We were lucky to catch up with Corey Segall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Corey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Most ideas are bad ones…Be ok with that..
Step 1: Generate lots of ideas, most of which you will figure out aren’t viable for a variety of reasons
Step 2: Validate the idea cheaply and quickly. Is there a market or need? Validate it with your customers.

Here is a recent idea my best friend and I had. To create a production studio and YouTube channel with the mission to craft thought-provoking, immersive stories through the medium of tabletop role-playing games. We also wanted to create a stage to showcase the talents of creators across many disciplines,

We asked existing actual play and fantasy watchers if they would be interested in watching ” Game of Thrones” meets live action roleplay with real-time authentic method acting and role play, with the mission to touch on and explore thought-provoking themes and situations, and pay for such content .

I have put together the steps and story around this in a document located here. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DJtRU6wgKrqVeKUt7eZGL2F_aA_Do-Ek3lTLoTmRHCk/edit?usp=sharing

You will find the roadmap and steps here.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up around community and semi-professional theater and gaming. This included working in both technical production roles, such as light and stage management, and acting in various shows.

On the gaming side, I grew up playing poker, chess, strategy board games, live-action roleplaying, and Magic: The Gathering. In college, I helped contribute to several books, including the first MTG strategy book called Mastering Magic Cards, to create a volunteer prestige reward system while getting my bachelor of science degree in economics from Texas A&M. I was also into sports, including soccer and football.

After college, I got into project/program management and process improvement, eventually progressing to managing sales and delivery in the consulting professional services industry, helping ort clients implement new processes and tools.

In 2012 I jumped into the startup/early-stage company world, where I learned a lot about start-up companies as an early employee. I then went off to co-found 4 other companies in the IT space, with my latest one being Darkeport Productions, which is a passion project of mine in the creative entertainment space.,

I am all about creating and building communities and companies to provide avenues for others to grow their passions and careers, to lay bricks in this world. My main focus at present is the deep thought-provoking stories we are telling via are Darkeport Production YouTube channel as well as my work in the space around how the world and our human social contract is going to significantly change as AI impacts all aspects of our lives and what does society, humans, and how we do work in the future in an Agentic -first society. There is a lot of uncertainty and fear about what this means to people. I am working with other leaders on reimagining what this will look like and the blueprint to help people get there.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The Anti was supposed to be a services company to help a sister product company (BuildOnME) implement chatbots within the ServiceNow Ecosystem. We found out within the first few months of starting the company that chatbot solutions were too early and we faced too much resistance. So the Anti pivoted to implementing ServiceNow’s HR service delivery solutions. The company is doing well and we plan to exit in a couple og years.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

This is for my Venmo for the Crypto Wallet company called Vault Wallet we founded in 2017.

For pre-seed and seed-level capital needs, we bootstrapped and went to friends and family. When we were ready to raise our seed round, we spent many months doing a roadshow, pitching to family officers, speaking at conferences and talking to high net worth individuals and VCs.

For Vault wallet’s seed round, we were able to raise $300k from VCs, HNW, and even a customer who also invested in us.

Please note that there are tradeoffs and many aspects in deciding when to raise, how much to raise, and the impacts it will have on founder control vs. accelerating growth

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.changeenable.com
• Instagram: @coreysegall
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysegall/
• Twitter: @coreysegall
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DarkeportProductions

Image Credits

Darkeport Productions