Jim Jorgensen
Jim Jorgensen is a serial entrepreneur. He has started over 25 enterprises since getting his MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business at the age of 24. Jorgensen's industry selection for these new enterprises has been wide, running from retail to manufacturing, from Internet to mail order, and from oil exploration to insurance. Some of the entities remained small, while two of them reached market caps in excess of $1 billion.
Entrepreneurial history
1970s and 1980s
Jorgensen earned his CPA certificate while working at KPMG before and during his time as a graduate student. His first start in entrepreneurialism was to form the first New Enterprise Club at Stanford with classmate Rene “Ron” Sutton.During his second year of graduate school, Jorgensen met Billie Jean King and her husband Larry. Jorgensen's sports entrepreneurship started while still attending school. One of his first projects was to help negotiate the Battle of the Sexes with sports and entertainment mogul Jerry Perenchio. The event became the most watched tennis event in history. Also at this time he helped in the formation of a new professional sports league, World Team Tennis
Over the next five years, Jorgensen formed several new ventures with Billie Jean and Larry King, including:
Future Inc – a sports agency. An early entry in female sports representation, Future Inc.’s clients included; Billie Jean, Chris Evert, Rosie Casals and golfers Sandra Palmer and Jane Blalock. It was eventually sold to Mark McCormack’s IMG
King Enterprises – an international sports company.. Within three years, company created numerous tennis tournaments on and off the Women's Tennis Association tour and around the world. By 1976, the company was the world's largest promoter of professional tennis events, with the most events and the most attendance. Tournament cities included; London, San Francisco, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Osaka, Monterrey, Atlanta, Stuttgart, and Tampa. In 1976, as promoter of the Atlanta WTA tournament, Jorgensen made the decision to invite transsexual Renée Richards to her first WTA event where she beat Rosie Casals in the opening round.
Inspired by Billie Jean's friendship with Elton John, the company tried music concerts with Ray Charles and Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. The company also created the event and television series, Women's Superstars with ABC and IMG.
Soviet Union National Team – an entry in World Team Tennis in 1977.. The team played 44 matches in 33 cities in 65 days. Its stars were Olga Morozova and Alex Metreveli – The other owners of the team were Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss and commodity trader and New York Sets owner Sol Berg. The team's most colorful event was held in Plains, Georgia and was hosted by Lillian Carter and Billy Carter, the mother and brother of then President Jimmy Carter. It was held on a tennis court the team built for the occasion near Miss Lillian's home and subsequently donated to the city of Plains.
Women's Sports Foundation – a foundation to foster the involvement of girls and women in sports participation. Jorgensen served as a Trustee for 15 years. He recruited Eva Auchincloss as Executive Director, and the Board of Trustees was expanded to include influential persons like Donna de Varona, Peggy Fleming, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. Currently, the Women's Sports Foundation is one of the most influential organizations in women's sports.
WomenSports magazine – the first magazine dedicated to women in sports..The magazine was launched as a 16-page insert in Glamour magazine with Billie Jean King on the cover. The magazine was started in 1974 and sold to Redbook’s publisher in 1976, having reached a monthly circulation of 200,000. During that brief two-year period, the magazine got help from Ms. Magazine publisher Gloria Steinem and singer Helen Reddy. Notable employees included editor Rosalie Wright, writer Anne Lamott and intern Sally Ride.
Women's Professional Softball League – the first professional softball league.. The league struggled for four years before folding.
In 1978, Jorgensen moved to Los Angeles to head up a television production company and shortly thereafter went back to starting companies. Some of these were:
Jorgensen & Company – a celebrity business management company. – Clients included; actors, Sharon Stone, Teri Hatcher, Lily Tomlin, Sharon Gless, Judge Reinhold, Shawn Weatherly and Tracy Scoggins – writers Douglas Adams John Hughes, Ronald Shusett , Dan O’Bannon, Diane English and Jane Wagner, – directors Tobe Hooper , William Dear, and Gary Sherman, – celebrity PR executive Pat Kingsley and Senator Alan Cranston.
Western Equity – a real estate development and investment company. The company developed several historic rehabilitations in Chicago and Kansas City as well as developing commercial and warehouse facilities in the Midwest.
Ronnie's Ranch – a restaurant in Los Angeles. The company built indoor sports malls in the Midwest. The malls featured sports like; soccer, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, dance, and hockey with restaurants and stores to service participants and fans.
Bedrock Capital Management – a registered investment advisor and asset allocation fund.. The company has grown to more than $300 million under management. Bedrock Capital was acquired by United Capital Financial Advisors in January 2015.
Preferred Physicians Mutual Risk Retention Group – a medical malpractice insurance company. Jorgensen was a co-founder with Dr. David Schoenstadt. The company specializes in malpractice insurance solely for anesthesiologists.
1990s and 2000s
Discovery Zone – an indoor active play center for children. The company grew from one store opened in January 1990 to almost 500 stores within 5 years. In 1993, Discovery Zone completed an IPO with a NASDAQ listed stock. The market value of the company rose quickly to $1.2 billion. In 1995, under control of Wayne Huizenga and Don Flynn who also controlled Blockbuster Video, the company's operations were merged with Blockbuster's parent company Viacom.Challenger Sports – a sports training company.. Headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, the company is a leading soccer training company.
AllAdvantage – an Internet infomediary community. The company had a meteoric rise and fall within a two-year period. Launched on March 30, 1999, within 12 months the company had:
- 13 million members
- raised $175,000,000 in venture capital
- earned over $30 million in advertising sales
- distributed over $100 million in cash distributions to its members
- hired 850 employees, established 35 worldwide offices on four continents
- established the world's first Chief Privacy Officer
- filed an S-1 in February 2000 lead by Frank Quattrone of Credit Suisse First Boston at a valuation of $1.4 billion
Morgen Group – a management consulting firm that specializes in advising startups and new projects for larger corporations..
Discover Walks – a travel company headquartered in Paris. The company runs tour operations in Paris, San Francisco, Rome, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Lisbon and St. Petersburg, Russia.
TrueArtists – largest international organization of certified tattoo artists. The company runs the annual Tattoo Awards and certifies tattoo artists for quality workmanship around the world.
RebelsMarket – largest internet marketplace for counterculture fashion and merchandise. Company's internet following is led by its 1,300,000 Facebook page
bUnited – in stealth pre-launch, it is billed as The Consumer Revolution.
Books – under the author name of Jay Knight, Jorgensen has written two books; Nothing Ventured published in 2007 and The Happy Class published in 2014. The Happy Class book is shown in Facebook with 150,000 fans.