BIO: Riggs Eckelberry is a nationally renowned entrepreneur who deploys his personal Break To Build™ process to help rebuild the water industry, which has reached a critical breaking point in recent years despite being essential to the planet’s survival.
STORY: Riggs met this wonderful lady who asked him to sit down with her money manager. He showed up at this money manager’s office, who told him he had a great business going and advised him to go public. Riggs said that would be impossible because he wasn’t profitable yet. Turning down this opportunity turned out to be Riggs’s worst investment.
LEARNING: You have to get that monthly recurring revenue. Don’t enter any industry unprepared.
“Your greatest expense is the money you don’t make, the opportunity cost.”
Riggs Eckelberry
Guest profile
Riggs Eckelberry is a nationally renowned entrepreneur who deploys his personal Break To Build™ process to help rebuild the water industry, which has reached a critical breaking point in recent years despite being essential to the planet’s survival. As the founding CEO of OriginClear, Riggs has developed innovative solutions to help businesses face rising water bills by tapping into new investment markets. He is even pioneering the development of “water stablecoins,” a cryptocurrency backed by water assets. With a diverse background in nonprofit management, oceangoing navigation, and technology disruption, Riggs is uniquely qualified to bring change to an outdated and overrun industry.
Worst investment ever
In the early 1980s, Riggs realized that technology was going to be the linchpin for all change, and he wanted to be a part of it, so he moved to New York City. This was the period when companies were moving from the old safeguard ledger to microcomputer-type accounting systems. A lot of people needed help making that migration. Riggs created a series of companies that tried to help these people.
Riggs happened to meet this wonderful lady who asked him to have a sit down with her money manager. He showed up at this money manager’s office, who told him he had a great business going and advised him to go public. Riggs insisted that would be impossible because he was yet to be profitable. Turning down this opportunity turned out to be Riggs’s worst investment. Unfortunately, Riggs didn’t know that in this industry, they’re not very profitable at the outset, but the real money is in the monthly revenue.
Interestingly, Riggs gave the business to his best salesman. Years later, he told Riggs that he still had some of the accounts they opened together, and he’d become a millionaire from that recurring monthly revenue.
Lessons learned
- You’ve got to look for that monthly recurring revenue.
- Wall Street bets on the future.
- Don’t enter any industry unprepared; get to know the space first.
- If you have a great team, you’ll have a life.
- Put an engineer’s mind to the scaling problem.
Andrew’s takeaways
- You’ve got to be able to paint a vision of the scalability of your venture.
Actionable advice
You need to like what you’re going into because you will be stuck with it for years, especially if you succeed. Also, have a strong familiarity with the trade’s ins and outs.
Riggs’s recommendations
Riggs recommends reading The Innovator’s Dilemma. The seed of the destruction of every enterprise is in that enterprise, and the existing business model is actively suppressing it. The book will help you liberate this seed and even create a new business.
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Riggs’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to pivot the mother company OriginClear, to an incubator role and move to the NASDAQ.
Parting words
“Today is the best of times as the world globalizes and becomes completely chaotic. That’s an opportunity. Grab it.”
Riggs Eckelberry
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