3 takeaways on startups from MICROS founder Lou Brown, Jr.

An entrepreneur started a company that created a new point-of-sale (POS) system, took the company public, then got acquired by an entrenched Silicon Valley powerhouse.
It may sound like a startup story that you’ve read in the tech press before. But as TechBreakfast’s Ron Schmelzer put it after founder Lou Brown, Jr., spoke at ExecBreakfast on Thursday, Brown’s story is something of an “antidote to Silicon Valley.”
MICROS’ tale started in Maryland in the late 1970s, when the company was called IDEAS and looking to contract with the government. After identifying restaurant POS systems as a better business opportunity, the company became MICROS and expanded to the full hospitality industry. The company’s IPO was around the same time Apple went public. The acquisition by Oracle came when the company was worth well over $1 billion, but there was no unicorn designation, as it came in 2014.
Brown called it a “39-year overnight success.”
Here are three takeaways for entrepreneurs from the talk, as told through three memorable quotes:
1. “Culture will eat vision, 24/7.” 

• Though they were operating in what are now called “heady days,” Brown said he didn’t have a grand vision of changing the world for the company. “We had a great capability. We let the market take it.” But the culture of the company allowed it to be more nimble than entrenched competition, and eventually set up an environment where the company developed new ideas that became future businesses.

2. “The early bird gets the worm,” but “the second mouse gets the cheese.”

• Timing is a key factor in success, Brown said. “You can have a great idea and bad timing, and it won’t work,” he said. You don’t want to be too far ahead, but so late that the market is too crowded.

3. “I’m pretty much betting on jockeys, but jockeys that I’ve worked with before.”

• As he sought to invest in companies, Brown looked at team as the primary driving force to bring ideas (of which there are many) to fruition. That’s something a lot of angel investors talk about, but Brown has worked with similar teams over a number of companies he backed.

Not attending an angel investor club meeting doesn’t mean Brown isn’t supporting startups. He’s been active as a mentor for years. Even though you may not hear about Brown as a top investor, TechBreakfast’s Schmelzer said his story points to the fact that the area has “a lot of people like Lou that are willing to give their time and connections” to help area founders.