Today's Entrepreneur: Rusty Jenkins

No. 1 mistake: Giving up too early!

Today's Entrepreneur is  Rusty Jenkins,  co-founder and president of MergeLocal.com. According to his VEQ, Rusty is good at sales execution, sales management and team motivation.

MergeLocal.com was one of the finalists  in the Splash LA competition. Check it out here.

Vator’s community is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams. Our profiles allow members to express themselves by sharing their interests, lessons learned, as well as bits and pieces of their roller-coaster journey.

These profiles give entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase themselves and tell their story. So if you are an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur, or even an aspiring entrepreneur, we'd like to hear from you.

I am a(n):
Entrepreneur

Companies I've founded or co-founded:
mergelocal.com

Startups I worked for:
Alchemy Communications, AccessMedia, Upsellit / USI Technologies

If you are an entrepreneur, why?
I love the hustle!

My favorite startups:
Mergelocal, Pandora, DropBox, postbox

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?
Most frustrating: dealing with large/slow companies / Agencies , being under-funded, not having enough hours in the day!

Most rewarding: working with people that share your passions, knowing what you do matters, choosing your work, doing what people say can't be done.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make?
Giving up too early!

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
1. Learn your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on what you do best and hire what you don't do well.
2. Be passionate on your project, but remember to be humbled to remember to get feedback / criticism on an outsiders perspective. Talking to people that are not close to your project is the best way to learn, evan if you don't make exactly what they ask for.
3. Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself. Never stop selling yourself!

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