Michael Praeger, CEO and Co-Founder of AvidXchange™, has spent the last 20 years founding, managing, merging and selling technology and web services-related companies. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Praeger left the Midwest after high school to embark on a career that led him to Washington D.C., Boston, and Charlotte.
Studying finance and meeting his wife, Cindy, (also a startup software CEO) at Georgetown University, Praeger moved to Boston in the early ’90s and worked for Summit Partners, a private-equity firm. While in Boston, he also worked on a master’s degree at MIT. He went on to serve as CEO for one of Summit’s portfolio software companies and then relocated to the Queen City to start AvidXchange.
Last night, Praeger chatted with Charlotte Agenda’s Andew Dunn about what it’s like running an incredibly successful and quickly growing company.The fireside chat, presented by AT&T, focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and Charlottle as a hub for technology companies. Some takeaways incuded:
- To recruit the best talent, you have to provide a different experience. Interesting enviroments and a unique workplace culture are key. It’s important to make talent feel like part of something bigger.
- A business plan is essential. Committing it to paper forces you to go through the process and think about your business in a detailed way.
- Communicate what your value proposition is!
Praeger ended his conversation with those in attendance by saying, “I love what I do. I have the best job in the world.” After being recognized as one of Charlotte’s Best Places to Work for the last seven years in a row, it’s clear that he’s not the only one!
About Charlotte Agenda
Charlotte Agenda “exists to make Charlotte the smartest, most human city in the world.” The online news source publishes 5-10 stories a day sends a handcrafted newsletter every morning around 7 a.m. They’re also extremely active on social media, reporting straight to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat.
Most of the Agenda’s coverage focuses on local business and entertainment and lifestyle stories like, “What sandwich should you order at Laurel Market in Eastover?” and “Losing Amos’ is another blow to Charlotte music scene.” The Millennial-focused local startup also boasts an impressive Events section and the very popular Charlotte Agenda Job Board. The site averages around 300,000 unique visitors per month and has more than 17,000 newsletter subscribers.
