Life Lessons From the Entrepreneur Experience - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 4 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Has Your Entrepreneurial Experience Helped You Grow as a Person?"  Rubin shares the transferability from work to personal life of handling challenging experiences.  He notes what he has learned about receiving feedback and improving his listening and communication skills.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has your entrepreneurial experience helped you grow as a person?

Slava Rubin: I think that I’ve definitely learned a lot of the ups and downs in entrepreneurial life and that’s really helped in my day to day life. I think it’s also helped in terms of managing challenges -- challenging experiences and there’s no question the challenge and the experience of helping to lead a team, hiring people and helping to try to create a culture is really important as I walk through my day to day experience.

Erik Michielsen: And what’s a good example?

Slava Rubin: A good example is sometimes I would think that my way of speaking is always the right way and I would just talk to somebody on the subway or talk to somebody, have some dinner conversation the way I think is right and before you knew it they thought, you know, maybe negative of me. When I heard two weeks later that they thought, wow, he wasn’t really a good listener or a good communicator and I think I'm learning a lot of that through working with my teammates.

How Startup Raises First Venture Capital Round - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 5 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Did Your Team Go About Raising Venture Capital?"  Rubin notes the importance of mission alignment and how this plays into goals, milestones, and responsibilities.  He details the transition from being a bootstrap financed startup to taking on convertible debt to deciding on venture financing to build out the team and user experience. 

Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How does your team go about raising venture capital?

Slava Rubin: I think it’s really important that the core team be aligned on knowing what we’re trying to accomplish. What size of a company are we looking to build? How many employees do we wanna have? What kind of revenue are we looking to accomplish? Where do we wanna sit in the competitive landscape and what are we trying to accomplish as a vision? All those things need to be agreed to. Where you’re singing the same song and after that it’s making sure that you know who’s playing what role. You typically don’t wanna have too many people in the process of actually try to raise the money because that can be confusing in terms of coordination and managing the process. So, with us specifically I'm leading up the fundraising process with significant help from the core team.

Erik Michielsen: Was this your first time raising venture capital?

Slava Rubin: Yes. So, we launched in January 2008 and the three founders Eric Shell, Danae Ringelman and myself we boot strapped through 2008. We planned on raising money in the fall of 2008 but then the crash of 2008-2009 happened, which really slowed things down for us. We then raised a small convertible note and followed that with a venture capital round of 1.5 million in March of 2011.

Erik Michielsen: And you used that to build out the team and now are looking at next steps to scale further?

Slava Rubin: Exactly. So, we went from a team of 5 to now a team of 19 and we’re continuing to grow and always looking on how to improve the customer experience.

What It Means to Be a Leader at a Fast Growing Startup - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 6 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Rubin notes leadership is about taking action that otherwise might not happen.  He notes it is less about being more aggressive than others and more about doing things others do not see that need to be done.  Rubin references his venture capital fundraising efforts while trusting his team to manage operations and grow the company.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Slava Rubin: To me leader is really about taking action where otherwise it would not happen. So, just being to be aggressive and doing something where 10 other people were about to do it maybe is not always a leader but seeing what others do not see or more importantly doing what others do not see needs to be done is really about leadership.

So, we have 19 people on our team now and I would say at different moments each one steps up as being a leader and an example for me might be that a while back we weren’t sure if we were able to raise money and, you know, we were having debates about whether or not we should be even focused on raising money because maybe what we need to do is just work on our own team and get to profitability and at some point, you know, I just said, you know, I’ll go make it happen and you guys need to help support me to run the company and we just worked together to raise the money we needed a year ago when I saw you at South-By 2011.
The fun thing is since then we’ve had some serious growth, which is, you know, I guess I have to come here every year to make sure that growth keeps happening.

Erik Michielsen: How did you use your venture capital round to finance your growth?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, so I mean from a company-building perspective we really are focused on improving the product making sure that we’re reaching out to the customers correctly and making sure that the customer experience is as good as possible. So, very specifically we went from a five-person team to a 19 person team, really made significant improvements on the actual product, the website, the customer happiness experience and just keep on looking for people to help them with making good things happen.

How to Refine Your Company Vision - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 7 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Are You Becoming Better at Articulating Your Vision?"  Rubin shares how gathering and using data, examples, and feedback have helped him refine his company's vision.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are you becoming better at articulating your vision?

Slava Rubin: A while back, I would say two years ago, we would try to know what our vision is but we didn’t have enough examples and enough data to prove out exactly what we’re thinking. I mean, now we’re able to more strongly use the data and the case studies to express our visions. So, we’re really looking to democratize fundraising. Indiegogo has the most diverse set of campaigns of any platform in the world. It’s really interesting since launching in January 2008, we now have over 300 competitors.

We’re very excited to know that this is such an exciting space and lots of others are following but for us it’s really about democratizing fundraising and ensuring that anybody has an equal opportunity at raising the capital they need. We provide them the tools to optimize the experience and the exposure to get more stranger-dollars than they ever could. So, it’s really about more examples and more feedback to refine your vision.

How to Manage and Motivate Teams at an Internet Startup - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 8 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage and Motivate Teams?"  Rubin shares the new challenge of managing large teams.  He finds listening and action to be the two elements that help him be the best manager possible.  He discusses what he does to facilitate effective communication and alignment to vision.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to better manage and motivate teams?

Slava Rubin: I think that managing a team is something new since I haven’t managed large teams before but it’s definitely about listening and action. So, I would say that it’s very easy to get caught up in doing too many things and I'm learning along with my team on maintaining focus. Also, it’s very easy to just get caught up in e-mail and back and forth and not really have a quick discussion to make a decision. So, I think the decision making process and ensuring that everybody understands it is very important. Also, it’s important to have people aligned with the vision. It’s so easy in a dynamic company like Indiegogo where we’re hiring new people every month or sometimes there is a new decisions made on priorities for people to either make poor assumptions or actually not hear how we’re making shifts, so it’s really important to over communicate.

How Startup CEO Faces Company Building Challenges - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 9 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What New Challenges Are You Facing as Your Company Grows?"  He details the importance of selective recruiting in the hiring process and maintaining focus as new opportunities emerge that may not align with the vision.  He details how the company has learned to differentiate as over 300 competitors have entered the market.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What new challenges are you facing as your company grows?

Slava Rubin: Company building is the number one challenge, which all about hiring the right people. It’s not okay to look and say ‘we’ll take anybody, we just need bodies’. See, that’s the beginning of the end for a great company especially one that’s our size. See, we can’t afford having just extra weight filling the spot. Everybody is a leader and everybody has to step up for different spots. So, number one is company building, number two is maintaining focus around the vision. At Indiegogo the challenge right now is not about what is the opportunity, I would say there are many opportunities to be had, the challenge is rather, what do we say no to and make sure that they we’re focusing as a team on the right things.

Erik Michielsen: You mentioned that over 300 companies have moved in to this crowd funding space, so how do you look at that as a competitive set versus look inside and just focus on your core and building that out?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, I mean, since we launched in January 2008, we now have over 300 competitors. Some competitors like to differentiate by country, so only in Australia or only in Germany or only in the US. Some like to differentiate by vertical, so only health campaigns or only cause or only theater. Some like to differentiate by business models, so free crowd funding, advertising based crowd funding or otherwise and for us the real win for the customer both the campaign owner and the funder is to create one platform where you can cross all these different verticals and have as open of a platform as possible. See, funders don’t think in vertical and they definitely don’t think in business model. They think in disposable income and they think about, ‘oh, I want to share my money or give or buy or contribute to this specific thing’ and when they see this campaign, it’s very easy to share another campaign with them and for us it’s really about having democratizing fundraising as our goal, creating a platform, which is open to anybody in the world to raise money for anything and in the process creating the best funder experience possible.

How Algorithms Increase Website Effectiveness - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 10 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "As You Are Experiencing So Much Content Growth on Your Website, How are You Using Data and Algorithms to Manage It?"  Rubin shares the story behind his company aim to democratize fundraising and how they have implemented a Google Page Rank like algorithm to create a fair and balanced experience across all submitted campaign content.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: As you’re experiencing so much content growth on your website, how are you using data and algorithms to manage it?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, for us algorithms and making sure that we have a fair opportunity for anybody to get exposure on our site is absolutely key. Many other sites will use words like query and sometimes you have to have the right person to find yourself on the homepage. To us, the reason we’ve created Indiegogo is to democratize fundraising. See, the old days you went to a bank or even today and somebody sat in office and decided that you do not deserve that bank loan according to their risk model, and maybe that person had a bad day in the morning and maybe they just weren’t gonna approve anything that day, which isn’t really fair for you.

So, for us we believe in really the Google approach, which is allow everybody an opportunity and then create algorithms on how you determine where you get exposed. For us, that’s called the go-go factor and we’ve optimized that over the last two years, where it’s a very Google page rank like algorithm to determine how to promote your campaign across all of our different channels. So, if you wanna be on the homepage or in the press, in newsletters, in the popular section or in the blog you don’t have to write to us and say, I know the CEO, it actually wouldn’t even help. All you need to do is on meritocracy have your campaign get a high go-go factor. These include things like updates and funding velocity and different comments. So, anything where there’s activity around your campaign will help you get to a better go-go factor and get more exposure. Philosophically it’s like America, equal opportunity for all, not equal results guaranteed.

Erik Michielsen: What have you done about bringing on new people on the team to build that infrastructure in the company?

Slava Rubin: Enabling a scalable algorithmic approach to how you share campaigns is definitely something you have to think about from the beginning. So, the way we architected the site from a database perspective as well as how it displays things, right away we were thinking about what data we would be able to analyze and filter. We also have great talent on the team right away from the original founders straight through our new analysts that are physics and math double majors where we’re actually trying to ensure that the algorithms that we’re creating are not silly or easy to be gamed. As we get thousands of active campaigns every month, everybody wants to make sure that their campaign is being treated correctly, so we’re constantly updating, revising our algorithms to ensure that everybody is happy.

How Perks Incentives Improve Crowdfunding Success - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 11 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Have Perks Incentives Been Game Changing for Fundriaising Campaigns?" Rubin notes how crowdfunding is not new, sharing how Joseph Pulitzer raised community donations to fund the Statue of Liberty project.  Rubin notes several reasons why individuals give money to finance projects or campaigns.  He notes how perks incentives entice people by giving they something in return for their contribution.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How have perks incentives been game changing for fundraising campaigns?

Slava Rubin: Crowdfunding is not new, so if you go back to the late 1800’s the Statue of Liberty was actually crowd funded. Back then, Joseph Pulitzer was able to use the New World -- the precedent to the New York Times to be able to raise, I believe nearly $120,000 on average contribution of 83 cents. At that time they didn’t use any perks. So, you didn’t get your name on the base of the Statue of Liberty. You didn’t get a tax deduction. It wasn’t a 501C3 and you definitely didn’t get any profit meaning you didn’t get $5 back for your $1 contribution.

There’s really four reasons why anybody funds anything in life. Number one is because you care about the person, the cause or the campaign. Number two, is you want the perks like you’re bringing up. Number three is you wanted to be part of the community, your personal ego and number four is for profit. So, on Indiegogo and really any platform in America, it’s illegal to do number four through public solicitation. So, the first three are what’s really important. The perk concept, very similar to the PBS or NPR sponsorship model is key because people get something in return. People like something exclusive, special, limited edition or discount. So, it’s amazing to know that in funding somebody’s campaign or vision or idea you get something tangible, virtual or very unique experience in return.

Why Legalize Startup Crowdfunding For-Profit Investing - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 12 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Role Does Government Relations Play in What You Do?"  Rubin notes how the entrepreneurial campaign element of his crowdfunding company IndieGoGo has allowed him to collaborate with President Obama's Startup America Initiative and help startup business initiatives receive financing.  He notes the potential in for-profit investing using crowdfunding.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What role does government-relations play in what you do?

Slava Rubin: Well, we’re actually really excited that we’re partner with President Obama’s Startup America to help stimulate entrepreneurship in America. So, there’s three major groups of funding categories on Indiegogo. Number one is creative, number two is cause and number three is entrepreneurial. So, within entrepreneurial it’s really important to figure out how we can work together. I mean, there’s great case studies of entrepreneurial campaigns for example Walk In Love, which went from a single designer who was selling t-shirts in a kiosk was able to fund his campaign on Indiegogo and now has 15 employees in a Lancaster, Pennsylvania Mall or two engineers in California that were turned down by 43 VCs were able to fund their electronics product on Indiegogo and then got a $650,000 investor or a gluten-free bread company that was able to start from her own kitchen and now be named by CNBC as one of the Top 15 Start-ups in America. These are all examples of how people can use Indiegogo today. In the future, there’s the potential for the government shifting the law around funding online and being able to allow for-profit investments, which would be very interesting.

Erik Michielsen: And where does it stand today and, you know, what are the hopes for tomorrow?

Slava Rubin: So, this is very timely question actually just this week there was a new crowd funding law that just passed the House of Representatives. So, that’s actually two bills that have passed in the house to allow crowd funding to become legal, specifically what that would mean is that you don’t have to be accredited investor, which means you don’t have to have over a million dollars of net worth and the actual entity raising the money would not have to register with the SEC, which can be a very cost prohibitive process. The White House is very much behind this proposal, which they’ve already said but the Senate has not weighed in yet. So, really it’s a matter of seeing what the Senate will see and if any of the financial institutions that are lobbying against this will slow this down really allowing crowd funding to become a for-profit opportunity will really bring in significant more liquidity into the funding of entrepreneurial businesses and allow for many more jobs to be created.

How High Schools Can Teach Entrepreneurship - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 13 of 13 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, crowdfunding entrepreneur and IndieGoGo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Can the Education System Better Prepare Entrepreneurs?"  Rubin details how middle and high schools should promote entrepreneurship curriculum that focuses on practice in addition to theory.  He compares entrepreneur skill development to that of a basketball player, highlighting LeBron James as an example of how practice shapes skills and how schools might use this concept in their curriculum planning.  Slava Rubin returns to CYF for his Year 3 interview.  As CEO and Co-Founder, Rubin has helped transform cause and project fundraising by establishing his company IndieGoGo as a global leader in crowdfunding.  He is also active in philanthropy, starting the Music Against Myeloma annual charity event to fight cancer.  He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How can the education system better prepare entrepreneurs?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, to me entrepreneurial thinking is just as important as teaching Math or Mandarin or Spanish or even coding. I think it’s a new language that kids should be learning. I think that an innovative idea is we should actually create a entrepreneurial class and add it to the curriculum where starting in 7th grade until you graduate high school or college every student had to run a business a year. See to me, when Lebron James was learning to play basketball, he didn’t just watch Michael Jordan on TV. He actually played every day with a basketball and we ask our students and our young people to be entrepreneurial with their thinking but we ask them to do with theory, which means without a basketball.

So, I would think that the best way to bring entrepreneurial thinking to our students, have them become innovative, have them – have the opportunity to go to the workplace or start something new very quickly and without as much fear and risk is give them the opportunity starting in 7th grade to be able to be entrepreneurs. This really goes back to kindergarten when your teacher taught you about what you aspire to be, she probably used words like lawyer and doctor and fireman and the word entrepreneur was never used and I think that needs to change.

How Entrepreneurial Spirit Brings Out Best Performance - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 1 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "When are You at Your Best?" Beyond surrounding himself with great people and getting sleep, Rubin makes it a point to set priorities and make lists. As an entrepreneur, he finds value in his conviction that anything can get done. This helps him bring out his best in what he does. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  When are you at your best?

Slava Rubin:  When I’m surrounded by good people and I get enough sleep.

Erik Michielsen:  How do you manage that?

Slava Rubin:  Well, it’s tricky because, you know, when you’re an entrepreneur, there is never something that you shouldn’t be doing.  There is always more work to be done.  But it’s just about prioritizing, you know, putting everything in a list and then execute them.

Erik Michielsen:  How has being an entrepreneur brought out your best?

Slava Rubin:  I mean I would say just the whole risk/reward part of it and really trying to understand that the people that can stop you, hopefully, are just yourselves, right?  So if you have the entrepreneur spirit, you think anything can be done, and, really, that can be applied really well towards anything in life.

Scaling Crowdfunding Startup IndieGoGo Globally - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 2 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "Since We Last Spoke a Year Ago, What Has Been the Most Exciting Thing to Happen in Your Life?" Rubin points to the growth of his company, IndieGoGo, and is now used in over 158 countries by 22,000 users. He notes how four films featured at South By Southwest 2011 were crowd financed on IndieGoGo and how media exposure, including Good Morning America, continues to spread the company's project crowdfunding message. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik:  Since we last spoke a year ago, what’s been the most exciting thing that happened in your life?

Slava Rubin:  Well, I mean IndieGoGo is doing well.  It’s really about scaling the business and growing. I mean, now IndieGoGo has over 22,000 campaigns in 159 countries.  There is millions of dollars that are being distributed, millions of page views every month.  Since we last talked, we’ve been – you know, even in the last few weeks, we’ve been on Good Morning, America, or the New York Times, or Channel 7 News in New York. And we opened up where really anybody can create a campaign to absolutely anything, and just the excitement of the team as we’re hiring folks, and everybody being so excited to be a part of IndieGoGo, and making people’s dreams of raising money possible.

Erik Michielsen:  What feeling do you get when you think about, you know, what type of projects are being built, and what effect it’s having on communities, on people’s lives?

Slava Rubin:  I mean it’s amazing.  We’re here at South-by, right?  And there’s only a certain number of South-by movies that get in and there’s only a certain of South-by music that gets in.  At IndieGoGo, we’ve had four films that got in, got funded through IndieGoGo, and musicians that got funded through IndieGoGo.  We have people road-tripping to South-by, by funding they get through IndieGoGo.  So just to know that there are all these tens of thousands of people here at South-by and a number of them all facilitated their dreams to get here through IndieGoGo, it’s just really quite incredible.  And you were at the IndieGoGo party, and that was – that was fun too.

Entrepreneur Life Myths and Realities - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 3 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "How is Life as an Entrepreneur Different Than You Imagined It Would Be?" Going in, Rubin expects it to be similar to what he saw on "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsche. He notes, in reality, being an entrepreneur is more work, more exciting, and more rewarding than he ever imagined. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How is life as an entrepreneur different than you imagined it would be?

Slava Rubin:  I mean I always thought it was interesting when I like saw other entrepreneurs, especially when I’m like watching CNBC, and I’m just hearing people’s stories, or Donnie Deutsch who had this – "The Big Idea", and like the really regular entrepreneurs who told about their dreams.  I would just say that it’s more work than I even thought, it’s more exciting than I even thought, and it’s genuinely more rewarding to be part of it than I even thought.  I’ve always been a person that likes the concept of there used to be thin air, and then based on your actions, something happened, and you created something.  And I always thought that was important, but being a part of it really from the entrepreneur perspective is even more amazing.

How to Find Teaching Moments in Success and Failure - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 4 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "What Makes Failures More Meaningful Learning Experiences Than Successes?" Rubin notes both failures and successes are learning experiences. He makes a point to celebrate, share, and understand successes with the team when they occur. He uses failures to help navigate the team toward successes, citing a Michael Jordan story as a way to put the entrepreneurial journey in context. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik:  Why are failures more meaningful learning experiences than successes?

Slava Rubin:  Well, I think both are important.  You really have to understand when you do something well and when there is a success and make sure to share it with everybody on the team and really understand how we got here and enjoy it.  

I think the failures just help us learn how to navigate towards the success.  There is a classic Michael Jordan commercial where it’s like black and white and he’s walking out of a tunnel and he says ‘I have shot – I have missed, you know, 97,000 free throws, I have missed 100,000 shots, and for all these misses, you know, that is why I have won six championships.’  It’s because he’s been out there and put it out on the line.  Like any entrepreneur, you know, with great risk it can come reward, and with risk comes some failures.

Erik Michielsen:  Is there one specific failure that you can point to in your development that’s really helped you get to where you are now?

Slava Rubin:  I would say that there have been some painful times whether it be like when my dad died of cancer when I was fifteen or even with IndieGoGo, you know, the market crashed in 2008, and it was pretty bleak times with my two co-founders, and I – and it was just about really focusing on what’s important in either one of those situations, and looking forward, and just taking one step at a time, and executing, and here we are.

How IndieGoGo Startup Founders Evolve into Leaders - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 5 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "How Has Your Role Evolved as Your Business Has Grown?" IndieGoGo started with three people, Rubin, Eric Schell, and Danae Ringelmann. They name themselves "The Eyes, The Hands, and The Heart" at the inception, where Rubin, the eyes, handles publicity, marketing, and public relations. Schell, the hands focuses on technology, and Ringelmann, the heart, manages business operations, customer relations, and partnerships. Over time, as the company expands and hires employees, Rubin, Schell, and Ringelmann take on more management responsibilities that go beyond the blocking and tackling from the early days. All the while, they follow their "List, Prioritize, Execute" plan. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How has your role evolved as your business has grown?

Slava Rubin:  Yeah, I mean when we first started, it’s just the three of us, the three co-founders, so Eric Schell, Dane Ringelmann, and myself, and the three of us, we like to call ourselves the eyes, the hands, and the heart.  So I’m the eyes; I do a lot of external stuff, marketing, PR, biz dev, things like that.  Eric is the hands, so really putting in the implementation, making sure that the actual development and design is all great.  And Dane is the heart, so managing the day-to-day dealing with our customers and making sure that our partners are all happy.  

And it’s amazing that we just started as the three of us, always kind of debating, and discussing, and proving, and yelling at each other, and now we have employees, and we’re growing, and we really just have to evolve to learn how to not always be as hands-on, really make sure we company-build and bring in the right employees who are all smarter than us and better than us.  And so it’s really about managing growth and trying to figure out how to prioritize, again.  I mean it’s all we – at the company we talk about list, prioritize, execute, and that it’s really about working with the team and working with employees as opposed to just always blocking and tackling, which I still have to do a lot of that for sure.

What Makes a Good Business Partner - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 6 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "What Makes a Good Business Partner?" Rubin notes balance is fundamental, as is positive conflict. The conflict helps create balanced perspectives. Early on, shared vision, effective communication, and execution are key. As the team grows and begins hiring, or "company building", it becomes increasingly important trust exists between partners and their respective roles and responsibilities. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What makes a good business partner?

Slava Rubin:  I think that there has to be balance between the partners as to who is bringing what to the table.  You can’t really have, in my opinion, all of the same, and you don’t wanna ‘yes’ each other.  You need to have some positive conflicts so you can have discussions where you can balance perspectives.  I think a good partner in the early days will just rock out and nail execution on whatever they’re supposed to be doing. Our team is our most valuable part, and everybody just really focuses on their part.  

Trust is so important when you know that somebody else is handling a whole separate part of the business.  It’s really important that you can just turn your head, walk away, and then focus on your part, because if you’re concerned, distracted, or not really thinking it’s gonna come through, you won’t be as productive as you can be in your area. In the long run they’ll be able to just be your partner in scaling the business and in company-building, meaning just hiring folks.  But I think in the early days, it’s just a shared vision.  You have to be friendly and you have to be able to execute what you bring to the table.

How Learning to Say No Helps CEO Grow Business - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 7 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "Where Has Learning to Say No Been Most Impactful in Your Growth as an Entrepreneur?" Rubin notes that between his Year 1 and Year 2 Capture Your Flag interviews, his company has grown and press, new business, and investor opportunities are abundant. He needs to make sure he is managing company growth, evolving a working product, and managing client relationships while choosing to engage new opportunities. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  Where has learning to say no been most impactful in your growth as an entrepreneur?

Slava Rubin:  Well, especially going from our previous interview to now, there is just so much more opportunity at IndieGoGo whether it be new press opportunities, new clients, new business development opportunities, new investors, new interviews, new anything, and you can really go crazy trying to follow all of these opportunities but you also have to build your company and have happy clients and make sure that the product works really well and improve it.  

So it’s really around balancing what you should say yes to and what you should say no to.  I lean towards saying yes, but the focus and the execution requires no’s, and I think it’s just really important to be confident in when no is the right thing to say.

When is Convertible Debt Preferable to Equity Financing a Startup - Slava Rubin

In Chapter 8 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, IndieGoGo co-founder and entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "What Factors Informed Your Decision on Whether to Use Convertible Debt or Equity Financing?" Understanding money source - sophisticated vs. non-sophisticated - is a fundamental first step. Sophisticated investors, which includes angels and venture capital firms, tend to have more valuation experience. Non-sophisticated investors, which includes friends and family, tend to be less valuation savvy. Rubin notes convertible debt financing offers valuation flexibility good for working with non-sophisticated investors. Given the lower startup costs and increasing number of non-sophisticated investors entering the financing pool, many early stage startups are choosing this over equity. Rubin is co-founder and CEO of IndieGoGo.com, a crowdfunding startup whose platform helps individuals and groups finance their passions. Before IndieGoGo, Rubin worked in management consulting for Diamond Consulting, now a PWC company. Rubin founded and manages non-profit Music Against Myeloma to raise funds and awareness to fight cancer. He earned a BBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik:  What factors inform your decision on whether to use convertible debt or equity financing?

Slava:  Yeah, I mean I think it’s really important, especially today, as you’re able to accomplish a lot more with your business and prove a lot more with less money, it’s really important to decide where your money is coming from, whether that be coming from institutions, or from angels who are sophisticated, or maybe just friends and family, and as you do that, what you don’t wanna do is get stuck with evaluation from people that don’t really, should we say, have an understanding of your business and aren’t really experts in doing evaluations.  So it’s really important to know how much money you’re trying to raise and where you’re at in the life cycle of your business.  I think you’re seeing a lot more people using convertible debt these days because it comes much quicker, there’s a lot less terms, and you’re finding a lot more money from folks that aren’t official, sophisticated VCs.  So with all that new money on the table, you don’t want to lock yourself down with evaluation that might not be appropriate whether it be too low or too high, so convertible debt is definitely interesting for folks in the earlier part of their process.  From a VC investment perspective or equity, there comes a point where folks need to know exactly how much they own, and they like to know their percentages and how much they’re gonna be involved in the company.  So as you get further into the life cycle, I think that becomes really important.