Small Business Summit Center

Philip Tadros - Dollop Coffee Co, Metroproper.com

Today we're going to leave the crowded airspace of our EWR/JFK/LGA home and take a trip to the Second City.

Chicago resident and community builder Philip Tadros was at the NYT Small Business Summit in October. We exchanged thoughts on startups not long ago.

Entrepreneurs wondering how the internet can fit into their business should pay special attention to the second Q&A. But do not accept any bicycle rides from this man.

He's the Founder/CEO of Chicago coffee shop Dollop Coffee Co., and the Founder/CEO of Metroproper.com, a social network.

AB: You're a serial entrepreneur. When do you know it's time to move on from a project?

PT: When it's eating away at your other projects in turn people. I was 20 years old with my first coffee shop "Don's Coffee Club" on the least traveled L stop in Chicago.The community was great but the numbers kept you from exploring. Luckily with all the local buzz, it sold for a profit, but a less attractive exit was echoing in my brain. It was time to move on. AT 21, I had an exhibition space called "Chase Cafe". It was a multimedia performing arts cafe in 4,000 plus 1920's hotel lobby and ballroom. Now that was really hard for me to move on from. The relationship i had with the building owner was great, 10 year lease capped off at $2,500. But he lost the building in a divorce shake up & now I'm dealing with the owner financed slum lord army in a battle of "how do we get this kid out of here".I fought, and legally I knew I could of stayed. We went to court, I was doing pretty well. At the same time I had a very promising shop opening up called "dollop coffee co" and i moved into a community that not only supports your creations emotionally but financially as well.I then became the brain child of Metroproper & moving forward and putting positive financial and emotional attention in where I need to be became more and more clear. Plus I don't hold grudges, weighs you down. So I dropped the court case and moved on from the Chase.

AB: Your latest start up is a social networking site. Most of our readers here are offline boots-on-the-street entrepreneurs who might be wondering how they can leverage social web tools. What advice would you give them?

PT: Being community builder on the street myself, I couldn't imagine not being prepared for the virtual merger. It's slapped enough people in the face already & shaken up all our old media. Craigslist & blogs are passing up the newspaper industry. Online Video is on the rise. Wikipedia now documents how we agree on our information. Myspace & Facebook are cute and fun with pictures. Metroproper is a community of people that share social bookmarks, discuss local commerce & is geocentrically driven to encourage the online to offline relationships. (Jan 1st we go publicly live with our enhanced version)

Some people say being online takes you away from really interacting with people. I can agree flesh is amazing, but i have never in my life been in more contact with so many people. I would encourage "offline boots-on-the-street entrepreneurs" to get involved.

AB: Got any advice for me as I try to build a community here?

PT: Be open, honest & useful. Keep molding your frame work around the right people that get involved. Tie everyone in so the right paths will cross as you facilitate. Listen to people like Matthew Haughey in his blog fortuitous "for every success there are ten failures. " who says:

1. 1. Take emotion out of decisions
   2. Talk like a human, not a robot
   3. Give people something they can be proud of
   4. Bring users in during community decisions
   5. Moderation is a full-time job
   6. Metrics spread the work out
   7. Guidelines not rules

AB: Running a small business for the first time means lots of new challenges. What part of entrepreneurship have you worked hardest on?

PT: Well you learn how to do everything no matter what it is. Then at some point you have to work really hard on finding the right people, or letting them find you. I worked really hard on letting the right people take over different parts of the business. Allowing for more and more people to come in and help out. As far as passion and working hard, I'm always naturally awake and motivated & feel great. I want to work on more alone time & stretching sounds good.

AB: What would you do if you weren't in business for yourself?

PT: I'm not in business for myself. I work for all the people I fight to take care of. For the people I look to hopefully do better for. The people I wish to be able to take on and get more involved in a better funded version of our quality of life. I'd wait tables over any job I didn't believe in, any day.

Business Bio
Founder / CEO of Metroproper.com in Chicago, but virtually everywhere & Founder / CEO of Dollop Coffee Co in Chicago
I spend my time in my home office, coffee shop and on my bike looking for food. I like the little worlds I've reached out to create because so many solid people keep reaching back. I feel in love with the revolution in the Internet, and i just want to offer a useful version of a diverse community to fill my daily addiction. I'm here to answer questions and strive to make this a heartfelt site so we can waste our time productively

Bonus video! Scenes from Philip's perambulations in Chicago… when it was warmer outside.