John Guydon

We will have a discovery call to determine content, length and feel of your event. I will create a unique presentation for your event based on our discussion. You can ask questions or make requests and we will work together to make sure every detail has been covered.

(Are you really going to read this entire bio? In case you're just skimming...... I want you to know that no one on the planet cares more about delivering results from the stage than I do. I have a pretty interesting bio too!)

John Guydon was born in Compton in 1983. Determined to have a better life, John’s parents moved his family to Orange County. He started a business selling candy in the 7th grade to pay for lunch and football cleats, eventually going on to play Division I football at The University of Colorado and earning a Broadcast Production degree from the school of journalism. For two years, he sold commercial property and casualty insurance to businesses, where he sold the largest convenience store policy in the state and set the company record for the number of quotes in a single year. Both records still stand today.

In 2005, tired of the constraints of the traditional corporate world, he left to start his own business. He created a commercial text message platform called Duffled that allows businesses and organizations to text customers using a commercial short code. It’s known as the most powerful SMS marketing software on the planet. In 2012 he sold the company, which still runs today, and set his sights on a new problem to solve. After the 2012 kidnapping and murder of a young girl just blocks from her home, John discovered that the Amber Alert system is over a decade old and takes hours to be deployed. He decided to create something better and launched The Lassy Project, software that gives parents and guardians the ability to notify an entire local community about a missing child in seconds, not hours. During his time with The Lassy Project, he joined the single largest technology accelerator program in the world: Techstars. His involvement with Techstars launched John into the big leagues, leading to an exclusive invite to spend a week on Necker Island with Richard Branson and top entrepreneurs from around the world.

John began speaking and caching on a regular basis; helping people create unstoppable progress in life and in business.

In 2014, he founded Startups Illustrated, which helps companies raise rounds of funding and gain acceptance into top-tier accelerators. It focuses specifically on empowering underserved communities, encouraging participation and success in the innovation economy by partnering with local economic development organizations, corporations, and accelerators to deliver entrepreneurship training programs and boot camps. John has since worked with countless startups and entrepreneurs to help them better tell their stories and maximize efficiency.

John is an exceptional speaker with an incredible ability to move an audience to action long after he leaves the stage. He is a walking example of unstoppable progress by making relentless progress toward everything he sets out to do. Invite him to speak and you will see first-hand the impact he brings with him.

I can adapt to whatever technical setup you are working with. I have spoken on big stages, small rooms, outside, even on a boat. I have worn plenty of lav mics, used handhelds, spoke from the podium, and used my strong vocals to amplify things on my own.

No worries.