Thank God for Adult Garanimals.

TechStars Tributes #3: Luke Beatty

So now I realize that I’ve actually numbered these damn things.  Somebody is going to give me trouble over why I “prioritized” one over another.  Preemptively speaking, that is certainly not the case.  To the one that would have given me grief, screw you for thinking it.

Luke Beatty: TechStars Entrepreneur-in-Residence; Founder of Associated Content (Acquired by Yahoo! in 2010)

“I’m not going down the rabbit-hole with you.  We’re keeping this simple, and here’s how we’re doing it.”

So I might have a bit of a man-crush on Luke.  I can say it.  It actually has very little to do with what he’s done (which seems weird to say, since we’re all pretty much trying to do EXACTLY what he’s already done).  It has more to do with the way he looks at things, and the sheer talent he has for looking at your world the way you SHOULD be looking at your world.

One of commonalities amongst all TechStars teams is domain expertise.  Everyone here has proven on some meaningful level that they know and understand the space they are going after.  The downside of this is that we like to play in the weeds.  Our understanding of the space makes us want to focus on all the little things we know that others don’t, and that we think are the things that make us the right people to accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish.  

That can be helpful as you fine-tune your product and tailor your solution.  It can be confusing and off-putting when you’re talking about your company, pitching, and even marketing your product(s) to the masses.  

Unless you’re in “stealth mode” (ugh) and trying to NOT talk to people about your startup/idea/invention, you’ve inevitably come to the point where you realize that something you thought was going to be important and impactful turns out to be altogether disinteresting to anyone but you.  It doesn’t mean it’s not important.  It just means you don’t need to talk about it.  Not right now.  That may mean that some people in the world may never fully appreciate exactly how damn smart you are.  It’s OK; those folks never mattered to you anyway.  Trust me.

The truth is, when we’re good at what we do and passionate in the convictions that drive us, we can always communicate that we’re the ones that will change our little piece of the world for the good.  And we can be confident in letting the elevator pitch do what it is meant to do; pique the interest of those that matter.  Then they ask questions.  And you learn then about what matters.  Later on, they may go down the rabbit hole with you one-on-one; those are important conversations and matter a lot (I LIVE for those).  

Trying to introduce yourself with those conversations is just terrible.  It sucks.  Don’t do it.    

We’ve met with Luke almost every week and two or three times in some weeks.  I’ve had moments where I would be a full minute into a diarrhea-of-the-mouth, down-the-rabbit-hole diatribe when it became clear that he couldn’t give the slightest damn about what I was saying.  He’d always be at 35,000 feet, never descending below 10,000 feet and damn sure not following us into the weeds.

And then he’d spit pure gold back at us.  Sometimes it had little to do with what we were talking about; but it always had everything to do with what we should have been talking about.  It’s something magical; he can conjure and propel at you a white-hot fireball of Truth like a a hyper-animated Yoda, all while sculpting out the right spots to graft in the “F” word like he’s wielding a surgical instrument.  

Plus, it’s like the most non-challenging thing in the world for Luke to do.  Easy-peasy.  From this day forth, I’m on a Rocky-esque training montage journey to condition my brain to be half as effective as Luke at seeing the whole friggin’ thing at all times with the nonchalance of casting a fly rod.

• Pretend I’m a complete freaking idiot.  That doesn’t mean you need to explain more.  That means you need to bite off little chunks as you help me understand.  Always have something you can say completely in 30 seconds that can stand on its own and draw me closer to a complete understanding of your vision, if that’s what I choose to have.  Every interaction is an opportunity to create the desire for another interaction.  We actually wound up building out much of our Demo Day pitch in this kind of sequence, and it was remarkably effective.
• Don’t talk features.  Talk about problem and solution.  ”Here’s what sucks, and here’s how we’re fixing it.”  If someone asks questions beyond that, that’s a good thing.  Don’t automatically say to yourself at that point, “Oh, damn.  I should have explained that better.”  If it’s a “I have no clue what the hell you just said” question, then you need to tweak your talk track.  If it’s a, “That’s awesome and I want to know more” question, then you’re hitting the mark.

TechStars Tributes #2: Tim Enwall

Tim Enwall:  TechStars Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Founder at Tendril Networks, Principal at Comstock Ventures, RollSale’s designated therapist and all-around amazing guy.

“Your startup should be a family.”

Any words I can come up with to describe how impactful Tim has been to our company culture will simply come out lame.

Fact:  Starting a meaningful company is exhausting, emotional, exhilarating and sometimes terrifying.  In a startup’s infancy, this rollercoaster takes a toll on everyone.  There is a dichotomy in the passion it requires to build something meaningful, and the destruction that passion can bring to bear on your relationships if it isn’t recognized and managed before it goes to a dangerous place.

We’re a pretty healthy team; we hotly debate some things at times but I think we’re grateful that we’re all emotionally invested in the company to care enough to debate them.  We were really lucky, I think, to recognize early on how much of himself Tim was willing to give to make sure we were becoming the family we needed to become.  We have greedily taken advantage of every bit.

If you ever get the chance, I recommend you do the same.  Here’s a little taste of what you’ll learn:

• “It’s OK for reasonable people to disagree.”  Establish up front how you will disagree and how you will get past it.  Set expectations around the way decisions will be handled post-disagreement.  Don’t wait until turmoil strikes to figure out how you will handle it.  
• Create an environment and culture where people can feel comfortable being honest and sharing their ideas.
• It’s not acceptable to only get behind the ideas you agree with.  If you can’t give yourself to the company’s decisions fully, it’s time to move on.  Non-negotiable.  If you don’t trust your CEO to make GOOD decisions, and don’t love your company (family) enough to tolerate having thrown yourself behind a few BAD ones, then you’re in the wrong startup or perhaps not startup material.
• Co-founders need to stay connected and be transparent with each other.  At some point you’ll silo off into things, but always remember that you are the point at which your silos intersect.  Trust needs to be elemental to your relationship, but transparency is what keeps that trust alive.
• Toxic attitudes and people are like a cancer.  Your best chances of survival come when you treat it early, or cut it out completely.
• And last but not least:  ”Do the Work!”  Seriously, read it.

Next Up:  Luke Beatty

TechStars Tributes #1: Nicole Glaros

So, I’m not a great blogger.  I don’t share the things in my head as often as I should, particularly not in a way that can be shared and helpful to others.  

Now, I’ve got a real monkey on my back as we reach the final countdown to Demo Day, to somehow pay forward the amazing things the TechStars team and program have given to me, my co-founders, our company, and the other amazing teams here in the 2012 class that I truly love and care about; in fact, let me extend that to every TechStars alum that has been through this experience and selflessly shared their stories and experience.

Some weeks ago, we were all struggling with our elevator pitches, and it occurred to me that we all seemed to most effectively get to a succinct, dumbed-down “aha!” version of our elevator pitches by talking to others and listening to their knee-jerk responses.  Sure, a lot of them were kind of worthless: 

“So, you’re Zappos for car dealers?”

“Ummm…no.”

That’s how you know your talk track sucks.  So you get better at it, and people start giving you better knee-jerk responses.

“So, you’re LendingTree for my used car?”

“Ummm…that’s actually exactly what we are.”  Thank you, Nicole Glaros.

So, I’ve got a lot of favors to repay to a lot of folks here at TechStars that have been invaluable to us in an incredible variety of ways; and an adopted obligation to pay that help forward to others in our position.  Here’s how I’m going to start:

I’m going to come up with elevator pitches for our mentors (and a few others here), and try to sum up what I believe was their “secret sauce” for us (or at least me) in the form of their elevator pitch.  There is no possible way to sum up their entire value in such a way, because they are all crazy smart in a depth of disciplines, but I hope to maybe help some other entrepreneur with one of these every once in a while.

Since we’ve already mentioned Nicole here, I’ll start with her:

Nicole Glaros, Managing Director at TechStars Boulder:

“I will not let you waste my time, and you better f*cking not be wasting yours.”

Nicole is the single most badass person I know.  Seriously.  She is the Chuck Norris of mentorship.  Take your flaky ideas in her office and her kung fu will leave them lying in a broken pile like so many poorly equipped evil henchmen.  If you can’t see the value in that, you’re in trouble as an entrepreneur.

Honestly, you’re going to waste her time.  Everyone does, and probably more often than not.  She knows that, although she won’t say as much.  But the honesty and passion she puts behind her feedback is probably the most effective form of love that can be expressed in the mentor/mentee relationship; and it drives you to bring her meaningful results and/or learnings. 

Intimidating?  Maybe a little for some.  But for the ones that matter, you quickly learn a few things:

• -  Have data or a plan for getting it.
• -  Know your metrics.
• -  Don’t f*cking stop learning from what you are doing, ever.  Unforgivable.  If you aren’t getting data or somehow getting smarter about what you are doing every day, she will crush you.  And you deserve to be crushed.

Next up:  Tim Enwall