November 14, 2024
Consolve, a Utah-based startup, empowers small businesses with streamlined marketing, sales, and customer management. By eliminating manual processes and inefficiencies, Consolve enables startups to focus on innovation and customer relationships.
Despite its success, Consolve’s founder, Millika Grant, hadn’t always sought entrepreneurship. Raised in an entrepreneurial family, she wanted more stability. The catalyst? Millika and her business partner and husband, Garret, found a profitable solution in a market need — beginning with a broken refrigerator.
When a repair technician used carbon copy paper for payment, Millika reflected on outdated operations and automation. At the time, she was taking a venture marketing class, which helped lay the groundwork for the company.
What leads to startup success? Consolve offered advice:
1. Put yourself in situations to attract luck.
Local organizations allow for exposure to businesses and opportunities. iHub, RevRoad, and Silicon Slopes played a role in Consolve’s growth.
2. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
Any new venture requires boldness, whether seeking funding or partnerships. For Consolve, an experienced mentor, Curtis Oscarson, was crucial to the business’s trajectory. Millika explained, “I’ve found an old saying to be true: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
“It’s extremely uncomfortable diving into entrepreneurship; you need to learn, grow, and fail,” said Millika. “Even with a great idea, fear of discomfort held us back. But trading discomfort for growth and a better future gave us the push we needed.”
4. Often, your limiting beliefs hold you back.
Limiting beliefs for a startup can run the gamut, including needing significant capital. However, as a service-based business, Consolve’s growth required time more than money. With a bootstrapped approach, the founders self-invested. While this approach isn’t universal, examine which methods align with your startup.
5. Believe with your whole heart it’ll work out — you only fail by giving up.
While ups and downs are inevitable in entrepreneurship, a support system is pivotal. “My husband as my partner was key,” said Millika. “We balance each other with complementary zones of genius. Going through tough things together and helping each other grow has been vital.”
Finally, when asked, “Why Utah?” Millika said this: “It’s a land of opportunity! There are resources and incredible people passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed. It’s truly a collaborative community. I love the sense of “lifting where you stand” that exists in Utah.”
The information in this article is current as of the publishing date and is intended for informational purposes only. This article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, tax, or business advice. Any resources and organizations mentioned, unless an entity of or a partner of the state of Utah, are not formally endorsed by the Startup State Initiative or state of Utah.