Venture Energy Blog

Seeking Perpetual Inspiration as Entrepreneurial Fuel – Johnson Cook

Venture Energy Blog - Seeking Perpetual Inspiration as Entrepreneurial Fuel – Johnson Cook

Category Archives: Association

Tips for Assessing Fit on the Front End

 

My favorite saying from mushy success guys is this: “Your success trajectory over the next 12-months is 99% determined by two things.  First by the quantity and type of books you read, and second by the people you meet.”

With this in mind, are you intentional about who you meet, and how you spend your energy helping others?   I’ve found that I can’t help everyone.   Some folks don’t fit my personality or my high-energy MO. They don’t align with my core values or they drain my energy.   Given this law of the universe (that everyone isn’t a fit) combined with a calendar that stays overbooked, I now assess fit on the front-end of a relationship.

Here are some tips that work for me.

  • Respect to the calendar process – I use several tools to manage my calendar. When someone complains about their inability to schedule a meeting with me, they often sound as though I should apologize for having a busy  schedule.  This is a huge indicator of patience, respect, and seeing things through others’ eyes.  I can’t help these people because I wouldn’t be willing to introduce them to my network, because of the risk that they would treat them similarly.
  • Mode of communication – I hate the telephone. I prefer face-to-face meetings. For information transfer, e-mail is my preferred mode of communication.   Without debating the value of the phone, etc… It is important to note that different people prefer different modes of communicating, and when I’m building a relationship with someone, I like to know that I’ll be able to communicate with them in my own style.  It’s hard to build a relationship of value when two people prefer different modes of communication.
  • Attention to detail – When people show up the wrong day, week, or MONTH to their scheduled appointment with me, it’s a major red flag. DUUUHHH!   Sadly, this has happened most often when I’m meeting with college students to help them find career connections.  For some reason, kids are not taught to use a calendar.   I keep a large stick in the Village that I can use to bang them squarely on the head and suggest that to get a job, the first lesson is to learn how to manage your own schedule.
  • Aggressive WIIFM – These folks reek of selfishness like the sales guy at the conference who stayed out drinking until 6am reeks of booze.   They want to be sure I run through the checklist of things I can give them before our meeting so that I have everything lined up and ready.   It’s sad to see.  And yes, you can see (and smell) it coming from miles away.
  • Obvious stepping stone abuse – These are the folks who have looked at my LinkedIn profile, found a few VIP connections and want to spend an entire meeting asking me how I know so-and-so and what they have to do for an introduction.   To quote my favorite Monday Night Football saying: C’mooonnnn MAN! 
  • Negative Online personality – You will love this one. If you aren’t sure about someone, take a look at their twitter stream or Facebook posts. Count how many of their status updates are positive and how many are negative. This ratio will give a great read on someone’s personality type.

I proclaimed in the beginning of the year that my New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is to provide meaningful value to every person I meet with this year. So far, I feel that I have done a good job of this.  However, I’ve learned that not everyone can be helped at the same level. These front-end filters have been valuable in thinning the herd to the meetings where I can add real value.

 

True Students of Entrepreneurship

 

pianoIn the last 100 days, as I have been full throttle on studying how we can grow and accelerate the startup ecosystem in Atlanta, it has been a deep-dive observation on entrepreneurship, not just in our city, but in general.  One theme I’m starting to see is the dramatic differences between lifestyle entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs.

Seth Godin had a brilliant post recently:

Studying entrepreneurship without doing it

…is like studying the appreciation of music without listening to it.

The cost of setting up a lemonade stand (or whatever metaphorical equivalent you dream up) is almost 100% internal. Until you confront the fear and discomfort of being in the world and saying, “here, I made this,” it’s impossible to understand anything at all about what it means to be a entrepreneur. Or an artist.

In that sense, I’m starting to see that individuals who have a single profitable lifestyle company, generating piles of cash for their families aren’t as similar as you may think to the entrepreneurs who create company after company, after company.

When you think about it, how can they be?   If you have to solve each problem just once, for one particular situation, in one market, with one team, to serve one purpose– you don’t learn about the processes of solving those problems, you just solve the problems.

If you create one painting, are you in the same league as someone who paints for a living?

If you land a plane once, are you now a pilot?

If you learn Chopsticks on the piano, are you a pianist?

Building a team, attacking a market, building a product– lifestyle entrepreneurs learn how do it just for that one company in one situation.   The most impressive entrepreneurs I’ve met are the serial entrepreneurs. They  learn these lessons beyond a single instance. They are true students of entrepreneurship, not just students of one company.

Serial entrepreneurship isn’t for everybody. I am not promoting that you aren’t an entrepreneur if you don’t pursue multiple companies.

What I am promoting are these two morals:

a) as an ecosystem, it is important for us to recognize the different types of entrepreneurs.

b) as individuals running companies, self-awareness of our own entrepreneurial journey will give us the right stuff to improve.

 

 

 

 

Tribes

 

In relation to the last post about connecting your separate networks, the next axiom reminds us that it’s normal to have closed, separate networks where you live.

Rainforest Axiom 6: High social barriers outside of close circles of family and friends are the norm in the world.

Consider the origins of human society. We’ve always lived in tribes. It’s the safest way to function in the wild. Because of this, there is automatic trust in dealing with someone from your tribe, while at the same time, anyone from outside the tribe could be a threat. Outsiders are unknown. It is our biological nature to distrust them, for our own protection.

This is why we are having such fun with the Atlanta Tech Village. We have a brand, spankin, shiny new tribe!  In less than 90-days, we’ve brought together over 100 individuals, now identifying themselves as “Villagers,” who are getting to know each other better every day.

From our Community Lunches on Fridays to serendipitous elevator rides to afternoon roof relaxation sessions and Piedmont Road crossing expeditions to the Company Cafeteria Chipotle: bonding of former strangers and disconnected networks is happening… fast.

My personal hope is that Villagers in ATV will soon be connecting their other networks to those networks of other Villagers, and the growth of connections in the Atlanta startup community will begin growing at exponential rates.

 

Introductions in the Atlanta Startup Rainforest

The old saying “It’s not what you know, but who you know…” is becoming more true as we become a more interdependent community.

This is especially true in an innovation ecosystem like Atlanta startup rainforest, the number of connections you have directly correlates to your probability of success. When we view the startup community as an ecosystem with the intention of accelerate it, the metrics we need to focus on are the total number of connections people have and the speed at which they can find new connections.

From the book:

Rainforest Axiom 5: The vibrancy of a Rainforest correlates to the number of people in a network and their ability to connect with one another.

It’s no coincidence that we focus a lot of energy on creating serendipity. The primary output of a serendipitous interaction is a new connection. Or stated differently– serendipitous interactions are the primary vehicle for creating new connections.  We need to accelerate connections.

Most of us operate in multiple networks. Whether separated by industry, social groups, geography, or even family.   When you see potential connections that exist between your networks, the best thing you can do for yourself and your community is to make the connection. Provide the introduction. Take both to lunch. Host a party and invite both networks. Networks that are closed do not feed the number of people in the larger network.

I love connecting people between networks. It’s fun and easy to do. You just have to have your eyes open and the goal of providing value to everyone you meet.  The easiest way to provide value is to make an introduction that is meaningful.

Give it a try, prove me wrong.

 

Brad Feld, The Gandhi of Venture Capital

 

Brad-FeldBrad Feld needs no introduction.   I love this guy. Intense, open, and definitely thinking about the right things.   If you want to learn more about Brad, check out www.feld.com/. He’s also written a bunch of great books that I strongly recommend.   I am truly humbled and honored that Brad took some time to share some of his thoughts on the questions other entrepreneurs have been answering on this site.   Here we go….

What do you do as an entrepreneur to balance your most important personal relationships?

I have a series of daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly rhythms that I use with my wife Amy. We start each morning with “four minutes in the morning”, where no matter were we are in the world – together or apart – we spend four minutes together. We finish the day with a few minutes together before going to bed. Whenever Amy calls during the day, I answer no matter what I’m doing (her ringtone, which she chose a while ago, is the Imperial March). We try to spend as much of each weekend together as things are very intense during the weekday. Once a month we go out for “life dinner” on the first day of each month. This isn’t “date night” but rather a chance for us to reflect on the previous month and look forward to the next month. As part of the life dinner ritual, we exchange a gift. Once a quarter, we go on a “Qx vacation off the grid” where I give Amy my iPhone on Saturday and she gives it back to me the following Saturday. We go somewhere and have a disconnected vacation – where we are just together, the two of us.

What is your exercise routine? 

I’m a marathon runner so I’m always training for a marathon (I’ve done 24 of them). I generally try to run five days a week with long runs on the weekend. I like to swim, but don’t do it as often as I’d like to. I’ve never figured out how to do a consistent weight training routine – maybe v47 of me will figure it out.

What gives you the most personal energy?

I’m an introvert who functions extremely well in public settings. But to build up my personal energy, I need to sit quietly, either alone or with Amy. I like dinners with one other couple, long runs, and lots of time on the couch reading next to my awesome wife and dog Brooks.

What do you avoid because it drains your personal energy?

I don’t really avoid anything, but my normal routine, which includes a large amount of public activity, group meetings, and endless real time interactions, really drains me. 

What are your most proud moments regarding your own legacy?

I don’t think of myself in the context of having a legacy. I live in the moment, and try to do my best all the time with what I’ve got in front of me.

How do you find ways to help others and give back?

Amy and I have been very public and visible about giving to a wide variety of causes. Our goal is to give away all of our money while we are alive – we view the money as a tool to help us contribute what we want to the world. We also love to do things randomly – we call them random acts of kindness. They range for paying for dinner anonymously for the young couple on a date in a restaurant we are in to funding undergraduate education for amazing people we know who can’t afford the school they want to go to.

Do you have written personal core values, what are they?

I have a deeply held belief in “giving before you get.” I am willing to put energy into any relationship without any specific expectation of what I’m going to get in return. This isn’t altruism – I expect that the return I get across the sum of all the energy I put into things will dwarf what I put in – and it has over the 30 years of my adult life. However, I don’t need to define the transaction dynamics up front – I think this limits what you get out.

 

Let’s Build a Startup Rainforest in Atlanta

 

Recently, I finished reading The Rainforest by Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitz.  These guys are VCs that did an amazing job of writing a book that applied depth of ideas behind why Silicon Valley delvers such output of startup innovation while other communities (many with similar assets) fail.   The authors apply biological models to economic systems to see what we can learn from why the rainforest thrives.    I don’t feel I can do the ideas justice in just a single post so I’ll be my thoughts on how Atlanta, and our very own Atlanta Tech Village, can create a rainforest of innovation and a thriving startup ecosystem; so this is the first of a series let’s call “The Atlanta Startup Rainforest.”

From The Rainforest book:

Rainforest Axiom #1… While plants are harvested most efficiently on farms, weeds sprout best in Rainforests.

The idea here is that the agricultural mindset of planting seeds, keeping the weeds out, then harvesting your mostly predictable crops is the opposite of what we want to happen in an Atlanta startup ecosystem.  What we need is for new species to form regularly. We need surprises.  We need predictable unpredictability!  We need great companies that, at their birth, are indistinguishable from those that will fade back into the elements.  We can’t predict what will work, who will thrive, who will fail: nor should we try. We should be encouraging a system that encourages everyone to give it a try.

In our Atlanta Startup Rainforest, we can’t control the specific process of each individual company being planted and growing, but what we can do is manage the system. We want to be sure that all the right elements are in place for the system to create new sparks that turn into flames. (Hmmm… perhaps I’ll avoid “fire” metaphors for this “forest theme.”)

The South has many of the elements in place to become a rainforest of innovation. Great people, financial resources, great universities, low cost of living, an attitude of sharing and helping one another. Broad connections and deep relationships are common in Atlanta, introductions happen easily, infrastructure is solid, policy is sound (with room for improvement and headed in the right direction).  Our job as leaders of the rainforest are to continue to manage how these elements are connected within the system.   More to come on all this as we continue to explore this idea.

Please… If you know anyone working in, on, and around the Atlanta startup scene, I encourage you to pass this along and ask them to subscribe via e-mail to this blog. It’s important that we work together in unity to explore these ideas and bring Atlanta to a Top 10 tech startup hub in the US.

 

Person Building – The First Entrepreneur Profile

 

Since I launched this blog almost a year ago I’ve focused on topics around finding inspiration and energy required to build a better person. Specifically a person who happens to be building a business: the entrepreneur.

Most of the nuggets and ideas I’ve shared aren’t original. They are things I’ve picked up from the amazing people I meet every day.  So being a guy who is addicted to introducing people and making connections, I want to introduce you to some of these individuals directly.

In the coming weeks, I will be doing a series of short posts about successful entrepreneurs who have made a difference in my life.  They won’t be long in-depth write-ups, but they will be answers to a list of questions that always carry interesting answers.

I’ll do the proper thing and lead off by example, with my own answers to these questions. So first up: Johnson Cook.

What do you do as an entrepreneur to balance your most important personal relationships (spouse, kids, family)?

My wife and I have a goal to schedule at least two 4+ day vacations per year with just each other (no kids, no friends). It’s important to schedule the next one as soon as we finish one – 6 months out. Otherwise the insanity of 3 young kids plus everything else keeps it from happening.  I also have a morning routine with my oldest – to do breakfast together and take him to school. It limits my availability for breakfast meetings or being at the office early, but I make up for it by getting up around 5am each day to get in several hours of good deep work.

 What is your exercise routine?

I don’t let two days go by without running. If I have extra time on a non-running day, I will go to the gym and swim. Peachtree City has amazing trails in the woods and lakes that make for great combination of tasks: running time is quiet time.

What gives you the most personal energy?

Reading in the morning and exercise.  After exercise I feel unstoppable. If I miss a workout, I feel like crap.

 What do you avoid because it drains your personal energy?

People who are always down on their luck. People who constantly complaining but who don’t take action.  People who’re generally negative towards others.

Are you involved in a church or other religious organization? How do you think spirituality is important to your entrepreneurial success?

Part of what prompted the idea of this series of questions for other entrepreneurs is that I started noticing a trend that most “rockstar entrepreneurs” I know are either heavily involved in their church or are deeply spiritual in other ways.  Yes, I’m active in our church, (Peachtree City United Methodist Church) and occasionally attend different churches.   Our family is Methodist.  I believe having a rhythm to slow down and be in a large group on a regular basis that is pondering issues bigger than our day-to-day is very healthy.   (Side note: I also think that organized religion has done a lot to screw up the way people experience God. It’s a shame that churches in general have turned so many people away from an important personal necessity. But I won’t go there today.)

 What are your most proud moments regarding your own legacy?

I work hard to teach my kids that they are in charge of their own lives.  This especially focuses on entrepreneurship, but also on how they manage their decisions. I don’t think I had this realization until way too late in life and I think they can make a difference in the world if at least if they hear the right words over and over.

 How do you find ways to help others and give back?

I love making introductions, because I love helping people exchange talents, ideas, and resources.  I love, love it. I’m all about giving on an individual level more than an institutional level. Give to someone where you can see the direct impact that minute. It’s so rewarding and can go so far.

What hobbies are important to you and why do they give you energy?

Golf is great time to connect with friends.   Flying airplanes is great mental challenge, although something that my schedule has kept me from doing as much as I’d like. I don’t count running as a hobby because it’s way more important. Hobbies can be ignored.

Do you have a personal mastermind group? Can you describe how they give you energy?

My Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) forum, and my Quench Network (Quench) forum. They are amazing and are the most critical relationships to me aside from my family.

What competitive advantages do you have as an individual that has made / will make you more successful than the guy you are competing against in business?

I believe my morning routine is my competitive advantage. It’s setup nicely where I get all the fundamentals in first thing. I have established a rhythm of waking up very early, reading, writing, family time, and then workout. It’s the best way to start the day I can imagine.

I enjoyed answering these questions, and I hope you find a nugget that is useful.

 

 

Trust

 

One of the amazing aspects of the Atlanta Tech Village is the instant connection the members, aka Villagers, seem to have with each other. It’s great to watch friendships and close working relationships being formed because people share something in common as simple as working in the same building on similar life goals. It is with the these relationships beginning to form, that I believe we will see more and more a precious thing called “trust” form.

Trust is a huge asset in business. Trust is what makes people move. If I trust you, I will do business with you. If I trust you, I will recommend you to an investor, a potential employee, or a company working on a similar product.

Trust is also key to finding the secret to happiness: Alignment.  If you are working in an environment full of trust (both others’ trust in you, and your trust in others), you are more comfortable, happier, and able to function on a higher level.  Where trust is lacking, things stall. When a company doesn’t trust a leader – for lack of transparency, a question in competence, or just personality issues – a culture cannot thrive.

Trust, however, doesn’t happen just because you work in the same building. It happens over time. It happens through a series of short conversations and the occasional long conversation. It happens by learning about something else you have in common with each other. It is also very easily transferred.  I have my A-list of folks who come with an automatic seal of approval. If they trust you, and they tell me they trust you (either implicitly or explicitly), I will automatically trust you.

Trust is a cool energy builder. Try to trust more people.

 

 

Develop Yourself by Leading Leaders

 

challenging-climbIf you’re looking to grow as a leader, I challenge you to find a place where you can be a Leader of Leaders.

I’ve found that leading leaders is challenging, inspirational, and can lead to amazing trajectories in life. For me, some of my roles that have been most rewarding are taking on the role of moderator in my EO forum, then later joining the EO Atlanta Board, and now being involved in the Atlanta Tech Village.

In each of these experiences, working side by side with entrepreneurs who have already accomplished amazing feats in life, are extremely well connected, and are the most dynamic humans walking the planet has led me to be better in so many ways.

  • You learn from other leaders things that you can’t learn in a group of “ordinary.”
  • When a team is made up of all extraordinary humans, the team itself accomplishes things that “ordinary” teams cannot fathom.
  • Group dynamics in leaders are extreme. Managing strong personalities, deeply engrained opinions and passionate expression of those opinions is challenging and will push you to the limits of your patience and tolerance. It will make dealing with “ordinary” people seem easy.

This is one of the reasons the Atlanta Tech Village is emitting such an attractive energy to the community. It is the brightest and best the South has to offer all gathering in one small corner of Buckhead. The enthusiasm, optimism, geeky smarts, ambition, and inspirational accomplishments are amazing.

 

Where are you working to be Famous?

 

Where are you famousOne thing that I’ve found interesting in the tech startup community (at least in Atlanta, but I’m sure it exists elsewhere) is that there are a lot of folks clamoring to be famous among the circle of other startups and entrepreneurs: even though fame in these circles does little for actual progress with their company.

It seems to me that some of these folks would be better served if they put their focus towards being famous in circles where their customers live, work, and play.

Startups make terrible customers for other startups. They have no money, infrastructure, staff, or other resources needed to be a good profitable customer.

In my entrepreneurial journey, I found the most profitable deposits of energy came from going “all in” on industry associations specific to my company (most recently: professional and trade associations, distance learning, eLearning, etc…). Most of these people were not in Atlanta. It required me to get on a plane often. To suck up sponsorship fees every year. To volunteer to be on conference planning committees.  But it paid off in the right ways. It was the right place to be building relationships, street cred, and friends.   Those were the relationships that moved the needle.

I’m not saying it’s not important to be actively involved in the startup community. Of course you need to be around peers and others in your same boat. But be sure it’s not at the expense of getting crazy involved with the circles with people who can change your trajectory.

 

Willing to Organize Less

 

EMyth - ManagerI’ve started to notice that something I usually consider a strength can be a weakness that limits me in my entrepreneurial journey.

In, Michael Gerber’s E-Myth, he teaches the idea that the entrepreneur must master the balance between the three inner roles that he needs when starting and growing a business.

  • The Technician – this is actually doing the work, making the widget, writing the code, sweeping the floor, helping the customer
  • The Manager – this is organizing the business, creating org charts, financial forecasting, growth planning, hiring, arranging, keeping the organizational machine operating
  • The Visionary – this is the creative big dreamer, seeing the long game, painting a vision of big success so that everyone on board can know where the bus is going

Gerber says to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must be aware of these three roles and balance them and fill them each with yourself or an actual person as you grow. My observation during our time building the Atlanta Tech Village is that my “inner manager” sometimes gets too involved and over-plans, over-organizes. Have you ever noticed this in yourself?

The problem with over-managing is that you become invested in the plan rather than the vision. If you keep the vision as the priority rather than the plan, you will probably find that your first, second, and even third plan wasn’t the right way to get there.  This is what being a scrappy entrepreneur is all about. Your plan yesterday will probably be thrown out the window – and you need to be ok with this.

Obviously, if you don’t have a clear long-term Vision and WHY, changing plans every day can be a problem. It means you’re floundering, spinning your wheels and not going anywhere. But if you have that clearly painted picture in your mind of where you are going, it is probably a good idea to evaluate how willing are you to change your planned route to get there.

 

The Great Balancing Act of the Atlanta Tech Village

 

Atlanta Tech Village - Balancing ActThe Atlanta Tech Village is a “double-bottom line” enterprise, as David Cummings has written about several times. Meaning that profits will be measured in (A) the value we create for the Atlanta tech community by growing more successful startups and (B) the monetary value we create for the Atlanta Tech Village as a for-profit organization.

This is trickier than it sounds. Seriously.

Why?    Because each goal challenges the other.

  • If we focused too much on “B,” we could charge a ton of money to the startups, investors, and service providers that want to be in the village. Obviously, we have proven that there is demand. Economics 101 teaches you that when supply is limited and demand is high, you raise the prices! But that’s not the goal here – we aren’t trying to take cash strapped startups and raise their expenses. We want to make it easier for them to grow and thrive.
  • If we focused too much on “A,” then we would ultimately give away the on-site memberships at cost (or less) and end up looking like a non-profit that would have to sustain itself by fundraising and sources like… gasp… the government.

The ultimate goal is to make connections that matter and add value, and find the ways to make profits in those connections. The win-win-win is the scenario that we seek and it will not be easy. This will be a journey defined by the ultimate balancing act.

  • Startup WIN = low-cost, high-value that helps them grow
  • Service Provider / Partner / Sponsor WIN = high-value services, visibility, connections, introductions, facilities
  • Atlanta Tech Village WIN = the first two Wins + money on the bottom line at the end of the day

Smart associations have known this for years. Membership dues are not where you make money for R&D, growth, and exciting new programs. Dues are there to provide the basic necessities.  The members are the organization.   Revenue for growth must come from “non-dues revenue.”  Things like educational programs (connecting experts to people who need knowledge), investments (connecting capital to members who can use it),  affinity and revenue-share services (getting discounts for members who use specific services), and in the case of the Atlanta Tech Village – facility rentals for event space, happy hours, conferences, and more (given that the members’ use of the facility receives first priority.)

What an exciting challenge ahead – the great balancing act of 2013!