Flying to Mars, self-driving cars, and surgical robots. What do they all have in common? They all started as an idea with an entrepreneur who someone probably called crazy and a team crazy enough to step outside of the box and make it happen. The bigger question is, how do you disrupt before being disrupted? How do you avoid common pitfalls and failures to ensure you see your dreams become a reality? How do you embrace the crazy without going… crazy?
On a recent episode of DisrupTV, our host R “Ray” Wang and special guest host Liz Miller caught up with Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist at Canva, Joanne Moretti, Founder & Chief Executive Officer at JCurve Digital, and Dave Evans, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Fictiv, to discuss what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how to make real change and how to survive in a world of unending optimism and horrific pitfalls.
Entrepreneur Dos and Don'ts
Silicon Valley has dramatically evolved over the past decade. One thing that hasn’t changed – it’s fundamentally filled with optimists trying to make a big dent in the universe, shared legendary tech evangelist Guy Kawasaki.
He explained, “To be an entrepreneur, you have to be a delusional optimist.” That’s what real success takes - having that idea that changes everything. Successful entrepreneurs are not just trying to flip a company and make money. They need to change the world.
So what advice does Guy, a valley legend who regularly works with serial entrepreneurs, have to share? First, rethink before you speak. If you have ever stepped in front of an investor and used any of the following – “We have a world-class team.” “The beta testers love our product.” “All we need is one percent of all the people in China; how hard could that be?” – you have already fallen into the trap of telling the same lies that every company tells and sells. Stop. Don’t do it.
Nobody ever steps up to the plate and says, “We are really good at being second best.” We all want to share glowing tales of our “pride and joy” aka our startup. But Guy emphasized the importance of focusing on how you plan to make revenue and sales. Go in with real value when standing in front of an investor. The leading cause of failure in companies is loss of money. When sales stop, it’s over. As long as you have sales, you are successful, VCs stay happy, and you can go out and buy that ping pong table!
Embrace Delusion
Dave, a “delusional optimist," and his brother set out to upend manufacturing by taking on the parts, not the process. Together, they are unlocking innovation with their disruptive business model and trying to make a substantial impact. They are taking their bite and not stopping until the world is changed – no matter what their mother thinks they are really doing.
Fictiv’s goals are big: How do we get hardware companies to move at the speed of software? Their "delusion" may have been even bigger: Why should so few people have access to disruptive technology? Fictiv looks to lower the barriers to rapid production so everyone can act on opportunity. Very similar to what’s happened in software – it’s about access not ownership! This is real exponential change.
Disrupt or Be Disrupted
If you don’t want to lose sales and go bankrupt, how do you purposefully disrupt so you can make that “dent in the universe”? If Guy is the sage and Dave the dreamer, then Joanne Moretti is the oracle and agent of change that makes it all happen. For Joanne, everything centers on the glorious chaos of change. A seasoned executive and board member (who works with Fictiv), Joanne admitted that she had retired, quite happily, but the reality was she just couldn’t stay away from the “delusional optimists.” This time around, she’s applying everything she has accomplished to help the dreamers reach reality.
Disruption is about four things, said Joanne:
- You’re either trying to improve your business performance
- Change a customer experience
- Create a new business model
- Change the world in some way to make it better
Be realistic but stick to what is really going to make an impact. It’s not about building a product and making money. You need to choose to be a disruptor and make the change we need in this world.
If you are an entrepreneur or a leader trying to grow your team, be sure to check out the full episode on video replay here or the podcast. This was one of the best episodes of 2019 full of amazing lessons.
One last lesson that really stuck out: Be good to the intern. You never know who will impact your future. You can learn something from everyone on your team, from the intern to the highest executive in your company. Years back, Guy hired an eager intern named Marc. Most people now know him as Marc Bennioff, co-founder and CEO of a little company called Salesforce. "The lesson is be nice to your interns because you don’t know who or what they’re going to end up doing.”
DisrupTV Featuring Joanne Moretti of JCurve & Dave Evans of Fictiv from Constellation Research on Vimeo.
DisrupTV is a weekly Web series with hosts R “Ray” Wang and Vala Afshar. The show airs live at 11:00 a.m. PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET every Friday