Serial Entrepreneur Gabriel Glynn Takes a Seat at Startup Stories

"I'm on a mission to prove that you can be in your 30's, have a family and start a successful business. This is the biggest undertaking I've taken from a business perspective, but I've been mindful to neglect neither my family nor the other priorities in my life," shared Gabriel Glynn, CEO of MakuSafe Corporation, serial entrepreneur and November guest of Square One DSM's Startup Stories luncheon. This lesson in work/life balance comes from a tech CEO who started, like so many others, sacking groceries at the corner store.

How Glynn Got His Start

Eleven years of retail sales followed before Glynn sought to regain control of his weekends and holidays by taking the logical leap of founding a business on a vision his father had himself contemplated years before. Asset Protection Specialists, a company that conducts home and business inventories using photography and videography to catalog property, was the actualization of that vision and Glynn's first success.

Fast forward nine years and Glynn is on his sixth startup. "Every one of them has involved a little a bit of dumb luck on timing," he humbly asserted as his latest and largest is among the first to enter a space likely to be congested in his wake.

The MakuSafe Story

MakuSafe, now beta testing with the intent of going to market in Q2 of next year, is an innovative wearable technology for industrial workers that monitors seven environmental exposures that can result in injury or illness. It records that data in a manner that can be real time monitored by safety managers as well as archived for study or incident reporting. This too was inspired by Glynn's father, whose 30 plus years of industrial experience made him aware of OSHA's use of noise monitoring devices to determine if an individual's hearing loss was work related. "It seemed like we should be able to do this ongoing, and for more risk factors than just sound. So, I got together with some friends who play around with IOT things and we decided to do what young entrepreneurs do, we built something cool," Glynn explained of the process that led to a prototype which would then be turned over to an engineering firm for miniaturization. Intended to serve both the employee and the employer, the company mission statement declares their desire to "Save lives by making the world a safer place through technology and data."

Joining Mike Colwell, Executive Director of Square One DSM, Glynn welcomes the opportunity to field questions from both Colwell and the audience. While insights on the work/life balance are likely to play a prominent role, Glynn's extensive startup repertoire has left him a reluctant expert on challenging partnerships, as he has had a few. Having gone all in with his life savings to initiate MakuSafe, he wants to speak to the importance of knowing when to bootstrap, when to self-fund and when to fund raise. Networking outside your comfort zone, and in particular, participating in traditional business service organizations is an activity he will encourage.

Finding the Right Mentors

Like so many, he will point to the wealth of resources in mentorship available in Greater Des Moines (DSM), with a particular nod to aligning yourself with a good attorney and a good CPA. "They are expensive people to have in your corner but they provide so much more than legal and tax advice if you find the right ones and you know how to leverage their relationships," he observed.

A young professional, a board member, a former Rotarian and himself a mentor, Glynn invites you to join him and Colwell for lunch and conversation.

Event Info

$15 admission fee (includes lunch) or free (if you don't want lunch).

11:30 a.m.
November 16, 2016

Greater Des Moines Partnership
700 Locust Street, Suite 100
Conference Center (street level)

Contact us at info@squareoneDSM.com for more information.

Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.

About Square One DSM

Square One DSM's mission is to connect entrepreneurial needs with qualified community and state resources and to provide guided professional and business direction. Square One DSM helps entrepreneurs maximize their successes by helping them navigate resources, strengthen knowledge, improve skills, form strategic alliances and secure proper capitalization. Learn more at SquareOneDSM.com.

About the Greater Des Moines Partnership

The Greater Des Moines Partnership is the economic and community development organization that serves Central Iowa. Together with 22 Affiliate Chambers of Commerce and 5,800 regional business members, The Partnership drives economic growth with one voice, one mission and as one region. Through innovation, strategic planning and global collaboration, The Partnership grows opportunity, creates jobs and promotes Greater Des Moines as the best place to build a business, a career and a future. Visit DSMpartnership.com for more information.