Lara Hodgson, President & CEO
NOW Corp
NOWaccount is the first payment solution for businesses that sell to other businesses and governments.
Guest BIO:
Lara serves as President & CEO of NOW Corp, a company she co-founded to free small businesses from the burden of funding trade credit and to enable small business growth. The concept for NOW Corps NOWaccount stems from the challenges Lara faced when growing her manufacturing business, Nourish. Lara experienced the challenge of managing cash flow in a growing business and having to fund the trade credit required to support growth. Not finding a solution that worked, she partnered with John Hayes and launched NOW Corp and NOWaccount, the first payment solution for B2B. NOWaccount enables businesses to get paid immediately in a way that is not a loan, feels like but costs less than taking a credit card for payment and is largely invisible to their customer. NOWaccount will change the way small businesses manage cash flow, has done over $130M in transactions and aims to turn a portion of the $1.2T of trade credit that small businesses hold into cash. NOWaccounts innovative structure is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.
Lara spent 5 years at Dewberry Capital Corporation, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate development and investment firm, where she served as the companys Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing development, sales & leasing, property management and marketing.
Lara was the Executive Vice President of Dunk, a performance footwear and apparel manufacturing/retail company built on the concept of mass customization and founded with Shaquille ONeal & Mike Piazza. She built the operations, IT and sales & marketing groups..
Lara is an internationally recognized speaker, leading seminars on creativity, innovation and access to capital. Internationally, Lara has worked in Koriyama, Japan with the U.S. Defense Departments EAGLE Japan Program and served as the Ambassador to Lebanon for the 1996 Olympic Games.
Lara received an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She was featured in USA Today as one of the top 20 students in the US and was the ODK National Leader of the Year. Lara was a scholarship member of the varsity Track & Field team at Georgia Tech.
Lara has served on several Boards including: Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees, Georgia Techs Scheller College of Business, the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, ACE Loans, Atlanta Heights Charter School, Flag Bank, Georgia Techs Alexander Tharpe Fund, and Society of International Business Fellows. Lara is a member of the Leadership Georgia Class of 2005 and the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2004. Lara taught finance as an adjunct instructor in Georgia Techs MBA Program for 10 years. Lara was appointed by the Governor of Georgia to serve on the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) Board. Lara was recently honored by the Georgia Tech Athletic Association with the Total Person Alumnus Award and by the Georgia Tech Women in Engineering as the Alumnus of the Year. She is a member of the Georgia Tech Young Alumni Hall of Fame, was a recipient of a Womenetics 2013 POW! Award honoring Purposeful Women and was named to the 2016 Enterprising Women of the Year.
Topics/Questions:
The challenges of a startup versus a scaleup
How a small business should use the right capital at the right time for the right use or the business becomes a hobby
Work-Life Balance
Why more businesses grow out of business than go out of business
Web Site and Social Media:
www.NowCorp.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/now-corp-
https://www.facebook.com/NOWaccountNetwork/
https://twitter.com/NOWaccount
Brian Preston, Founder
Lamon Luther
Custom furniture builder employing homeless individuals in Atlanta.
Topics/Questions:
What is Lamon Luther?
Why were you inspired to employ homeless people in our city?
What is the Tiny House Giveaway?
How can people register to win?
How does the Tiny House Giveaway impact your ability to employ more people?
Press release here: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/lamon-luther-to-give-away-a-tiny-house-to-raise-money-for-homeless-employees-2112375.htm
Web Site and Social Media:
www.LamonLuther.com
www.TinyHouseGiveaway.co
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lamonluther
Instagram: http://instagram.com/lamonluther
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lamonluther
Press Release: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/lamon-luther-to-give-away-a-tiny-house-to-raise-money-for-homeless-employees-2112375.htm
Georgia Business Radio hosted by:
Rich Casanova
Interviewing industry leaders throughout Georgia each week live from the Pro Business Channel studios in Atlanta.
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