Stan Parker believes that “great brands start inside.”
He said that everyone in a business must understand it inside and out before it can connect with customers in a meaningful way. Parker will take this core belief with him to Winston Starts, where earlier this month he was named the new president. Parker will be the organization's fourth leader in less than two years. Parker will be taking over for Bob Boles, who had become president of the Winston-Salem startup incubator/accelerator in July 2020. Boles took over for Tony DiBianca, who stepped in as interim president after former President Steve Lineberger stepped aside in May 2020.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity to help give back,” Parker said. “I think what Winston Starts is doing is vital to the success and economic development in Winston-Salem and the Triad.”
Parker has an extensive background in business, with experience in strategic planning, marketing and brand strategy across a variety of industries. He has worked in C-suite and/or executive roles at Hanesbrands, Krispy Kreme and GMAC Insurance. Most recently, he worked as a director of marketing and communications at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
He’s also seen businesses at all stages, from startup to growth and restructuring. He was the founding CEO at Human Analogue Applications and founded his own company, BRANDPATHWAYS.
In speaking with TBJ, Parker said that he will initially be taking a ‘do no harm’ attitude to Winston Start’s programming and curriculum, which he said is very well-developed.
A new cohort of startups will enter Winston Starts in early 2022. He is currently unsure if this new cohort program will be fully in-person or virtual due to the recent spike in Covid-19, but Parker is confident in taking over at this time since Winston Starts has already adjusted programming to fit the safety measures needed in the pandemic.
Here’s more from a Q&A with Parker, edited for clarity and brevity.
What attracted you to Winston Starts?
What really appealed to me is the mission of helping entrepreneurs develop and scale up their businesses to a level of sustainable success and realize their dreams. The economic impact that we have on Winston-Salem, the Triad community and the state is greatly needed. The people at Winston Starts are impressive, starting with Don Flow and the board of directors. The mentor network we have coaching and helping these startups is very extensive. In a very short period of time, they’ve developed a very dynamic curriculum for the cohort companies to go through. The program support – workshops and speakers – that’s been developed in a short period of time is impressive. With the different experiences I’ve had, I think I have some things that hopefully I can share with our founders that can help them.
What are your initial goals as president?
In the short term, I want to meet every founder and their team in our cohort community, understand where they are in their scale-up journey and make sure they’re getting what they need to be successful. I want to get connected with our mentor network and make sure I understand where they’re best equipped to help our new cohorts as they come in. We have several companies coming in early 2022, so I want to successfully onboard those folks. And, of course, recruiting both startups and mentors is always ongoing.
And in the long term?
It’s always making sure these companies are going to be successful. We have folks rotating in and out and at different stages. There’s about 30 companies and they’re all in different businesses, at different stages and have different needs. I want to continuously make sure they’re learning as they go through and getting what they need in terms of advice and resources.
In your experience founding BRANDPATHWAYS, you talk about brand truth. Can you explain what you mean by that?
Brand truth is everything they do in a way that’s really brand-centric; it’s sort of an operating model for the company. It’s everything – how we present ourselves, our values, our mission, how we do business, why we do it, but not in isolated pockets. It’s put together.
In my years of working, I’ve noticed there’s lots of different ways about doing business – and there’s no right way. I’ve always encouraged people to have a way that is your truth, whether it be language you’re using, processes you’re using or the way you’re planning. It’s commonly known as a knowledge base but having a way of capturing this knowledge and sharing this knowledge, both vertically and horizontally, is often missing.
Do you think startups struggle with brand truth?
I think most of the time, they’re got a product or an idea based on a customer need. It’s just them or maybe one other person. As you get some traction with that product or service and as more people come into the organization, that’s where it becomes critical that they all have a common understanding.
I think [companies thinking about brand truth early on] will help. It’s there and they may not have externalized it. The more they can identify it and have brand positioning, the better.
How can Winston Starts best help the entrepreneurial ecosystem?
First of all, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs right here that we have to make sure we’re helping. We don’t want to lose them to other places. I can’t speak to Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham but there’s a high degree of cooperation here. There’s a lot of private and public entities working together to help entrepreneurs be successful. You’re looking at a big basket of resources to help you out. A tremendous quality of life, a highly skilled and diverse workforce and work-life balance would be the things that I would point out to folks.
When I got here in 1988, it was a very different landscape. If you compare and contrast today versus then, it’s just totally different. Winston-Salem has remade itself and I think it has to continually do that in terms of the economic landscape to be successful in the future. I think it has quite a history of being entrepreneurial. I think Winston Starts can be an extension of that, so when we look in 50 years, hopefully we’ll be able to point to some companies that came out of Winston Starts that are now the largest employers in the area and creating new jobs.
