Having People Who Truly Believe in You

Being a young entrepreneur is definitely not the career path of choice that most parents have for their kids. I feel like the majority of people who care about us want us to follow the traditional path (school, job, masters degree, wife, house, kids, retirement, etc) because there is an inherit security that comes with that. So when we decide to sacrifice to follow a different path, I feel like that perplexes people and the most you can expect are for them to support you because they love you. For me personally this creates a bit of a riff between myself and those people because they don't “get me.”

Some people take it to the next level and root for you to succeed because it's a step they'd love to take but won't or can't – they like to live vicariously through you. These people love hearing about my “exciting” adventure and are really key in supporting me. The majority of the people I know fall into one of those two categories, and I'm fine with that.

But every once in a while I encounter a person who really gets it. They understand my passion for life and for doing something I love everyday. They energize me whenever I see them, and I'm attracted to them because we feed off each other. I see it in my partners with Pure Adapt, I see it in several other YE's I've met through Mind Petals or this blog, and I see it in Joe.

I also see it in our lawyer. He's a 32 year old “superstar” lawyer who believes in each and every one of us as much as we believe in ourselves. He believes in us because he shares in the passion. I can't even count how many times he's told us that we will definitely succeeded. Coming from someone as successful as himself, it means a lot to us.

He has that intangible “it” that we have. He's called me on a Friday night at 10:30 from his basement because he wanted to get something out to us as fast as possible. It could have waited until Monday, but he wanted to get it done as soon as he could. Most people think that's sad (poor guy is working on a Friday), but they don't understand that he's doing what he loves, what he's passionate about.

The majority of people separate their passions from their jobs, and consider the word “work” to be something that people don't want to do, but that's not the case. I don't think in terms of “work” - I pursue something I truly enjoy each and every day, and in turn it's what I want to do. I can honestly say that if I were a billionaire, my goals wouldn't change all that much. I might buy a nice house and a nice car, and I might devote more of my time towards philanthropic ventures, but I would still want to run Pure Adapt and achieve our goals. Somehow I think our lawyer would do the same. To me that's the ultimate test of true passion.

I can't overstate how important these people are to me – when friends and family just say “oh that's cool” when I do something, there's a small group of people that really understand why. We are a necessary rare breed and are very much outliers from normal thinking, so I feel like I need to gravitate towards each and every one of these people that come into my life. In the end, I suppose people flock to others that are like them – artists hang around with artists, athletes hang around with athletes - and I think this is no different for entrepreneurs.

The ideal way to hire

Ask most employers when they hire and they'll give you:

1. When they are swamped
   
2. When they are adding a new department or group
3. When someone quits
4. When they fire someone
   

Assuming you are a stable, profitable business (or at least not cutting heads), you have business processes that need improvement. It seems to me that you should always be looking to hire. If someone's skill will profit your company, why would you turn them away? Isn't that how you grow successfully? (to that same point, if a person is negatively impacting your bottom line you should probably fire them)

Yes we've hired a few contractors so far for Pure Adapt, and no I'm not in particular need of another, but if another great one came along I could certainly find work for them. The more skilled team that I have, the faster the output and the better the output, which will allow me to take on more challenging (and therefore more rewarding) projects. Who wouldn't want to add a superstar to their team whenever the opportunity presented itself?

If “Free” is the New “Paid” Who Wins?

Rewind back 10 years or so, before you were really spending a lot of time online. Pretty much everything you wanted to do required you to pay. If you wanted to call across country, you had to pay the phone company or buy a prepaid card or call collect (and the other person paid). If you wanted a video game or a CD or a video tape you went to the store and bought it. If you needed software, you paid for it.

But the internet was born on the backbone of freedom of information and slowly that “free” mentality has crept into just about everything else we do. We make free phone calls with Skype, create free Spreadsheets with Google Doc's and Spreadsheets, and share photos for free with Flickr. Illegal file sharing has become so easy that we can now “steal” any game, movie, or song that we want.

So what is this resulting in? A new wave of businesses that have given up on charging consumers, and instead focused on generating advertising revenue. EA is experimenting with giving FIFA Soccer away for free, and Ruckus Network is giving away free music to college students. They insist that if they can attract enough eyeballs, they will have a sustainable business model. I am not so certain.

Being someone who has attempted a business model like this with iPrioritize, I understand the attraction and also the great risk. For the sake of argument, let's look at two businesses – the first one is attempting to charge a fee for their service and the second one is attempting to solely rely on advertising revenue.

Both pour equal resources into developing and testing the initial product. However, when the first company launches they immediately start targeting the customers that are willing to pay for their service. The second company is looking for anyone willing to sign up for a free account so they can get big numbers to show off to advertisers. The first company might not generate the traffic that the second one does, but they are immediately producing revenue as opposed to delaying any real revenue until the site is consistently in front of tens of thousands of eyeballs each day.

Maybe the revenue is even equal. But wouldn't you rather have $10,000/month in revenue from loyal subscribers than from advertisers? Even IF you are indifferent to seeing your money coming from 10 advertisers vs. 1,000 customers, you'll have higher expenses (customer service, hosting, etc) because you need that many more registered users to make the same money.

Worse yet, what happens when advertisers realize they aren't getting a return on investment on your site? Odds are they probably aren't now, and the more you bombard consumers with ads the more they will ignore them and ads will likely soon become unprofitable. Losing one advertiser that generates 15% of your revenue is much worse than losing a customer that generates 1%.

From my business experience, I've come to the realization that people will pay for quality, and that those who want everything for free you don't want as your customers. What is a company to do if they're competing against piracy? Create a business model with incentives that make it a better choice to pay than to steal (consider Apple's iTunes).

In the end of the day, consumers get worse products because businesses have a more shaky revenue model, businesses are ultimately forced to rely on the unreliable source of advertising for revenue and focus more time on creating more ad space as opposed to improving the product for the end user, and advertisers end up throwing money at a medium that doesn't generate a return on investment. So I ask, who really wins?

I’m in a media war with RPI

Three days ago the lead story in the Albany Times Union was about cheating in local colleges and how one in particular (good ole RPI) was resisting a code of ethics prohibiting such actions.
Being an alumni who saw all the cheating in the aforementioned article first hand, I decided to write reporter Marc Perry. That lead to a phone interview, which led to this story in today’s newspaper:

Dispute on old exams

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Richard G. Folsom Library has 521,165 bound volumes, over 93,892 government documents and 509 print journal subscriptions.

But according to one alum, some fraternities and sororities offer a more useful collection: years of old exams and homework assignments.

Adam McFarland ('04) wrote the Times Union about these alleged "libraries" after the paper reported on debates at RPI and Union College over adopting honor codes.

"Where it really becomes cheating is when the students bring the past exams (including final exams) to their tests and directly copy," wrote McFarland, an Albany resident who runs a Web marketing and design company.

"Most engineering classes are open book/open notes because of the difficulty of the subject matter, so it's EASY to sneak in 10 years of back tests without being noticed. Even the best professors reuse a problem over the course of 10 years. All the cheater has to do is find the problem and copy."

In an interview, McFarland told Campus Notebook he wasn't in a fraternity. But he said he saw a file cabinet filled with the old materials in at least one and spoke with other students about the practice.

RPI Dean of Students Mark Smith said professors commonly make old exams available as study guides and not just to Greeks.But no two exams are the same, he said. The old tests "are not particularly relevant to current course work."

He called McFarland's claims "mythology." "The mythology I'm referring to is if you have these old tests you don't have to do the work -- you can just study the old exams and get your 'A.' And that's not true," he said. "If you don't know the material, the old tests are not going to help you."

Josh Coyne of RPI's Interfraternity Council said, "The fraternities and sororities are not organizing to defraud the academic system. That is definitely not the case."

First off, this happens and it happens often. In the days since my interview I have spoken to several alumni who agree 100% with my sentiments, however for their own personal reasons did not want to go on public record with their statements.

Let’s break this down a bit further. All students save their old material. It’s natural for members of a fraternity or sorority to share old homework and tests. It’s also natural for them to save several years of old assignments to help fellow members study in the future. I see nothing wrong with this – it is smart.

But let’s not pretend that a student wouldn't then take the next logical step and photocopy the old exams (or print them out…I'm guessing the majority of historical classwork is probably stored online now) and bring them with their notes and textbook to an open book exam. I saw it in nearly EVERY exam I took. When you couple that with a faculty more concerned about research dollars than their students, you have a recipe for disaster.

I want to address the quotes in the article by Dean Smith and Josh Coyne:

• old tests "are not particularly relevant to current course work." I knew plenty of kids who only studied from back tests. What “current course work” are you talking about? The core engineering classes – statics, dynamics, calculus, physics – haven’t changed in years. There are only so many problems a professor has at his or her disposal, and if you have their last five years of tests in your binder, there’s a good chance the professor will repeat the problem. Not always, but it happens often enough.
• The mythology I'm referring to is if you have these old tests you don't have to do the work -- you can just study the old exams and get your 'A.' And that's not true," he said. "If you don't know the material, the old tests are not going to help you." Again, I agree that in the long run you need to know the material. But in a class where you are tested 3-4 times for the semester, you can certainly gain a decided advantage over your classmates by having historical exams at your fingertips during the current exam. You dismissed the notion that previous tests don't help you get an A when you admit in the previous sentence that old tests are made available to students!
• Josh Coyne of RPI's Interfraternity Council said, "The fraternities and sororities are not organizing to defraud the academic system. That is definitely not the case." I want to clear something up. I don’t think the fraternities or sororities are organizing cheating. I don’t believe that anywhere in their bylaws do they condone what I’m talking about. I knew plenty of honest fraternity members who did their work the same way I did. BUT when you encourage the sharing of material, you also open yourself up to the possibility that said material could be used in an unfair manner – in my mind bringing material to tests that other students don’t have is unfair. The IFC has a responsibility along with the Dean and the professors to make an effort to uncover the truth and ensure an equal playing ground for all students.

I also ask you to consider what my motivation here is. I don’t want to see my degree become worthless by a cheating scandal – quite the opposite – I want the problem to be addressed immediately so that the prestige of RPI remains in tact. But more than all of that, I want to see the future business leaders of this world mature into ethical individuals in their four years at RPI. Pumping out brilliant graduates with questionable moral standards that go on to start their own companies and obtain high level positions at companies like GE and IBM is bad for everyone – the university, the companies, and most importantly the society we live in.

Regarding the "code of ethics" that students are refusing to sign. Why exactly is that? It's like steroids in baseball - if you don't have anything to hide you should have no problem taking a drug test to clear your name. If you aren't cheating, you shouldn't have a problem signing a code of ethics.

The bottom line is this - cheating is a problem at RPI. Leadership at the school turns a blind eye and lets it happen. That is wrong. The first step to solving any problem is admitting that there is a problem, and unfortunately RPI appears incapable of doing that at this point in time and that saddens me.

Interview on Ecommerce Forums

I was recently interviewed by Andi Stevens of the new Ecommerce Forums regarding everything from time management to shopping cart selection, and everything in between. The interview was posted in the form earlier today so check it out if you get a chance.

Andi also runs CubeCartSkins.net, a sponsor of this blog (see the ad at the top?) so keep that in mind if you use CubeCart and are looking for an original skin without breaking the bank.

Of course, I also joined the forum and look forward to chatting about some SEO, although I warn you all - I am notorious for hanging around on forums and posting rarely...usually because someone else makes my point for me and I'd rather not spend my entire day in a pointless argument. That said, I love reading the arguments and I actively hover around in several webmaster forums.

Anyway, thank you very much Andi for taking the time out of your busy day to interview me.

It's a celebration b*tches

Pure Adapt recently hit it's one month anniversary. As a collective group what we've accomplished is nothing short of amazing and the immediate success of the business has been phenomenal in my mind (and you know how I have high expectations).

So I called the guys and suggested we go out and celebrate. We are all pouring our hearts and souls into something we believe in, and probably sacrificing more than we realize. So when things go well I think we NEED to take a step back and enjoy the moment. I don't want to be one of those guys that's so obsessed about tomorrow that they forget to enjoy today.

It didn't take much convincing on my end, and we ended up at the Noche lounge in Albany with a $200 bottle of Champagne (expensed to the company of course). Maybe not the most frugal business decision in the world, but a very good one in my mind.

How far can a one man team go?

I think most people's initial reaction to that question is "not very far." Aside from the extremely rare genius inventors (like Thomas Edison or Alexander Gram Bell) nearly every great entrepreneurial mind I can think of has been a part of a team. The greatest individual entrepreneurs all give credit to their teams of people around them. They all (from what I've read) say that one of the keys to success is surrounding yourself with great people.

Which leads me to the question - how far can an individual entrepreneur go? I know from experience of being on both sides of it, that everything is 1000 times better when you have a team of great people to work with. Great teams have people with complimentary skills so you can focus on what you enjoy and what you do best. Great teams have people that will pick you up when you are down, keep things going when you are sick or on vacation, and make up for your weaknesses. It's the classic "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" line that we all know and love.

I think there is an "artificial ceiling" on the truly solo entrepreneur. There's only so much one mind can handle. Outsourcing and hiring interns helps, but I think to get to the point where you are truly able to change the world and be revolutionary, you need to surround yourself with several minds equally as entrepreneurial as yours.

No one is perfect - we all have weaknesses and we all have times when we aren't operating at our peak, it's human nature. In my experiences in college and the working world, and in those thus far with Pure Adapt (compared to SportsLizard and iPrioritize when I was solo), I am a much happier and effective entrepreneur when the weight of the world is not on my shoulders. If I forget something, one of my partners remembers, so I don't feel like I need to remember and plan to do everything.

I'm convinced I need teammates to succeed. Do you?

Michael Vick and corporate image vs. performance

The other day when Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick had his water bottle confiscated by Miami airport security because it smelled like marijuana, Falcons owner Arthur Blank and General Manager Rich McKay wasted no time coming down on Vick publicly:

We are an organization that prides itself on not having off-the-field issues," McKay said. "I think we have done a pretty good job of bringing the right people in here so we don't have to face these types of issues. We don't like it. We don't accept it. It is not what we want.

Normally I would say that comments like that were issued for good PR - because it's what's supposed to be said. But Blank is known for being the type of owner who cares more about HOW he wins than whether he wins. He wants to win as badly as anyone else, but unlike everyone else, wants the corporate image of the Atlanta Falcons to be of an organization filled with good people who care about the community. In the past he's turned down opportunities to acquire players like Terrell Owens that could help the team win because of their checkered pasts.

I hope Vick turns himself around and starts earning his salary - both on and off the field. This whole thing got me to thinking about the larger question of corporate image vs. performance. The business owners that I truly admire (and aspire to become) are the ones that do the right thing because it is the right thing. People like Mr. Blank want their organization and everyone in it to stand for what he stands for.

Could you discipline a key employee because they were ruining your corporate image? Even if it meant a significant drop in performance for your team?

Exactly who is going to buy an iPhone?

I think the iPhone is an absolutely sick device. The functionality is way better than my phone or pretty much any phone, the wide screen movie player is a nice touch added to the music player, and the web browsing capabilities appear to be phenomenal.

BUT - who exactly is going to buy one of these? The 8GB model can't even come close to holding my music and a few movies, so my video iPod is still better. And as cool as the web browsing capabilities are, they don't top what a laptop for the same price can accomplish. I wouldn't risk wearing it while I'm at the gym, I'll stick with my cheap and tiny iPod shuffle for that.

I really only could see value in buying one if I was a huge tech nut or if I was on the go all day long....except for the fact that if I was on the go there are much, much better business solutions like a Treo or a Blackberry.

I ask you, for the $499 or $599 price tag, who actually will buy an iPhone?

MLK and all of the "ism's" in the world

Martin Luther King day never passes without me noticing and taking a step back to reflect. Dr. King devoted his heart and soul to something so simple and so basic that it should go without saying, yet has plagued our society for it's entire existence. He resonates with me because he preached Thomas Jefferson's famous words "All Men are Created Equal" in a world where quite clearly all men were not treated as though they were created equal. It still causes countless pain and suffering and senseless violence and loss of life throughout the world. It quite simply is the largest problem we face as a society.

As long as their has been man their have been the "isms" of the world - racism, sexism, ageism, etc. People have always been treated differently because of their race, gender, religion, age, appearance, upbringing or about a million other things. Coming from an educated middle-class, white, Christian, male I haven't exactly been the biggest target of any of the "isms" in my life. In fact, other than a few asses who treated me like a five year old at my job because I was 22, I've been treated as fairly as a man could ever wish.

But I've seen SO many people I cared about treated differently because they were female or because they weren't white, or because their religious beliefs didn't align with the majority. We have come a long way in this country since our inception, in large part because of people like Dr. King. We are light years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to race relations (in my opinion). Our generation (again, in my opinion) doesn't view color or gender barriers the same as our parents or our grandparents.

We are making progress, but it is not good enough. Dr. King was not fighting for something that's impossible in my mind. Equality is not some unattainable fairy tale. It is possible and it is very attainable. It is not too much to ask that we treat others as we would like to be treated. It's not too much to ask that each and every one of us abide by Mr. Jefferson's words from the Declaration of Independence. It starts one person at a time. If we all do our part our children will never experience the world Dr. King lived in, and will view the "ism's" of the world much like we view slavery today - as a shameful part of our past.

Mark Cuban, Bobby Knight, and the will to win

As previously reported about eight times on the blog, I love Mark Cuban and pretty much everything he stands for. The other day he wrote a post about Bob Knight's record breaking win and how something coach Knight once said stuck with him:

When I was at Indiana you were on 60 Minutes. In your interview you said one single thing that I took to heart. I reminded myself of it while it was in school at Indiana. I reminded myself of it when I failed. I reminded myself of it before any of the many businesses I have started I will continue to remind myself before any of my endeavors going forward. Its also the best advice I've been able to give people of any age who ask me for advice.

You said, and Im paraphrasing: "Everyone has got the will to win, its only those with the will to prepare that do win"

Words for every athlete and those of us who partake in the Sport of Business to live by

And it's so true. I'm not going to pretend that I've been around the type of people Cuban refers to in the post, but I've been around a lot of immensely successful people and the one unifying characteristic that they all have is work ethic. I've also been around a lot of "wanna be" successful people that are all talk but won't take the steps necessary to turn that talk into reality.

I started noticing this in college - I was surrounded by people far more intelligent than me that had virtually no work ethic. The average SAT score at RPI was around 1350 when I started school way back in 2000. Mine was 1220. Most people there were far more intellectually brilliant than myself, but I finished at the top of my class mostly because I outworked them. I just read in their common data set that only 50% of my freshman class graduated within six years. Believe me, it wasn't because they weren't smart. Everyone there is smart. Unfortunately, most of them don't have the will to prepare. It's the one thing that college really taught me.

I saw the exact same at all my internships and at my job after school - there are so many people out there who WANT to be the best, and they are super smart, but they aren't willing to put in the work. I don't know how my business ventures will fare, but I do know that I've surrounded myself with people that have that same will to prepare that I do.

From what I've seen, I can't think of a better indicator of success than hard work and preparation. It's amazing how much one can overcome in intelligence, experience, etc if they have that single trait.

Virtual office or office space (not the movie)?

Earlier today George and I were discussing our growth plan. Between running our sites and managing clients, Pure Adapt (all of three weeks old) is maxing out our time. We were discussing when/how we're going to go about hiring employees and interns, and we were discussing whether or not we'll ever need office space.

Currently we all work from home, and communicate through a combination of Skype, email, and iPrioritize...and it works well. When necessary, we meet at someone's house or go to a Starbucks-type coffee house. With employees, we could do the same (probably more of the coffee houses and less of our places).

Honestly, I don't see the need for office space for a long, long time....if ever. Now I realize that it takes a special type of person to work independently, and we'll have to hire accordingly, but I think it can work. I also think it will be perceived as a HUGE benefit for the independent worker, and might be a competitive advantage when trying to lure some talent away from a larger company.

No sooner than a few hours later did I stumble upon an interview with Jason Fried, the founder of 37 Signals (a "competitor" of iPrioritize that I'm sure doesn't even know iPrioritize exists). I admire a lot about 37 Signals, particularly how they've kept the company completely virtual with 6 employees despite making millions. The main topic of the article is the virtual workplace, and why Fried PREFERS it to a regular workplace. It's not for everyone, but this article helped make me validate my thoughts and think that it's definitely something that will work for Pure Adapt.

Your thoughts?

The control conundrum

I like to have control of everything. When I was a solo entrepreneur, I did. With Pure Adapt I don't. The thing is, I absolutely love working with Mike and George, and they are both great at what they do, but at times I struggle to not WANT to control everything.

The other day this was bothering me, when I realized that this is a problem that every entrepreneur/business owner has...or every good one should have. I decided to leave my job in large part because I wanted to CONTROL my own future. I didn't want to leave it in the hands of someone else. I love running a business because the buck stops with me - if we fail it's my fault and if we succeed it's my glory.

It's natural to want to try to control everything that leads to that success or failure, but the true entrepreneurs in my opinion learn to let go of that desire so that they can spend more time entrepreneuring and less time sticking their noses into every nook and cranny of their business operations.

Boise State and business

Yes it messed up my sleep schedule again. But late last night I couldn't help but revel in the miracle that was Boise State's Fiesta Bowl win. I've never hesitated to compare sports to business, mostly because I believe there are amazing parallels, but last night was such an improbable victory that even Michael Dell would be amazed from his college dorm room.

Sports, like business, allows us to dream. It gives us a medium to prove the doubters wrong. Most people would have said it's impossible for an autistic high school student to score 20 points in 240 seconds in the only game action of his life, or for a college football team to overcome a 31 point third quarter deficit, or for a small school from the CAA to upset the two previous national champions en route to a Final Four appearance, but they all happened in 2006.

Consider the story of Boise State. Before this year they were known more for their smurf turf than their football. Here's what they accomplished:

• They defeated a very good Oregon State team on the road (the same Oregon State team that beat USC)
• They went undefeated and won the WAC
• They were awarded a berth to a BCS game

Stop right there. That season is amazing. They became the only the second non-BCS conference team to land a berth (Utah with Alex Smith and Urban Meyer a few years back), mostly due to the new rules this year (adding an extra game and guaranteeing any team in the top 12 a spot in the BCS).

They were playing Oklahoma. Yea, that Oklahoma. The one with Adrian Peterson, arguably the next great NFL running back. The one with 7 National Championships and 40 Big 12 Conference Titles. They didn't have a chance. But they kept going:

• They jumped out to a 14 point lead
• When Oklahoma scored 15 points in 24 seconds to take a 7 point lead with 1:02 left, they overcame a 4th and 18 to force the game into overtime....4th and 18! With an amazing hook-and-ladder play
• When Adrian Peterson took the first play in overtime into the endzone, they battled back, earning first down after first down
• On 4th and 2, they motioned their QB out of the backfield and the RB threw a TD pass!
• Instead of tying the game with an extra point, they went for the win with a 2 point conversion.
• They won the game with a brilliant fake-bubble-screen-statue-of-liberty play (if that doesn't make sense, check the replay and it will). A play that was set up by a bubble-screen pass they ran months ago!
• They won the Fiesta Bowl, a BCS game, and finished undefeated....improbable!
  

And to top it off, Ian Johnson proposed to the head cheerleader on national television after scoring the winning 2 point conversion, and she said yes. Truly one of the most phenomenal things I have ever witnessed.

So what can we, as entrepreneurs take away from this? Here's what I take away:

Large goals don't really seem that large if you take them one step at a time. Believe in yourself and in what you do. Don't listen to critics or let them place an artificial ceiling above you. Hard work and teamwork can overcome a lack of resources and a lack of talent. Take risks to seize opportunity.

That's how sports miracles happen, and I'm pretty sure that's how business miracles happen too.