Beyond Silicon Valley: Nolan Bulger's Mergerous champions global entrepreneurs
Discover Mergerous Media Co., bridging entrepreneurs worldwide. A hub for global business insights, stories, and growth strategies.
Building a business often resembles solving a complex puzzle, a concept Nolan Bulger, founder of Mergerous Media Co., understands well. After years in the lead generation service business, he launched Mergerous in January 2023 to facilitate connections between industries, cultures, and differing skill sets, emphasizing the role of collaboration in effective business growth.
Mergerous is an online media platform showcasing stories of experienced entrepreneurs. Its newsletter, 'Think, Build & Grow,' features a collection of narratives about company transformations, personal journeys, case studies, company cultures, and founders' challenges. Another key component is the Mergerous Growth Academy, offering soft skills & leadership playbooks based on insights from entrepreneurial experts.
Celebrating global entrepreneurship is central to Nolan's vision. He aims to build an online community where entrepreneurs can exchange questions and insights, a crucial resource given the high failure rate of new businesses.
Nolan shared his journey into entrepreneurship with ContentGrip.
Quitting the corporate world
Nolan reflects on his early exposure to corporate America. “The universe kind of pushed me into it, but it was never where I saw myself,” he shares. As a teenager, Nolan had a glimpse of corporate life while helping at his father’s office. The experience left him certain he did not want a future confined to a desk job. Ironically, that's exactly where he found himself initially.
After university, Nolan spent six years in software sales in the United States. A critical moment of introspection eventually led him to reassess his career path. “I knew I needed to break away from corporate America,” he recalls. This epiphany drove him to enroll in an English teaching program in Spain.
While in Spain, Nolan used the opportunity for deep reflection and planning. It was during this period that he discovered Cal Newport's book, "So Good They Can't Ignore You." The book’s insights on career capital profoundly influenced him, showing him how to use his past experiences for significant career shifts. “That book changed my life,” he admits.
Encouraged by this new perspective, Nolan redirected his career towards freelancing, leveraging his background in software and sales. His initial foray into blog content writing began serendipitously in a coffee shop, where he used to work on his laptop.
He recalls, “There was this guy I’d see regularly. We'd exchange greetings, and one day he inquired about my constant laptop use. That conversation led to my first writing assignment.” This chance meeting opened the door to more writing opportunities and eventually led to his role in lead generation services and consulting.
Shifting towards product-led entrepreneurship
Feeling the need for a new direction in his career of providing lead generation services, Nolan sought a new direction. This led to a phase of self-reflection, where he evaluated his skills and passions, aiming to shape the business's future in terms of revenue and resource allocation. He recognized the challenges of scaling service-based businesses and explored the idea of selling information products while fostering an audience-driven business model.
Atikah Amalia
During his contemplation of entrepreneurship, Nolan observed an overemphasis on regions like Silicon Valley. He questioned, "What about the entrepreneurs from the other 194 countries?" This wider perspective inspired the inception of Mergerous, a platform fostering global entrepreneurial connections.
Nolan pondered, "What am I good at? What can I get paid for? And how can I get out of 100% service based business?" These reflections helped him align his abilities with his entrepreneurial interests, leading to the creation of Mergerous.
A significant part of Nolan's motivation to establish Mergerous stemmed from his time teaching English in Spain. There, he engaged with a diverse expat community, gaining valuable insights and experiences.
"My decision to start this company was greatly influenced by my collaboration with people from various countries and cultures," he shares. This exposure to diverse viewpoints was not only stimulating for Nolan but also solidified his belief in the importance of global entrepreneurial networks, which was a key factor in founding Mergerous.
Nurturing a community for entrepreneurial learning
Mergerous serves as a space where entrepreneurs can connect, share experiences, and collaborate on solutions. Nolan emphasizes the platform's role in bringing together people from varied companies, countries, and cultures. The platform's objective is to facilitate these vital exchanges among entrepreneurs.
A recent initiative by Mergerous involves gathering questions from entrepreneurs and addressing them in published articles. This approach aims to deepen community engagement and promote collective learning.
Another offering from Mergerous is the Mergerous Growth Academy. This online academy is a key part of the platform, focusing on the development and education of entrepreneurs and their teams. In addition to leadership development, it offers nano courses in areas such as marketing and sales, providing practical solutions for common business challenges.
Nolan illustrates the academy's practicality with an example: entrepreneurs needing to swiftly prepare a presentation. The Academy provides expert-inspired playbooks for such immediate requirements. “We take the important stuff from books by experts in these topics and pull it all out, making it relevant for specific situations,” Nolan describes. This targeted learning allows entrepreneurs to apply new skills directly to their current tasks.
Expanding the entrepreneurial community
Mergerous is in the process of broadening its influence and capabilities. A key focus is on augmenting the engagement of entrepreneurs with the platform, particularly through its newsletter.
Enricko Lukman
The platform is also entering into strategic collaborations, including a partnership with The German chapter of the Founder Institute, to spotlight stories featuring the institute's alumni and mentors. These partnerships are intended to foster more substantial connections between founders, thereby establishing a more diverse and extensive network. This expansion aligns with Mergerous's commitment to supporting global entrepreneurship.
Concurrently, Nolan's involvement with Mergerous is evolving. Presently at the helm of a team of freelance writers and functioning as the editorial chief, he envisions appointing a permanent editor in the near future. Additionally, Nolan is on the lookout for a co-founder to join him in steering Mergerous's growth. This shift will enable him to allocate more time to expanding Mergerous’s influence and improving the caliber of its content.
If you're interested in pitching a story to Mergerous, feel free to send your story pitch to stories@mergerous.com.
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