Dan McDonough, Jr.
Chairman of the Board at Elauwit
Dan is chairman, founder and the former chief executive of Elauwit, a customer experience company with holdings in media and telecommunications across the U.S. Before being named chief executive of Elauwit, Dan was publisher at Haddonfield, N.J.-based Elauwit Media, where he helped grow a start-up community newspaper publishing business that began in 2004 to the fastest-growing newspaper publisher in America in 2009, as rated by Inc. magazine. Under Dan's tenure, Elauwit Media also was rated among the 10 fastest-growing companies in Southern New Jersey, according to Philadelphia Business Journal. As chief executive of Elauwit Networks (another of Elauwit’s operating companies), Dan helped turn a small Internet Service Provider (ISP) into a telecommunications company that delivers broadband Internet, television and telephone to the multi-family industry in nearly 40 states — one of the largest such boutique telecommunications companies in the student housing space. Dan started his career in media as a teenager, being named executive editor of The Observer in Northern New Jersey at the age of 19. Over the next decade his news experience included serving as editorial-page editor for daily newspapers in New Jersey; as a New York City-based special correspondent for the Washington-based Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.; and as a news professional with Gannett Co. and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barrons. Dan was named president and publisher of The Staten Island Register in 2001, where he was able to help grow revenues for the then 35-year-old publication more than 100 percent in less than two years. In 2004, Dan was one of the founders of Elauwit Media, which launched The Haddonfield Sun as its flagship newspaper. Today, Elauwit Media publishes 10 community newspapers reaching more than 120,000 families each week. Dan's articles on business, technology and politics have been published in Intellectual Capital, National Review, The Christian Science Monitor, the NewsFactor Network, In These Times, and a number of other publications. He has served as a board member or as an adviser to numerous companies spanning three continents, and has been a board member of a number of local and national business, community and charitable organizations. He received a BA in Political Science and Communications from William Paterson University, and studied for an MBA in finance and economics at Baruch College – City University of New York. Though Dan splits his time between Charleston, S.C., and Philadelphia, he grew up in the New York City metro area and still considers it home. Dan also is a jazz bassist, and rarely misses a home game of the New York Jets.
Who is your hero?
It’s a tie. My grandfather. The man’s work ethic was only matched by the love he had for his family, particularly the love and attention he shared with me. He was the smartest person I ever met, and the most confident — in a way that wasn’t boastful. He passed away 20 years ago, and I still miss him every day. My son. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the worst dad in the world because the lessons my son teaches me are far more valuable and numerous than I believe I’ll ever be able to teach him. He, too, is smart and confident in a way that makes me think he’s my grandfather reincarnated. You don’t know what love is until your first child is born. It’s at that moment that you realize life begins, and nothing else really matters.
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?
Somebody once told me that the harder I work, the luckier I would get. Sounds like something Yogi Berra would say, but it’s certainly true. If you’re the kind of player that wins games without being up before dawn, god bless you. That’s not me.
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?
The moment you think you’re bigger than something — a task, a job, a conversation — you start to fall apart and lose the confidence of your team. It’s happened to me a few times. And I try every day to remember that I shouldn’t ever expect somebody to be inspired to do something that I wouldn’t do myself.