Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Richard Luck
This is a guest post by Richard Luck, the founder and CEO of Bluyah – a service that provides data manipulation on the cloud. You can follow him on Twitter @bluyah.
I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew. Maybe my eyes are bigger than my stomach, as the saying goes. Or maybe it has something to do with growing up in a community that was close enough to town we could be bused to the public school, but remote enough that only 4 families (including ours) were ever crazy enough to “winter over” each season. An upbringing like that teaches you to grab what you can, when you can, because you never know if the opportunity will present itself again tomorrow.
Either way, when I first heard mention of The Founder Institute it wasn’t a question of whether or not I would apply, but simply a question of how best to re-jigger my schedule so I’d have time to (a) attend the informational session held by Chris Early (@LuckyEarly) and Adeo Ressi, (b) fill out the online application before the deadline passed without (c) adversely affecting a project delivery milestone for a client, while (d) still being there to read The Sneetches and Other Stories to my boys before bed. What I would do if I was actually accepted never really entered my thoughts at the time.
Even though I was committed beforehand, the informational session held at the UW last November sealed the deal for me. If you haven’t seen Adeo Ressi speak, you’re missing something wonderful. He’s crude; he’s brash; he curses more than any sailor on shore leave – and what he says makes absolute and perfect sense. At the event he talked about his background, why he started The Founder Institute, how some of the fundamentals of the program worked, and then he proceeded to go around the room and ask random people what they were passionate about.
“Search engines,” I remember one person saying. “Better data discovery and analysis tools,” I remember thinking. “Bullshit!” Adeo replied. Passion, he said (and I’m paraphrasing liberally here) is what you should build a company around. It’s not about a product. It’s not about a feature set. It’s about waking up every morning for the next 15 to 20 years absolutely in love with what it is you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Without giving away too much of the secret sauce behind their methodology, there are basically two parts to the application process. The first part consists of basic information about yourself, your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, what type of business you intend to bring to the program, what you’re passionate about, etc. The second part consists of an hour-long SAT-type aptitude test that is meant to gauge whether or not you have the “right stuff” to be a “Founder” within the context of this program. Adeo gave everyone fair warning that they should be well-rested, eat a full meal beforehand, and be free of distractions while taking the aptitude test. In hindsight, I wish he’d warned us about the first part of the application as well. It ended up being far more challenging to me than the aptitude test.
What am I passionate about? What do I want to spend the next 15 – 20 years of my life doing?
Honestly, this single question scared the hell out of me. I mean, what if I wasn’t honest with myself and I got it wrong? What then? I’ve recently learned the lesson (the hard way, no less) with our Bluyah service that the product isn’t the company and, though the technology was extremely fun to build, on-demand data transformation as a lifestyle, as a meaningful existence, is not something I jump out of bed in the morning itching to get yet another crack at. Developing cool technology is ultimately a means to an end – but (for me, at least) it’s not the end in and of itself.
The first session for the “Founders”, as each of us are now called, met last Monday at the offices of Garvey Schubert Barer in downtown. After dinner and some brief chit-chat with other Founders, the main event began. Glen Kelman (Redfin), Dave Parker (9Spaces) and Jordan Weisman (too many companies to list) each came and spoke to us about this idea of “passion”, about finding something you love and going for it.
Some of what was shared was rote: Do what you know; Hire smart people; Prove your revenue model, etc. Some of it was surprising: “Patent is simply Chinese for Instruction Manual” – i.e.: don’t waste your time or money. And some of it was funny, like Glenn’s comment that starting a company is really an “eternal fight against lameness,”
What I was fascinated by most, though, was how the different speakers could vary so widely on topics I thought each of them would have agreed upon.
For example, Dave talked about how “Better, Faster, Cheaper” is not a sustainable competitive advantage – despite so many entrepreneurs using it in their pitch decks – and how being second (or third) to the market can actually be an advantage. Yet Glenn was adamant that “faster is better” and that this was something he keeps having to remind himself at Redfin when he gets to thinking the company needs to put a little more “polish” on a feature before it is launched. Conversely, Jordan, with such a deep and varied past in regards to starting companies, seemed to take the middle ground, instead insisting that “doing what you know” is far more important than anything else.
Afterwards three lucky Founders were selected at random to come up in front of the group and give their “pitch”, with critiques being offered by Adeo and the three guests.
I’ll spare the Founders who found themselves in the hot-seat. It was a learning experience for all us, to say the least. The take-away from this exercise was clear: You have to be prepared at any time to give your “pitch” – and more importantly, everything about your pitch — and you — must exude enthusiasm, energy and, yes, passion.
So what is my passion? What do I want to spend the next 20 years doing? After much hemming and hawing I finally had to admit to myself that it’s the same thing I wanted to do 15 years ago when I started Pif Magazine: I want to discover and publish new and exciting authors and poets. I’m sure I need more practice, but here’s my pitch:
We’re building a world-wide, digital publishing house. As Random House dominated the last century, we will dominate this century. Authors and editors will collaborate online, in real-time, speeding time to market. We’ll crowd-source the editing, promotion and sales of titles, cutting production costs and increasing royalties to authors and contributors.
Let me know what you think. Or better yet, follow what I and other Founders are saying on Twitter #fisw09.
