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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

An Entrepreneurial Adventurer—Jeremy Hanks

The Rollins Center advisory board is composed of various professionals. Many of the members have had decades of experience in the tech entrepreneurship industry. However, some have gained enough experience and knowledge in a short amount of time to be considered professionals nonetheless. Such is entrepreneurial wizard Jeremy Hanks.

Growing up on a farm in Burly, Idaho, might not sound like a typical setting for someone who would start a tech business, but it hasn’t kept Hanks back.

Hanks, who graduated from BYU in 2004 with a BS in business management, had an eventful year, which included being named a finalist for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in May of this year. He was one of three finalists in the technology category who were selected from more than hundred people.

“Other companies do competitions at a national level, but the Ernst & Young competition is the one that has the biggest name attached to it,” Hanks says. “To be a finalist was cool, but it’s a pretty rigorous process they put you through.”

The competition focuses on owners and managers who have succeeded in establishing and expanding their companies. The competition highlights the growth of companies, the risk taken by the entrepreneur, and the individual’s success story.

Hanks is chair and president of Doba, an online product sourcing (or drop-shipping) company. He co-founded Doba with several friends in 2002. He had been working on another company, GearTrade.com, when he thought of the idea for the company.

“We were trying to help the small specialty stores sell online,” Hanks says. “What I saw was the limiting nature of physical inventory. I read a report on inventory that said only 13 percent of products get into the stores.”

GearTrade.com merged with another company and eventually was purchased by Wildcat Software. Essentially from one day to the next, Hanks says, he and his friends quit GearTrade.com and began working on Doba. Although he was excited to be one of Utah’s finalists and to show off Doba, he says he cannot accept the credit alone.

“No entrepreneur exists on an island,” Hanks says. “Everyone supports you. It is an individual award, but there are so many people who are responsible. It is very much a joint effort between us.”

For now, Hanks has no plans to begin new ventures. He says he is focused on Doba.

“You get these awards, but you’re not done,” Hanks says. “It’s that continual process to make Doba a company that people recognize. It’s like asking who does auctions. Well, eBay does auctions. We want to be the company that does product sourcing.”

Hanks lives in Lehi with his wife Amy, a four-year-old daughter, and a two-year-old son. He has co-authored two books Drop Shipping for Dummies and eBay Inventory the Smart Way and often lectures on entrepreneurship.

“It’s a process of risk and reward,” Hanks says. “It’s kind of like climbing a mountain. You climb a mountain and when you get to the summit, what’s the reward? The process to get into that position—that’s more valuable.”

Hanks’ advice for students considering entrepreneurship is to go out and do it now. A common theme in his lectures on entrepreneurship is to “leap before you look.”

“There are two schools of thought,” Hanks says. “The first one is that you graduate, get some work experience, and then be an entrepreneur. The other is that you’re young and you have less to lose. That’s the school of thought I subscribe to. Risks go up as you add complexities to your life. The only way to learn is to just go do it. If you have reasons why you can’t do it now, those reasons will increase.”