Tag Archives: Founders

Is It Fair That Founders Get The Lions Share of Equity?

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Something has bothered me for some time and its just now starting to get talked about.  Below is not a rant, but rather an exercise in thinking about fairness in compensation.

Founders receive huge amounts of equity in the companies they start, yet over time as more and more employees join on and work incredibly hard to help grow the business into a successful enterprise the percentage ownership (cap table) doesn’t reflect adequate compensation.  Why is it that an employee that joined just a few months or a year after the founder receive orders of magnitude less equity – and cash after a liquidity event – than the original founders?

Does it really matter if you were there first and if it was your idea to begin with?  If so, how important and impactful is it?  Millions of dollars?  Billions of dollars worth of difference?

Yes, founders do take inordinate amount of risk in starting a new venture and they should receive compensation to reflect that.  But when we are talking about $billion+ outcomes we then start to talk about income inequality on absurd levels.  The difference between a founder receiving $1 billion or $2 billion is not the same as taking that extra $1 billion and spreading it over 100 or 500 employees – that which makes quite a bit of difference in each of those people’s lives.

The fact is early and middle employees are hugely important to the success of a startup and should be compensated accordingly.  More so, they might even be vital to the company’s success, such as a Director of Sales or VP of Engineering may be in helping a gangly startup grow up into a mature and profitable company.

A recent podcast from Andreessen Horowitz covers this issue, and touches on how founders can think about structuring their equity grants a bit differently so that they can appropriately compensate early and later employees.

Anyway, listen to the podcast as it covers a lot of points in this touchy subject.

When A Founder Crosses The Line Towards Godlike Hubris

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I recently noticed a frightening trend with certain founders in the tech industry.

–> Have a great idea.  Get a few key people to join you and build it.  Launch the product and raise money from investors.  Experience massive success.   Raise more money.  Gain hundreds of millions of users. Raise billions of dollars and fight off regulators.  Have unfiltered access to billions of people’s data.  Exploit it.  Believe you are the second coming of a God.  Act like an uncaring, immoral capitalist.  Care only about your wealth and not what you are doing to everyday citizens.  And so on…

With the recent Uber misteps and observing the resulting outrage which ensued, it has come to my attention that we, as an industry, need to take a long look in the mirror.  Founders need to take full consideration in how they are running their company, the culture they are creating, the data they are generating, and the ultimate consequences of their actions.

I hope Uber realizes they are doing to their users exactly what they were furious (I assume) about the government doing to them as citizens when the Snowden files were revealed last year.

We all need to understand we are standing at an unprecedented time in the history of business and technology.  Everyday Joes now have the opportunity to create an app or platform that one day might just become indispensable to mankind.  With its use, Joe will collect billions upon billions of data points on everyday citizens – like where they are currently, where they are going, who they talk to, what they typed, to whom, what they viewed on their phones, whom they connected with socially, etc..  With all this happening, Joe will find himself directly in the middle of our society, holding a treasure trove of personal data and a devil on his shoulder just waiting for the right time to temp him into exploiting it.

I mean, it’s like big brother!

But surprisingly it ain’t the government doing these things.  Imagine what Facebook knows about you.  Couple that with your Uber or Lyft usage data.  Toss in your twitter clicks, Instagram photos, Gmail history and Google Chrome browser history.

We are doing this to ourselves.  We are the ones creating this new world of massive data collection which is resulting in unprecedented spying, snooping, breaches of security, cloud hacks and the like.

This is your fault.  And mine.  It’s all of our faults.  All in the name of making more money.

I am not here to end the data analysis, in fact I believe in it and when done correctly it makes for a better end user experience.  I also know data collection is only going to get more prevalent with the expansion of categories like the Internet of Things and connected homes.

Yet, I am urging us to start thinking about things using a different filter, or scope of perspective.  Start asking yourself these questions:

Recognizing all possible data about myself and every other person is now being collected, how to I structure my platform to preserve mankind and the humanity inherent within our society?

How do balance personalization of my technology with personal security of my users?

How do I proceed when I know I CAN do something but unsure if I SHOULD do something?

Where’s my “do not cross line?”

How can we best usher in a new era of technology applications where security is inherent within the structure of the product, not an afterthought when plugging holes after launch?

How do I shift my perspective from making the most money possible with my application towards making the world a better, more secure and protected society?

Please start thinking about these questions and more…  It’s time we call a spade a spade – WE are the ones creating the exact surveillance society we were deathly afraid of growing up.  We just thought it would be the Big Bad Government or another foreign country, not ourselves.

Please understand hubris will sink anyone who thinks they are immune to it.  You – as a founder and someone desperately wanting to change the world – can now no doubt do just that.  You and your technology can alter the history of humans here on earth.  Just make sure you know what change you are putting in place.

Kyle Kesterson Answers The Question: What Is Creativity?

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This short piece comes from one of my founder friends here in Seattle, Kyle Kersterson of Freak’n Genius.  Kyle – one of the most creative and nicest people I know  – has been growing his startup for a few years now and from what he has told me of late they are destined for great things.

In this video he talks about Creativity and how anyone can be creative with anything in the world they find around them, all it takes is a little imagination.

“We should be MAKING FUN of everything in the world.”  

Take a look….

What I Learned Launching A ‘Crazy’ Bitcoin Startup

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The months leading up to the announcement of our new company was chock full of lessons learned.  We launched Coinme on May 1st at Spitfire in Belltown during a well attended launch party, complete with our first Meetup and an entertaining expert bitcoin panel.

It was the culmination of many long days, phone calls, emails, re-designs, re-brandings, and all sorts of other seemingly frustrating things.  Below I have detailed three of which helped me realize a few things – namely the biggest risk of all is not taking a risk.

Setting a deadline is essential

Setting yourself a deadline – be it a launch party, a internal team milepost or some other marker – is the single best thing you can do to push yourself and your team to execute and actually complete what you set out to complete.  We set May 1st as our launch party, and determined the machine needed to be there, dressed in its new costume and ready to take live transactions in front of more than an hundred people.

photo (9)We also – very importantly – needed to get passed through the State of Washington as an officially licensed money transmitter business before this date.  You have no idea what was required for all these pieces to come together, and before we began this process I didn’t either.  But given we had committed to launch this company, we held ourselves to the deadline and pulled through right at the end.

I have painfully seen it time and time again with other startups in Seattle… they never release their feature or finally launch their company.  Crazily, they just keep working on things.  In the end, they simply don’t set themselves a deadline to stick to so they just remain in startup purgatory. This is not the right place to be as a startup – trust me.

Being early is both good and bad

One big thing I have learned is it’s very early in the bitcoin world, probably too early for most consumers.  Most people still have no idea what it is, why they should purchase it, and why they should use it for payments.  Although the answer to those questions will be left for future posts, suffice it to say the entire world is still trying to figure it out.  Coinme, as a company, believes in the transformative nature of the technology and feel it can influence not only financial transactions but many more industries.  And again, it’s way too early to tell.

But we feel our opportunity to influence such an early industry was/is too great to pass up.  We see areas where we can help educate and inform people about the positives, negatives and in-betweens of this new cryptocurreny world.  We’d rather be early to the party than too late.

Being early to the market can be good for a startup, but it also can be not so good.  If you are too early to the market you risk spending all of your available capital without generating enough revenues (assuming at some point you need to run on revenues, not invested capital) which will ultimately end the business.   Successful businesses are able to time the market in a way where they achieve both early mover advantage and customer adoption.  One without the other spells doom for any high growth company.

Calculated risk is worth it

I touched on this last post but I feel so strongly about it I think its worth addressing again.  Taking a calculated risk – hopefully a number of them – is one of the best things entrepreneurs can do to accel their careers.  Doing what no one else is willing or ready to do places a person in a very select group of people, a group where things are created, companies are sold and millionaires are made.  Even if the venture ultimately fails, the business (or tech) community will consider the founder a leader, an innovator and a healthy risk taker.

And you know what?

That’s exactly the person investors want to invest in.  That’s who others want to follow when they take their next job and join their next company.  That’s who the media wants to cover when they write about the next generation of business leaders.

No imagine if you don’t take that risk…

Trust me, what I learned over the last few months is that the biggest risk of all is not taking a risk.

 

Okay Founders, Stand Up And Take A Risk

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As it turns out, I was indeed part of the group who brought the first bitcoin machine to the State of Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest.   We launched Coinme on May 1st at Spitfire in Belltown during a well attended launch party, complete with our first Meetup and an entertaining expert bitcoin panel, including Charles Fitzgerald , (angel investor), Patrick Murck (General Counsel for Bitcoin Foundation) and Will O’brien (CEO of BitGo).

We had a great time and it was an awesome way to ring the new venture.

Interestingly, one of the most asked questions I get now is “So, why bitcoin?”  What is it about bitcoin that made you jump at this opportunity?”

My answer may not be what you expect, but if you are a founder – or thinking of becoming one – it’s what you need to hear.

I jumped at this opportunity because I sensed something seismic rattling under my feet, I felt the inevitably of it becoming such a transformative force in our world I knew I would kick myself later if I or Seattle didn’t get involved now.  I had this crazy notion that we are now experiencing a tremendous change in the way we relate and interact with money/currency/privacy/data and wanted to be a part of it.  I noticed the most common way people were perceiving this new technology was with ignorance and confusion, stating things like “bitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme”, which tells me they just need to be educated.  I realized we are watching an industry mature right before our very eyes, growing from a child into a gangly teenager, struggling with growing pains along the way.  With a little luck maybe I felt I could guide that teenager in the right direction.

It was a risk I simply couldn’t pass up.

The media likes to cover the “downfalls” and the “catastrophes”, mostly because shock media drives more page views than intelligent and analytical dissection of challenging topics.  But along with all the negative press bitcoin has received, there are golden nuggets of wisdom one shouldn’t turn a blind eye towards.  Look hard enough (and follow the right people) and you will read bitcoin analysis that will blow your socks off.   Please follow Fred Wilson, Marc Andreesen and Naval Ravikant for such nuggets of the wisdom I am referring to.

It’s fascinating.  You’ll read things like bitcoin is the new internet of money and will soon power machine to machine (droid to droid?) payments, opening up a whole new part of our daily economy.  It has the opportunity to transform many different industries outside of finance, it could become the new domain/identity protocol for online citizens, it will aide in calming identity theft and consumer privacy, allow for more efficient commerce and transactions across the web, maybe even help media outlets collect micro-payments from readers for access to their posts, and many, many other things.  Simply put, this ain’t your daddy’s financial system.  These and other reasons played into my decision to be a part of Coinme and help grow the crytpocurrency in Seattle.

So with all this crazy “Bitcoin” (air quotes) coverage and other startups making questionable business decisions around the cryptocurrency, why the heck would I decide to start a bitcoin business?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke

I acknowledge the above quote can be quite overused, but in this instance I think it fits perfectly.  We started Coinme because we saw an industry taking shape but yearning for more quality leadership from the innovators and executives of those companies.  We made a pledge to ourselves to be one of the good men (or women) leading this new industry.   The bitcoin economy desperately needs innovators, entrepreneurs, legal advisors, regulators, politicians, consumers and business owners to all work collectively for the advancement of our society.  Not just for the advancement of their own selfish interests, but for the betterment of the world.

Who knows, Bitcoin might drop through the floor and Coinme might fall flat on its face as a result.  But by taking this risk I will have learned A TON about a new and emerging industry (and myself) at a time when everyone is still trying to figure out what it is. I will have laid the groundwork for my next 10 – 20 years as an entrepreneur and established myself in a small but growing industry.  I will have looked uncertainty in the face and chosen to proceed when the path is not exactly clear, teaching me to acknowledge my fear of the unknown but move forward anyway.

And that is what I encourage you with today.  Seattle has tremendous leadership in the technology space and is home to many recognizable and industry leading companies, yet, we need more leaders – the future of our local economy depends on it.

You may not be launching a bitcoin startup but you do have an opportunity to be influential and guide your market in the right direction.  You have an opportunity to take a risk, to put Seattle on the map – or more aptly allow us to become even more attractive for both entrepreneurs and investors and hopefully put to rest the whole Valley vs. Seattle argument.   We hear it all the time from the investment community here in Seattle – Swing Bigger.  Well, here’s your chance.

You have right in front of you a choice: take the easy road and solve a derivative of an existing problem, making things just a bit easier for the few that may experience it.  Or choose the hard road and take a larger risk to do something no one has ever done before, with a greater reward waiting for all of us at the end.

In speaking for the greater Seattle tech community, I urge you to choose the latter.

Introducing My Latest Project: Coinme, WA State’s First Bitcoin ATM

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coinme logoI’m excited to announce the launch of a new company and project, Coinme.

In addition to forming a new company around the cryptocurrency industry, we just launched the state of Washington’s first Bitcoin Kiosk, or better known as an ATM, on Thursday at a downtown Bar and Grill called Spitfire.  These machines provide a quick access portal to buying and selling the popular cryptocurrency and allow users to to turn their cash into bitcoin, or vise versa.  It simply is the fastest and most secure way to buy and sell bitcoin in the world.

Also notable, we are the nation’s first Licensed Bitcoin Kiosk, meaning the State of Washington and the Department of Financial Institutions has declared our business lawful to operate as a money transmitter within the state of Washington.

I will expand on my thoughts about the new emerging cryptocurrency industry and why I am choosing to dive into it in the near future.  Stay tuned!

photo (9)

Below are a few media articles and more from our press release:

Meet your Bitcoin ATM: Digital currency craze hits Seattle, with help from startup vets

Seattle Welcomes Its First Bitcoin ATM Kiosk at Coinme Launch Party

 

Seattle Technology Executives Launch First Bitcoin Kiosk in the Pacific Northwest

The Coinme Kiosk will be the first licensed bitcoin kiosk in the United States

SEATTLE, Wash. – May 1, 2014, Seattle-area residents will now have a way to conduct fast and secure bitcoin transactions via the Coinme Kiosk. Built by world-leading kiosk manufacturer Robocoin, first-time bitcoin users or avid enthusiasts will now be will be able to buy and sell bitcoin as securely as using a standard ATM.

The launch of the Coinme Kiosk comes months after working closely with state and federal regulators to ensure compliance with existing money transmitter laws, anti-money laundering protocols and KYC (“know your customer”) requirements. As a result, Coinme is the first licensed Bitcoin Kiosk in the United States and complies with state money transmitter laws.

To celebrate this bitcoin milestone, the Seattle community is invited to see a demo of the first Coinme Kiosk and hear a panel of industry experts discuss the potential of cryptocurrency at the company’s launch event beginning at 5:00 p.m., May 1, Spitfire 2219 4th Ave, Seattle, WA.

“Coinme was created out of the frustration local technology executives had with the current state of the Bitcoin market,” said Nick Hughes, General Manager of Coinme. “In order to reach its full potential, the cryptocurrency industry needs more accountability and consumer protection. The market also needs more leaders who are offering education and community outreach,” he said. “Coinme was founded with the goal of bringing all of those factors together. The kiosk is just the start.”

In the coming months, Coinme will roll out additional kiosks in the Seattle metropolitan area. To use the kiosk, users will only need their cell phone and driver’s license. Transactions generally last 5-10 minutes and the funds settle almost immediately; whereas, transactions through online exchanges can take several days. Check the company website for more information and join the newly formed Seattle Bitcoin Meetup for upcoming social events and educational programs.

“At Coinme, we’re a team who believes the digital currency industry needs more accountability and leaders who are accessible to help the general public understand the potential of this new means of exchange,” said Hughes.

 

LAUNCH PARTY DETAILS

Thursday, May 1st, 2014 from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. PST

Spitfire – 2219 4th Avenue Seattle, WA 98104

 

5:00pm – 6:30pm       Networking and Kiosk demos

6:30pm                       Official Coinme announcement

6:35pm                       Bitcoin Panel

6:55pm                       Audience Q&A

7:00pm                       Kiosk demonstration

7:15pm                       Social and kiosk appointment booking

 

ABOUT COINME

Coinme is on a mission to increase cryptocurrency literacy, build the local cryptocurrency economy and provide the fastest and most secure solution for buying and selling Bitcoin.

COINME INFOGRAPHIC

Coinme partnered with Killer Infographics to create an easy-to-understand explanation of bitcoin and how the Coinme Kiosk works. The infographic can be found here.

 

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For general information please go to: www.coinmekiosk.com and follow @CoinmeKiosk

Press inquiries: press@coinmekiosk.com

General inquiries: hello@coinmekiosk.com

Taking The Bumpy Road

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“Clank-Clank…. Clank-Clank.” 

The keys were hitting the ignition so hard I thought they were going to fly straight out of the car, as it was rocking back and forth so fast it was spilling my cup of water all over my lap.

“Dude, where we going again?” one of my friends asks as he grabs another hand of chips from the bag.  He finishes his bite and quips “man, what the hell are we doing? This road sucks.”

“Trust me, it’s awesome!” I reassured him.

What he didn’t know was we were about to ascend on one of the most beautiful views one can find in the Pacific Northwest.  Of course, to get there we had to do a little off-roading first.

30 minutes later, Clank-Clank…. Clank-Clank” ….the keys shouted again.….. Clank-Clank…. Clank-Clank” even louder this time.

After a treacherous 45 minute drive and almost popping both front tires on the demanding bumpy mountain road, we finally reached the top of the mountain to see this…

Blanchard Hill

I often think back to those college days when I would venture up to Blanchard Hill for a weekend of camping with friends.  It took a toll both on the car and our stomachs as we gained elevation on the logging roads in our cheap little sedan.  Back then – even if we were just looking for a cool spot to drink beer and roast marshmallows on a campfire – we unintentionally grasped something very important about life.

You don’t get anywhere amazing by taking the road normally traveled.  It’s the roads less traveled which provide the largest payoff.

Of course you couldn’t reach this amazing view on smooth, straight, and well traveled roads.  It’s too normal and too commonplace.   It’s flat.  It’s boring.  They take you from point A to point B.  Too many people travel along those roads to experience such an amazing and unique payoff.

I am reminiscing about this because I find myself on the bumpy road right now.

My “keys” are clanking so loud right now, so loud it’s deafening.  I sometimes wonder why I am sacrificing other parts of my life and my earning potential in the prime of my life to do something different than others.  Why am I not on the same road as so many of my friends?  They “seem” to be driving so smoothly, smiling and enjoying the fruits of the road most traveled.  The road I am on is extremely bumpy and very deserted, with so many potholes I am pulling the wheel back and forth, weaving left and right to simply keep the tires full of air.

But you know what?

I have realized it’s not specifically about the road you are on but the destination where you will end up.   You must choose between enjoying the road or enjoying the destination where that road leads you.  Most of the time those are opposing forces and I have learned you have to do a little off-roading to building anything extraordinary today.

Exiting the highway and ascending the bumpy mountain road is what is required of a successful entrepreneur.  Some come a little more prepared, with their 4×4 trucks and their lifted chassis so they miss most of the rocks.  And some – who may be thought of as a little bit crazy – just start climbing the road with whatever vehicle they might be in at the time.  Yet it is these people, who may not have the luxury of a large 4×4, who learn to become the greatest navigators of the bumpy roads.

But in the end, it really doesn’t matter what vehicle you took to get to the top.  Getting to the top, reaching your destination, is the only thing that matters.  The view is worth the work and trouble of it all.  The satisfaction of choosing the bumpy road – doing something most people don’t  – overrides all the pain and challenge one experiences through it all.

Which road are you choosing?

Hey – Get. To. The. Point.

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It’s harsh, I know.

We have short attentions spans.

And it seems like they are getting shorter by the year with each new brief messaging app that infiltrates our society.

gettothepoint

I am not sure this is a good thing or a bad thing, but one thing I have noticed more and more is people want you to get to the point, like now.  I have noticed this in my own life recently, and although tough to have someone “adjust” you in real-time it’s greatly beneficial to hear it.

Basically, I tend to “pre-empt” a conversation with background information, stats, or things I think the person I am talking to needs to understand as we are discussing a topic.  I sometimes do this because I think ahead – determine what they will probably ask – and then simply provide it to them beforehand so they won’t need to ask it.  And hey, it feels like I am more completely communicating to them what I need to say.

This doesn’t need to happen.  I should just say what I need to say and if the other person has a question or comment, they’ll say it.  And then I can respond the specific question.

There’s no need to ramble on and on when the other person really doesn’t want to know, or doesn’t care to know – even if you feel it’s a better way to communicate.  The lesson here is respecting people’s time is really important.

If you find yourself feeling the need to carry on and give someone every detail, maybe think about how to be more direct with people.  It’ll feel uncomfortable at first, but as you get more used to it you will start to naturally get to the point quicker.

And people will appreciate it.

Image by flickr user yamagatacamille

 

The Road Ahead

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I have often said being an entrepreneur feels like you are a circus clown on a unicycle, riding on a tightrope and juggling 5 different things at the same time.

Yep, that’s pretty much what I am doing right about now and it feels a bit crazy.  My hope is that it settles down a bit as we get these things in motion.

Below is a glimpse into the road(s) I am looking down right now and if all goes as planned it will be most of my career focus.  They might be general – on purpose – but they are the trends of the next 20 years and industries I am both interested in and feel are at inflection points historically.

Payments – mobile and otherwise

road

Most of you know I have been in the mobile payment space for a few years now.  Our first try with Seconds payments didn’t go as smoothly as we had hoped.  BUT, we learned something really valuable – remote mobile payment/billing is going to be huge.

We learned this from realizing the act of forcing someone to make a payment with their mobile device while standing in line at a coffee shop/target/local market/etc actually takes more time and is more complicated than giving cash or card.  The end solution just has to save all parties valuable time.  It will be years before this becomes commonplace and who knows how much it will take (billions invested) to make it happen.

But, you know all those letters you received (or still receive) from utility companies, munipalities and other entities basically telling you 1) here’s the total you owe and 2) here’s where you send the check or 3) log in at this url to pay?  Well, we can save people a lot of time and hassle with a new direct mobile billing experience.  That can all be achieved by a simple notification on your mobile device informing you of a balance due, should you opt into receiving it.  And with your payment credentials already in the system all you need to do is simply respond with “pay” and it’s all taken care of.   Business gets paid, consumers account is cleared, no re-entering payment credentials… Simple.

Yep, we got that in the pipeline.

Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin

Since I am in the payment/financial space I have been watching the rise of Bitcoin for some time now.  It’s very interesting to say the least and everyone has an opinion.

Here’s mine: the world needs a new mechanism for payments to flow around the world and Bitcoin feels like it’s the one.  As both a currency and a technology, it will not only transform money as we know it is but also its place within this new digital/mobile/worldwide economy.  As a speculative commodity, no one knows if the value will hold ($500), massively increase ($100k) or completely tank ($1).  We’ll have to see, but my guess is that its value will not be the greatest impact Bitcoin will have on our world.  As for regulation, the government will have to figure out how to play nice and guide it towards positive impact on our country and world.  I don’t see it completely taking the role of the U.S. dollar so I think that argument is flawed and used politically to take a side, similar to the silly spat between Republicans and Democrats in this country.

So please remember today’s incarnation of Bitcoin will not be tomorrow’s…  merely turning your head and shushing the noise is the wrong answer.  Just as there were many naysayers in 1994 and 1995 about the web, we are seeing something truly transformative take shape and I don’t want to look back in 10-20 years and kick myself for not getting involved in the movement.

That being said, yep…. the road also includes some things around Bitcoin.  It should be an interesting year.

Internet of Things – API’s of life

Another interesting phenomenon starting to take shape is the so-called Internet of Things.  I am not sure I like that term but we’ll agree it means a world where everything is “smart” and “connected” to everything else via the web and sensors.  Just imagine what can be automated or programmed when devices and objects – previously “dumb” and non-economic actors in our world (tables, chairs, driveways, houses, bikes, cars, etc…) are brought online and provided an identity.  Then include an economic identity (hhmm like using something like bitcoin…. now are you are starting to get it?) and allow humans to communicate with and pay and be paid by machines.  The possibilities are endless.

Even more basic is the ability to start automating things in your life.  If you have heard of IFTTT (If This, Than That) you know what I am talking about.  Basically, it means you can set triggers in the world, that when activated, will result in an action you previously determined.   These triggers are offered by various web based components in the form of API’s (Application Programming Interface) which allows you to tap into and easily integrate with other technologies.  For example, if I leave the house (known because my GPS on my mobile) then lower the temperature in my house by 5 degrees.   If Bitcoin falls below a certain price ($300), purchase X more for me.  You get the picture.

Yep, something like that’s in the works as well.

Health Technology – Wearable devices

An amazing area for innovation using connected and wearable technologies is health care.  We are wondering what is possible once people wear something(s) that are able to monitor and collect up to the second data regarding our vital heath?

Given my background in health I am immensely interested in the future of preventative health tracking, and we are in the process of laying out our first attempt at it.  Imagine wearing a small device that, when it senses a certain vital sign has fallen out of the standard deviation for this specific individual, sends a notification to family and medial team with actionable instructions?  Imagine how many heart attacks could be prevented if we knew the second someone was “about to go there”?  Now, I know this vision could collide with the scary notion of Big Brother NSA, but I have a feeling the pendulum will swing back toward a better equilibrium of personal safety and information security.

Yes, although it might be a bit on the horizon this is down the road for me as well.

Content Creation – Founders RAW

The last one is video.  We are starting to see more online video created and watched each day, month and year.   And it’s easier than ever to create and distribute video, especially through social media.  I intent on continuing my work on Founders RAW and experimenting with online media.   Founders RAW is a great playground, since it falls inline with entrepreneurship and founding of technology companies.  My goal is to continue to talk to founders and put out high quality content for all of us to enjoy and benefit from.  It will be interesting to see how content and video grows from here, how we all can take part in it.

So there you have it.

If you are tired from simply reading it, how do you think I feel?  My mind is spinning with all these possibilities and opportunities.  While it may seem like I have some random form of ADD (might be true) it’s more like all these opportunities came to me in the last few months.  Some are being built as we speak.  Some are on their way.  Some are in brainstorming and prototyping stages.  Some might not make it into production, but all are well thought out and well positioned to become something great in the future.  I hope to be a part of them all.

It’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.

Image by Flickr user oatsy40.

Great Founders Learn To Toe The Edge Without Falling Off The Cliff

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19_20120115feet-cliff032That statement emerged from a conversation I was having recently with a founder friend of mine.

This individual is struggling in their current situation – not far enough along to support themselves with their endeavor but not wanting to let go (if only slightly) to do other work which would pay the bills.   They said it feels like being between a rock and a hard place, and it’s painful.  I felt it was more like a cliff.

I simply said:  “Great Founders Learn To Toe The Edge Without Falling Off The Cliff “

I know this spot really well because I was there for quite a while and I remember almost falling off more than a few times.

What I learned through the process was how to toe the line – balance on the edge if you will – without falling off the cliff.  I realized entrepreneurship is balancing the risk of great rewards with the risk of detrimental actions.

How do you know which is which and what to do when you find yourself getting weak knees as you get pushed towards the cliff?

You have to look deep inside yourself and ask “what do I gain from staying here?  Do I really only have one option, which is to stay here and not evaluate my other options?”

Notice I said “gain” not “lose”?  There’s a big difference between those two perspectives.  When you are standing on the edge looking far down the cliff, you have much to lose.  So much in fact it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what you are doing and why.  Founders face so much challenge and adversity they can easily lose their perspectives and clarity of thought.

I told my friend he needs to look inside and ask what he gains from staying there.  He needs to look out for himself first and foremost.  He needs to take care of his basic needs – be it money, food, shelter, stress relief, relationships – and only them will the company stuff  work itself out.

I said, “trust me, it won’t get any better if you don’t step away from the ledge.”

Stepping away from the ledge is exactly what I did and I am so much better for it.  Yes, I had to swallow the pill and realize my “first” attempt at building my company wasn’t going to end like I dreamed it would just a few short years ago.  But as I backed away from the ledge and got my priorities/basic needs back in order, things started happening I never thought possible.

You would be amazed what happens to your business life when you remove self inflicted pain and stress from your personal life.

The 3 Most Important Skills An Entrepreneur Needs To Sharpen

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I was asked a question recently send from a reader which centered around what I thought “was most important skills/qualities  beneficial when going out on your own?”  You can read my answer below.

In terms of skills for being an entrepreneur I think the 3 below are the most needed:

1) Courage/strength
You must have courage to make the decision to jump out on your own. Courage means acknowledging there is risk involved and you do have some trepidation, yet you still take action and make the move. It also means you are in it for the long haul. This takes strength and trust in yourself.  But you JUST DO IT.

2) Market Identification
This is the ability to look at certain markets and market segments to identify holes, or needs that are not met yet. This is where you get strategic and determine what you are going to build and why. It’s pretty hard to be a successful entrepreneur if you can’t find a market for your product or service.

This is a skill that develops over time but I would suggest starting by reading as much about business, technology and the changing dynamics of our world today as possible – and then make that a daily habit.  Also, once you figure out the general market you want to serve, you polish your market identification by talking to your (potential) customers to find out all you can about their problems.

3) Flexibility
Great entrepreneurs are very flexible and change direction similar to how a sail boat tacks back and forth. Nothing stays the same for very long and the ability to shift with the wind is a huge advantage over people who aren’t willing to change. Entrepreneurship is a tough road, but the ability to handle the hard knocks and go with the flow will allow you to remain relatively stress free, also it will help you to quickly pounce on unexpected but awesome new opportunities.

Although you can’t take classes for these, I think if you concentrate on the general ideas long enough you can really polish the skills.

Startup 101 – Make Something Worth Investing In And Be Honest About It

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honest

One of the most common mistakes founders make when starting a new project is creating the wrong product.  Or said a different way, they spend all their time creating something they think is valuable only to get to the end of the road and find out no one else thinks it’s valuable.

This is your classic Founderitis:  you are the only one who thinks your idea is good or valuable enough to purchase/buy/invest in.

Of course, this is where customer discovery and development come into play.  As a founder, before your team lays down one line of code you need to research the market, observe what they are doing, learn their problems and determine what you can build to solve those problems.  Then you need to test the hell out of the idea and the prototype.  Doing this will save you and your team a lot of frustration and grief down the line.

But what about convincing investors to actually give you money in support of your venture?  Is it as easy as walking in and sharing your world changing vision?  How about explaining in excruciating detail how your unique  technology is the latest, greatest and smartest in the market?

Not exactly.  The single best way to raise money is to tell the truth.

Paul Graham just wrote a great essay on this subject.  In it he states investors really only care about a few things:

Formidable Founders.  “The most important ingredient is formidable founders. Most investors decide in the first few minutes whether you seem like a winner or a loser, and once their opinion is set it’s hard to change.”

Tell the Truth “The way to seem most formidable as an inexperienced founder is to stick to the truth.  Investors will know if you are lying or pulling something over on them.  That’s the quickest way to turn them off.”

A Big Market “To prove you’re worth investing in, you don’t have to prove you’re going to succeed, just that you’re a sufficiently good bet. What makes a startup a sufficiently good bet? In addition to formidable founders, you need a plausible path to owning a big piece of a big market.”

So here’s the recipe for impressing investors when you’re not already good at seeming formidable:

  1. Make something worth investing in.
  2. Understand why it’s worth investing in.
  3. Explain that clearly to investors.

If you’re saying something you know is true, you’ll seem confident when you’re saying it. Conversely, never let pitching draw you into bullshitting. As long as you stay on the territory of truth, you’re strong. Make the truth good, then just tell it.

There you go.  It’s not easy to raise money but you should be simple, straightforward and honest.

Determining Which Problems to Solve Requires Wisdom

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An important first step when building a product/business is determining what problem you are actually solving.  Pick the wrong problem and you will waste precious time, resources and energy running in the wrong direction.  Pick the right one and you just might have a billion dollar business on your hands.

The key is to be wise in how you pick the problems you will ultimately solve.

thinkingSean Ellis said it best.

Surprisingly, founders’ instincts to solve problems can also cause us to fail. Many startups miss success signals because they are too busy solving problems. Our instincts tell us to be responsive to customer feedback – especially negative feedback. These problems are so actionable that we feel good solving them. But over time a startup that chases problem after problem creates a bloated, fragmented solution that isn’t really needed by anyone.

 Think about that statement for a minute.  Basically, what Sean is saying is you cannot run around and fix everything that people complain about in your product.  It takes wisdom to decipher which feedback from customers – positive or negative – you should listen to and act upon.

He goes further.

Ultimately the goal of any startup should be to create a “must have” product experience. The signal that tells you that you have created a “must have” product is your true north to build a successful business. You should understand everything you can about the “must have” experience so you can cultivate and protect it. Who considers it a must have, how are they using it, why do they love it, why did they need it, where do they come from…?

A “must have” user experience.  Perfect.  That’s exactly what you need to be striving for and what customer discovery is all about.  He lists of a few questions that need to be asked about the target user.  I can think of hundreds more which need to be written down and answered through interviews, user testing and the customer validation process.

The goal = listen to the positive reinforcements from customers, follow where they are leading and create the best product possible.  All the while not listening to all the negative feedback and not building X, Y and Z feature just because one random customer emailed you and suggested you need to include it.

Be wise my friends.

Bringing Health And Wellness Back Into Daily Focus For The Startup Founder

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It ain’t no secret, startups will consume ALL of you.

As any founder can attest, you have no time to spare when you are starting a company.  You have no time for hobbies.  No time for friends.  Little to no time for family.

And definitely no time for your health.

Things start spinning so fast it’s very easy to add the “Founder 40” as former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason put it, simply by not paying attention to what you are or aren’t doing and what you are or aren’t eating.

That’s why I recently stepped back to evaluate my life and get my health and fitness back on track.  I realized I was starting to get soft in areas I have never been soft and lazy in ways I never have been lazy.

Given, I have paid at least small attention to my wellness since founding Seconds and in fact didn’t put on the Founder 40, so I am glad to say I am not overweight or out of shape.  I have been lucky to have kept up with a minimal exercise routine and stayed fairly consistent.

But what I did do was probably what most of you have let happen – I started to pay less attention to what I ate, how I ate it, what I drank and how often I drank it.  I started to notice how often we would include beers in our company meetings (all 4 of us) and how waiting 8 hours before I ate again would make me so hungry I would then stuff my face with a huge meal only to feel really full immediately afterwards.

(pro tip, feeling really full is not a good sign of healthy eating.)

I write this because I know most of you deep down are thinking the same thing, maybe even more desperately than I am.  All of us want to improve our health and wellbeing, and knowingly we would make the right choices if we knew how simple they really are.

Here’s a short list of things that I realized I needed to get back into my life.  The key to all of them is how I committed to them just as I would commit to showing up for a new job at 9am everyday if that is what they expected.

It really is that simple.

fruitCleansing

I just finished a 10 day herbal cleansing, the first one I have ever done.  To my surprise, it feels great and wasn’t bad at all.  The cleanse consisted of a fIber drink and multitudes of vitamins and minerals through the day and herbal cleanse pills at night.

In the end, it was a reset of my entire digestive and limbic system, and it’s amazing how I feel my body is a lot more efficient in how it’s processing the foods I eat.

I highly recommend doing a cleanse once every few months.

Eat more, smaller nutritious meals each day

I have re-committed to eating more nutritious and that means eating more meals throughout the day, with each meal being smaller in portions.  Eating better is simply a decision and then an act of commitment to keep that decision.  Once you have established the habit, it’s reinforcing each time you make the right decision to eat well, instead of grabbing a quick bite of crappy and unhealthy food.

I have learned to love fruits and veggies, I make sure I at least have a banana, orange, and apple each day, more if possible.  I drink meal replacement shakes and make sure I have a protein rich snack between meals.  During meals, I am aware of the nutritional value of the food I am eating, making sure I have a protein base (chicken, fish, beans, eggs, etc…) and then add a fruit and vegetable with it.  I also make sure I finish my meal feeling satisfied but not full.  This is key to not overeating and saving on caloric intake, which in the end will result in a trimmed body from weight loss.

Also, drink water.  A lot of it.  More than you think you need.  It’s the wonder drug of life, as hydration makes all other processes work more efficiently.

Simply put, I actually think about the food I put in my body and that makes all the difference.

Don’t drink as much

Drinking seems to be just part of the startup experience.  Every week there are a number of events going on in the startup community where free beer and wine are offered to meetup attendees.  Who can say no to that!

I realized I was drinking quite a bit of beer each week, and heavy beer at that.  I am not a “light” beer drinker either, I enjoy a strong well made Amber or darker beer with more hoppy taste.  And along with the hops come calories, which if you are not careful will start to add up week upon week.

Think about the affect this can have on weight gain – one beer roughly equals 100 calories.  A pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories.  Without even thinking about it, drinking 5 beers is another 500 calories in your system.  Conservatively,  if all you did was drink 5 extra beers each week you will put on almost 10 pounds each year.  Work on a startup for 4 years and you now see how easy it is to put on the Founder 40.

Keeping an eye on your alcohol consumption – amongst many other positive benefits – will help keep the LB’s off.

nike-shoesExercise every other day

Founders are notorious for having little time for anything else in their life besides working on their startup.  Yet counterintuitively, committing to an exercise routine of every other day actually makes you a A LOT more energetic and productive, giving you the feeling of creating more time in your day.

The cool thing is it doesn’t have to be a 2-hour workout every day.  As little as 20-30 minutes, every other day, will do tremendous improvements to your fitness.  I go on a 3 or 4 mile run and do about 15 minutes of strength training every other day and I feel great.

Honestly, I feel like 23 as I approach my 33rd birthday this summer.  Trust me, do whatever you can to get activity 3 or 4 days a week and you will be shocked at what happens to your life.

Walk whenever possible

In addition to working out every other day, I now pay very close attention to getting out and walking to meetings around downtown Seattle.  Yes, I need to leave a little bit earlier for the meeting but it pays off in the end.  It reinforces my active lifestyle, it gives me fresh air, it keeps the metabolism up and burns energy throughout the day.

Get up from my work station at least once per hour

Similar to walking to meetings, it has been proven sitting for long periods of time is very unhealthy.  It’s bad for our posture, bad for joints, bad for our circulatory system, bad for our digestive system and just downright not good for the body.

Making a habit to get up and do a lap, going to the bathroom, talking to another co-worker or whatever you want to do will keep you limber, awake and give you an edge health wise.

To me, it also allows to break up the monotony of the sitting workday.

To all those who say “I need to concentrate on coding or designs” I urge you to simply stand up at your desk, stretch and do some work on your feet for a while.  Also, you will find taking frequent breaks will keep you sharp, alert and might even help you with your work!

Pay attention to how I look and feel

Finally, all this has helped me pay a little more attention to how look and how I feel.  That’s not a bad thing!  We are told to not care about ourselves and not be so self centered about looks and things like that, which in some ways has its logic.

I agree, to an extent.  No need to overindulge in yourself.

But to barrow a dev term, we only build what we measure.  So if you are paying attention to your health and wellbeing, you will start to notice things about it you want to change.  Once you identify what needs to be changed, only then can you start down the process of changing it.  If you don’t pay attention, obviously nothing will happen.  So paying more attention to how you look, dress, how you feel climbing stairs and walking long distances will go a long way to help you become a healthier and more fit individual.

These simple things have really influenced me and my health recently, and I guarantee they will make positive changes in your life too.  All you need to do is make a few small but significant commitments in your daily life.

How Do You Meet Other Cool and Smart People In The Startup Community?

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coffeeI was at an event last night and started talking to a person who was younger and newer to the startup community.  During our conversation he asked something that slightly caught me off guard, given his current job at a fairly well known tech resource here in Seattle.

“How do I meet more cool and smart founders and engineers around Seattle?  I mean, what do you do?”

Although he is young – about a year out of college and just getting his feet wet in the professional world – I was still taken aback.  It struck me as odd that someone wouldn’t know where to go and where to look to meet other entrepreneurs.

But then I realized it might not be as obvious to others as it is to me.  I’m a bit more social than most and have had the opportunity to get tied into the Seattle startup community over the course of the last few years.

So if you find yourself asking the same question this person did, here’s a few ideas on how to meet more people doing cool stuff in your community.

Go to a lot of events

It may seem obvious but going to local startup events is one of the best ways to meet new people.  The only drawback is you have to get over the awkwardness of being around a lot of people you really don’t know and looking around to find someone to talk to.  There’s no point in taking the time and energy to go to an event and just sitting on the side by yourself waiting for someone to come talk to you.

Just bite the bullet, find someone in the crowd who is not mid sentence in another conversation, put out your hand, introduce yourself and start the conversation.  BUT remember – only stay in conversation with one person for 5 or 10 minutes before gracefully wrapping it up, grabbing a card if you want and moving on.  No one likes to be cornered by a stranger for an hour.

Go to Hackathons and specific meetups

Hackathons, by their very nature, attract smart and talented people.  If you want to find the people who are hacking away on the newest ideas, you need to start going to local hackathons.  By the end of the first night you will have found a new team to help  build something new and in the process make a handful of new friends.  

Also, seek out a few meetups that fit your interests and just show up.  There are groups meeting in your city on almost anything imaginable.   If you can’t find something that interests you – start one!

Ask your close friends for introductions

Asking the people you already know to introduce you to someone they think is smart and would be a great connection is another way to expand your network.  It’s best if you identify the person you want to meet and specify the reason for meeting them, it makes their intro a lot easier.  One thing to remember on intro’s:  The person doing the introduction is putting their reputation on the line when they introduce you – so make sure you follow through and act professional.   If not, it looks bad on you as well as the  person who connected you.

5o coffee dates

Mark Suster wrote a while back about committing to 50 coffee meetings in a year.  While extreme, the point is clear – committing to having coffee with others in your community will lead to introductions and opportunities you never would have thought were available to you.  So next time you are out at an event or meetup, simply ask the person you are talking to if they can meet for 30 minute coffee next week.  At the end of the coffee meeting, ask the person who they would recommend you meet next.  It works…

Start writing

When I started blogging and guest posting on other media outlets, it opened up another channel for people to reach out and connect with me.  In fact, that is how I founded Seconds (actually, my cofounder read an article I wrote on GeekWire and he cold emailed me to ask if we can meet for coffee – see how it works!)  Putting your thoughts and words on screen and publishing them out into the world allows others to “virtually” get to know you and how you see the world.  On your blog, make it easy for others to connect with you, via Twitter, Facebook or email.  Trust me, it does wonders for your future.

So there you have it.  Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and get noticed.  Go to events.  Put out your hand.  Say something.  Write something.  And for god sakes book some meetings!

3 Things Founders Need To Remember When They Don’t Want To Get Out of Bed

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Founding a company has it’s benefits.  Among them are such things as setting your own schedule, unlimited financial upside and choosing who will be working along side you.

But starting your own company can also be tough, at times it can be excruciating and quite exhausting to even the strongest of souls. Sometimes we need to step back and look at the big picture to fully understand the position in which we are currently sitting.

Darwin was right

The name of the entrepreneurial game is survival.  If this is your first startup, hold on because you are in for a wild ride.  Most don’t work out the first time around and with startup success rates at only about 5% or 10% your chance of hitting it big the first time is quite small.

That’s ok. Consider it like spring training.  Go through the motions and learn the proper techniques.  Take the grounders and throw them to first.   Trust me, some will go right under your mit and through your legs.  You will curse and throw your mit to the ground in frustration.

No worries.  After a while you will get the hang of it and it will start to feel normal.

Your first startup experience is solid training ground for your next startup experience.  Armed with the lessons of the first go around (trust me, you will have a ton) you will then be able to start your next company, wiser and with a better grip of how it all works.

Survival is all about doing whatever it takes to simply live to see another day.  You never know what can happen tomorrow or who will approach you with awesome opportunities.  If you keep with it long enough someone – probably someone you least expect – will discover your skills and talents and want you to join them in some way.

As you might know, we have slowed down the operation of Seconds and placed it on cruise control so now our minds and our talents are freed up to work on other projects.  I cannot tell you how many people have recently approached me with startup ideas, opportunities to join them as another founder, or to work with their team on a part time basis.

Gratefully, I was able to take (a few) up on their offers and I’m now in a less stressful position, helping them with their businesses, giving me some much needed income and providing me a clearer view of my future than 6 months ago.  It’s all due to the fact that I got up each day – even when I really didn’t want to – pushed through the “crap” and proved I am worth every penny someone would choose to pay me.

The Law of Compounding Goodness

If this is your first venture into the world of business then you probably lack a solid reputation.  Unfortunately this is one of the reasons things are so tough right out of the gate.  There’s just not enough data to back up YOU and your story to others.

But don’t worry, the more you do the easier things get.

After you accomplish one or two things notable and positive in the industry the law of compounding kicks in.  What is the Law of Compounding Goodness?  It’s simply your quick referenced resume people will remember you by.  You will be known as “the creator of X” or “the person who did Y”, which then gives you credibility in the greater startup community.  They now have positive data to help them make a decision about you and your potential.

The great thing is you don’t have to have a billion exit to Facebook for the Law of Compounding Goodness to work for you.  Anything notable or worth remembering will set the foundation for you to build your reputation and your career, helping you stair-step your way higher on the food chain in the startup community.

Why not be a leader and organize a meetup and market it to the greater community?  You will be noticed.

Start writing a blog and submitting guest posts to a regional or national media source that have clout in the industry.  You will be noticed.

Heck, write a book on a relevant subject.  Trust me, you will be noticed.  You will then have a lot easier time attracting talent and capital for whatever endeavor is next on your agenda.

Consider the alternative

Andrew Chen recently posted to the graduating college seniors about the nature of a job vs building your own future. He quickly cuts to the chase by simply saying – Jobs suck.

And I agree.  A job is really just slaving away, trading hours for dollars and a small attempt to stay afloat.  Yeah, you might land a solid 6 figure salary as an engineer in your twenties.  But what happens when you are 35 or 40?   Better have an idea of what your life will look like when you aren’t a rock star programmer in their fly-by-the-seat 20’s.

And even if you try to work on a side project during nights and weekends, it still sucks. Why?  Well, if you have a family or a significant other in your life you are definitely cutting into the precious time you have to spend with them.  There’s only 24 hours in a day you know.

If you are going to have a job and work in a side project make sure you invest that time wisely and know that it is temporary, meaning at some point in the near future you have created enough money or secured enough capital to go full time in your own company so you can quit the day job.

Full time entrepreneurship is so much more fulfilling – regardless of salary and benefits.  You are pursuing your dream of creating your own company and in the process creating your own future.  Yes, entrepreneurship is tough and it’s not for everyone.  I should know, I’ve been through more than I would wish on most people.  But fighting tooth and nail for every inch is the trade off for your personal and professional freedom.

I’ll take that any day of the week.

So, remember these thoughts when you are lying there in bed on a day where you don’t feel like even getting up.  Just survive and live to see another day, you never know who or what will walk (or email) into your life.

More Impressive Is The Successful Founder Who Took The Road Less Traveled

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An amazing story is going around right now about a high school senior who has been accepted to Harvard.  What’s more notable is that she was basically from little means in high school and even homeless for her entire senior year.  Even more admirable is how she tried to live a normal life despite her situation, playing sports and partaking in extracurricular activities right along with her peers.

Dawn grew up in a ramshackle home with no electricity and no running water. She often went days, even weeks without showering. She and her brother Shane — who was equally studious in his schoolwork — would walk 20 minutes to a public park to fetch water.

“We would get water jugs and fill them up at the park, using the spigots in the bathroom. And we would use that to flush the toilet or cook with. Stuff like that,” she says.

She confided in a staff member at school. She had trouble doing homework at nighttime because her home had no electricity and she couldn’t afford candles. It was difficult to read in the dark.

Obviously Dawn is not a startup founder, but I think about stuff like this a lot since I am going through something similar.  Do I have it as bad as Dawn?  No, for sure not.  But am I sacrificing a lot and going through hardships to see my dream come true?  Yes, for damn sure.

It’s funny, the naiveté one has when starting a company can be their best friend because if they knew how hard it would be or what it actually takes to succeed, they probably wouldn’t even start.  Especially for the one’s who aren’t cut from the same mold as others they are competing against.

The Well Worn Path Of Tech Founders

A kid grows up playing with computers and rather than playing sports, and he focused on writing the most code he possibly could rather than getting the most girls he possible could.  Other students view him as an outcast or a nerd.  He goes to college, usually Stanford or MIT or some other prestigious school and studies engineering or Computer Science.  Once he graduates he usually receives employment offers from Google, Microsoft, Facebook or other large and successful technology companies.  And now he wants to start a company.  On paper he’s a prime candidate to be successful.

Unknown to most first time founders is how much this well worn path is valued.  It’s cred.  It’s validation.  “He worked at Google so he knows how to build a company” investors, bloggers and others assume.  Money is easier to come by when you take the well worn path.  Attracting engineering talent is not as big of deal if you have the ‘generally accepted credentials’.  People just assume you and your company will be a success.

But is that really true?

Google can help an engineer polish their skills and become one of the best in the wold at their trade.  But what does Google teach an engineer about building a company?  Or Microsoft?  I’m no expert but BIG corporations are about the farthest thing from scrappy, early stage startups.

I am more impressed with successful founders who took the road less traveled.  The ones who didn’t go to Stanford.  The ones who might not have a solid network of investors and engineers right out of the gate but work like hell and take 50 coffee meetings each year just to get to know other entrepreneurs.  The ones who work 2x as hard and 2x as smart as others to get to where they are now.

I love the person who looks impossible in the eye and basically says “f-you, i’m doing it anyway!”  The person who changes paths mid-journey because he knows the one he’s on is too worn down from all the others who preceded him.

Impressive is the one who cuts his own path.

And isn’t that what an entrepreneur actually does?  They shrewdly navigate the business ecosystem to give themselves the greatest advantage possible with the least amount of resources and against all odds.  Most impressive to me are the ones who started the lowest and finished the highest.

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Entrepreneurs Can’t be Wishy-Washy

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“There are some people who just get what they want in the world. If you want to start a startup you have to be one of those people. You can’t be passive and wishy-washy,” – Paul Graham

During the second day of TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, Paul Graham sat down for a chat with Charlie Rose.  Paul Graham is the founder of Y-Combinator, a popular incubator and launch pad for early stage startups.  One interesting tidbit any entrepreneur considering Y-combinator should take note is the current acceptance rate at YC. It’s around 3%, which may be just slightly better than traditional VC fundraising.  I assume this number to get even smaller as YC gets more popular.  Also noteworthy, here’s who they look for:

… we’re not looking for people who did what they were told in life.