he met Donald Trump. He is a great example of building an entrepreneurial career one step at a time.
