Carlton Robinson joined JAX Chamber five years ago and was since promoted to vice president of entrepreneurial growth. In 2014, he launched JAX Bridges to connect small businesses with mentoring, capital access and contacts. He also is a mentor with Lean Startup Co. in San Francisco and participated in its recent Lean Startup Week.
I get to work with small businesses and entrepreneurs every single day. I get to work with someone who just has an idea, someone who’s early stage, someone who’s a family-owned business, someone who’s experienced, someone who may have a business with $10 million in revenue, all in the same day.
JAX Bridges is my greatest accomplishment professionally. Most of it is built around mistakes that I made as a small business owner — not clearly understanding my value proposition, not being able to communicate my business model or revenue models at a time when I’m attempting to win a contract. I thought, “Oh man, I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone.” Our goal is to create a simulation for entrepreneurs.
My business mainly focused on building learning management systems. Blackberry phones were the rage in the early and mid-2000s. I’d figured out this way to take PowerPoint presentations, do voice-overs and then deliver them on BlackBerry phones. I thought it was so innovative at the time. I had this pitch that you could save money on training expenses, flying people all over, if we just delivered on the phones. I remember people saying, “Oh, no one’s ever going to be on their phones that much. They’re not going to just sit down and watch stuff on their phones.” But some companies said, “We’ll try it.” We did that for a while.
I was successful as a really small business. I miss it sometimes. Once you’re an entrepreneur, I think you’re always an entrepreneur. What I love about being here at the chamber is I get a chance every day to be an entrepreneur within the organization.
I think the next step for us is to celebrate our successes and to be the best Jacksonville that we can be. What industries can we create here in Jacksonville that are unique to us? Tech is going to be synonymous with everything.
My No. 1 passion is supporting my kids with their sports and being great student-athletes. They give me a second chance. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship and play football at a small school, West Virginia Wesleyan. It was a great experience. My daughter is 17 and my oldest son is 14. Both play basketball. My youngest plays basketball and flag football.
I really enjoy coaching flag football. They only know me as coach. It’s very similar to entrepreneurs. If we can put people in the right place — everyone has a gift or a strength — it’s just really beautiful to watch them start to believe in themselves.