Operate Podcast

It was a great pleasure to welcome Ray Grainger to Accelerate OC. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mavenlink, a fast-growing software company in the services business management and collaboration space.  

He’s also a graduate of highly distinguished school, Harvey Mudd College, where he’s been a trustee now for many years.

He was a Managing Partner at Accenture for nearly 20 years before starting Mavenlink, and that experience provided much of the idea kernels for starting the company.

Ray started Mavenlink in 2009, and over the last 10 years has had an amazing run in building Mavenlink, headquartered here in Orange County.  I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Ray nearly the entire time he’s been on this journey and have been so impressed with his leadership and energy, and his support of the OC tech community along the way.

Ray has built an amazing team and company, and is doing his part to Accelerate OC!

Great quote he shared from Ernest Shackleton: "By endurance we conquer."  Such a powerful message! 

Michael has been an active member of the tech community here for many years as an investors, advisor, mentor, coach, cheerleader and entrepreneur.  He has been one of the most active and available people to startup entrepreneurs in Orange County.  He started the business incubator Fast Start Studio in 2012, which we talk a lot about on this episode.

He’s active with Tech Coast Venture Network, TIE Orange County, Cal State Fullerton’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and he now teaches there as well as at Irvine Valley College.

Before all of that he was a super successful entrepreneur as the founder of AIM Mail Centers, which he started, grew and ran for 25 years before selling it in 2011. 

Michael is an amazing guy and inspires me every time we meet.

Scott has a huge heart for entrepreneurs and the Orange County tech startup community.  In 2018 he founded the Orange County Startup Council to provide a resource for the various pillars of the community - startup entrepreneurs, investors, partners and potential customers - with the goal to help startups thrive and grow here.  He is building momentum with it and helping to Accelerate OC startups!

He also hosts a regular startup founder mastermind group and is a member of Tech Coast Angels.  Join the conversation that Scott and I have about the many resources here and ideas to keep building our ecosystem.

Visit: Orange County Startup Council

Kyle is one of the most accomplished professionals in the mortgage industry, even at his young age, and he shares his experience and learning from starting Cloudvirga and growing it rapidly over the last few years.  He is absolutely one of the most entrepreneurial and innovative entrepreneurs in Orange County!

What's the biggest lesson Kyle has learned so far in this Cloudvirga adventure?

"The people. Invest in the emotional IQ of the people. What you have is a family, treat it as such."