Closing A Chapter
After almost five years as Managing Director of Founder Institute New York, I will be moving on to my next adventure. I first became involved with Founder Institute back in 2012 as a founder in the program, before signing on as Director of the New York program in 2015. I am very proud of the growth Founder Institute has had over that period of time, both on a global level, and across New York.
Queue the music! It’s time to turn and face the strange. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.
After almost five years as Managing Director of Founder Institute New York, I will be moving on to my next adventure. I first became involved with Founder Institute back in 2012 as a founder in the program, before signing on as Director the New York program in 2015. I am very proud of the growth Founder Institute has had over that period of time, both on a global level, and across New York.
On a global level we have scaled Founder Institute to almost 200 cities around the world and I have been very fortunate to meet amazing founders, mentors, and ecosystem leaders from every corner of the planet. Last year we managed to bring Founder Institute back to my hometown of Buffalo as well, a feat which I am immensely proud of.
In New York in particular, I feel fortunate to have worked directly with over 150 founders as they launched their companies. Watching a person manifest something out of nothing, based on purely will, has always been a fascinating & rewarding process for me. It has been an amazing experience to get in the trenches and help with the day to day problem-solving founders have to face. Digging in on team formation, branding, customer development, revenue models, legal, go-to-market, product development, scaling growth, fundraising and more. I loved every minute of it and can not wait to see how these founders evolve alongside their companies.
These past few years would not have been possible without some of the amazing people around me, especially those who went to bat for me when I was starting out, to allow me this incredible experience. Many of whom I have previously featured on this blog and my podcast. You know who you are, and I just want to say thank you! And of course, a massive thank you to the founders and global team at Founder Institute who I had the amazing experience to work with. Rest assured, I am not going anywhere though! You all know how to reach me.
My personal mission is to “Help founders improve the lives of one billion people” and I have no intention of stopping now!
I have some very exciting announcements coming shortly regarding my next chapter!
Having Our New York City Baby During COVID-19
When Colleen got pregnant nine months ago, we had no idea the rollercoaster we would be in for.
IT’S A GIRL!
Siena Rae Siskar was born on Wednesday, April 8th in New York City! You can find all the cute baby photos here and here!
When Colleen got pregnant nine months ago, we had no idea the rollercoaster we would be in for. The week before Siena was born, hospitals were not even allowing birth partners into the building. Luckily, Governor Cuomo signed an executive order to reverse that decision, so no women would have to labor alone. We were both incredibly relieved to know we could be together for the birth of our first child.
As part of the new policy, New York City hospitals began testing all women entering labor and delivery for COVID-19 upon arrival. We arrived at the hospital around 6:00 am. Colleen was tested via a nasal swab and I had my temperature taken. While we waited for the results, she was admitted and the rest of the morning was fairly smooth for both of us.
Then around 1:00pm, Colleen’s COVID test unfortunately came back positive, even though she was asymptomatic. I asked if I could then be tested but due to a nation wide shortage of tests, the hospital is not testing any spouses. Instead per hospital policy, they just assume that because I'm living with their patient, it means I have been exposed. As a result, I was asked to leave the hospital at that time and Colleen would have to deliver on her own. Saying goodbye and leaving was not easy emotionally, to say the least. I left the hospital in lower manhattan and took a lonely walk back home to process what had just happened, over an eerily empty Brooklyn Bridge.
I called our parents to tell them the news. Then I was FaceTimed in for the rest of the day from home. Fortunately, the hospital did allow a replacement partner as part of the Governors Executive order. A person who had not been in contact with Colleen for 14 days. Luckily Colleen’s childhood friend Talitha stepped up in very last minute and was allowed to take my place. It meant the world to both of us that Colleen wouldn’t have to deliver alone!
A few hours later I watched over a Zoom call from my laptop at home as Siena Rae was born just before midnight! We had kept the gender a surprise for the whole pregnancy and we were so excited to find out our baby was a girl!
Looking back on it, I think Colleen and I had very mild cases of COVID-19 in the middle of March. Around that time we both lost our sense of taste and smell and developed a dry cough out of nowhere. We also had a few other friends in New York City who had very mild symptoms as well. However, due to the lack of accessible testing, there was no way to know for sure at the time.
So while Colleen tested positive in the hospital the doctors are confident she was already over it, and that is why she was asymptomatic. Siena was tested for the next 2 weeks by her pediatrician and has stayed negative, which is a massive relief. Per doctors orders, we had been wearing masks at home for those first few weeks to ensure her protection.
So I missed being in person for the birth and it was an incredibly stressful day. But looking back in hindsight, I am just grateful that everyone is home and healthy now. I am confident we did what was right to protect Colleen, the baby, and the amazing hospital workers.
Looking forward there is a lot of research regarding mothers passing on antibodies to babies through breast milk. We might even join a Mt. Sinai research study to help further the research being done in this space. Our doctors hope is that Colleen will pass the antibodies to Siena and she will be protected. 🙏🏻
Presently, happy to report that everyone is healthy and we are so excited to be spending time together at home as a new family!
My wife Colleen has also published her side of the story here, which I obviously recommend reading.
The Future Is Here, And It’s Now Being Evenly Distributed
If you work in tech you have probably heard this quote over the years: “The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.” William Gibson - August 1993
The Oculus, New York City
If you work in tech you have probably heard this quote over the years:
“The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.”
William Gibson - August 1993
Having lived in New York City for most of the past decade, I have often felt like New Yorkers live in the future compared to others around the country. Fast-casual salad restaurants, seamless, electric bike shares, uber, revel, spectacles, ramen burgers, cronuts, the void VR, capsule, etc, all existed in New York City (and to be fair other tier-1 cities) before making their way out into the smaller cities, then the suburbs, and finally the rural parts of America. Normally the process of “innovation sprawl” can take years.
In the very short amount of time we have all been in this global COVID-19 pandemic, technological innovation has been sprawling faster than ever. Everyone everywhere is being forced into the future. Using and adjusting to future technology to help cope in their own ways with the virus.
Learning for Pre-K through College has moved online, those younger students who didn’t have access to a computer at home, are now getting iPads. Education departments are also working to finally solve the issue of internet access for those students who lacked access to adequate internet (about 29% of households across NYC).
Traditionally online courses are seeing an increase as well. Two years ago I taught a course on Skillshare called Productivity Today. Normally January is the most-watched month of the year for all the courses on the platform, due to the increase in new year’s resolutions. But recently, with everyone working from home, March and April’s view times are beating the record high’s of January’s past.
While most young urban professionals (yuppies as the boomers call us) used to be the core customers of food delivery apps like Seamless, Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc. Now everyone, at every age, is using them. And every restaurant that wants to stay alive has been onboarded to deliver through them, greatly increasing the supply side of these marketplaces.
The same goes for grocery delivery apps like Instacart, Amazon Prime, and local grocery chains that have white-labeled their own solutions, such as Wegmans (which is actually powered by Instacart on the backend).
“This level of online shopping was, at best, forecast to occur five years from now,” says David Bishop, a partner at grocery research consultancy Brick Meets Click. “The demand has overwhelmed the capacity of the retailers.” In 2019, Bishop reports that 6.3% of grocery-related spending was through online orders, bringing in around $29 billion in U.S. orders alone. That’s a lot of green, but it’s a fraction of the $650 billion industry. “Shopping online costs more for the retailer, and was a low priority for grocery stores,” Bishop says. “They offered it as an add-on, not a core part of their business.”
Everything flipped this March. With shelter-in-place orders across the country, online groceries are now a hot commodity. About 40% of orders come from first-time shoppers, according to Gordon Hasket Research.
- Excerpt from The Real Reason It’s So Hard to Order Groceries Online Right Now
When I don’t order online and I do really need to get something from a physical retail location, I have been using contactless Apple Pay almost every time. In the times of social distancing, no cashier wants to touch a card or money I hand them and contactless payments have also flipped to become the norm.
You have probably downloaded Zoom recently, which has exploded massively in growth.
Along with FaceTime, Houseparty, and the up & coming Clubhouse which are bringing how we “hang out” with friends and family into the future.
Slack, which is enabling companies to communicate with their employee’s during remote working from home has also seen explosive growth. From Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack:
In lieu of expensive gym memberships, at-home workouts are taking off with Fitbod, Obe Fitness, and Peloton. And most fitness instructors are replacing their employer/gym by building a direct to consumer relationship, and teaching classes over Zoom or Instagram.
I’m not going to even touch on the changes happening in healthcare, because that could be its own post in and of itself.
We were headed toward a future at the end of 2019. A future that was likely inevitable but still 5-10 years away.
Now in 2020, this coronavirus is global and it’s accelerating the support for new technologies all around the entire world, all at once. The future is now being more evenly distributed than ever before. And when that happens, this fast, you not only arrive at the expected future sooner than later, but you pave a new foundation. Allowing the “next wave” of technology to build on top.
Tomorrowland
Join The Bandwagon With Harold Hughes
Imagine being on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind, then months later, your idea is now being distributed in Walmart’s around the world! Today’s guest, Alexis Beechen was enjoying her time partyin’ and thought, putting wine in a can would be much easier to casually drink.
Harold Hughes I Founder of Bandwagon
Our next guest on the show, is the amazing Harold Hughes. He is the founder of Bandwagon, which helps companies discover the identity of their fans in order to increase attendance, offer personalized services, and increase revenue.
Growing up, Harold made his first dollar selling AirHeads for cheaper than the school sold them at their cafeteria until he got caught! He went to Clemson University where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics, before going back for his Masters's degree later. It was then, while he was taking his strategic management course that he realized it was a lot like being a fan at a sports event.
Harold loved playing sports when he grew up, and he loved that it didn’t matter your families financial status was or where you lived, you just loved to play the game. That is where Bandwagon all started. Now Harold has expanded Bandwagon from just preventing ticket fraud for fans, too also being a fan identity and data analytics company. Tune in to hear more about Harold’s story and experiences going through the ups and downs of being a CEO.
Quote of the Episode:
“Service to others is the rent for your time on earth”
Gauntlet:
Listen in for Harold’s amazing tips from his experience growing his business:
Branding/Design
Go-to-Market
Product Development
Hiring
Revenue and Accounting
Fundraising
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Alexis Beechen Drops Some Knowledge From Building Her Wine Empire
Imagine being on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind, then months later, your idea is now being distributed in Walmart’s around the world! Today’s guest, Alexis Beechen was enjoying her time partyin’ and thought, putting wine in a can would be much easier to casually drink.
You are on a cruise with friends and a good business idea comes to mind. Fast forward a few years later and your idea is now very much real and being distributed in Walmart’s around the world!
Alexis Beechen I Founder of The Drop
That’s what happened to today’s guest, Alexis Beechen. She put wine in a can making it much easier to casually drink and enjoy. Alexis and her team created The Drop, which is now at concert venues, small wine stores, and as of late last year, in Walmart’s all around.
An entrepreneur by heart, Alexis made her first dollar selling her mom’s gently used clothes when she could barely drive. Her dad, an entrepreneur himself, had his own legal firm, and her mom was the first person that talked to her about branding yourself and establishing trust with people. Alexis went to Georgetown for Marketing and eventually landed a job with Havas where she maintained Dos Equis account while helping to create the Most Interesting Man in the World. Although she loved her job with Havas, she decided to go back to Columbia for business school. During her schooling is when The Drop was born. Today, she is working on another business that she is passionate about, Hunterz.io which helps startups with connections they need to grow their business. Listen in to hear more in-depth about Alexis’ awesome story!
Quote of the Episode:
“You can only make as much money as the hours you build”
Gauntlet:
Listen in for the best tips, tricks, and tools that Alexis used growing her business:
Branding/Design - Fiverr
Go-to-Market – Hunterz.io
Product Development – feedback from customers
Hiring - LinkedIn
Revenue and Accounting - QuickBooks
Fundraising - Carta
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Automating Indoor Agriculture with Dan Nelson's Grow Computer
Packing for a nice relaxing vacation, you look around, and realize, you have these beautiful plants that you have worked so hard in growing, and you wonder, are they going to be thriving when you get home?
Dan Nelson I Founder of Grow Computer
Packing for a nice relaxing vacation, you look around, and realize, you have these beautiful plants that you have worked so hard in growing, and you wonder, are they going to be thriving when you get home? Our amazing guest today, Dan Nelson thought just that as he prepared for his honeymoon a few years back. There has to be a better way than having dead plants when you get back from vacation! This is the event that gave him a new chapter in life. After countless hours of studying under his belt, he helped create Grow Computer as it is today!
Dan didn’t always have the ambition to help automate agriculture, he grew up in Long Island where his father and grandfather instilled his great work ethic in him. He would help with the latest house project by wheelbarrowing supplies to them when needed. He had great hardworking role models and followed in their footsteps. Nelson graduated with a Masters Degree in accounting and an undergraduate in Economics at the University of Michigan. Before Grow Computer, he had many jobs, with one of his favorites being a virtual CFO because he has always loved helping people build better businesses. He even created a tool called Start of Economics 101. Tune in to this episode to hear more about Dan and his tips and experience in building his own company.
Quote of the Episode:
“If it [computer system] doesn’t talk to each other, it adds layers, complexity, transaction costs and stress and hassle, and reduces the efficiency in any business”
Gauntlet:
Listen in for the tips, tricks, and tools that Dan shares with us!
Branding/Design
Go-to-Market
Product Development
Hiring
Revenue and Accounting
Fundraising
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Taylor Jacobson Shares How Focusmate's Virtual Coworking Creates Distraction-Free Productivity
Welcome to Season 3 of Ambition Today! My guest today is Taylor Jacobson. He is the founder of Focusmate, the app that helps you focus and in return be more productive. In this episode, we discuss with Taylor what in his personal life lead him to the idea of needing a solution like Focusmate, as well as his personal take on a lot of procrastination issues.
Taylor Jacobson I CEO of Focusmate
After a summer break, we are back with a brand new season of Ambition Today!
Season 3 brings with it some fresh new changes to the podcast, coming to you from our brand new podcast studio in the heart of New York City!
We have some exciting guests coming up and I can’t wait to share all of the great conversations & new questions with you! I hope you enjoy Season 3, now on to the episode!
Who struggles with procrastination? Did you know that studies show up to 95% of people struggle with procrastination!
My guest today is Taylor Jacobson. He is the founder of Focusmate, the app that helps you focus and in return be more productive. In this episode, we discuss with Taylor what in his personal life lead him to the idea of needing a solution like Focusmate, as well as his personal take on a lot of procrastination issues.
As Taylor developed Focusmate, he found three major aspects of being more productive. One, you perform better when you need to complete a task in the presence of someone else. Two, if you commit to another person that you are going to do something, it is highly likely that you will complete it. And three, you are likely to increase productivity if you reflect on your work afterward. You know that you are going to have to review the job that you did, so in the moment of work, your actual focus becomes stronger. Focusmate is now helping thousands of people with all of these aspects! Tune in to hear more about Taylor and his company, Focusmate!
Quote of the Episode:
“These are the people {Co-workers} that have my back to grow into my best self”
Gauntlet:
This is a new section of my podcast for season 3, where I will ask my guest a tip or tool that they recommend for their business in each of the following categories. Listen in to hear Taylor’s answers:
Branding/Design
Go-to-Market
Product Development
Hiring
Revenue and Accounting
Fundraising
The Greatest Piece of Advice:
Join the podcast’s backchannel, The A-List where members can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips and get the single greatest piece of advice our guests have ever learned!
Links & show notes from this episode:
Ambition Today Is Proudly Independent & Supported By:
Equity Token - Helping early stage companies raise capital faster. Set up your company and fundraising deal once to build your company’s deal room. Then share it anywhere. Let Equity Token take care of the rest.
Audible - Visit www.audibletrial.com/AmbitionToday to download and keep any audiobook for free. Download your free book now!
The A-List - Join the podcast’s backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice each guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Listen to Ambition Today now:
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going! 🤗
Crafting A Killer Startup Story For Your Fundraising Pitch
Your company narrative is hiding inside the walls of your company’s brain, it’s a matter of drawing it out. Now let’s outline the steps and process, including all of the specific techniques used to arrive at your company’s killer narrative.
Co-Authored with Ryan F. Salerno, Technical Co-Founder at Equity Token.
Earlier this year, in response to the question “What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company?”, Justin Kan, the Founder of Twitch & Atrium, responded with the following:
“Mistake 1: Underestimating the importance of narrative when fundraising:
I firmly believe that investors invest in (and employees join, and journalists write about) compelling stories, and your pitch deck is really just a vehicle for telling the story you want to tell. So, start first with the narrative and build the deck after you have it nailed.”
Finding Your Killer Company Narrative:
You need a killer company narrative for your startup pitch. Wether you are telling your family about your company or speaking with investors while fundraising, how you communicate your company’s narrative matters.
From a pure story perspective, how do you do that? Let’s quickly introduce two frameworks we will be using.
Framework 1: Story of Stories
With this question in mind, I was recently reading a series of new posts called The Story of Us from one of my favorite authors, Tim Urban. In it, he breaks down the specific characteristics required for a normal story to become a story virus. Those characteristics are:
Simplicity
Unfalsifiability
Conviction
Contagiousness
Accountability
Comprehensiveness
Framework 2: Startup Focus
Jonathan Greechan, Co-founder of the Founder Institute, has a presentation on Startup Focus. According to Jon, your startup must do the following:
To arrive at your killer company narrative, you need a startup story that is simple and unfalsifiable, while also fitting the “Solve One Problem for One Customer” framework.
Here’s an example company narrative if Stripe were to go through this exercise.
Securely collecting credit and debit card payments is hard for developers. With the Stripe Checkout Product, developers can embed a payment form that costs $0.30 per transaction.
Your narrative is hiding inside the walls of your company’s brain, it’s a matter of drawing it out. Now let’s outline the steps, including all of the specific techniques used to arrive at a killer company narrative.
Step 1 - Prepare:
Over the course of a few days start brain dumping any and all talking points you currently associate with your company into your notepad.
Schedule a “Narrative Day” with your whole team. Find a conference room and book a day on the calendar with no other meetings, so you can focus on this project.
Buy the following supplies before the meeting and be sure to bring them with you:
Post-it Super Sticky Wall Easel Pad, 20 x 23 Inches ($30 on Amazon)
Different Color Sticky Post It Notes ($6 on Amazon)
Color Coding Stickers ($5 on Amazon)
Markers
As I mentioned above this process was inspired by Tim Urban’s “Story of Stories” framework. I highly recommend having your team read this post in advance of your company’s narrative revision meeting.
Step 2 - Brainstorm:
Stick up five sheets of the sticky wall easel pads around the room. Going left to right label each of them as follows:
Original Company Vision
Current Narratives
Goals For New The Narrative
New Potential Narratives
Target Customers
Hand out the sticky post-it notes to your team. If you want, you can give each person their own color so you can later easily see who contributed what ideas.
Start with the first board “Original Vision” by having each person on your team write down a sentence (small enough to fit on a sticky note) that describes your company’s original vision. Originally, when your company was an idea over beers, what was the initial pie in the sky dream for the vision?
Each person should write as many as they can think of in a few minutes. After time is up, everyone puts up their stickies on the wall and someone reads them out loud.
Step 3 - Vote & Sort:
Next, use the dot sorting technique. Give each person on the team a bunch of the green and red dot shaped stickers. It is now time to upvote and downvote the Original Vision board to determine which company narratives are resonating with your audience / customers.
Each person should place a green sticker on the ideas they want to upvote as resonating with your audience / customers.
Each person should place a red sticker on the ideas they want to downvote as resonating with your audience / customers.
Now rearrange the post it notes so the ideas with the most upvotes are on top, and the idea’s with the most downvotes are on the bottom!
You now have a clear and glanceable look at what is working and what is not with regard to your original vision for the company.
Step 4 - Repeat For Each Section:
Repeat this process for the remaining boards. Letting every team member contribute ideas and then helping to vote them up/down.
Current Company Narratives
What does the website say right now? If you asked someone else to describe your company back to you, what would they say? Write down an honest depiction of the current narrative.
Goals For New The Narrative
What do you want to achieve, given this new narrative? Hiring more employees? Signing up more customers? Getting more revenue? Getting more funding? A better brand? Whatever it is, write out all the goals.
New Potential Narratives
Brainstorm as many new potential narratives as you can think of. At this point there are still no wrong answers, so don’t filter yourself. Let the ideas flow and allow the dot voting take care of bringing the strong ideas to the top.
Target Customers
Who are going to be your initial target customers? Get as specific as possible. E.g. Startup founders running companies from Seed to Series A.
With the completion of each board, you will see a pattern start to emerge. Granting you a more focused and evolving clarity into how you need to structure your communications going forward.
Step 5 - Forcing Focus:
Remember those frameworks we introduced above. We are now going to apply them as filters to the narratives we just defined.
Sharing two more slides from Founder Institute Co-founder Jonathan Greechan’s presentation around focus for startups:
Put another sheet of the sticky wall easel pad on the wall and add the following to it, with room to write in answers under each:
One Problem
One Customer
One Product
One Killer Feature
One Revenue Stream
This template may seem obvious at first but as any founder can attest; the large magnitude of possible product features you can build, conflicting feedback, and more can sometimes feel burdensome. No body wants a bloated startup pitch. This structure is going to help you focus in on your specific startup’s niche.
Step 6 - The Story of Stories:
In Step 5 you defined your Focus, and now in Step 6, make sure your focus fits all of the criteria of being a killer company narrative.
This is where we come back to the Story of Stories. In the post Tim defines few necessary characteristics of a viable story virus:
Simplicity. The story has to be easily teachable and easily understandable.
Unfalsifiability. The story can’t be easy to disprove.
Conviction. For a story to take hold, its hosts can’t be wondering or hypothesizing or vaguely believing—the story needs to be specific and to posit itself as the absolute truth.
Contagiousness. Next, the story needs to spread. To be spreadable, a story needs to be contagious—something people feel deeply compelled to share and that applies equally to many people.
The story, once believed, needs to be able to drive the behavior of its host. So it should include:
Incentives. Promises of treats for behaving the right way, promises of electroshocks for behaving the wrong way.
Accountability. The claim that your behavior will be known by the arbiter of the incentives—even, in some cases, where no one is around to see it.
Comprehensiveness. The story can dictate what’s true and false, virtuous and immoral, valuable and worthless, important and irrelevant, covering the full spectrum of human belief.
Some great examples of strong story virus include Santa Claus and Catholicism. It is important you have an understanding around these characteristics as we are going to apply them as filters in the next step.
I recommend writing these characteristics down on another sticky wall easel pad so everyone in the room can clearly see the criteria that needs to be met.
Step 7 - Fill In The Blanks:
So we know have all of the following information at our disposal:
Original Company Vision
A understanding of what our company set out to do in the first place.
Current Narratives
What is currently working and not working.
Goals For New The Narrative
How we want to improve the company’s narrative pitch.
New Potential Narratives
The best candidates for our startups’ new story.
Target Customers
Defined segment of target customers.
Knowledge around what makes a good story in the first place
A solid template to force focus.
The next step is to fill in the blanks on the Problem, Customer , Product, Killer Feature, Revenue Stream template board.
The key here is to keep your answers for each to only a few carefully chosen words and to ONLY fill in the blanks with words that meet all of the requirements of the story virus.
String each of the answers together to form one sentence! Just like that Stripe example above.
Securely collecting credit and debit card payments is hard (PROBLEM) for developers (CUSTOMER). With the Stripe Checkout Product (PRODUCT), developers can embed a payment form (KILLER FEATURE) that costs $0.30 per transaction (REVENUE MODEL).
You now have your company’s new narrative!
Step 8 - Go Spread The Gospel
Start pitching your new startup story and see if it is resonating better than before. This process can help immensely when your company is fundraising. If you are like any of the companies I have seen use this process so far, then you should immediately start to see the benefits from this one day team exercise. Remember:
“Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Other Founder Guides you might find helpful:
More on Tim Urban:
You may know Tim Urban from his famous TED Talk “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator”. On his website, Wait But Why, his articles tend to break down complex topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Religion, E-mail, Marriage, and so much more, to very simple explanations. So when Tim didn’t publish anything new for 3 years, many readers wondered what he was possibly working on. The answer was a new series of posts titled “The Story of Us”. If you have read and loved Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, then I recommend you check out The Story of Us: Full Series!
The Venture Capital Fundraising Landscape
As we close out one decade and enter another it is worth reflecting on what has changed in the last ten plus years of the Venture Capital industry. Pear.Vc recently published a wonderfully insightful deck, the Seed Financing Landscape, on just that and I thought it was worth sharing. The Venture Capital & Angel Investment landscape keeps moving upstream.
As we close out one decade and enter another it is worth reflecting on what has changed in the last ten plus years of the Venture Capital industry. Pear.Vc recently published a wonderfully insightful deck, the Seed Financing Landscape, on just that and I thought it was worth sharing.
The Venture Capital & Angel Investment landscape keeps moving upstream. This is something that has caused serious confusion for founders in the last few years, with new names and terms being invented for those who enter the earlier stage of the market. While there were zero Seed Funds in 2003, there are now over eight hundred in 2019. And now we are seeing the rise of “Pre-Seed”, occurring as a new stage right before Seed.
Pear’s “Navigating The New Seed Landscape” presentation is packed with tons of insights around Venture Capital's Evolution. Check it out for yourself below.
Navigating The New Seed Landscape
If you are currently fundraising be sure to check out my new favorite software to automate the fundraising process! Feel free to reach out to me if you would like an invite for priority early access.
Founder Institute New York Twenty
On October 2nd, five new companies and six founders graduated from Founder Institute New York as the 20th cohort in New York City! The companies in this cohort represented several industries including augmented reality, healthcare, real estate, financial technology, and more. A noteworthy mention for this cohort is that graduates are 83%, female founders!
Founder Institute New York 20
On October 2nd, five new companies and six founders graduated from Founder Institute New York as the 20th cohort in New York City! We held the event at the wonderful Stand Up NY club on the Upper West Side of Manhattan! The companies in this cohort represented several industries including augmented reality, healthcare, real estate, financial technology, and more.
A noteworthy mention for this cohort is that graduates are 83%, female founders! I want to thank the New York founders of FI NY 20 and I am excited to keep working together and you go forward building your company.
I want to thank the New York Mentors and the Founder Institute team for all the hard work and time put into helping the founders of FI NY 20.
Founder Institute New York 20
MRX World - Restoring ancient monuments to their full magnificence through AR.
Patient Orator - Improving healthcare delivery while eliminating inequities.
Rizep - An AI-powered analyzing platform for residential real estate investors.
SavTax - Taxes automated in a powerful new way.
Tripographers - Access trustworthy travel itineraries and recommendations.
How To File 83(b) Election With The IRS
I will keep it short on why you might want to file a 83(b) Election with the IRS and focus more on how to file it, since that is likely why you are reading this. This article from Cooley Law does a pretty good job explaining in much greater detail why making an 83(b) Election with the IRS can be beneficial, as well as this explanation from Wealthfront. Now on to the how to file your 83(b) election instructions.
In the last five years I have helped almost 150 founders through the incorporation process. Time and time again I keep seeing one step of that process, create mass confusion for founders and early employees. Filing the 83(b) Election with the IRS within 30 days of receiving a stock grant or stock options.
I will keep it short on why you might want to file a 83(b) Election with the IRS and focus more on how to file it, since that is likely why you are reading this. This article from Cooley Law does a pretty good job explaining in much greater detail why making an 83(b) Election with the IRS can be beneficial, as well as this explanation from Wealthfront.
In short, an 83(b) election means you will be taxed on the value of your stock at the time of the grant, rather than as it vests. For founders & early employee’s of new company’s, whose stock is usually priced at $0.0001 per share at incorporation, it can make a lot of logical sense to pay upfront tax while the price of the company is still very low. Now on to the how to file your 83(b) election instructions.
IMPORTANT 83(b) Election Deadline: You must file your 83(b) Election with the IRS within 30 days of receiving your stock grant or stock options! The filing is officially deemed to have been made on the date the 83(b) is mailed from the post office; i.e. the postmark date.
If your stock is not subject to vesting, then you can ignore this process and move on with your day. 83(b) Elections are not required for those without a vesting schedule.
Steps To File Your 83(b) Election
Start with gathering the required 83(b) form documents:
If your lawyer has provided you with 83(b) election forms you may use those. If not, then print four copies of page 9 from the 83(b) Election IRS form here.
You also need to include a cover letter to the IRS, a template of which can be found here: IRS Cover Letter Template.
Complete and review all four copies of the 83(b) election form, review, date, manually sign and insert the taxpayer identification number for the taxpayer (and spouse, if applicable).
Look up where to send the completed forms by finding your state on the "Where to File Paper Tax Returns With or Without a Payment” page of the IRS website.
Enclose the following in an envelope to be mailed:
Two copies of your completed 83(b) election.
Completed cover letter.
A return self addressed envelope with stamps. The IRS will keep the first copy of your election and stamp the second copy. The self addressed envelope will be used to mail back to you the second stamped copy of your election, so you can keep it on file in your records.
Mail the enclosed envelope with 2 completed copies of your 83(b) election & cover letter to the IRS via USPS certified mail and request a return receipt.
Send another completed 83(b) election to your company.
Keep another completed 83(b) election for your personal records.
Thats it! Be on the lookout in the mail to receive that second stamped copy back from the IRS. And as always, be sure to keep your records someplace safe like a fireproof lock box.
Other Founder Guides you might find helpful:
Disclaimer: I offer this post only as helpful guidance as I am not a lawyer or certified accountant. You should still research on your own and consult your accountant or lawyer if you are uncertain of the process.
Deepfake Technology
Over the weekend I saw one of the best Deepfakes of my life. If you don’t know, the deepfake definition is when you combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network. The phrase "deepfake" was coined in 2017. This is what I saw on Twitter on Friday and it blew my mind.
Over the weekend I saw one of the best Deepfakes of my life.
If you don’t know, the deepfake definition is when you combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network. The phrase "deepfake" was coined in 2017.
This is what I saw on Twitter on Friday and it blew my mind:
Know I have know about deepfakes for awhile, but to be honest they are not normally that great. Last year I watched as Jordan Peele put words in Barack Obama’s mouth. But on Friday, what I saw was not just someone’s lips and vocals being altered. It was one of the first times my eyes actually deceived me. Deepfake technology is progressing really fast and I was intrigued by that Twitter thread. So I started to find some more deepfake examples:
This obviously works well with Bill Hader as he is an expert impressionist. Here he is again, this time deepfaking as Arnold Schwarzenegger brought to you by Youtuber, Ctrl Shift Face:
Here is Jim Carrey deepfaking in The Shining:
And here is a young Sylvester Stallone deepfaking the role of Terminator:
2O21: A SPACEX ODYSSEY with Elon Musk is also another fun DeepFake of Stanley Kubricks masterpiece; 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this scene, Elon Musk gets in a fight with the infamous A.I. supercomputer, Hal.
There is a longer conversation to be had around the long term implications of this technology and how we ensure it is used responsibly.
You can find more of these deep fake example videos here. It actually turns out that the deepfake technology to do this has been open sourced on GitHub. So if you are interested in learning how to use deepfake AI yourself, you can view this deepfake github project and give it a shot.
Being Creative
Being creative is hard. It’s a lot like frequently going to the gym. When your consistently going, it’s easier to keep going. But when you fall out of it, it’s like climbing a mountain uphill to get back in your creative flow.
Being creative is hard. It’s a lot like frequently going to the gym. When your consistently going, it’s easier to keep going. But when you fall out of it, it’s like climbing a mountain uphill to get back in your creative flow.
I read this quote from Seth Godin recently and thought it captured this perfect:
“Habits are much easier to maintain than commitments.
I’m pretty sure that the blog would still have an impact if I missed a day here or there, but once a commitment is made to a streak, the question shifts from, “should I blog tomorrow,” to, “what will tomorrow’s blog say?”
I agree with this wholeheartedly. Instead of a few long form posts (which was a goal of mine, back in January), I am going to start doing short quick posts. Which is more how I used to write when I started this blog anyway.
Everyone has a different creative process. For me personally I think I have learned it is more important to exercise my “creative muscle” consistently, in order to keep the creative ideas flowing mentally. As opposed to spending weeks perfecting a long form post which in my eyes will never actually be perfect enough to press publish. You live and you learn.
If You Could Automate One Thing In Your Business?
I started to wonder if it was possible to take a pulse of where the biggest difficulties still exist for startups in 2019 and came up with this little experiment I would love for you to participate in. I want to know your answer to one question. If you could wave a magic wand and automate one thing in your business, what would it be?
Building a company is hard, and honestly that can be a great thing! It is the very reason why you will be able to build something that numerous other people will simply give up on out of difficulty. That being said, the amount of tools and resources available to startup teams has grown dramatically over the past decade. Much of what used to be hard manual work, can now be automated.
So I started to wonder if it was possible to take a pulse of where the biggest difficulties still exist for startups in 2019 and came up with this little experiment I would love for you to participate in.
I want to know your answer to one question:
If you could wave a magic wand and automate one thing in your business, what would it be?
It’s up to you if you want to answer anonymously or not. And completing this questionnaire should take no longer than one minute. If you are interested in the results, simply let me know when asked below and I will be sure to share them with you!
The Inaugural Founder Institute Buffalo Cohort
I am very excited to say that we have graduated the Inaugural Founder Institute Buffalo cohort on July 18th. Nine new companies and founders graduated from Founder Institute Buffalo from our Spring cohort. The companies represented several industries ranging from fashion, to electric vehicles, to daycare and more.
Founder Institute Buffalo
I am very excited to say that we have graduated the Inaugural Founder Institute Buffalo cohort on July 18th. Nine new companies and founders graduated from Founder Institute Buffalo from our Spring cohort. The companies represented several industries ranging from fashion, to electric vehicles, to daycare and more.
I want to thank the Buffalo Mentors and the Founder Institute team for all the hard work and time put into helping the founders of FI Buffalo 2019. As well as the rest of the amazing local director team; Scott Wayman, Lauren Baynes, & Cody Semrau! I want to also thank the founders of FI Buffalo 2019 and I am very excited to continue supporting them on their journey.
Founder Institute Buffalo 2019
Bands To Watch - Fan engagement platform for venues and artists.
Eco-Carriage - Providing alternative fueling, sourced from zero-emission energy resources.
FashInPost - Realtime fashion feedback.
Inacquis - Attract and screen the next generation of talent.
Kubed Root - Indoor co-farming.
Lint - Modern wash and fold.
Reiner United - Unique online storefronts.
SmartPlay Playcare - A new kind of day care solution.
Third Estate Analytics - Driving neighborhood change with data.
Founder Institute New York Nineteen
On May 28th, five new companies and seven founders graduated from Founder Institute New York as the 19th cohort. The companies represented several industries including real estate, financial planning, music therapy and more.
Founder Institute New York 19
On May 28th, five new companies and seven founders graduated from Founder Institute New York as the 19th cohort. The companies represented several industries including real estate, financial planning, music therapy and more.
I want to thank the New York Mentors and the Founder Institute team for all the hard work and time put into helping the founders of FI NY 19. I want to also thank the New York founders of FI NY 19 and I am excited to continue supporting their journey.
Founder Institute New York 19
Knowledge to Own - Individually matching home buyers with home buying programs.
MoneyStack - Modern financial planning app for couples.
NestIQa - Helping landlords and tenants through the entire rental process.
Ownum - A unique IOT solution for monitoring consumption of medication containers.
StarTag - Changing people's lives through music.
Bryan Janeczko Is Helping Entrepreneurs Gro
Bryan Janeczko has a colorful portfolio of businesses including: NuKitchen, a food preparation service that helped people eat healthier, which was later sold to Nutrisystem. Gro Academy, an on-demand startup academy, Loeb, a new-approach to launching startups. Now, his latest venture that is currently in the seeding stage is Nunbelievable Foods, a baked goods company that turns their profits into feeding the homeless. Bryan was also recently named Top 23 LGBTQ people in Tech.
Bryan Janeczko
Bryan Janeczko was recently named one of the Top 23 LGBTQ people in Tech, along side other notable figures such as Tim Cook, Peter Thiel, and more. He has built a strong track record for building great businesses including: NuKitchen, a food preparation service that helped people eat healthier. NuKitchen was later sold to Nutrisystem and pioneered the market long before Blue Apron or Plated even existed.
Now Bryan is the Founder of Gro, an on-demand startup academy. As part of the Loeb.NYC family, a venture studio in the heart of New York City, Bryan is helping founders at all stages. In a new partnership between Tony Robbins and Loeb, they have also launched Nunbelievable Foods, a baked goods company that turns their profits into feeding the homeless.
Bryan grew up in Milwaukee, started a candy selling business in High School where he would at times bribe the teachers with a candy bar in order to sell more candy bars at the beginning of each class to his fellow classmates. It was such a popular business, that he started having distributors, which eventually had the principal pulling the plug on his first entrepreneurial experience. However, that didn’t stop his entrepreneurial spirit! After school, and a summer abroad in England, Bryan decided to make the big move to NY! He had a place to stay for one week and a credit card, and the rest is history! Tune in to hear more of Bryan’s story:
Learning resourcefulness early on
His life changing trip to England
Starting and selling his company, NuKitchen
Co-founding Startout
His time as the Director of Founder Institute New York
Working with Loeb NYC
Founding Gro Academy
Working with Tony Robbins and Nunbelievable Foods
Quote of the Episode:
“Every founder brings their unique set of traits and many of us become entrepreneurs because we may not make it in more traditional jobs…”
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
”What advice can you give an entrepreneur at the beginning stages of building their first business?”
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
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Setting Up A Text Journal: (804) 885-3699
You can subscribe to my journal by texting anything (eg. "Hello!") to: (804) 885-3699. You'll start receiving texts with my updates! Text "stop" to opt out. I can't see who subscribes, who unsubscribes, or any replies you send! DM Me via my Twitter to reply to any of my texts. Pro tip, you can silence the text notifications and just read them on your own time if you would like.
UPDATE:
Bad news... this little Text Journal experiment is shutting down on May 15th, 2019... 😔
The Good news is that the team behind it might open source the code. 🤗
I had a blast sharing through this medium and still stand behind how honest it feels. If anything it has made me more comfortable with sharing deeper and honest thoughts, more like how I used to pre 2015. I will aim to keep that going on twitter. If anything this proves the validity of small (non scaled) social networks. I heard a rumor last year that Dave Morin’s Path might get re-born. Here’s to hoping!
A few weeks ago, I saw a post by Josh Miller on Twitter, who is formerly the Director of Product for the Obama White House and previously sold Branch to Facebook. Here is the tweet:
What really resonated with me in Josh’s message is the lack of intimacy in social platforms these days. And so I signed up for his experiment by texting the number in his post. I started to receive Josh’s text journal updates over the next few weeks. Josh’s texts felt authentic and honest in a time when that connection seems hard to find on existing platforms.
To me, that level of unpolished honesty used to be the norm in the early days of Facebook and Twitter. It’s what made us all feel so connected. And the last time I felt that, was during the early days of Meerkat, which I wrote about back in 2015 on Huff Po. It is refreshing every time I see it.
And so I am going to set up my own text journal and join in on the grand experiment.
You can subscribe to my journal by texting anything (eg. "Hello!") to:
(804) 885-3699
You'll start receiving texts with my updates! Text "stop" to opt out. I can't see who subscribes, who unsubscribes, or any replies you send! DM Me via my Twitter to reply to any of my texts. Pro tip, you can silence the text notifications and just read them on your own time if you would like.
It feels strange at first to share with a group of unknown people, but it also feels liberating in a way. Maybe this is what Twitter was supposed to stay as back when it was SMS based. I am excited to try this out! Hope you enjoy too!
Skip Hop's Michael Diamant Innovates Baby Products
From being forced to layoff his whole staff, to selling his company for $140 million, our next guest, Michael Diamant, has great insight on how he became successful. Michael Diamant created a well-known brand with his wife, called Skip Hop, which was sold to Carter’s for $140 million.
Michael Diamant
From being forced to layoff his whole staff, to selling his company for $140 million, our next guest, Michael Diamant, has great insight on how he became successful. Michael Diamant created a well-known brand with his wife, called Skip Hop, which was sold to Carter’s for $140 million. It all started with a diaper bag in 2003. Michael and his wife wanted a diaper bag that was fully functional, however, also appealed to a fashion savvy crowd. The company continued to grow for 15 more years creating several more innovative baby care products before they were bought by Carter’s. Now both Michael and his wife continue to work with Carter’s to help grow the brand Skip Hop.
Before Michael created a very successful brand, he had a great career and started multiple companies. He has a background in advertising and was a happy employee at MTV. Tune in to find out more about how Michael became successful…
Growing up
The world of advertising
Working at MTV, and the impact it had on Michael
His first company – T3 Media
How he was able to start iClips
How it felt to have to lay off 35 employees
His Skip Hop Journey
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
What advise would you have for other entrepreneurs who are trying to find product market fit?
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.
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Australia's Benjamin Chong Helps Startups Excel With Right Click Capital
Today, my guest is a fellow Founder Institute Director, Benjamin Chong. Benjamin has been the director of Founder Institute in Australia since 2011 and is also well known as a partner at Right Click Capital.
Benjamin Chong
Today, my guest is a fellow Founder Institute Director, Benjamin Chong. Benjamin has been the director of Founder Institute in Australia since 2011 and is also well known as a partner at Right Click Capital. Right Click Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups. He is an active technology startup community member that has served as a mentor and guest speaker at many different entrepreneurial programs in Sydney, South East Asia, and the United States.
Benjamin Chong grew up in Australia and says his life-changing entrepreneurial moment was when he was in a program called Young Achievement in High School where a few select students from multiple schools got together and created a business, they had to sell stock, and make it profitable, which was a success. He graduated from the University of South Wales and has been unstoppable. Listen in to learn more about Benjamin’s successes…
Early years in Australia
Young Achievement program in High School
Working at PWC
Co-founding iMega
Directing Founders Institute since 2011
Is startup life different in Australia
How important mental health is
Ambition Today Question of the Day™ :
What was it like to make the switch from Founder to Investor?
The Single Greatest Piece of Advice:
Members of the "A-list" can listen to exclusive A-list bonus clips here! If you are not a member yet be sure to join the Ambition Today A-list!
Quote Of The Episode:
“Relationship in businesses are critical, it takes time to build relationships…”
Links from this episode:
Listen to this episode now:
The A-List
Join the shows A-list backchannel for exclusive access to additional Ambition Today content, deeper guest insights, a community of fellow fans, and much more. Plus, Learn the single greatest piece of advice this guest has ever learned!
If you are already a member of the A-list then you can easily access your bonus content from right here!
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening and applying these useful tips and strategies to your life! If you have a chance, please drop by and leave a review for the show on iTunes by clicking here. Also, who should I interview next? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments. Do you enjoy this podcast? If so, please leave a short review in the comments below. It keeps me going…
Transcript:
You can find the full transcript of this episode here.