Q&A with Starting Small Summit Founder Cameron Nagle
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Bethel University will host the fourth annual Starting Small Summit on April 2. Aimed at showing folks in the South Bend-Elkhart region that big things start from small places, this year’s summit will feature Pattern Brands co-founder Suze Dowling, Ollie co-founder Alex Douzet and former 7-Eleven CEO James W. Keyes.
Discussions will include discovering passion and purpose, building effective teams and fostering innovation in a dynamic society.
Inside INdiana Business spoke with Cameron Nagle, host of the Starting Small Podcast and creator of the summit, about how he got started, his career path and what attendees can expect at this year’s event. This article has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Can you talk to me about your background and how you came up with the idea for Starting Small?
I was born and raised on the south side of South Bend. I went through Penn-Harris-Madison schools. When I was in college at Bethel University, I had this deep fascination with storytelling. One day I was looking at a syrup bottle, and there was a heritage story on the back telling the brand story behind the syrup. It was an incredible story and I started to think about the faces and stories behind all the brands that we know and use. That’s when the idea of my podcast started, here in South Bend in January 2020, prior to knowing about COVID.
All of a sudden, COVID hit, and that opened a big opportunity to really start interviewing founders virtually. Founders had a lot more time on their hands to do interviews like this, so it helped me grow. I have to give credit to my first guest who ever accepted, Chuck Surak. He’s the founder of Sweetwater in Fort Wayne. I was able to leverage his name on episode number one to get our guests going forward. The podcast is based around entrepreneurship, which eventually turned into our live event in 2022 called the Starting Small Summit.
I was flying back from doing an interview in Turks and Caicos with the founder of a couple of resorts down there, when all of a sudden I thought about this idea to bring an event to our region. I had these connections. I had about 150 interviews by then, but I needed to find the right venue, the staff and the funds to do so. So I sent an email to one of my professors asking if we could use Bethel as the venue to put on an incredible event for our region.
How did you put your first event together?
In our first year, we flew in the founder of Reebok, Stacy’s pita chips and a New York celebrity dentist, Dr. Jonathan Levine. That built my deep fascination with growing in this area. While I was in school, I started running Dr. Levine’s media and PR and got the opportunity to launch a toothpaste company with Lenny Kravitz, who’s one of his patients, called Twice Toothpaste. That opportunity led to my first job out of school with Patrick Schwarzenegger. Right after our first summit, I moved out to Los Angeles to help Patrick and his mom, Maria Shriver, launch Mosh, a protein bar company.
I moved back to the South Bend-Elkhart region after a year, and I’m grateful to have an amazing opportunity here and continue growing our event. I kept the ties here and I reached out for the 2023 event because I didn’t want to stop the momentum.
Nagle talks about executing his first Starting Small Summit in 2022 while a senior at Bethel University.
How do you measure the impact the summit has on participants?
I was a student here in our first year, so bringing in these founders was fun. I overheard conversations in the lobby talking about how incredible the sessions had been. So many people were influenced by these founders because what they’re realizing and what I try to reflect is, everyone starts small, and that’s my philosophy behind Starting Small.
These founders share their upbringing, their college experience, building their career, etc. And so it puts the founder exactly in the seat that the student or the business owner is in. The great brands that we know today all started small. Someone who came to our first summit texted me a year later that she got the courage to start her consulting business after attending the event. She’s now doing very well for herself, and it’s fun to see small businesses really thrive and grow out of the summit after their first attendance.
What do you consider when choosing a speaker?
I look for a story that really signifies that everyone starts small. So I want to find someone that really came from nothing or struggled—maybe they immigrated, maybe their parents weren’t around when they were growing up, and despite the odds they go on to be successful. I look for companies doing over $100 million a year.
Former CEO of 7-Eleven and Blockbuster, James Keyes, is coming in this year. His mom died when he was 10. His dad left when he was 13. He was always told that he wouldn’t be able to go to college. He started working at McDonald’s just to pay his way through college. He got into an entry-level position, started leveraging technology when no one else was, eventually became CEO of 7-Eleven and then CEO of Blockbuster. So I look for someone who has an incredible story, that comes from nothing and their career really shows the path that it takes to get to where you desire to be.
You were a part of IDEA Week last year. Why did you decide to branch out this year?
Last year, the Starting Small Summit was marketed within IDEA Week. This year I’m branching back out because it kind of fell into the shadows a little too much. Starting Small Summit is a pretty large-scale event based on the speakers we’re bringing in. All the products that attendees get for free are from founders that have been guests on the podcast.
We’ve always done the event in partnership with Bethel University. I only went under IDEA Week last year as a trial. It was a good experience, but I just decided to keep the experience really focused and immersive.
What challenges have you had to navigate planning and hosting this event over the years?
A lot of it is around my own bandwidth and resources to make sure that I can run at a high caliber. Starting the podcast, I reached out to guests myself, pitching them on why they should be on the show. So I spent a ton of hours researching, booking guests, and scheduling recording sessions. As we grew, I was able to incorporate automation into my process. We’re also now at a point where PR companies reach out to us to get their clients on my show. Currently, about 98% of our guests are inbound PR requests.
I decide if I want to have them on the show, send an email with my calendar so they can book a date and time that works. So automation has been the biggest solution for me.
Bethel has been a big stepping stone in providing a committee that actually helps execute a lot of the summit experience. So it’s really fun because the senior class of the business department is able to work and also engage in the summit. So whether it’s greeting or practicing with production, it really gives everyone a hands-on experience. It’s a win-win on both sides.
What does funding for the summit look like?
We have incredible community partners who sponsor the event. We provide marketing for them, free seats, and their representative gives an introductory speech at the beginning of the summit. This year, Grand Design is our presenting partner and I’m really thankful for their team. It’s companies like that who make events like this happen in the region.
Who should attend this event?
I like to say aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners, but it’s really open to everyone. I always encourage students, aspiring leaders, leadership teams, to come out, really learn and engage what it takes to grow a team culture or brand, and take those principles back to their own teams. I see it as a huge learning opportunity for many groups, even those who are deciding what that next step to pursue is. So whatever it is, if you’re looking to start something, I encourage you to come and get that inspiration.
We are doing $50 tickets, and student tickets are completely free. It’s about the price of a dinner and we also do group discounts for groups of 10 or more. This year, we’re giving away a ton of free products. Everyone who comes is leaving with more value in free products than the price of their ticket. We’ll also be filming a documentary; it’s actually been a dream of mine for the past year or two. I have a crew coming in, filming the behind the scenes of running a high-scale event. I really encourage people to come engaged, excited, and also they get to ask their questions at the end of the event as well, to the full panel.
Do you have any plans to expand the event to other cities?
Yeah, my goal is to continue making a larger impact here in our region. So continue to drive more awareness to the summit and entrepreneurship here in the region, growing our audience and bringing in high caliber speakers. Eventually, I could see us doing it elsewhere as well. Maybe a couple summits a year, maybe in Indianapolis, maybe we go to the west coast and partner with area universities.