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| Nellie Akalp is the CEO of CorpNet.com |
I always knew I was going to be a business owner. My family
members all had their own businesses and I was surrounded by the
entrepreneurial spirit ever since I can remember. I never imagined I’d be involved in an online
business that helps entrepreneurs , incorporate their businesses but after dabbling in a
few other industries, I found that is where my passion lies.
My husband and I decided to start our own business back in
1997 when we were in law school. We named the company MyCorporation.com and set
off to help entrepreneurs incorporate their businesses online. In 1997 there
were not many companies on the Internet yet. This was the time of Netscape and
Lycos. We saw the opportunity and went for it.
So we registered a domain name for MyCorporation.com and
started publishing a website. I still remember our first call; it was Tom from
Oregon. He was looking to form an Oregon Corporation. We actually had no idea
how to incorporate in Oregon, but had to learn fast. Then came the next call,
and the next…
Things moved incredibly quickly. My husband Phil left for
two months to take the bar exam while I ran the business. He returned to find
four workstations in our living room instead of our couches and television. In
fact, I hired three of my fellow law school friends to help answer phone calls
and process orders.
In March 2005, Intuit approached us on what seemed to be a
simple strategic partnership arrangement. The discussions quickly turned into
an acquisition offer. Even at this point, I wasn’t thinking ‘sell’. However,
when the Intuit team walked up to a whiteboard in our conference room and wrote
the number on the board, the offer was too good to resist.
After we sold MyCorporation.com to Intuit in 2005, we took a
few years off to focus on our expanding family. We are currently the parents of
four children, so we had a lot to focus on, but still that entrepreneurial urge
started to set in after a few years. In
2009, and after the non-compete agreement with Intuit expired, we decided to
get back into the document filing industry since that’s where our passion and
excitement lies; making people’s business dreams into a reality. We started all
over again with CorpNet.com, our latest filing service.
At CorpNet.com, we
pride ourselves on providing the best email, phone and web support in our
industry. We help business owners on a daily basis form LLCs, Corps, S Corps, C
Corps. We help entrepreneurs file DBAs, register trademarks and more. Really a
one-stop-shop to get your business started off all while talking to a real
person in our small office.
Our new business is growing steadily and I cannot be happier
knowing that I get to wake up each and every day and do just what I love to do
- help entrepreneurs succeed.
Nellie
Akalp is the CEO of CorpNet.com, an online legal document filing
service, where she helps entrepreneurs Incorporate or Form an LLC for
their new businesses.
