Day 1
One doesn’t decide to become an entrepreneur, but rather one is an entrepreneur. At day 1 of the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival, many panelists and moderators noted that you can come up with ideas, identify opportunities, and build businesses, but there’s a sense of passion, a spark, (a “genetic defect” in the words of marketing professor Jeffrey Carr), or an indefatigable sense of energy that seems to come with identifying one’s self as an entrepreneur.
Don’t just solve a problem, but solve a problem that’s been internalized and that’s bothersome day in and day out. The need to create a solution and build something is what drives these folks. Persistence is the number one quality that distinguishes a successful entrepreneur. We heard this message repeatedly throughout the day, albeit in different forms. Panelists discussed how they couldn’t envision doing anything else; opting for building a product or a firm wasn’t a decision, but a need; that some people just have to make something, and these people are called entrepreneurs.
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
Dennis Crowley, founder of foursquare noted, instead of waiting around for someone to build what he wanted, he could just build it on his own. Either the alternative products were broken or Crowley could build them better. He acknowledged that Facebook or Google could disrupt or take over the foursquare model, but that shouldn’t disrupt the vision or confidence to execute held by a passionate (though well-grounded) entrepreneur. For years, Crowley worked on the concept of foursquare, debuting the dodgeball service, working other jobs, and revisiting the concept. Rather than moving along, Crowley stuck with his idea until society and requisite technology was ready for his application.
Don Katz, Audible
Another theme that we heard throughout the day was the importance of basic technical literacy amongst founders. Crowley wrote an initial version of foursquare in crappy PHP which was later re-written by a formally trained engineer. Fred Wilson pointed out the popularity of recently funded CodeAcademy, a site dedicated to bringing programming education to the masses. Steinhardt professor, Aaron Cohen confirmed with similar thoughts, and concluding speaker Don Katz, CEO of Audible, noted how even he, originally a journalist, learned COBOL back in the day. The primary argument is that technical literacy permits non-technical founders to avoid getting screwed by over-paying for software development, and allows for having more meaningful conversations when talking to engineering staff.
Personally, I wish I took a foreign language in college (though I did take Latin in high school). Whenever I go to Europe, I always wish I was fluent in something other than English, and I’ll always spend a good chunk of time studying the language of wherever I’m visiting so I can ask for the best dessert or a beer. During my recent trip to Germany, I spent a few months taking busuu lessons, for example, and was conversant enough to make it through a meal; however, I’m fluent in several non-linguistic languages, including various programming syntaxes, as well as music. I’m often approached by non-technical friends for thoughts on their ideas from a technical perspective, and having a minimal technical background will absolutely provide access to all sorts of opportunities.
Computer Science Literacy
Further, however, I think that the introductory lessons taught within the study of computer science should be covered in high school, and not just in the AP class. Things like algorithms, creating a web page, or customizing an Excel spreadsheet are useful things to understand regardless of career. (Some of this isn’t even covered in the college programs.) Programming literacy is no less relevant than Earth Sciences or Astronomy (I’ll grant that Bio/Chemistry/Physics is perhaps still more critical), and software development should be viewed as a tool, like essay construction, and taught early in schools.
Arguably, the problem solving and analytical thinking skills that come with understanding how to sort data or structure a normalized schema are more useful in adult life, on average, than Calculus. I remember back in elementary school playing with Logo, moving a turtle around the screen drawing pictures. The whole class enjoyed the computer lab with this programming exercise, but it only lasted up until third grade. I think there’s room for improvement here.
Day 2
The themes of passion and persistence from Day 1 of the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival carried throughout the panels of Day 2. There were some great anecdotes told during the Serial Entrepreneurs panel (moderated by my Digital Media Marketing prof Greg Coleman), and you’ll find no shortage of interesting snippets on Twitter under #NYUEF. For example, Fadi Chehadé, founder of Vocado, CoreObjects and Rosetta Net, compared starting a company to having a child: there are those great moments like after completing an IPO when it smiles at you, but it mostly just pees and poops a lot. He added that being a VC is like being a grandparent.
Jack Jia, Baynote
Jack Jia, founder of Baynote and Interwoven, gave his perspective on work-life balance: it’s important. He described how he realized that physical exercise was critical to his ability to break down blocks to innovation – taking the break and doing something active was necessary for his thought process. Coleman then extended this thought to work-life balance in general.
Another topic that kept recurring was the issue of finding a technical cofounder. There are a lot of people with great ideas, but who lack the technical competency for implementing those ideas. This touches on what was noted regarding the importance of minimum technical literacy; however, a common proposed solution to finding a technical cofounder was to hang out at the engineering school. If NYU’s computer science or engineering schools are anything like Dartmouth’s, where I got my undergraduate degree, then you’ll only look like a techie stalker hanging out at the engineering school.
Social Networking for Co-Founders
The computer lab at Dartmouth was not a place for social networking – most people working there were focused on getting homework done, not on meeting people. Abstractly, however, this is a good idea: hang out where technical people hang out and you’re more likely to meet those people. When Chris Dixon spoke at the NYU VC Conference, he discussed how he’d attend every techie event he could find. I’d suggest looking at the technical Meetup groups, as engineers do attend them and those engineers are more likely than not going to be interested in startup development.
The Knot
The Festival concluded with an interview of two founders of The Knot, who told the story of their firm’s conception and inception. They also told the audience about a presentation they’d recently seen about how to fix the currently broken wedding planning industry. This was an unexpected topic for The Knot given the brand thinks that it has already fixed the wedding planning industry, they “didn’t realize it was broken!” However, they noted that “we didn’t realize Quicken was broken until Mint came along,” and perhaps we’ll realize Salesforce is broken once Nimble gains traction. In other words, it’s very possible that The Knot could be superceded by a more relevant, current, or innovative platform or solution, and so even nearly two decades out, they’re still constantly improving things for their customers, and still constantly innovating the brand.
In summary, I’m very impressed with what NYU pulled off with this weekend’s Festival. The turnout and support from alums and staff was very encouraging, and it helped remind me, a part-time student from Westchester, that there is a huge community and network beyond the classroom, something that I haven’t seen much due to my own demands on time. More importantly, however, though there was no impromptu showing by Mayor Bloomberg, this event reaffirms that NYC is to become a force to be reckoned with in the global startup scene.
