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Power of Positive Thinking: Joe Hart

 

Joe Hart’s Story: Social contacts proved crucial to creating an Internet startup that was acquired by a larger company, but it was an unshakable belief in his idea that proved to be Joe’s Key Move.

Joe Hart had already built a career as a successful lawyer and was working at the Taubman Company, coordinating the development of multimillion dollar regional malls, when he had a revolutionary idea to help people learn better.

“I had a vision to start a company that would change the way people learn,” Joe says. “Developing a way for learning to be more impactful was a passion of mine, and soon it had become out of control.”

Before and after work he’d sit in his basement devouring books on business planning. Joe took his time researching the process and thinking through his business model. “When it was done, I thought it looked pretty respectable, so I shared it with an old friend of mine who was a venture capitalist in Los Angeles.”

That friend reviewed the plan and offered Joe suggestions to revise it. He also expressed an interest in investing in the fledgling company.

“That got me to thinking, and I began to identify people I knew who might be potential investors,” Joe says. A fraternity brother had built a successful business, and Joe also shared the business plan with him. He liked it, too. “I just started going through a network of people I knew, gathering funding.”

Joe successfully raised the first round of seed money, but walking away from a high-powered job to launch a startup with a wife and two young daughters at home wasn't easy. “My belief in my idea and my determination to live life without regrets compelled me. I took the plunge,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of my wife, Katie. She’s been solid as a rock.”

He launched InfoAlly in 2000 as a full-service online training company focused on converting content from books, Web sites, audio/video tapes and other media into compelling online learning programs.

The company launched with one client, Dale Carnegie, the inspiration for Hart’s product. He had taken the Dale Carnegie course years before and came up with a way to apply the lessons to his daily life.

“I had found a way to put action into learning, which results in sustainable behavior change,” Joe says. “I knew it would work for Dale Carnegie, and I thought it would work well for a variety of other companies, as well.”

The first year, Joe concentrated on product development — an expensive process. The challenges were many, and the seed money was beginning to dry up. It was after the Internet bubble burst, and many clients were reluctant to sign on because they were unsure whether InfoAlly would be around in a few years.

“At times I didn’t think we were going to make it, and there were many weeks I went without a paycheck,” Joe says. “But I had this incredible conviction that if I stuck with it, the company would be successful. I heard once that people quit trying one foot from the winning touchdown. I didn’t want that to happen to me.”

Over time and with dogged persistence, InfoAlly gained credibility in the market and added education publisher McGraw-Hill to its client list. Eventually, InfoAlly developed its technology and grew its client base, catching the interest of two more of Joe’s friends, brothers who own a successful company.

Hart knew them for years. One he met through a social group for Catholic business owners, called Legatus. The other he knew from church. Last year, they offered to buy InfoAlly and its technology and create a new company. Joe accepted.

The result is Asset Learning, based in Troy, Mich. Joe runs the new company, and he and the brothers have ownership interests.

Since he started doing business as Asset Learning a year ago, Joe has been able to invest in more technology, hire more people and expand his client base. During the past year, sales to Dale Carnegie have gone up 25 percent; projects with McGraw-Hill are on the rise; and new clients such as Caterpillar, Del Monte Foods and self-improvement gurus Mark Sanborn (The Fred Factor) and Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) are now using online learning programs that employ the same methodology Joe dreamed up in his basement so many years ago.

Throughout his journey, Joe learned one valuable lesson that he holds close to his heart. “Too many people concentrate on what’s going wrong. I did that in the beginning and was very hard on myself and very hard on other people, and it was paralyzing.

“I realize now that you have to stay positive and celebrate all the small victories along the way.”