Mike Germano on How Long-Term Clients Help Business Scale

In Chapter 14 of 20 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Carrot Creative social media agency CEO Mike Germano answers "How Are Progressively Longer-Term Client Relationships Changing How You Do Business?"  Germano notes how he learns to appreciate the possibilities that come with longer-term client relationship.  Over time, as client relationships become longer term and projects more strategic, Germano uses the increasing commitments to build company infrastructure to support business growth. 

Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO Brooklyn-based social media agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University. 

Mike Germano on Why Brands are the New Venture Capital Investors

In Chapter 19 of 20 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Carrot Creative social media agency CEO Mike Germano answers "Why Do You Believe That Brands Are the New Venture Capital Firms?"  Germano finds there are progressively more ways for entrepreneur designers and developers to find money.  What Germano thinks is key now is distribution and he finds large brands have this distribution and also have innovation constraints.  With their innovation needs, access to investment capital, and distribution, Germano sees brands as the next generation of venture capital firms. 

Mike Germano is co-founder and CEO of DUMBO Brooklyn-based social media agency Carrot Creative.  Previously, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut.  He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University. 

Andrew Epstein on Creating Entreprenuerial Charter School Jobs

In Chapter 8 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, charter school CFO Andrew Epstein answers "What Has Your Work Experience Taught You About How Education Careers are Changing?"  Epstein shares how the charter school movement has enabled entrepreneurship to enter the education system.  He shares how charter schools are bringing young, motivated leaders into education in ways not seen previously.  He also shares how he reconciles encouraging an entrepreneurial structure that is also accountable to students, parents and teachers. 

Andrew Epstein is CFO of the Ascend Learning Charter School Network.  Previously, Epstein was a finance executive at Democracy Prep Public Schools and an operations executive at Universal Music Group's Island Def Jam Records.  He is a former Teach for America corps member and middle-school science teacher.  He holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Jullien Gordon on Innovating Human Capital Strategy

In Chapter 19 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business coach Jullien Gordon "What Has Your Corporate Work Taught You About Innovation Needs in Human Resources?"  In his human resources strategy work, uses an interviewing approach - called innerviewing - to better understand employee growth, development, and needs beyond the new hire onboarding stage.  Jullien Gordon is a high performance coach and consultant to organizations, individuals and teams who want to increase employee performance, motivation, engagement and retention.  He earned a BA from UCLA, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Masters of Education from Stanford University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What has your corporate work taught you about innovation needs in human resources?

Jullien Gordon: Innovation has always been focused on the machine and the product, and how we deliver that service. And where I see that connecting with human resources, that innovation is really about how we manage, retain and grow our people now. Because everybody can replicate your technology now, they can get your product, dissect it, see what you did, and replicate that in a month now, right? So really the innovation, which can’t be replicated as easily, is your human capital. And so that’s where I’ve seen it connecting, and that the organizations that are committed to innovating around the way that they work with their human capital are the ones that are winning. You look at Zappos for example. You look at Southwest for example. All of these places are known for their great organizational culture and that’s why they have dominated their industries over the past few years.

Erik Michielsen: How do you start that conversation with the senior HR leader about making those changes to stay ahead of the curve?

Jullien Gordon: So the first question that I ask HR professionals is: Do you know who’s on your team? When you interviewed them, you got information about them in terms of their résumés, their past accomplishments, where they were educated, but now it’s six months in or a year in or 18 months in, and do you still know who that person is? We, as human beings, are evolving so quickly in this day and age that this person may have gotten married, like myself. They may have kids. And their original intention for coming to your organization may have changed. When they originally came to your organization, it may have been to pay off their student loans, it may have been for leadership opportunities and travel opportunities, then all of a sudden, life has occurred for them, and now their top priorities are no longer those three things, they’re actually mentorship, flexibility, and… certain types of projects, right? But if we never stop and ask those questions, then we are developing our human capital strategy based on who we hired 18 months ago, not who we have on our team today.

And so I help organizations close the gap between what their employees really want and expect from their employer, and their current human capital strategy. And I do that through my process called “innerviewing.” We all know what an interview is. That’s how you get the job. But innerviewing is a constant process of going back to your team and asking the right questions. What do they expect from work? Why are they even at this company? Because we don’t even ask that in the interview, we assume that we know the answer because they accepted the job offer. And then we’re also asking them, how do they define success? And is this company helping them achieve their definition of success? That’s the greatest employee retention strategy of all time, is to help them achieve their definition of success.

Now, a company may say, I do that by giving them a bonus, or higher pay, and then they can take that money and do what they want to create the life that they want outside of the work space, but I find that, for this generation, they don’t just want money, they also want to make meaning and because we spend so much time in our work environment, that has to be a space that’s fulfilling and engaging, and so when you ask somebody what’s their definition of success, and you ask them how their work actually fits in to that, you find that if you’re helping them achieve their definition of success, not just at work but in their life in general, then it’s gonna be harder for them to leave because it’s happening for them here through you and your organization.

And so, again, the question is, who’s on your team, or do you even know who’s on your team? Yeah, you hired them this long ago, but do you know who’s on your team right now? Do you know what their definition of success is? Do you know what their expectations are of work? And do you even know why they work beyond just money? And if you actually get answers to those three questions, I think you’ll find information that you can use to close the gap between what your employees really want and your human capital strategy.

And the reason I’m so important in doing this work is because oftentimes HR may send out a survey, and a survey already has bias in it based on who wrote the survey. And then some HR organizations are—or departments say that they’ve done focus groups. Well, I’ve found that anonymity is actually the best way to get the most authentic answers from employees, and so that’s where I go in to organizations. I actually go in, ask the high performers these core questions, take those insights and then help the organization close the gap between what their high performers that they want to retain really want and their human capital strategy.

Mark Graham on Planning Digital Content Strategy Working in TV

In Chapter 14 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham "What Role Does Content Strategy Play in Your Work?"  Graham notes cable television remains the foundation of big media business, including his company VH1, and gets the majority of its audience and its advertising income from on-air programming.  He talks about working in strategic content planning and how the work is becoming progressively digital.  Graham offers examples of how media companies are packaging content for consumption across TV, mobile, desktop, laptop, and tablet platforms as consumer behavior trends mature into larger population segments.  From short-form music artist online video interviews to Spotify featured playlists to live streaming events over mobile, Graham paints a picture of the future of how digital media companies will evolve to meet its adapting consumer audience preferences. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.  

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What role does content strategy play in your work?

Mark Graham: It’s of a primary essence in everything that we do. And by that, what I mean by strategy is, VH1 is obviously as of right now a television network, primarily. That’s where advertisers pay us. That’s how we make our money. That’s where we have our largest viewership. But as the cable industry starts to change and evolve, VH1 is probably over the course of the next 5-10 years, will still be a TV station. Hopefully. But we’re also gonna be producing content for other devices in other places. Whether that be mobile, on your iPhone or your iPad, or streaming things on your laptop, people consume content differently based upon the device that they’re using to consume it. 

So when we’re putting together ideas for content, when talent is coming in, we discuss lots of different ways that we can package information for different types of audiences based upon how they’re gonna be consuming it. You know, sometimes it’s a print interview that will run a thousand words, that goes really in depth on certain matters with bands. Sometimes it’ll be little 30-second video clips that are, you know, really get to the point, really gets to the essence, something that’s newsy and timely and makes a good bite and something that’s funny and that people are gonna share. Sometimes it’s, you know, working with an artist catalog, you know, an established artist who’s come out with a new record taking a look back at their career and maybe putting together things like a Spotify playlist that showcases the ebbs and flow of their particular career and how they have sort of arrived at the point they’re at today. 

So we look at content not just in a very—we’re talking to this particular artist and it’s going to be an interview. As we’re developing the strategies for our interviews, we’re really cognizant of the ways we’re putting—we’re actually gonna package that and release that out to consumers at the end of the day.

How to Stay Ahead of the Innovation Curve - Richard Moross

In Chapter 9 of 17 in his 2012 interview, London entrepreneur and Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "How Are You Learning to Apply Your Passions in New Ways?"  Moross shares how making design more accessible to people means he must consider looking beyond paper products to serve his customers.  This requires him to look beyond paper to future options that may evolve from physical to digital.  Moross is founder and CEO of Moo.com and a leader in the London startup scene.  Before starting Moo.com, an award-winning online print business, Moross was a strategist at Imagination, the world's largest independent design company.  He graduated from the University of Sussex, where he majored in philosophy and politics.

How Creativity Motivates Manufacturing CEO - Richard Moross

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2012 interview, London entrepreneur and Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "What Role Does Creativity Play in What You Do As a CEO?"  Moross is driven by a need to make things.  He channels this drive in his design and manufacturing business.  Product innovation in the engineering and design continually renews Moross' purpose in his work.  Moross is founder and CEO of Moo.com and a leader in the London startup scene.  Before starting Moo.com, an award-winning online print business, Moross was a strategist at Imagination, the world's largest independent design company.  He graduated from the University of Sussex, where he majored in philosophy and politics.

Joe Stump on How to Make Product Management Easier for Developers

In Chapter 14 of 14 in his 2012 interview, Internet entrepreneur Joe Stump answers "How Are You Learning to Improve the Product Management Process for Developers?"  Stump provides the background for what motivated him to co-found software company Sprint.ly to make product development easier.  Joe Stump is a serial entrepreneur based in Portland, OR. He is CEO and co-founder of Sprint.ly, a product management software company.  Previously he founded SimpleGeo, which was sold to Urban Airship in October 2011.  He advises several startups - including attachments.me and, through its acquisition, ngmoco:) - as well as VC firm Freestyle Capital.  He earned a BBA in Computer Information Systems (CIS) from Eastern Michigan University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to improve the product management process for developers?

Joe Stump: I talk to a ton of developers and just listen to what they're doing. I do a little bit of consulting as well mostly around product management and team management, a little bit around product as well. I think product management spans a big area. It spans strategy, what should we build, when should we build it, why are we building it, all the way to asset allocation and whatnot.

So, basically I've been working in this space. I've been leading and managing teams for almost a decade now and I've kind of taken a lot of those lessons and what I find is every team behaves slightly differently and the thing that I’ve probably – the thing that’s stuck out most to me over the last kind of decade or so is that when you assemble teams, like each team is like a little snowflake and they all behave and look and act in a slightly different manner. And in software engineering, there’s like, there are all this process paradigms, agile, scrum, waterfall, kanban.

And what I found is teams generally will embrace parts of each of those. Very, very few teams will embrace those fully. And what I’ve done is – I mean every developer at some point in their career has been frustrated with one of their tools, and said, “One day I'm going to rewrite a better mousetrap and I'm going to make a better tool.” And I'm happy to say I'm realizing that dream finally.

I recently -- The first week of December, I launched my new product. It's called Sprint.ly. And Sprint.ly is really the manifestation of almost 15 years of frustration with the product management tool. These tools I found have generally fallen into a couple of different camps. One camp is they're built for product of business to manage resources. Developers hate those. They don’t really like using those. They don’t have a lot of things that developers want and for, to do their day to day stuff. So the features in those skew much towards really resource planning. And then you have bug trackers built by developers for developers.

So you have two completely different types of software that are trying to address the same problem for two different parties at the table, right? Really my approach with Sprint.ly has been I think a little bit different whereas in first of all, I'm trying to build a tool that unifies those two camps. I actually found more than a handful of customers when I was talking to them that the developers were literally using one tool and the project management people were using another tool and then they would copy and paste stuff back and forth, which I think is insane.

So, we've been building Sprint.ly in a way that I want to get everybody using the same tool. So that has forced us to decrease barriers. And we built a tool, a lot of the tools out that are in product management, certainly the bug trackers are very technical and very difficult to understand. So we've kind of done away with that. It looks a little bit more like a consumer product. And the other thing I wanted to do is I wanted to increase transparency. So I talked to – you talk to the developers and it's almost like companies in software – like software companies are two black boxes warring at each other.

You have the makers on one side and you have the business and manager people on the other side and they're like, “What are you doing?” and the other one is like, “What are you doing? Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that?” So really, I want to build Sprint.ly kind of into the UN of product management software where everybody comes to the table, everybody can see what everybody else is doing. I think sometimes my software development peers make things a little too complicated.

I guess over time, I’ve just learned that when you're building products and working with teams that you need to spend more time listening than talking because that’s when you'll realize what the problem is. There's a couple good quotes around product that I like that I think emphasize that, which is “don’t give the customer what they ask for, give them what they want.” And then there's a really great Henry Ford quote, which is, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Jon Kolko on How to Make Social Impact Jobs a Design Career Choice

In Chapter 10 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "What Made You Decide to Write a Book on Wicked Problems?"  Kolko writes the book as a call to action for practicing designers and the educators who teach them.  The book, available for free at www.wickedproblems.com, offers innovative approaches to the evolving design career options. 

Jon Kolko the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What made you decide to write a book on Wicked Problems?

Jon Kolko: Wicked Problems, the book, is a call to action for practicing designers. I would like to see all designers start to question not just the quality of the work they're doing, but what problems they're actually working on. And so, the initial thought was what kind of project can we do at Austin Center for Design to get the word out about the curriculum we're teaching, the types of projects we're launching, and companies we're starting. And so, it was like alright, we’ll do a book, maybe some videos and then the thought was like why not just give it away for free? And so, the whole project is available at WickedProblems.com and my hope is that there's a couple different tiers of designers, like sort of segments of designers that will find it interesting. 

The most immediate is design educators. There's a tiny, tiny number of design educators in the world. And so, if five of them changed their curriculum, suddenly we've affected a lot of practicing designers to be in 10 years. And so, like, here's a curriculum for you, it's cut and dry, it's already done, now you just have the easy task of pushing it through a curriculum council which is another 10 years at some places. But it's to set a precedent for them. 

Another audience is for practicing designers and for practicing designers that are five and six years out, they really start to hit a wall with a huge degree of regularity and they're looking for both examples of what other things they could be doing and also permission to do it. And I found it really effective to just say that to younger junior designers like it's okay to exit the corporate consultancy game. It's okay. There are other things you can do. You can take design and take it policy. You can take it to finance. You can take it to film. You can take it to art. You can take it to Wicked Problems. You can do a lot of things with design. It doesn’t have to be jammed into business. And that’s really, really refreshing, I think for them to hear or so it has been in my experience. 

The last audience is for designers who are right now like seniors in college who are about to graduate and they're scratching their head going, “You know what? I don’t want to work at --“name your Fortune 20 company, “and these flashy consultancies. I don’t want to work there either.” Those used to be rogue designers and design programs. They're the norm now and they have grown up with a set of ideals that it's part of them to work on things that matter. Well, like, Okay, cool. Here's your handbook. Go work on things that matter and make the world a better place.

Jon Kolko: How Design Career Choices are Changing

In Chapter 19 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, design educator Jon Kolko answers "How Do You See Design Career Choices Changing?"  Kolko notes how design careers in the United States are going through a massive overhaul.  For the very top craftsman, there will be jobs in furniture design, graphic design and industrial design.  For the majority, however, students career choices benefit from changing design programs, including interaction design, interactive design, service design, systems thinking and organizational management.  

Jon Kolko is the founder and director of the Austin Center for Design.  He has authored multiple books on design, including "Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving."  Previously he has held senior roles at venture accelerator Thinktiv and frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you see design career choices changing?

Jon Kolko: So, design as a whole in the US is undergoing a massive overhaul whether it wants to or not. And so, typical professions like graphic design, and industrial design, and furniture design still exist and for those in the 1% and 0.01% percent who are just exceptional craftsmen will get awesome jobs doing them and will get awesome jobs and be happy forever after. But there’s always been sort of a middle ground of, the mid-60 percent in the Bell Curve of designers who just aren’t very good. They're not bad, they're just not very good and they will not be able to get jobs doing graphic design, industrial design, and furniture design anymore. And they may or may not have been taught to do anything else, in which case they’re sort of shit out of luck, which is awful. It's a huge disservice to them because when you're 22 years old, you don’t know any better. You trust your professors and you trust the program you're going through. That the stuff I'm learning is relevant, right? Well, you wouldn’t be teaching it to me if it wasn’t, right? 

So, consequently and probably a decade too late, but still consequently all of the programs in the US are starting to reevaluate what they're teaching. And so you're starting to see programs in interaction design, programs in interactive design, programs in service design and systems thinking, and amorphous programs and design management and organizational change, all of which probably have a component of this design thinking stuff and also still this design-making stuff but the making is really, really, different. 

Service design, which I've always thought of as part of interaction design but I realized I'm in a huge minority and that’s probably a topic for a different point. Service design is poised to be the most needed thing in the United States as we transform into an entirely services-based economy. And so, you go like, “Fine, we're not going to do manufacturing anymore and we still have 300 changed million people, like what are they going to do for a living? Well, they're going to provide services. 

And so, somebody’s going to have to design those services and then train them how to do it. And service could mean anything from service in a healthcare capacity, just walk into the hospital and what happens, start to finish, or it can mean the really menial, like McDonald’s service worker, both of which are designed and both of which need a team of designers and all the agencies and consultancies and advertising, all that horse shit that comes with it to support it. And so, that’s what we're starting to see creep up in design schools and you're seeing it, you know, at the name schools but all of the community colleges and all of the state schools will follow.

What It Means to Be a Strategist - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 2 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What Does it Mean to Be a Strategist?"  Stallings finds his strategy work is about constantly searching for new ways to create advantages for his clients.  He enjoys the discovery and research process that he gets with each project that play into creating that strategic client plan.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

How to Make Learning a Lifetime Pursuit - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 9 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What is Your Approach to Lifelong Learning?"  Stallings notes how he chooses to work in areas where new problems constantly appear.  This forces him to constantly learn new things so he is better prepared to resolve problems.  He references his work applying behavioral psychology for retail consumers to business model design.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

How to Improve a Business Strategy Presentation - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 15 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "How Do You Introduce Radically Different and New Business Strategies to Clients?"  Stallings notes the importance of showing clients a visible example.  Comparable businesses, or business analogs, are great examples Stallings uses to educate clients in the strategic presentation process.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

What It Means to Lead in Innovation Consulting Job - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 18 of 22 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  Stallings references his innovation and consulting and design work at frog design.  He notes leading comes not from the top but from influencing project direction without control and without saying "no".  When done right, the approach allows Stallings and team to get the most out of the team and optimize the collective problem solving.  This is Hammans Stallings' Year 2 CYF interview.  Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design.  Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens.  He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia. 

Startup Advice on Using Venture Capital

In Chapter 14 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Boxee co-founder and head of product Idan Cohen answers "What is the Role of Venture Capital in Building a Company?"  Cohen shares its relevance as a tool to build things that might not have financial viability from day one.  He notes when it is useful in building products that later can be sold and when it is not a good idea.  Cohen shares concern around success being measured by raising venture capital, rather than creating a successful, profitable company.  He goes on to discuss different markets and technologies outside the Internet domain that would benefit from disruptive innovation and what variation of fundraising or venture tools could be applied there. 

This is Idan Cohen's Year 1 Capture Your Flag interview.  Cohen is co-founder and head of product at Boxee Inc, an online video software company.  Previous to Boxee, Cohen held telecom software innovation and developer roles at Comverse.  He was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Geophysics and Art.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What’s the role of venture capital in building a company?

Idan Cohen: It’s a tool that was put in place to allow us to actually build things that might not have, you know, financial and business viability from day one. And, so that’s great. It’s an awesome thing, the fact that there’s a mechanism out there where you can, you know, someone can put faith in you because he thinks you have a good vision and an idea and a theme. And he can let you—he can give you that lay to go and build it, for a while, before you need to commit to any real business, because, you know, he understands that it will take time to build the product that you later can sell or you later can monetize but at this point, you can just start out of the blue and make it happen, or maybe there’s a learning process in that product that you need to achieve and you’re not gonna be able to pinpoint the right answer exactly from day one, and it will take a process and he’s willing to be patient with that. So that’s great.

I think that if you look at it, for instance, definitely today, then on one hand, a lot of people measure success by being able to raise venture capital and that’s extremely wrong, in my opinion, it’s just it’s becoming this competition or—people are getting so much credit for being able to raise money, being able to raise money shouldn’t be a lot of—shouldn’t get you a lot of credit. It means that someone out there believed in your vision, it’s great. There’s so many other ideas out there and maybe someone believed in your team and that’s even more important sometimes, or most of the time, but at the end of the day, your ability to deliver on the product and the business is much more important than actually being able to raise money.

I really wish that there were these tools also for other types of businesses, if someone wants to put together a restaurant, there’s no need for him to struggle and definitely in today’s economy, not being able to bring together a quarter of a million dollars to open that restaurant, yes, the numbers are not the same as the internet industry, it’s not gonna explode, it’s not gonna grow as a hockey stick and you’re not gonna be able to monetize it in the millions. But there should be better tools for other types of businesses to get built and established. So I wish that more people would take these tools that maybe—or some variation of them that were invented for venture capital, as we know it today for technology world. And apply it for other types of businesses.

Today we look at venture capital as tightly coupled with technology. Venture capital should be much more tightly coupled with entrepreneurship. So just someone having a good idea and having a good vision and being able to build a good team and go out and build a business, so I love the fact that there’s now, you know, for instance, Elon Musk doing space acts, this is awesome, yes, you know, yeah, it might be a business—a huge business in the billions of dollars just because of the cost of sending rockets into space, but still just someone being able to go out and do that, and I don’t know if he would’ve able if he wasn’t Elon Musk and didn’t have billions himself. But still, just the fact that I think these businesses are starting to see, you know, it’s not pure technology, it’s not internet, it’s not gonna acquire million of users, no, it needs probably like 10 actually that are gonna pay for these missiles. But it’s still gonna work. Same for cars, you know, if it’s from like Tesla or something like that. Just—I would love to see many more people supporting these kind of businesses. Just—or cameras, you know, why is the camera market not ready for disruption? Like why can’t someone build a better camera than what Canon and Nikon has been doing for—Nikon has been doing for 50 years I’m sure someone can. So for instance, now with those Lytro that came from a little bit of a different angle – I would like to see many more businesses like that. 

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.