Last Night’s Startup Junkie Underground program from the DaVinci Institute featured Brian Schwartz, author of the soon to be published “50 Interviews: Entrepreneurs “. Schwartz took the stage to offer some thoughts on what he learned from his 50 interviews and gave the audience a better sense of the interview process through interviewing a panel of three entrepreneurs. Writing a book was not Schwartz’s initial intention when he began. He did so at the suggestion of his wife who wanted him to have a better sense of what it took to start a business before he quit his job in IT sales. The idea for the book did not come until Schwartz was about 40 interviews into the process.
Schwartz interviewed a wide-variety of people from small business owners he interacted with each day – like his dentist and yoga instructor – to people who have built companies that now generate millions in revenue. The most notable themes generated from this spectrum of experiences, Schwartz has summed up in two truths:
- Passion is so key – the business ideas must be somewhat consuming to the entrepreneur
- A purpose, or impersonal goal that is much bigger than the entrepreneur himself must exist
Schwartz already has plans for a second volume of interviews with entrepreneurs with a broader goal of creating a go-to book for anyone thinking of starting a business. He is also thinking about using the 50 interview concept for other professions or types of people (e.g. cancer survivors, realtors) but would like to find other interviewers who have a passion for the specific topic.
Schwartz then brought a panel of entrepreneurs on stage to give the audience a sense of what the interview process was like, asking some of the same questions he asked during interviews for the book. The panelists were:
- Dave Taylor of Intuitive.com who has founded a variety of ventures that aim to help companies be more social
- Gina Schrek of Synapse 3Di, a company focused on company learning and training
- Allison Taylor who focuses on subconscious and non-traditional strategies for company growth and is the founder of Paravox
A common theme noted in one form or another by all panelists was the flexibility and the ability to work on what they wanted as key reasons for striking out on their own. Several panelists noted the time it takes to get a business up and running or as Dave Taylor put it “You can’t just hang a shingle out and get business.” Schwartz stated this was a theme echoed by almost all of his interviewees who maintained other jobs as they got their businesses off the ground.
Some other interesting answers to questions posed by Shwartz are included below:
Question: Is an MBA valuable to starting a business?
Dave Taylor cited the importance of “a balance between the school of hard knocks” or just getting out there and going for it and understanding theoretical foundation as it is important to “understand how to read a spreadsheet with financials.”
Question: Who is someone who helped you along the way?
Schrek noted the balance brought to the business by her business partner and husband where she serves in the self-proclaimed role of “psycho” generating the big ideas while her husband is “logical” providing balance and execution on the ideas.
Question: To what do you attribute your success?
Allison Taylor felt that walking in with confidence that she could achieve her goal was essential noting that “you can never outperform your own identity.”
The DaVinci Institute produces a variety of events designed to share the knowledge of most talented thinkers and seasoned veterans who have fundamentally changed the business landscape. Upcoming events include a Management by Strengths Bootcamp on January 24 and Night with a Futurist, featuring Thomas Frey on February 2. The next Startup Junkie Underground meeting will take place on February 16th at the MADCAP theatre and feature Joel Comm, an internet marketing expert and best-selling author.
