Frank Ferguson - Practical Dreamer

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Frank Ferguson had a knack for building companies. He headed Bose at a time of rapid growth and built Curriculum Associates into a great success. Frank Ferguson's angel investing was unusual in that he invested in just a few startups but lavished support on those few. The results were great. Frank was active well into his nineties but passed away recently; this relaunch of an interview I recorded with him is a memorial for his life of achievement and passion. It's loaded with lessons for angels and founders. Rest in peace, Frank Ferguson.

My favorite observation from the conversation with Frank Fergusson neatly encapsulates his recipe for success as an investor:

"You can get sucked in and fall in love with a lot of things, but then you have to ask, "Are these the guys who can actually make it happen?" What are the odds that these guys can keep together, not fight, get over it, be successful, run things correctly, not fall in love with their own things so much that they lose track of the financial realities of the business? Can they sell?"

Click Here to read the transcript of the interview. 

 TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE:

• Yes, That Bose Corporation!
• Curriculum Associates, Which Frank Ferguson Built, Continues to Be Hugely Successful
• Scraping Chicken Droppings in an Iowa Farm
• From Iowa State University to Teheran Courtesy of Syracuse University & the US State Department
• Frank Ferguson Thinks about Business School at MIT or Harvard Thanks to a Friendly Psychologist
• With an MIT Sloan MBA in Hand, Frank Ferguson Goes to Work at Baird Atomic Near Harvard Square
• Frank Ferguson Meets his Co-founders at Curriculum Associates Just as He Starts Work at the Bose Corporation
• Frank Ferguson Invests $80,000 in Today's Dollars in Curriculum Associates Circa 1959 - Money Saved through Frugal Living in Iran
• How Frank Ferguson Connected with Amar Bose, Founder of the Bose Corporation
• Frank Ferguson Invests in the Bose Corporation
• Amar Bose Invites Frank Ferguson to Be President of the Bose Corporation in 1969
• Frank Ferguson Moonlighted at Curriculum Associates while Running the Bose Corporation
• Frank Ferguson Left the Bose Corporation When it Was Experiencing Growth of 70% per Year to Get Curriculum Associates off the Ground
• Amar Bose, Brilliant but Difficult at Times
• Frank Ferguson Succeeds in Educational Publishing, a Notoriously Tough Business, by Finding a Niche – Differentiated Instruction
• Curriculum Associates Succeeds but Discord Arises Over the Purchase of a Water Cooler!
• Competition Gets Rough in the World of Educational Publishing
• Curriculum Associates' i-Ready Succeeds by Measuring Progress of Individual Student to Help
• Teachers Better Support Students – Teacher Training a Pivotal Element of i-Ready's Success
• Before Teacher Training Was Required i-Ready Saw No Gains – With Teacher Training Student Gains Are Dramatic!
• Ugly Truth – Fifth-grade Teacher Has Three to Five Year Grade Span in Her Classroom
• Lev Vygotsky, Seneca The Younger & Andrew Bell of Madras College – "By Teaching We Learn"
• "Talk to Me Baby – How You Can Support Young Children's Language Development" by Betty Bardige
• Visionary Entrepreneurs Need to Hire Grunts Who Are Really Good at Execution – Frank Ferguson Was the Grunt & Amar Bose Was the Visionary
• How Amar Bose Hired the Smartest of the Smartest for the Bose Corporation
• Family with 11 Children Uses the Madras Method Whereby the Elder Learn by Teaching the Younger
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• Frank Ferguson, Practical & Involved Philanthropist – Lionheart Foundation – Robin Casarjian
• Frank Ferguson Does Nothing in Half Measures – Elon Musk Would Approve
• Frank Ferguson - Angel Investor in the Bose Corporation and Curriculum Associates – Participated in the Baird Atomic IPO
• Hugh Stoddard, Father & Son, Piali De & Senscio Systems
• Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman, "Thinking Fast & Slow", "Nudge" by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler
• Frank Ferguson Connects with Will Graylin, Invests in Loop Pay Now Samsung Pay
• Will Graylin and ONvocal
• Frank Ferguson's Approach to Angel Investing – Invests Where He Finds the People and Technologies Compelling – Few Enough Companies So He Can Make a Real Difference
• People Come up with Great Ideas, Great Markets but Sometimes Forget that there Is Friction in the World
• Lessons from Iran for Angel Investors