Tonight’s Digital Media Marketing discussion at NYU Stern was the penultimate class of the term. On one hand, this is really cool, because I so rarely have a reason to use the word ‘penultimate’ or ‘sex toys’ in context – and really, I’ll take what excitement I can get; on the other hand, I’ve enjoyed our guest lecturers and it’ll be rough switching from this entrepreneurial environment to Business Communication, batting cleanup for my Winter term.
Foursquare & LearnVest
Tonight, we heard from Foursquare‘s CEO, Dennis Crowley, and LearnVest‘s CEO, Alexa Von Tobel. Like many prior classes, we focused this week on how the kernel of an idea comes to be, and how to microwave it into a salty and buttery pop of corn (possibly my first metaphor on this blog). I’d actually already heard Dennis speak, at NYU’s Entrepreneurs Festival a few weeks back, though this evening he was much more open and candid on certain topics with the promise that the class wouldn’t tweet anything labeled as off-the-record. Alexa’s backstory was also unique, having dropped out of Harvard to self-fund a prototype of LearnVest, which she described as Weight Watchers for Personal Finance.
It was especially interesting to hear the contrasts between Dennis’s and Alexa’s approaches to pitching their ventures: Dennis said he pitched Foursquare with 80 slides discussed in 20 minutes, whereas Alexa had a very focused and thorough ~10-slide deck. Both approaches tell a story, but in very different manners. Story-telling as a means of pitching or presenting has remained of relevance throughout the entire term, and tonight’s addendum emphasized the importance of telling your story in your own voice, else risk it seeming disingenuous.
Do Stuff You’re Passionate About
Which brings me to Sunday nights and sex toys. Another common theme we’ve seen with our guest entrepreneur lecturers is a tremendously energetic spirit. These folks are really friggin passionate about what they do, and not just because they’re psyched about running cool businesses, but because they’re solving problems they want to or even have to solve. Alexa elaborated, saying that one should only start a sex toy business if you’re really passionate about sex toys, and come Sunday night, if you have a pit in your stomach about having to go to work Monday morning, then you should question if you’ve found the right sex toy (paraphrased) (euphamism). It’s clear that Alexa and Dennis love what they do, and that type of visible energy is motivational and contagious.
