THE DREAM IN ACTION

I’ve been thinking about how my new startup adventure is going to be different than my role with GE and a few things have risen to the surface. So, I’ve decided to do a series of posts on those topics. You’ll be able to follow the series under the tag ‘corpvsstartup’ here.

When I joined GE at the very end of 2007 I had expectations of what opportunities the job would provide. I had just finished reading US News & World Report about how GE had the absolute best training opportunities in the country and it was the best place to start a business career. Since I had interest in technology, I joined the Information Management training program to follow the path of Jack Welch. There was an ‘unofficial’ promise that if I was the top of my class at the 1-year point I would be able to work abroad, there was the off program salary that was very appealing, there was the job titles, and the opportunity to work directly for a CIO. With wide eyes and butterflies in my stomach, I worked my ass of for these opportunities.

At the one year point, I was the top of my class; no chance to work abroad. At the 18 month point I hadn’t yet worked directly for a CIO. At the very end of the program, salaries had dropped “because of the economy”. In the corporate world there are systems, and people must operate within those systems. The people are only able to give you what the system will allow them to give you. It’s not their fault if something that was promised isn’t delivered.

While this sounds like I have serious distaste for my experience at GE, I really don’t. I loved it and learned more than I can tell in a hundred blog posts. My distaste isn’t at all with GE, it’s with the corporate system. It’s with the lack of accountability or even ability to deliver what you promise. The origins of my distaste grow from the inability to trust the system, and thus the people in it. I learned that…

In corporate there isn’t trust in the system, so you can’t trust the people.

Before joining UberCab, I read this post by @altgate and I’m so glad I did. He did a wonderful job of getting my head into the startup mind state. The transition from GE (uber corporate) to startup (UberCab) is a drastic one and having some idea of what to expect is helpful, but understanding that not knowing what to expect is the reality. One of his gems was:

Calibrate your expectations. – Unlike mature organizations with an HR department, formal recruiting programs and on-the-job training, your startup probably doesn’t have any of these.  The recruitment process will seem jerky, but that’s probably because the people you are interviewing with just pulled an all-nighter preparing an investor pitch, writing some code or otherwise doing something that, in their ideal world, you would have been helping them with.  Mature companies can afford to have people dedicated to recruiting but you won’t find that in most early stage startups so it’s best to reset your expectations now before you get disillusioned.

Also read about expecting the unexpected & getting to know the team.

Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot says about recruiting that you need to “make sure someone on the team will go to bat for the person when things are shaky.” In joining this team I felt that the people recruiting me would go to bat for me when/if/as things get tough. Because I trust that they will it gives me all the confidence in the world to deliver. And, there is not system stopping them from doing that.

I think there is a powerful result from trusting the people around you. I completely trust my family and something special happens when we’re together because of it. The level of comfort allows for you to forget about the cover my back mentality and focus on what’s really important. The mission (i.e. next release, mock-ups, code, release party). I’ve learned that…

In startups there is no system so you have to trust the people.

…we seems to have a lot in common.

In this short interview of Jeff Bezos, now CEO/Founder of Amazon.com, he talks about how he decided to leave his safe cushy job for a startup, Amazon.com. I’ve shared many of his exact thoughts in the process to leaving my safe cushy job at GE to join a startup, UberCab. I really dig his outlook on the decision and his ability to simplify the decision making process.

No matter what your doing, in order to invest well you must be able to look past the immediate to see the future potential return. Luckily for me the decision to join a very early stage startup is an immediate gratification as well. I now have passion for what I’m working on, and this passion is a highly underrated thing. Passion is what will get you up in the morning with a hop in your step. It’s what will push you to call 5 more numbers after being hung up 10 times in a row. It gets you through the suck, and onto the fun.

I think the immediate passion Bezos had for the potential idea of Amazon is what allowed him, and what now allows me to to look past the potential short term risks, which probably aren’t even that significant, and invest in the future. When we define success in the shorter and long term with some level of passion required we see the best possible outcome. Amber says it well:

when we establish a personally relevant framework for success, we become more decisive and action-oriented. when we focus on minimizing regret rather than risk, we become more comfortable in the notion of taking risk. (which i then ask, which involves more risk: having regret or embracing uncertainty?)

establishing a framework allows us to make more decisions faster as we’re able to more easily see the big picture.

My framework for success includes enjoying the process. I wasn’t enjoying that process until very recently but keeping passion for my work at the forefront of my framework allows me to minimize the risks of a startup and invest in the future. Thanks Jeff.

Yesterday I had the *fun* experience of publicly being thrown under the bus. The individual inaccurately assessed a situation then cc’d numerous people on the email explaining her version of my incompetence (which was actually their incompetence, isn’t that fun). My immediate reaction was, what a bitch! But I tempered my immediate response and held off from sending any detrimental communications, email or otherwise.

This morning I approached the individual directly and said, “is there any other issue I can help you with? And, please feel free to raise concerns with me directly if you have this type of issue in the future.” I think the person realized that I was really saying, “hey don’t be a bitch next time.” Only time will tell.

Even if you don’t get through to the person who threw you under the bus, at least you can feel good about handling the situation with respect and maturity. I believe, and hope, that this approach is the best way to prevent it from happening again. If you respond bitterly, and with a short fuse, you just let them win. And nobody wants that.

image via flickr

In January of this year, I decided not to do resolutions but instead to pick 12 people I wanted to meet this year. Now it’s time to grade myself, reflect on the cool people I’ve met, and look for future opportunities to meet those folks I missed.

Here’s the challenge I gave myself this year… (written on Jan 1-7, 2009)

Instead of making big New Years Resolutions for 2009 I decided last November that I would attempt to call out and meet 12 specific people in 2009. I figured those relationships would be much more valuable than any half ass’d resolution. So, over the last few months, up to the night that I posted this I worked to identify 12 people that I respect and could learn the most from, so here they are. If you’re on the list, please contact me…we’ll be in touch.

So, let’s go through the list and see how I did…

Gary Vaynerchuk, WLTV, NYC

I did it! Gary had an event in Chicago after the launch of his book ‘Crush It’ and we met, check out this vide0 (and pic above)

Nate Westhiemer, Rose Tech Ventures, NYC

missed, but I’m headed to NYC next week and hoping to connect then.

A.J. Jacobs, Author ‘The Year of Living Biblically‘, NYC

I did it! And meeting AJ was one of the highlights of this list, check out these posts about meeting AJ.

“Back in March of this year I made it out to New York City and I had the pleasure of meeting AJ Jacobs for a drink, well a coffee and we met at a vegetarian joint called Blossom. At the time I was planning to write a book (delayed, not canceled) and his advice was remarkable. During our conversation in NYC’s upper west side, AJ was the most humble and encouraging person I’ve met. He was willing to help out with my book and anything else he could. AJ was a true pleasure to be with.”

Loic Lemeur, Seesmic, SF

missed, I was only able to get to SF once this year and unfortunately Loic was in FR.

Jason Fried, 37signals, Chicago

missed, however I’m hosting the first Chicago Tech Meetup on January 20th and Jason is speaking. I’m really looking forward to meeting him there. After reading the 37Signals book, ‘Getting Real‘, I have an incredible respect for Jason and won’t miss their next book ‘Rework‘.

Daniel Debow, Rypple, Canada

I did it! Daniel and I met in Chicago when he was here for a conference, he’s an awesome dude building a really cool startup. Also, Daniel was super helpful in introducing me to Jay Goldman and Dennis Crowley. Daniel has always been a great encouragement and given me really solid advice about startups and career stuff, meet him if you can.

Walt Ribeiro, The Internet’s Music Teacher, Philly

missed, I never got to Philly and Walt has been busy with the amazing ForOrchestra, check it out.

Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot, Boston

missed, I never had an opportunities to meet Darmesh this year, but I have followed the wild growth of HubSpot and continue to read his very helpful startup blog, OnStartups.

Mike Volpe, Hubspot, Boston

missed, however a good friend of mine in contemplating a role with HubSpot and reported that Mike was as awesome as I had thought.

Fraser Kelton, AdaptiveBlue, NYC

missed, although we’ve spoken on the phone many times, we never met in 2009. However I think I’ll be spending a bit of time in NYC this coming year and fully expect to make this happen. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed helping Fraser with feedback on GetGlue. They’ve turned a cool technology into a very useful tool for content sharing and discovery.

Dan Patterson, ABC News & Creepy Sleepy, NYC

missed, never really had an opportunity to meetup with Dan, although his work is still very fascinating to me.

YOU…

I got to meet SO MANY people this year and it’s all because of Twitter and making web connection real offline, a practice I fully intend to continue through 2010. So including “you” I’ve met 5 of 12. Not as good as I thought, but a solid start. If you were going to do this in 2010 who would be on your list?

I came across Andy Swan via Fred Wilson’s blog a few years ago and have followed casually for a while. The other day he wrote a post (below) that might be his best. Every once in a while you need a kick in the ass and this was it…enjoy. If you have comments on the post please leave them on his blog, not here.

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An endless fountain of ideas.  I’ve lost count, but I’d guess an average of 2.5 killer businesses come forth from your brain on an annual basis.  Unfortunately, they get mugged by reality and disappear into the vapor of lost dreams just as quickly as they were formed.

Obviously, there are several reasons for the canyon between your “entrepreneurial” vision and your accomplishments:

1. Geographic location — no one where you live can code or invest like the hippies in San Fran.  Why fight that?
2. Debt obligations — Far be it from you to actually take your standard of living down a notch while trying to do something “revolutionary”…..meanwhile, men jump on grenades.
3. Muted enthusiasm — If your friends aren’t instantly enamored with the 6th complex idea that you describe without having built anything yet, how will anyone else “get” your brilliance?
4. Idea pirates — Obviously, your idea is so unique and valuable that everyone will steal it, take it to the hippies in San Fran and have it built and funded (but not as good) before you finish the sentence.
5. Family — Apparently you married someone that needs a lifestyle that ratchets up slowly and predictably in order to love and support you.  And, ya….your infant children would be devastated if you put money into anything other than granite counter-tops and a paper thin computer with a glowing fruit on it.

The list goes on and on.

You’re screwed.  All that genius and no chance to execute on it.

Poor you, born into the country that rewards, encourages and celebrates entrepreneurship more than any other in human history.

You are an old man in a lazy-boy, so damn comfortable you’re afraid to move.

Cruise-control into the coffin it is.  Enjoy.

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In a related tone, Mark Cuban wrote an amazing post titled, The Sport of Business, that is equally as inspiring and really shows the cut throatness that “it may” take to dominate in business. He surely has.

photo via flickr

@mollstar just made me the happiest man in the world. Now we’re headed to Costa Rica for 2 weeks.

See ya on the flip.

Click on any image to watch the full video.

Do you even realize how difficult this trick, a flip, is to do on a surfboard? Unreal.

Full video here: http://surfermag.com/av/flash/introducing-matt-meola/

Today the Finnish government announced that it will become the first in the world to make broadband internet access a legal right of every individual in Finland.

They’ll start in July of 2010 providing every person one-megabit of broadband connection with full intention to increase that to 100mb by 2015. This is an enormous first step towards a future of unbelievable connectivity. Obviously, we would all say that the world is extremely well connected today, but if this law were to be passed in other countries I believe we would see unparalleled positive effects.

The amount of people that would benefit from a program like this around the world is staggering and it’s exciting to think about the increase in thought, sharing, innovation, productivity, and yes, entrepreneurial effort that would occur because of a change like this. A few startup pioneers are pushing for something called the Startup Visa. My opinion has yet to be made on this issue but I sincerely believe that a “broadband for all” effort would dominate that effort in it’s affect on innovation in the States. I’d like to see those same pioneers push for something similar to this here in the US.

In my short time in Chicago, I’ve realized that there are more folks into tech startups than many people realize, however our smaller but still passion startup community doesn’t quite have the “presence” and sense of availability of other startup hubs (ie. Bay Area & NYC). Hubs have events that pull these communities together and individuals who help to cultivate those communities. They realize that the more events, networks, and connections that people in the community are able to make the better off for everyone. We’ve also realized that the gap between the investment community and the entrepreneurial community is too large. These events seek to break down those gap and bring people together for mutually beneficial relationships. To that end we’ve decided to do something about it…

FounderFire

A few weeks ago John Fairley and I launched FounderFire, a meetup for web startup founders and executives, modeled after Dave McClure’s Startup2Startup in Silicon Valley. The goal of this group is to get people who are working on/in their startups together for a time of knowledge sharing and promoting the young. We want experienced entrepreneurs to help the less experienced in an effort to give back to and cultivate the startup culture in Chicago.

We call FounderFire a startup campfire with ghost stories and all. If you’re interested in attending FouderFire, we’re holding our first event on Thursday October 22nd. The venue has not been settled yet so please look to FounderFire.com for updates. Also, if you’ve like to attend please email me and let me know ryan[at]renliv.com

Chicago Tech Meetup

I’m also helping out Justyn Howard in organizing the Chicago Tech Meetup. We’ve recognized the success of the New York Tech Meetup and we hope to pull together our community in a similar, powerful fashion. The Chicago Tech Meetup is described on the meetup.com site as…

image via briansolis

I’m in a GE management training program full of over achievers. These individuals are smart and know how to play the corp ladder climbing game very well. One thing I here all the time is, “I need to build my network”. I’ve always questioned this sentiment because I question the value of a big network.

When these people talk about having a large network what I believe they really mean to say is, I need to grow the value of my network.

Here’s where their argument falls apart. An individual can have an enormous network but if they aren’t known for the right things it’s worthless. If a person has a reputation for being a lush, the larger their network, the worse. You’ve got to be known for the right things with the right people for you network to be of value.

For all the folks who have said, I need to grow my network, try just working hard to impress your existing network. A referral is so much more powerful than a cold call so stop just blindly reaching out to people, spend your time working hard on being impressive and your existing network will introduce you to others with a strong recommendation. Your network will then not just be a bunch of names, it will be a powerful web of people who know you’re legit and that you can call on in the future. Build your network through your network and the results will be astounding.

Focus on your reputation with your existing network and your network building and corp ladder climbing will be much more fruitful.

For as long as I can remember I’ve always found myself envying and analyzing people who are very successful. I’ve studied their personality traits, their career paths, and anything else that I feel might reveal a common denominator that I may be able to learn from. I’ve come to the conclusion that success is about qualifiers. What I mean by that is, if someone builds a startup that is self funded, and doesn’t have any help it may go nowhere, but if they do a startup with the same product, model, etc, with Y-Combinator, they become qualified, thus have a significantly better shot at success.

In this theory I completely separate what the entrepreneur would learn from Y-Combinator with just having the Y-Cominator name associated with their startup. Another example of the qualifiers theory: If Sara goes to Harvard vs. ‘Avg Law Program University’ even if it’s the same individual with the same raw intelligence, she’ll improve her chance at success just because of the Harvard name as the qualifier. Having that degree on her resume gets her in the door, gives her great credibility, and generally impresses others.

I’ve been pondering this concept because of my consideration to pursue an MBA (vs. do a startup). If I do decide to get an MBA, I’m under the belief that it’s only worth doing if I get into a top notch program. Without the big name the qualifier argument is void, however with a big program like Northwestern or USC (likely schools I would be interested in) I believe I would definitely benefit from the positive qualifier.

Last week Fred wrote a post called “The best deal in startup land” about the positive effects of Y-Combinator and I wonder how much value is the qualifier and how much value is the teaching and networking from the program?

For folks who do have big program MBA’s or other things from their career that may work as qualifier’s, how much of that degree has served as a qualifier? How much benefit have you gotten just from the reputation vs. the education?

In my humble opinion, I believe that Umair Haque is one of the most innovative thinkers of our time. But, to be consistent with his own arguments, that doesn’t matter. What matters for Umair is ‘awesomeness’ and he gets that through his ability to deconstruct complex thoughts. Innovation, he claims is not enough for success today, but awesomeness is. Umair is the Director of the Havas Media Lab, a company that works to strategically advise investors, entrepreneurs, and those working on strategic innovations awesomeness in business models and management.

Umair writes regularly on the Harvard Business Review under the title of ‘Edge Economy’ and he truly is on the cutting edge of thought. In his recent article Umair argues that in this day and age, innovation will not be enough for success. What is required now is awesomeness.

In thinking about the economics of innovation there are 3 emerging concepts that are expressed in this article.

1. Innovation makes yesterdays goods and services obsolete, thus the result of innovation is recession and depression.

When Apple released the first iPhone it didn’t have copy/paste functionality. It was a easy feature that everyone immediately realized it was missing. But Apple waited over 18 months to release an iPhone that included this functionality. Do you really believe they didn’t know how to include this feature? How easy it would have been for them to push a software update just like they did with 3.0 and give everyone the functionality a month or 6 months after the release. But that innovation would not have been economical. They waited so that they could extract all the value possible from the original release, then maximize the value of said software upgrade. Innovation is not enough economically speaking, but I think we’ll all agree that copy/paste aside, the iPhone is awesome, thus it’s success.

2. The challenge of the 21st century isn’t entrepreneurial it’s creative.

lanjut →

Eight years ago, I was a SR. in high school and I woke up to my alarm clock set to 91X, the local San Diego rock channel. The only problem was that on this particular morning they weren’t playing ‘Crawling’ by Linkin Park or ‘How you remind me’ by Nickelback, they were just talking, and it sounded serious. In my drowsy state at 6 am I continued to listen to figure out why I wasn’t getting my morning dose of alternative rock.

It didn’t take me long to realize that there was an event that had occurred in NYC. I knew by the sounds of the Dj’s voices that it wasn’t a joke, I knew this one was serious. The radio Dj’s encouraged everyone to turn on their TV’s and watch the events unfold. You know it’s serious if a radio Dj tells you to turn the TV on. They said that a plane had just crashed into one of the World Trade Towers and at this point everyone was still under the safe assumption that it was an accident. When my mind was clear enough to grasp the severity of what was going on, I hoped out of bed and yelled to my Mom and 2 sisters in the neighboring bed rooms, “I think a plane just hit the World Trade Centers in New York, it’s on TV!”

As we frantically began watching the television coverage, jaws on the ground, we slowly grasped the magnitude of what was going on. My Mom and I looked at each other and did double takes at the TV as if we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. As this was 2800 miles away, we still didn’t get it, not like they did on Manhattan.

Later that morning at school people were obviously still in shock, I ditched 3rd period English to stand in the library with 2 close friends and watch the news coverage. This was about the point when they realized that these events were likely planned and they were just starting to release theories on who might have been involved. The reporters were going nuts trying to accurately report the crash at the Pentagon and also the flight that went down near Pittsburgh. It was a true shit show.

I remember watching the TV standing in that library. It was still mostly shock, but for the first time that morning they started to show images of people running from the towers. They showed graphic images of people covered in soot and covering their mouths in horror. These were business men, mothers, children…real people. For the first time on that ridiculous day I welled up and shed a few tears. Before that every image I saw was like some amazing set or stunt perfectly executed in Hollywood, but when I saw the people it sunk in, this is real.

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We will always remember.

What skills do you think the perfect entrepreneur needs to have? My answer would be (and I assume yours would be similar), the perfect entrepreneur has every skill that a business requires in order to get started and grow, then that same entrepreneur would have to have the leadership skills to guide a newly acquired group of people to continue to grow and eventually sustain that business.

In order to be perfect that single person would have to be able to take a startup from the foundation stages of a company, all the way to the operation stages of a full fledged business. It goes without saying that one person who has all of these skills is incredibly rare.  There are plenty of entrepreneurs who are phenomenal fund raisers, or fabulous technology/product people, and others are business model guru’s who know how to extract every penny from a customer. Then there are guys like Eric Ries who dominate when it comes to optimizing the startup process through concepts like minimum viable product and customer development. But still, it’s tough to find someone who can take you from nothing, to something, to something huge, then sustain it.

The Perfect Entrepreneur

The skills can be broken up into 3 categories, Finance, Product, and Leadership. I’ll clarify what each of them means to the business, then try to find someone who fits the bill. I think you know who I may chose.

lanjut →