On Friday, I met up with a friend who was recently laid off.
In the nine or ten days that she’d been jobless, she’d applied for a handful of positions and had one interview. Not a bad hit rate, I thought.
Her onsite, however, ended with the interviewer telling her he didn’t think she was fit for the job, due to her lack of specific demonstrated skills related to the job. Ouch! That’s a tough thing to hear in person after several hours of onsite interviewing.
She went home dejected and depressed, and stayed that way for the rest of the week.
What My Friend Should Do Next Time…
Love and learn from her critics.
How it went:
“Based on what you’ve said during this interview, we think you simply don’t have the skill set required to perform this job. Sorry.” <awkward to reject a candidate outright, face-to-face>
“Oh.” <droopy face, slinks away to sulk in dejectedness for the rest of the week>
“Alright, good luck, bye, SEE YA!” <relieved to be done with an uncomfortable interview, frustrated that it took so much company time>
How it should go next time:
“Based on what you’ve said during this interview, we think you simply don’t have the skill set required to perform this job. Sorry.” <awkward to reject a candidate outright, face-to-face>
“Oh ok. Well, if you don’t mind, can you tell me what specific skill set areas you thought should have been stronger? I’d really like to be able to land this type of position in the future and am looking for feedback to improve.” <assertive, honest, yet gentle, questioning of criticism aiming to learn from mistakes>
“Oh well, sure. For this type of position, we’d really like to see more X, and less Y, and specific strengths in category Z.” <pleasantly surprised with this candidate’s direct and proactive approach, and glad to help with constructive feedback>
“Wow, that’s really helpful. I’ll take note of that for next time. Thank you.” <genuinely receptive to feedback, response is rational and data-based, not emotion-based and reactive>
“Alright, good luck, bye. Let’s keep in touch.” <sufficiently impressed with this candidate to think that they may be a good contact for a future position>
Be Entrepreneurial About Criticism
All entrepreneurs know that they’re going to have detractors. The best entrepreneurs welcome dissent. They know that criticism, whether constructive or destructive, helps them to better understand how others perceive them.
When you’re able to get out of your own head and understand how others perceive you – even if those perceptions are misguided – you can figure out how to adjust your personal pitch to speak to the audience you care most about.
Maybe that audience is an interviewer at your dream job. Having lots of previous experience with critique and feedback will help you to succeed in the most important conversations later on.
Learn To Use Rejection
One of my favorite young entrepreneurs, Anjan Sundaram, is a writer and journalist who worked as an AP reporter in the Congo during his first year out of Yale.
How the heck did Anjan land that job as a fresh college grad??
He didn’t. He traveled to the Congo, a jobless 22 year old, on $5,000 in savings from odd jobs during college, and started writing news stories. He sent in one news story every other day to the AP office for the region, and received rejection notices with the same frequency. The ongoing rejection didn’t stop him from mining for feedback, and then incorporating those tips into the way he wrote his next news story.
After 30 days like this, the AP decided to buy one of his stories for $15. At the end of a year, the organization considered him to be one of their foremost experts on the region, had flown him from coast to coast to chase regional news. A few months later, they offered him a full-time job as their youngest expert on the region.
Anjan did two things:
1. Used rejection as an information tool. He didn’t just say “Ok” and walk away back into the bush after his first rejection. He asked “Why?” and then used that information to craft his next, better attempt.
2. Made LOTS of attempts. He didn’t just send in two articles to the AP and call it a year. He produced regularly, upping his chances of success, and used his production stream as a source of constant feedback and improvement.
What To Do If You’re Sensitive
For some people, a constant stream of criticism can be more intense than physical pain.
Here are two practices that can help:
1. Practice at home. My Chinese parents can be really f-ing critical. It made for some angsty, sullen teenage years, but as an adult, I’m better equipped to see criticism as the ultimate learning tool and NOT as a judgment on who I am.
Try practicing asking “Why?” when you hear critical feedback from friends or family, and definitely don’t forget to take that defensive note out of your voice.
2. Give people a piece of your mind. Sometimes the best way to learn to utilize constructive criticism is to dish some out.
The next time your friend (maybe it’ll be me) tries to evangelize some idea that doesn’t make sense to you, share your thoughts and help your friend use rejection as an information tool. Don’t forget to back it up with specific reasons, or you’ll be the one not making sense.
Finally, sometimes people are critical just because they’re pissed off. You can still benefit from the surly folk, however, by realizing that even sucky criticism has something to show you about that situation. If you happen to encounter a pissed off interviewer during a job conversation, it should give you lots of valuable information about that company.
Remember, there’s always a way to spin what’s ‘negative’ into an awareness-building tool to beef up your interview skills, your attempts to start a business, and even your relationships with family and friends.
]]>Though I saw it coming for many weeks, I never anticipated how emotional, and personal, the loss would feel. Most of us non-builders, including product managers like me, were sorrowfully told to pick up our things and say goodbye.
I should have been sadder – most others seemed to be. I was sorry to part ways with my respected coworkers, now beloved friends, but, inside, I was ecstatic.
Am I going to look for another job? Am I going to call back the recruiters who’ve been leaving me voicemails?
I don’t think so.
I’ve worked since I was 14 and have loathed every single job I’ve ever had. Yes, this includes bagging groceries at Larry’s Market, and ringing up cosmetics at The Body Shop in the mall. But, it also includes the job I had playing with toddlers with developmental disabilities at UW, and the job I had on trail crew in the North Cascades. It includes working the weekend weddings at Stanford Memorial Church (ok, that one was kinda cool), and being a research intern to the famous Helen Stacy. It includes manual labor on French farms, and babysitting triplets in San Carlos.
The loathing even includes Google.
In the waning days of my job at the start-up, I finally realized that I am just not cut out to work for anybody BUT MYSELF.
And, lots of twentysomethings I’ve talked to in the past months are telling me the same thing.
“I’m going to do my own thing for a little while.”
“Jack and I are working on a project together.”
“I’ve got some friends at this start-up…”
Aside from the push toward self-discovery, the REALLY good thing about being laid off is that now’s a great time to start your dream project.
A quick Google search for “new companies during recession” turned up this highly relevant CNN Money article:
What's up with the grammar in this headline?? Still, I get it... recessions aren't all bad!
Funny thing is, the article is from 2002, but is just as relevant now as ever.
Here are the reasons you CAN start businesses during this recession:
1. Leaner, meaner ideas. Recessions make the idea market more competitive, no bubbles, only really good stuff gets through. Things that cost too much to run, or don’t prove themselves to be a profitable, are less likely to be worked on. The ideas that are more likely to be worked on are those with a proven profit model and are easy to scale.
2. Perks (and collar-n-leash loyalty) diminish. When finances go south, your company will probably not be as awesome and supportive to you as you’d always expected. In turn, your loyalty to your company, and your attachment to comfy perks, may wane. This could be just the push you need.
3. Free money! If you get laid off, you’ll get severance and unemployment to last you for a bit while you incubate your business.
4. Free talent! During widespread layoffs, lots of spectacular talent is jobless, and otherwise unoccupied, making it a great time to forge partnerships.
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Sutanto Widjaja knew he wanted to stay in business, but also recognized that he’d never stick it out unless it had personal significance to him.
“I believe my idea will change something or do good.”
To Sutanto, this meant either healthcare or education. His first startup, Sutro Biopharma, launched technology to reduce the manufacturing costs in the biopharmaceutical industry. Sutanto’s idea was that inefficient processes, coupled with outrageously rising healthcare costs, comprised a challenge that had to have a solution. After four years of draining his own pockets – a true show of commitment and great way to attract smart, but poor, partners – Sutro Biopharma recently received $25 million in venture funding.
Ok, now what’s next?
Coming from a traditional, education-loving Asian family (like me!), Sutanto knew he’d want his next venture to have something to do with education.
“I was raised to value education very highly. If you’re willing to try hard, and get a good education, then they’re are plenty of doors that will swing wide open for you. That’s the idea behind Get-Accepted.com”
For Sutanto, the considerable intellectual challenge and moneymaking potential of a good start-up still weren’t enough.
“I want to be engaged for a long time. I want to wake up every morning knowing that I’m spending my time fruitfully and productively.”
He has a point. If you’re not personally into it, you’ll never live through the valleys.
Money, Money, Money
Now that we’re done feeling good, let’s all recall that it can’t be all valleys. There are many sexy, high-profile companies in the media every day, burning cash and still trying to figure out their revenue model. Like the really pretty party people in high school, they may be hot enough to marry rich and do OK, but, just in case, they should still go to college, get some kind of career going, and figure out their own, independent revenue model.
Sutro Biopharma sells technology to the pharmaceuticals industry. Get-Accepted.com charges users for access to expert-level content on college preparation and admissions.
Be Random
Does my eclectic background hurt my career, as my traditional, worrying Chinese mother constantly informs me? Depends on the career.
I’ve never been cut out to be a company lifer, or a surgeon, or a corporate attorney (though, after hearing about those swanky interships, I wished very hard).
Luckily, entrepreneurship of any kind – including blogging – values a random, wandering background that pushes you to tie lots of different things together.
Sutanto’s background includes semi-conductors, wine, a dotcom, biopharmaceuticals, college counseling, hedge fund management, financial consulting, electrical engineering, computer science, and VC work. Impressive, but random, and just exactly the kind of role model wandering, pondering people like me need.
If you ask him, that’s exactly the right cast of characters to turn a life into an epic.
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Ally, flying solo?
Is that so? What if I don’t want to tough it out, or be lonely, and what if I want rewards all the time? Yes, I’m spoiled and demanding, but maybe it is possible to have your cake and eat it too.
Ally Voye and her friends Julia Ferguson, Sarri Sanchez, Eva Wilder and Maya Zellman decided that a group of entrepreneurs working together was better than one leader and a bunch of followers, so together they started IN/EX Dance Project.
In a metropolis like Los Angeles, there’s so much of everything and everyone – vegan southern Nepalese cuisine? You got it. Troupes of multi-talented Russian gymnast/Cirque-du-soleil/actors-turned models? They’re around somewhere. With so much diversity and vibrance, it’s hard to be confident enough to strike out on your own and perform for such an impressive and discerning audience.
For Ally, who loved the highly creative choreographic work she did in college, getting herself – and her friends – out there was the only way to experience the ownership over her work that she had so enjoyed while at UCLA.
It’s hard to be a successful choreographer in L.A. It’s less hard to be a dancer, using your body as a tool to perform someone else’ creation. Ally never stopped dancing after graduation, but she knew that she wanted to return to the business of creating her own pieces and showing them to the city. IN/EX have developed a unique and sell-able angle because, unlike most choreographers in L.A., they create their pieces as a synergistic group, rather than as individuals.
The group's got her back.
With not too much money and not too much time, it took some serious enterprising to get their first big show out the door and, as an extra kudos, a lovely little mention in the L.A. Times.
What I learned from Ally:
1. Entrepreneurs can come in twos, threes, fours, or, in this case, fives. During our conversation, Ally continually mentioned the benefits of having four creative brains working together. Their group dynamic added to the overall creativity of their work, and also gave them a unique angle over other choreographers in their area. Choreographers don’t typically work in bunches like IN/EX, so these women smartly leveraged their special, synergistic brand of dance art to distinguish themselves from the competition.
2. Prove you want it with a little sacrifice. If you can prove it to yourself by sacrificing your time and some of your own dough, you’ll have a much easier time proving it to the people you’re going to hit up for money later on. Practice space is critical for choreographers – without it, it would be like a photographer trying to do shots without lighting. Ally and crew did not get their dance practice space for free. They procured the space thanks to Ally’s connections at a school where she works as a dance and art teacher, but there’s still no such thing as a free lunch. All members had to pony up medium-sized sums from their savings or earnings. No one is an i-banker in this crowd, so the rent DID represent a significant sacrifice. However, when they started fundraising to pay for their performance space later on, it was an easier sell because the girls had proven their ownership and commitment to the project.
3. Start small. Really small, like getting a group of friends together to dance. What you produce, if your goal is to produce anything at all, doesn’t have to be perfect the first time around. In fact, it’s better if it’s not so that you can get used to the idea of practice. Dancers know this well – if you’re out of shape, or out of practice, you won’t impress anyone with your shapes and moves, and you’ll definitely not end up as anyone’s star choreographer. It’s ok – no, fantastic – to start small, and restart after you fumble, and restart again after that. The key is not the success that might come, but rather the starting. I love this Paul Buchheit (FriendFeed co-founder and Gmail pioneer) blog post on the idea of starting lots of things – even if all of them flop.
4. Don’t rest on your laurels. When I asked Ally what was next, she had an answer right away. Working towards another show. These women are not planning to ride the wave of Successful Production No. 1 till the dawn of the next decade. Their first show’s success only made them want more, sooner, and bigger.
When I’m stagnating with my own modest exercise routine, or with writing another Ask the Entrepreneurs post because I’m afraid it won’t be as good as the previous, I think of Ally. The image of her and her friends practicing until 10 pm on weeknights when they’ve got jobs and boyfriends awaiting simultaneously intimidates and inspires me. It (almost) never hurts to have a little feu aux fesses!
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Emily’s virtual assistant business, Delegate Solutions, started from her home when she was pregnant AND working full time as an executive assistant to the top management at her former employer, a local mid-sized company. When the company unveiled plans to move to a new location several towns away, Emily faced an extended commute (as a big pregnant lady!), and her enthusiasm for being somebody else’ perpetual gopher, unsurprisingly, started to wane.
Emily decided that what she really wanted was to work from home, and have more of a hand in her own employment. Working as a virtual assistant started as a side business for Emily, something she was doing to fill in those other 30 hours after she put in her regular 40 (yep, that’s right, this mama works about 70 hours a week).
Like Chad Hartvigson, Emily was shrewd, confident and probably a smart enough strategizer to beat last year’s Russian chess master. That’s why Emily’s first high-powered clients were her former bosses. Not only did this young mom-to-be, and sole breadwinner for her family, negotiate a work-from-home deal, she actually convinced them that her QUITTING would be a good thing, and that they should continue to give her money as clients of her business.
So sly it’s damned foxy.
During our chat a few weeks ago, I discovered that you CAN be a nice young lady like Emily, ‘cheat’ on your company by starting your own, win them back, and, with a healthy dose of hard work, get just exactly what you want.
What I learned from Emily
1. Ask and receive. After starting her business, Emily had a dream to be on the Martha Stewart Living show. She wanted it, and decided she would get it. No matter that Martha’s all about cooking and crafting and Emily is an entrepreneur in the cutting-edge, but not very crafty, virtual assistant industry.
After much unsuccessful LinkedIn-mining (which requires its own form of constant asking), she finally got a hookup with a producer for the show, only to be told that Emily’s virtual assistant business was a cool story, but not quite ‘crafty’ enough for Martha. Instead of giving up (as I probably would), Emily kept asking. She eventually asked so many different people, so many times, that she found someone who worked for Martha’s radio show who was agreed to hear her out. A week later, Emily was up in NYC and talking up Delegate Solutions on MSL Radio.
2. All hail the day job! The more entrepreneur types I talk to, the more this one is becoming a major theme. Emily started out small by taking on just a few clients while she continued busting her butt at her regular job. As a pregnant lady, and later as a new mom who was a sole provider, she couldn’t afford the risk of free fall, and she needed the health insurance. Yes, she worked longer hours in the beginning, but to her, this was an investment not so different than putting money toward grad school, or working an unpaid internship.
3. Spin a loss (your company’s’) into a gain (yours AND your company’s’). When Emily first told the three executives at her company whom she assisted that she was going to quit, and to start her own business no less, they were skeptical. However, they were also needy, maybe even desperate, because Emily was a great assistant and had become an important enabler of their own success. Emily worked the ultimate magic when she actually convinced them that they should be happy to let her go, and that they should next enlist the services of her new company, Delegate Solutions, to fill the role.
Did she strong-arm them? Go in to the exec office with hardball negotiations lines written on the palm of her hand? No and no. She simply spoke their language, the much-loved language of money. Emily knew that cost was a concern to them, so she talked up the changeover in terms of cost – the company could save headcount money by purchasing her service instead of maintaining her as an employee. She didn’t bother them with too many details about her personal life as a mother and goals to own her own business. Honestly, nobody but your mom cares about these things, so it’s best to keep them out of important negotiations and explanations. When negotiating with employers – whether it’s for something complex like transitioning them from employer to client status, or for something simple like a raise – stick to the universal language of money and value.
4. Make it All-or-Nothing. In Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational, he describes one study that illustrates how having more options (or even just perceiving that there are more options) can actually distract us from our primary goal and undermine our success. An All-or-Nothing situation actually increases our success – even after factoring in the risk of failure. Emily was her family’s primary breadwinner; her husband had been laid off a few months before and babies are still not allowed to perform wage labor in the state of New Jersey (why, I have no idea…).
Once Emily had enough clients and decided that Delegate Solutions was going to be her main work, she was basically putting her family’s survival on the line. Stupid move? Nope, it was an awesome move. After she saw that her business had a decent chance at succeeding, she set up the ultimate motivating mechanism for herself and made sure that she’d work her butt off. She eliminated failure as an option.
See the full interview notes below.
Why did you think you could start this business by yourself ? Why didn’t you think about joining an established virtual assistant firm?
I never really thought of that as an option. If you’re looking to do admin work and have no headaches, being a subcontractor through some virtual assistant firm is definitely the way to go. But, if you’re looking at this as a big picture, then this is the way to go. The only way to make serious profit is to start your own business. Anything else would only be capping your income potential.
In my case, there was no reason I couldn’t do it for myself, aside from a little fear of not making enough income to support my family. I had a good, realistic business model, and knew it was a way that would allow me to work remotely using the skills I’d perfected through my ten years in admin work.
The key is that you can’t just wake up one day and say “I’m going to do this.” Building a business is a slow process, and I built mine while I was working for somebody else’. It actually helped me because as I was working, I was building up my client portfolio until I could be independent.
How did you learn, or was this just like working for your company (without the commute)?
I didn’t have any business training, I didn’t know what LLC meant, and I didn’t know I had to go through as many hoops as I did, so starting this business took a long time.
I relied on my state’s small business association – a government program – that provided me with a ton of resources to get going with the basics of starting a business.
I also belong to two industry organizations, the IVAA and the DWAA. The virtual assistant industry is very supportive, and I used it extensively to network and find a group to support me.
What does your income look like now compared to being a regular full-time employee?
It’s not totally the same since I have to pay for health insurance, I no longer have a cushy 401k, and I have to pay for my own electronics and software. But, I’m really just starting out, and, with owning my own business, the opportunities ahead are so much bigger than anything I could achieve by working my way up the company ladder.
What does your husband think of all this?
He loves it. I work all the time, but he’s very into being Mr. Mom. When he lost his job, I went full force with the business. He helps me with business things, errands, cleaning, cooking.
I can have a baby, I can bring in some extra money – I didn’t really think anything other than this is a great arrangement.
Now that we’re in the situation that we’re in, this just sort of took off, and I’m just going with it!
It wasn’t what I had planned, but I’m not disappointed. We’re both in our element. I hope that one day I don’t have to work as much as I’m working now, but I’m working on setting up those boundaries. It can be hard when you have a home office because it’s always easy to get to work.
How did you get that fantastic mention in the New York Times?
Writer of nytimes article is a good friend of one of Emily’s clients. BC of the Times piece, she was able to get on Martha, and then NBC, etc.
I really wanted to be on Martha Stewart show. How are you gonna get on Martha Steward?? I worked the netowkr (linkedin) and connected with a producer on linked in.
Then, one day I came across a radio host who worked for Martha Stewart and she put me on her show!
To the producer on the show: found out she was a penn grad, kept emailing her, she finally wrote me back, and said, “I totally want to work for you and I have a baby!” but this isn’t gonna fit on the show. But, after the Times piece, but I got a client from there and his coach posted to Martha’s blog, and E found out that she was the career coach on Martha Stewart radio. Contacted her…
Tpo be on nbc news – I emailed all the news channels with my story, and somebody called me back! My mba person pitched me to the magazines. “turning your former employer into your client”
Would you recommend this to my CEO’s executive assistant, Melissa?
Having your own company is the most fulfilling and draining things you could possibly do. A lot of people aren’t up for the whole working 70+ hrs per week thing. They don’t have the stomach for it and that’s fine – there are plenty of corporate jobs to be had.
BUT… anyone can do it if they really want it and can envision their own success. I’m not talking about new-agey visualizations, I mean being able to know that you can succeed at something.
My clients (and former employers) love it because they get treated like they’re a customer paying for a service rather than a company having to manage an employee. For me, I’m still an assistant helping them with the same admin tasks as when I was their employee, but it feels completely different to direct your work as part of your own business.
]]>A guy who runs a business selling screenprinted t-shirts for high school sports? Not sexy enough. For someone like me who mingles in the self-absorbed, “[NOUN] 2.0” buzz of Silicon Valley all day, every day, the idea of debuting with a t-shirt printer was so unglam as to be a downright blogkiller.
I love being wrong.
Chad’s company, Prep Sports Wear, blows many of the Web 2.0 startups down in SoMa completely out of the water. For one thing, Prep Sports Wear actually makes money (ouch!).
For another, you don’t have to be a fancypants Bay Area yupster to understand the basic American appeal of comfy loungewear with your school’s logo on it. And lastly, though I haven’t yet met Chad in person, he’s got a damn sexy phone persona for a former semipro-baseballer (wink).
During our hour-long conversation last Tuesday night, Chad struck me, incredibly, as being simultaneously innocent and shrewd as hell. He was also pretty fun to talk to, and offered a few surprising nuggets worth repeating.
What I learned from Chad
1. Entrepreneurship does not necessitate expertise. Chad wasn’t a t-shirt manufacturer. He wasn’t a tech guy. He was an athlete who wore t-shirts and was interested in technology. He wasn’t an expert in any of the areas that were core to his business. But, he thought he had a good idea, so his job was to rally the experts.
2. The day job will save you. Prep Sportswear started as a teeny, tiny side project when Chad was still a college athlete. It stayed as a slightly less tiny side project when Chad was a grown-up working at a financially stable, regular job. The security of his day job actually gave him the confidence to pursue his side project to its current glorious state – precisely because everything was NOT on the line.
3. If you don’t like your boss, it might not be your boss’ fault (gasp!). Maybe you just don’t like working for other people, like Chad. Great entrepreneurs recognize this in themselves and, instead of fuming against their company or their managers, channel it into projects that will get them out of the employee lifestyle.
4. Laugh in people’s face. I loved when I asked Chad how he felt when people told him this was a stupid idea, or that he was crazy, or that he would fail. Instead of just giving me some inspirational blahblah about adversity making you stronger, or even just saying he felt bad, the way I probably would have felt, he just said he laughed. People don’t know what they don’t know, and it’s funny sometimes. But seriously, don’t take it (or them) too seriously.
See the full interview notes below.
How did you get your start?
I was in college at the UW, playing baseball for the team there. Huskies football gear was everywhere, but you could never find a sweatshirt about anything besides football. We wanted something for us, so, as team captain, I started taking orders.
The first year we sold to players and families. The next year, the coach asked me to do it again, and to help out with the softball shirts the year after that. It came from a need by the team, it wasn’t a business idea, so I always sold at a cost.
I had this idea that we could really make a business this way, selling one-off, customized t-shirts in low volume to a massive customer base. But it was 1995 and the Internet was just starting to take off. There was no real e-commerce then and no way to make it happen with the technologies that were available.
So, then by some magic you still made it into a multimillion dollar biz?
Well, eight years later, my dad, who sold t-shirts from manufacturers to retailers, got laid off and needed some help. My brother and I thought about ways we could bring him into our insurance sales business at the time, but there was really nothing he could do there. So, we started thinking, Hey, what about the t-shirt idea…
So my dad and I ran a beta test with six schools in the area. We went around and did a bunch of surveys with them, and figured out that the concept worked. People liked the idea and thought an online store for school merchandise would be very useful.
Oooh… beta test. How did you figure out which six schools to survey? Some complex algorithm, I assume?
Those were the only six schools that actually returned our calls.
Customized merchandise for high schools – doesn’t that go against most desirable business principles (high volume, low-cost mass production, deep-pocketed customer)?
Lots of people were out there trying to sell 500 shirts to 1 customer, but I wanted to sell 1 shirt to 5000 customers.
I was looking at the long tail of consumers, and I saw a need. Most printers don’t even have Internet in their offices, and they won’t serve you if you just want to a couple of shirts. I wanted to aggregate that market.
Did you know that you were going to scale your business to its current degree – affiliate program, corporate clients, targeted ads and co-branded stores – from the beginning?
Our goal was to scale the business from day one. Anything other than a “big hit” would not be worth the time or risk.
How did you craft your vision without being an expert in the technology that would take you there?
I don’t think you need to understand the technology. You really need to understand your vision and be able to communicate it to others in a way that allows them to share it. Once you’ve done that, you can attract others to help you execute it.
I had some friends working at big tech companies in the area, so I talked to them a lot. Eventually, one of them introduced me to Ivan, who became my lead developer, and eventually the CTO.
How did you pay Ivan when you first met him?
Uh, well, I paid him entirely on equity.
It helped that he had some pretty good stock options from his InfoSpace days to help him keep a roof over his head.
How long did it take him to decide to work with you?
I met him at a Starbucks on a Wednesday night. I told him about the idea, and I was just really excited about it. He said he’d let me know within two days, and on the second day, I got a call from him.
Wow. When I get ideas, I only feel good about them if other people tell me, “That’s a great idea! You should do it!” Didn’t a lot of people tell you it was a stupid idea in the beginning? And then here you’ve also gotten this nice Russian man involved…
Yes, a lot of people told us it was crazy, or stupid. People laughed, and no one would believe us.
But, as a person who’s played baseball since being a little kid, including professionally, you have a lot of people telling you that you can’t do this or you can’t do that. In sports, people are always trying to talk you down – you can’t succeed unless you figure out that all that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what you believe personally.
The fact that it started as a side project was important too. I had my other business that I worked on with my brother, and I knew I’d be financially ok with that, so it took the pressure off a bit. I also never took VC funding or anything like that. It was just a little bit of money from family and friends, so I never felt like I had to go running around pleasing all these funders and doing things with my company that I didn’t want to do.
Ivan didn’t really get the t-shirt idea at first, because in Russia you had a choice of either a black t-shirt or a white t-shirt. It didn’t make sense to him why people would want all these customized sports shirts. But, for someone who’d come from Russia only four years prior, he really embraced the idea of American entrepreneurship and was looking to get away from the corporate atmosphere of his last job.
So, why did you do it all? Bucks? Babes? To fulfill your dream to be on Ask The Entrepreneurs?
I grew up watching my dad going through the ups and downs of working for other people. In college, my goal became to never work for someone else. And, I saw an opportunity that wasn’t there in the insurance sales business I worked on with my brother, where your success was always 1:1 – limited to how much you as one person could get done.
Our business is basically a technology company. We’re now 50 people using technology as a platform to monetize a massive base of consumers. We offer schools and teams completely customized items with a minimum purchase of one, and we’re making money doing it.
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