2. Not a VC, investment bank, or media company, rather an
ecosystem
Software platform
Events, gatherings
Research
Advisory
Vator Investment Club (VIC)
3. Highly regard by entrepreneurs and investors
Vator Splash was a great momentum-
builder for us as we were getting ready to
fundraise. The victory provided social
proof to prospective investors and
increased our chances of successfully
attracting investment. We went on to
raise $1M from a great group of angel
investors!
Gagan Biyani
Founder of Sprig, Udemy
Vator's competition platform made it simple to
judge contestants… It's the most efficient
solution to judging competitions and it makes
the process of judging a lot more fun!e Vator
Splash competition makes it easy and efficient
to review a large number of early-stage startups
that I would not otherwise have been exposed
to. Jeremy Liew, Partner, Lightspeed
To be back on stage at a Vator event at this
exciting time in Thumbtack’s history is a
kind of homecoming for us. Winning Vator’s
first competition helped launch Thumbtack.
Marco Zappacosta,
Founder & CEO Thumbtack
4. Who am I?
CEO / Founder Vator
Columnist/Correspondent for Dow
Jones/Marketwatch, CNBC, Fox
Tech Anchor for CBS
Managed $1B money market fund
for AIG
Random facts:
Mother of 4 boys
Trekked to Everest Base Camp
Rode the Tour de France (Pyrenees);
Ran the Camino de Santiago
Rode the Death Ride (California
Alps)
Worked for Donald Trump
5. Do one thing every day
that scares you
Eleanor Roosevelt
6. Do start every day with an
accomplishment
“If you want to change the world, start off by
making your bed”
Admiral William McRaven
12. Do be determined and resilient
Scott Banister, CEO Ironport
acquired by Cisco for
$800M
Paul Buchheit, creator Gmail;
Founder Friendfeed, sold to Facebook
for $50M
13. Just DO it
Sometimes it’s just “Time to make the
donuts”
Dunkin Donuts 1984 commercial
I don’t really like speaking like this. I’m an introvert and I love to write to express myself. And while yes - I’ve been on TV, and I’ve been on stage - it’s not natural. So even doing this is scary. But a couple examples, my five-year-old son went on the chair lift by himself (with no bars), and I had to brace myself and say, he’ll be
First task of the day, and it will encourage you to do more tasks
Sometimes it just has to a slam dunk. Mark Cuban sold garbage bags when he was 12 because he knew it would sell. Steve Jobs -- “I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
Challenge the status quo
What about finding the right business model? I asked. Alfred said that "as a startup you don't necessarily know." To that end, find one that's at least a big opportunity and try, iterate, try, iterate, etc.
"Try something," he said. "It may not work. If it works great, if it doesn’t continue to iterate."
Alfred also talks about how Zappos zeroed in on "services" as a product. You don't hear this all to often. Many retailers try to gain a leg up by having the most locations, the most inventory, etc. So, why did Zappos begin to focus on selling "service" as their value add?
Out of 1000 lessons, No. 1 is to be determined. Not give up; be resilient. Entrepreneurship is not linear. “Back to the drawing board”
Paul Buchheit (built gmail, created the like button with Friendfeed, sold to FB for $50M); IronPort sold for $800M -- "PayPal had probably 40 people before the full transition from Palm Pilot payments onto eBay payments," he said. At IronPort, there were 20 people before the company switched gears and started selling to marketing departments within enterprises, rather than IT departments. "We went back to the drawing board," he said, referring to the early days at IronPort.
It’ll be repetitive; it’ll be exhausting -- Sisyphus
When you do something, do it well. Do it like you have someone watching you.
-- Life and entrepreneurship isn’t always up and to the right. Jack Dorsey says “It's important to constrain the process,"
Sometimes you have to learn what was too much to take to know what not to take in the future.
Vision is great, especially when you can do it with 20/20 hindsight," said entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who last night received a Visionary Award, an honor bestowed annually to industry leaders who've pioneered innovation. The award was given by the SDForum, a leading Silicon Valley non-profit organization. -- "I still don’t believe in vision. I believe in bumbling around long enough to not give up on things. Eventually, when success comes your way because you've failed in every possible way, and the only way that’s left is the one successful way. And, always for those of you who are entrepreneurs, it seems to come last.
http://vator.tv/news/2007-10-18-lessons-learned-what-sergey-and-larry-taught-michael-moritz -- Be patient. It’s a bigger picture out there and sometimes it’s just no your time.
"Some of the best investments occur late" in the life of a technology. In 1986, ten or 12 years after the first consumer PCs, the conventional wisdom said that the PC industry was too crowded to invest in, he continued. "But then you had a kid in Texas (Michael Dell of Dell Inc., which was not a Sequoia investment), who started building them in his dorm room and today he's a household name."
"It's the same history as Google," he said. "In 1999, five or six years after the first search companies, the conventional wisdom assumed that it was too late" to invest.
Entrepreneurs invent their lives and their circumstances. There’s nothing holding us back. So don’t let other circumstances in your life hold you back.
We often focus too much on tactics and not one guiding principle. One example is when my Aunt wanted to write a book called Skinny Jeans - it was supposed to be about how to lose weight. Her husband a doctor said I can write that book in one sentence - “Consume fewer calories than you expend”
I tell my kids as they go through life highly privileged as many of us are living here in the Bay Area -- this is a gift.
http://vator.tv/news/2008-02-21-lessons-learned-mashables-pete-cashmores-says-dont-take-advice
Everyone is different, and everyone finds different ways to be successful..