By Allan Maurer

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—The first thing a startup founder should do to create a successful brand is “put solving the problem first, not the money.” So says Jeff Gregory, founder of Brand Counsel LLC, which is moving from Charlotte to the RTP in September.

Gregory advises entrepreneurs to “quit yakking about exit strategy and talk about entrance strategy. If you put the money first, you’ll constantly be thinking about ‘how can I cash out?’ If you meet people’s needs, the money will take care of itself.

“Think in terms of your target audience outside the lab. Think like the people who buy instead of like people who sell,” he says. “It will do you a world of good.”

Gregory, 43, started Brand Counsel in Charlotte late in 2006. In addition to a Boston office, seven-employee Brand Counsel plans to establish its headquarters in the Research Triangle in September. Gregory says another 10 people currently working on a project basis may move to fulltime status “when we reach critical mass.”

Intuition plays a role
The company’s trademarked “Brand Continuum” process encompasses creative, strategic, and legal aspects of a brand.

Gregory’s experience includes work for a regional mortgage company, and sales and marketing for BellSouth, where he worked on a pre-Internet voice response system. “I saw the branding process there at a pretty high level,” he says.

He also worked for Charlotte-based Addison Whitney, which he calls “a regional brand factory,” that did a lot of consumer package goods naming. He was managing director of the Boston office of the Brand Institute and director of new business development for The Brand Consultancy.

At The Brand Institute Gregory worked with companies such as Biogen, Lotus, and Monster.com among other big name firms.

He has studied marketing of innovative technologies at Harvard Business School, brand management for the 21st century at Emory University in Atlanta, and new product development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But in addition, says Gregory, “I read 25 books a month.”

He says that intuition also plays a role in the advice he provides. “Our black box is being highly intuitive around telling the story of technology in a language the target audience gets,” he says.

Quality of life led to Triangle HQ
While Gregory says Boston remains a stimulating environment, he decided to locate his headquarters in the Research Triangle for quality-of-life reasons, but also because he believes the Triangle area “has reached critical mass.”

Gregory signed on to the NC Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s Innovation to Impact program, pledging $50,000 over five years and says, “I wrote that check before I wrote one for computers or copiers. I like the saying that as an entrepreneur, if you jump the net will appear.” He’s as good as his word. “Everything I own is in this company,” he says.

Brand Counsel is already working with a few startup clients including a biotech company and a CED Venture Forum presenter.

Gregory says that one of the attractions of tech hubs and organizations such as the CED are that “it’s lonely being an entrepreneur. I started this with me and my two cats. Having people around you facing the same issues you are is huge.” He says the area also has the resources Brand Counsel needs, such as linguistics expertise at UNC-Chapel Hill and other academic and professional experts.

Large vision
Gregory has a large vision for the future of Brand Counsel and spinoff companies it may generate. One is a brand monitoring service similar to what the Charlotte Internet boom era company Raycom did monitoring TV commercials for advertisers 24/7.

“I see the need for a similar brand operations center that does 24 hour monitoring of media, broadcast, print, Internet, blogs, monitoring their brand exposure worldwide.” The service would look for trademark infringements around the world in real time, Gregory says.

The RTP provides lots of inspiration for Gregory. Driving by the Campbell Alliance building, he thinks, “That’s what I envision, 550 employees here in the Triangle.”

Gregory is working on a book. For excerpts see:

http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=3231

And

http://techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=3287

For more about Gregory’s company see: www.brandcounselllc.com

Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
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