And it's been nonstop ever since.

From Ballard Communications to his role with local technology companies to his new startup venture 1Velocity, he has been a staple of the Las Vegas business scene for more than two decades.

A self-described serial entrepreneur, Ballard said he likes to immerse himself in a new, exciting industry for several years at a time before trying something new.

Currently serving as chief executive of 1Velocity, a metro Ethernet company he hopes can turn a small market share into a big profit, Ballard attributes some of his success to his Las Vegas roots.

And he hopes to help other businesspeople achieve their own startup successes as well, through his role with local venture capital firm Vegas Valley Angels.

He sat down with In Business Las Vegas to talk about the local technology community, why the Las Vegas business community is different than any other, and how 1Velocity could revolutionize the local telecommunications industry.

Tell me about your personal background and how you got started in the local business community.

I was born at Nellis Air Force Base. My dad was a great guy, but an alcoholic. My mom was a great lady, but a compulsive gambler. And I went to five elementary schools, two junior highs and lived in three homes in high school. I had lots of challenges in my life. I graduated from Chaparral High in 1979. And then I went up to BYU. Graduated from BYU and came back. I tell people I was born here, I'm going to die here.

I started my major at BYU in computers and ended up graduating with a degree in business and worked for Xerox Corporation for a few years, then I became a marketing director of the local office of one national accounting firm for three and a half years and then another national accounting firm for a year and a half. And I was doing pretty well, but decided with the encouragement of a couple buddies, that I had to start my own business. And it was going pretty well but I decided with the encouragement of a couple buddies that it was time to start my own business, so I started a marketing and consulting firm back in 1992.

Tell me a little bit more about Ballard Communications.

At first we were doing marketing consulting to law firms and accounting firms, because I had five years of experience marketing accounting firms. And then it morphed into a professional services practices. And a lot of those guys (clients) did work in the real estate industry and so I started going to the real estate trade associations and built up a real estate practice. I always liked to have division heads, so I had a professional services division head, Shannon Johnson. We did work for the Thomas & Mack and the Greenspuns and American Nevada and Molasky and CB Richard Ellis, Pacific Realty.

Then we had a financial services practices and I did work with Business Bank of Nevada and different stock trading and investment companies, appraisal companies. And then we started a health care proactive. We did work for Roche Pharmaceuticals, we did work for Cardiovascular Associates of Nevada, Mountain-View hospital. Then two years later we grew and had a technology practice and did work for Panasonic Systems Corp. and LG Electronics.

When you were building up the business, how did you gain the skill set to be able to take on those new clients? Did you recruit people who had those skills?

I couldn't have built the firm without awesome people. But typically I would immerse myself in an industry for two years, go to two or three of the trade association meetings and because I was born and raised here I typically knew a couple folks. And as we built it up I would promote from within and one of the people who was working on that industry would end up being the practice leader for that group. And as soon as I felt it was in good hands, I would pick the next industry and then immerse myself in that industry.

Tell me how you think the PR and marketing industry has changed in the last decade and why you decided to wrap up your time with that business endeavor.

I think the PR/marketing community has become a lot more professional and a lot more specialized. I'm proud of what it's become. A lot of great firms have done a lot of great things. R&R is doing exceptionally, getting national recognition. Kirvin Doak is doing exceptionally. They're doing national quality work and I don't think we had that number of quality practitioners 20 years ago. There were several talented people but I think the numbers have ballooned.

With Ballard Communications, one of my clients was a company called Systems Research and Development. And they made software that helped protect companies and software against bad guys. They worked mostly with the gaming industry, but they were starting to work with the government. And their founder offered me the opportunity to start working with him on the business side. And I was doing that as a consultant. And after two years he asked me to be his chief operating officer and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. And so I tried to find somebody to buy the firm and that person took over the firm and I went to the software company.

Is that when you really made your entrance into the local technology world?

No. I helped start the local technology trade association as a service provider, as a PR guy, because we didn't have a trade association like we did in the real estate community where there were 15. I just felt we needed a local trade association. And one was just started up, and I offered to help. I wasn't necessarily one of the founders of the trade association, but I jumped in in a big way.

Tell me more about that organization and your role with it.

I was the second or third president of TBAN (the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada). And when I really got involved the whole technology industry was struggling. The tech bubble burst.

When was this?

Late 2001, 2002. They let me be president for two years and I brought a lot of enthusiasm to that job. Our mission is just to be a resource and a voice for the technology industry. We share best practices.

We'll have a guy, the founder of one of these mature companies, like Louis Castle, come and talk about what he learned building his software company. It's basically to get people excited, because he sold his software company for $100 million that he started in his garage with his buddy when he was working at Century 23 Computers. And so he inspired folks. We try to inspire folks, to lift them up and help them grow.

And why is it important in the technology community, or any business community, to have that kind of mentorship opportunity for experienced people to help develop newer businesspeople?

Just so everybody doesn't have to make the same mistakes. You learn from each other. You learn best practices. It helps shorten the success curve. It helps bring together people to strengthen friendship. Some of the best relationships I have I've gotten from the associations I've been involved in.

Lets talk about your theory on the ripple effect for a second. Is it a unique Vegas experience that these startups are able to sell their companies to national organizations?

Not at all, but like almost everything else that has helped Vegas grow, we benefit from our neighbor to the West, California. The fact that we're this close and provide such a better quality of life.

Technology people can afford homes here, where they can barely afford apartments there. I think the ripple effect happens everywhere. We've done some work with firms from Oregon and there's this ripple effect that's occurred there and that's where I started thinking about the ripple effect. It's not unique, but I think we benefit greatly from being the neighbor of Southern California.

Do you think there's also a uniquely entrepreneurial spirit here in Vegas?

That's what's unique about Vegas. It started with, in many respects, Steve Wynn. He's the epitome of Las Vegas. He took big risks several times in his life and has this can-do attitude. People who are relocating here from California or from Boston or Austin, Texas, say they are unfamiliar with this inclusive nature of this community. Where in Boston there are huge barriers to have access to the major players in the community. Here you can meet the people who are making things happen. TBAN has brought together Senator Reid and Senator Ensign to have round tables with the top technology executives. They couldn't think of doing that in California, not do they want to meet those people because their politics are sort of anti-business versus our pro-business folks. It's just a warm an inviting community, and it started with the gaming community that was consistently willing to take risks.

Do you think that because there is that entrepreneurial spirit that people who start their own business are more likely to reach out or lend a helping hand to people who are just getting started in the business?

Without a doubt. I've seen that. One of the companies that relocated here was a company called Zappos. They moved here with 60 employees.

He's spoken at several forums. He's got the fastest growing online retail company in America. And he talks about the mistakes he made, all the hurdles he went through to be successful. How all of a sudden he started growing and growing and exceeding expectations.

Let's talk about your role in Vegas Valley Angels for a while, and how the organization got started.

The organization was started in 2002, under TBAN, the technology trade association. We felt there was a need to put together entrepreneurs together with a financial source to help create companies that could grow exponentially. We held a couple events and after I think three of those events we thought it was better to let the investors run it themselves. So we got together myself, Scott Frost, David LaGrande and Mark Brennan. The four of us got together and had breakfast at the Green Valley Ranch pancake house. And we kind of said, it ought to be on its own, lets incorporate it. And so we drew straws and Mark Brennan lost and was chairman. He built it up and the rest of us were on the board. We stated inviting other guys to join and made it its own membership organization distinct and separate from TBAN.

So tell me how it works. How do you get involved?

We serve the investor community and we serve the entrepreneurial community. Our goal is to get more entrepreneurs to apply for funding and more investors who want to seed companies. And they're mutually beneficial. We have a Web site where companies can apply. We have basically eight questions that they answer on the Web site and there's a $100 application fee. Because we started getting all kinds of people just throwing up ideas there, and so we needed some sort of minimal amount so people wouldn't submit ten different companies.

So we have about 80 real companies apply every year. And if they meet the criteria they can present in front of the group of 30 or 40 of us.

We actually have 42 paid members today, and typically only 35 will attend the meeting. Out of the 80 that apply we let the best 20 present. And out of those about four get funded each year. And the numbers are getting better. It used to be only two got funded. But in 2006 we funded four. We're putting more money into the company.

So once they present and we like them, we negotiate the terms sheet.

Because they say I want to sell 5 percent of my company for $20 million. And we say we want to put in $500,000 for 100 percent of your company. And they think it's worth a lot, and we come to some middle ground.

In our group we've got some amazing folks: the former CIO of MGM Mirage, several Harvard MBAs, the retired president of Hard Candy Nail Polish. We have guys with all this great experience. So we say, these two guys serve on your board if you want our money. Because we want them helping to mentor you and grow your company. And some companies that don't even get funded still want the mentoring because we have really experienced people involved.

A company may get 15 to 20 people investing and we each put in $35,000 to $40,000.

And how many business have you funded so far?

We're up to 12.

How have they performed so far?

None have gone bankrupt. None have sold. We haven't had what's called an exit, where they have en IPO or a sale. But we've put in more than $7 million into these 12 companies. and they're all doing great.

And so you see returns already, or does that only happen when you have a liquidity event?

No, it's not like public companies. We don't get dividends.

So how do the Angels help contribute to a successful Vegas business climate and why is it important to have a group that's Vegas-centric and concerned with Vegas companies instead of going to a national venture capital firm?

Venture capital firms don't look at Vegas as a technology hub. We don't have any major venture firms headquartered in Las Vegas. Or Reno, either. And banks don't lend to these types of companies. So there's a need for a financing source for real startup companies. We can take a company, like my company, 1Velocity, that's a couple folks with a good idea and just in a matter of two years we can go from a handful of employees to 20 or 30 employees creating good paying jobs, providing services that are obviously needed in the community. When Yellowpages.com sold it sold to Bell South and SBC. And $97 million in wealth was transferred from those two companies to Las Vegas and was divided up among the employees.

So now we have another $100 million guys are using to buy bigger houses and bigger cars. But you know what else they're doing? They're writing checks to startup companies in Las Vegas to do it again with people who have never tasted that kind of success.

Is it like that in other cities? In New York do people who have made good with their venture want to turn around and help the little guy or is there more of a cutthroat attitude?

This Angel investing movement is occurring all over the country.

There's 300 of us. But we've been told that we're more embracing, more open, less cutthroat, more reasonable than what occurs in the major markets. But there are 300 groups like that in America now.

In addition to being involved in Angles, you've started lots of your own companies. You're sort of a serial entrepreneur. Was that something that you think was always in you, or was there something in particular that encouraged you?

I didn't think about it. I just did it. In college I was dirt poor. I was eating Ramen at least 10 times a week. I'd have Ramen with Scrambled eggs, Ramen with peas, Ramen with parmesan cheese. To be able to buy season tickets for football at my school I borrowed money from some of my roommates and went to Albertsons and bought 100 dozen doughnuts and piled them up next to my roommates in the ticket line while people were lined up buying season tickets. And I started selling doughnuts. I paid 12 cents each for them and I sold them for a quarter. That's how I paid for my tickets. I didn't grow up in wealth, but my parents always encouraged me to try stuff.

Were you born in the perfect place, then?

Born in the perfect, place, Vegas. It's the perfect place to succeed.

UNLV last year launched its entrepreneurship center and its entrepreneurship major. What do you think about learning entrepreneurship in a school setting instead of just jumping in and starting a business?

You can't succeed without failing. All the business that I've built, they're high-risk ventures. I think of what Thomas Edison said. He failed so many times at inventing the light bulb. But he said, "No, I didn't fail so many times. I succeed in finding out what didn't work."

But having some theory behind you: teaching young people how to write a business plan. I've been involved in judging student business plan competitions. And the experiences that those guys go through are great. But we have some folks who may win some of the prize money, but never start their own businesses. And that's a shame. Because they need to try. I was lucky in some ways that I started out dirt poor. My dad died my freshman year of college and I didn't have any way of paying for college other than working. And I worked multiple jobs and I was willing to take risks and find ways to make it. The entrepreneurship program is encouraging people to take those risks, but in a calculated way.

Members of our angel group have been speaking to classes and hiring kids as interns. We've given them opportunities to speak at TBAN or Vegas Valley Angels. WE find supporting their organization incredibly important

Let's talk about 1Velocity now. Tell me the basics about the business and why you decided to start that company.

The last gig that I had, for lack of a better term, was a telecommunications company. And I immersed myself in that company, learned a lot about the industry, worked with a lot of the major companies in town. And I'd worked in telecommunications earlier in my career. So when the business plan for 1Velocity came about I knew it right away. It was so good that I sent an e-mail to a friend of mine who had just retired as CIO of MGM Mirage and said, "What am I missing here? This seems like it's an opportunity whose time has come." And he said, "If I were still at MGM, you'd be in my office tomorrow."

So it serves a big need. The demand for broadband is exploding. In personal life, we all had dialup at one time in our life. And then something happened where it wasn't good enough. And for some people it was a year or two earlier than for other people. But for 90 percent of Americans today, dialup isn't good enough. And the same is true for business. And that standard has been the T1. And the T1 isn't good enough for some companies today and in five years it's not going to be good enough for 90 percent of businesses.

People are moving their phone service over the Internet. Even cell phones are going to lose market share to Internet phones that just find the nearest WiFi signal. I've seen the most recent Skype phone and it's pretty cool. You pay $14 a year for Skype with long distance versus $14 or $23 or $200 a month. Internet TV is going to take market share from the cable companies. All these things are causing people to need more broadband. So most businesses don't have fiber speed connections.

Eighty-eight percent of all businesses, according to two different analyst firms, don't have the capacity to handle broadband more than a T1.

So, what do we do? We sell big, fast pipes to multifacility companies. We use the latest technology using license spectrums to serve major businesses and governments and hotels and contractors and developers providing them speeds that they've never been able to get.

Do you transmit via pipes or do you transmit wirelessly?

Wirelessly.

Is there anyone else who provides this service?

No, we're the first in the country building a metro Ethernet company. We're going to be in ten markets in five years.

Where are you going next?

Phoenix, Salt Lake and Reno.

What's the lead time on that?

We'll be in all those markets in three years. Vegas is more than a billion dollar telecom market and the business is more than a half billion dollar market. And for us to get three percent market share of half a billion is $15 million in sales. And a lot of these companies are selling for three to 10 times sales. So if I can get three percent of the market and be worth three times my sales, I'm worth $45 million. And it will take me three years to do that.

Most of the banks and casinos already have two carriers, because if the sports book goes down ¦ So they build in redundancy. They'll have Embarq and Cox. Or Cox and XO or XO and Embarq. But what they found through experience, because they're all going through the same trench on the same telephone pole through the same central office, a fourth of the time they go down at the same time. Having us come down from the roof down is a more redundant system. Carrier diversity is not real diversity.

We connect into multiple data centers in town. If you're with Cox everything goes back to Martin Luther King and then out to the world.

With us, we're downtown and we're on Warm Springs and 215 by the Doubletree Hotel. If this data center goes down you go out the other.

Instead of a three quarter inch pipe into the building, we're giving you a 12-inch pipe. We've picked up the CAT bus system, the city of Las Vegas, the Palms hotel, Boyd Gaming Corp.

So let's talk about the technology community in Vegas in general. Obviously the technology itself has changed over the last decade, but how has the technology business changed in that time?

It's grown in two ways. One, it's grown internally through guys like me. I have one exit. SRD sells and I learn a lot as the number two or three guy in the company and then I go to Switch Communications Group and I have a bigger role in that company. And now here I'm the CEO in that company. So I've learned that way by doing, failing, succeeding.

But then we're also getting plenty of imports, people coming from California and Texas and Boston and Utah. Our knowledge base is growing so much because of internally generated growth as well as the immigrants coming into the state.

The biggest issue we have is jobs. We need more of the right people for the jobs here.

Has that been a struggle for you starting your own business, finding the right people? How do businesses find a way around the lack of skilled workers in Las Vegas?

We recruit people and we also work with the community colleges, the high schools. And our universities have been a pleasure to work with. They basically hear of needs and they put together advisory boards, change curriculum, create programs.

Do you have any advice you would want to share with business owners starting out?

Don't be afraid to take calculated risks. Listen to a lot of people and then follow your gut, go do it. When I first started my PR firm, a buddy of mine basically said, "Ballard, print out that resignation letter and do it." And so, I had good encouragement. We've got a lot of good opportunity here. Take some help.

In real estate they said it's location, location, location. In this business it's management, management, management. There are lots of experienced people here who still have a lot of life in them who want to be involved in startup companies. So take the help, go to the Vegas Valley Angels Web site.