Nina Godiwalla on How to Turn Your Competitors into Collaborators

In Chapter 9 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing As Your Experience Grows?" Godiwalla shares how running a growing leadership training business has been about rolling with the punches, taking it one day at a time, and developing deeper collaborative relationships. As her experience grows, Godiwalla finds ways to work with potential competitors such as Whole Foods in collaborative ways on projects with British Petroleum and the State Department. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Nina Godiwalla on White House Roundtable Lessons on Leadership

In Chapter 11 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "What Have You Found Most Valuable About Working With the White House?" Working on the White House Roundtable alongside an interdisciplinary mix of industry experts gives Godiwalla greater context of how to help leaders become better people. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Fabian Pfortmüller on Why to Move Your Business to New York City

In Chapter 9 of 18 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur and community builder Fabian Pfortmüller answers "What Made You Decide to Relocate Sandbox From Switzerland to New York?" Starting a business, Sandbox Network, in Zurich, Switzerland, Fabian and his co-founding team move the business HQ to New York City to embrace the fast-paced culture, global transportation hub, talent availability, and potential business partners sharing mission and values. Fabian Pfortmüller is co-founder of Holstee, a socially conscious online marketplace, and Sandbox Network, a global community for young entrepreneurial people. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University.

Fabian Pfortmüller on Why to Take Employees on a Destination Retreat

In Chapter 12 of 18 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur and community builder Fabian Pfortmüller answers "Why Did You Plan a Month-Long Employee Retreat and What did the Experience Teach You?" Taking Holstee employees on a month-long destination retreat in Oaxaca, Mexico teaches Pfortmüller the value of getting out of the office and coming together as a team to bond as a family. This family culture element allows teambuilding to develop naturally through the shared experiences of going somewhere new and experiencing it together as a team. Fabian Pfortmüller is co-founder of Holstee, a socially conscious online marketplace, and Sandbox Network, a global community for young entrepreneurial people. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University.

Michael Margolis on How to Find the Right Project at the Right Time

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "How Do You Filter and Find the Right Project at the Right Time?" Running a fast growing storytelling business communication business, Margolis looks for client stories his team can believe in and invest in to tell a bigger story. This then requires Margolis and team to select companies who are willing and open partners in the transformational storytelling process. Michael Margolis is founder and president of Get Storied, an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. He earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Michael Margolis on Using Structure Frameworks to Grow a Business

In Chapter 17 of 17 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "What Procedures and Processes Are You Putting in Place to Manage Company Growth?" Margolis builds a business operations strategy around a four element model. Water is used to create regular meetings to gauge employee emotion and to get feedback. Fire is addresses problems and projects. Earth focuses on operations procedures, namely recruiting, retention, and routines. Lastly, air addresses the future. Michael Margolis is founder and president of Get Storied, an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. He earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Richard Moross on Learning Business in First Job Out of College

In Chapter 2 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "What Did You Learn in Your First Job After University That is Still Relevant Today?" Moross shares that working in a small business after college taught him why people, more than anything else, are fundamental to a business. He learns to shift away from the individual nature of being a student to the collaborative nature of working on a small business team. Richard Moross is founder and CEO of award-winning online print business Moo.com. He is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member at Ladbrokes PLC. Before Moo.com, Moross was a strategist at design firm Imagination. He graduated from the University of Sussex.

Richard Moross on When to Hire a Creative Agency to Build Your Brand

In Chapter 12 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "How is Company Growth Changing Your Advertising and Public Relations Needs?" As his company hits its one millionth customer and 200 country customer footprint milestones, Moross sees a need to invest in global branding and marketing communications. He shares why his company decided to seek external expertise and what he learned as the team went about finding the right creative agency, Creature, to develop an international television ad to run in the UK and US. Richard Moross is founder and CEO of award-winning online print business Moo.com. He is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member at Ladbrokes PLC. Before Moo.com, Moross was a strategist at design firm Imagination. He graduated from the University of Sussex.

Richard Moross on Lessons Learned as a Public Company Board Member

In Chapter 14 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Moo.com CEO Richard Moross answers "What Have You Found Most Educational About Participating on a Large Company Board of Directors?" Moross shares what he is learning about business, leadership, and management as a board member for publicly traded company Ladbrokes PLC. He gets to participate in a group effort to solve problems and plan for the future while also infusing the team with his knowledge of digital media and Internet innovation. Richard Moross is founder and CEO of award-winning online print business Moo.com. He is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member at Ladbrokes PLC. Before Moo.com, Moross was a strategist at design firm Imagination. He graduated from the University of Sussex.

Doug Jaeger on Turning One Project into a Multiyear Client Relationship

In Chapter 8 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and brand marketer Doug Jaeger answers "What Experiences This Past Year Have Most Influenced the Direction of Your Company?" Jaeger shares how having a client shift from a three-month project commitment to a multiyear commitment has affected his business. It creates a sense of validation in the creative work he and his team is doing and gives him confidence to invest more in business infrastructure and systems to manage small business growth. Doug Jaeger is co-founder and creative director at JaegerSloan Inc. where he focuses on brand and experimental marketing for clients such as Squarespace, Samsung and PwC. He is an adjunct professor at New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-curator of JnrlStr. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Doug Jaeger on the Give and Take of Creative Project Work Attribution

In Chapter 12 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and brand marketer Doug Jaeger answers "What Steps Are You Taking to Get and to Give Credit for the Work That You Do?" An experienced advertising executive now making brand films about companies and their futures, Jaeger shares his perspective on giving credit and taking credit for client project work. He shares when it is and is not appropriate to get attribution for the work you do on a creative project collaboration. Doug Jaeger is co-founder and creative director at JaegerSloan Inc. where he focuses on brand and experimental marketing for clients such as Squarespace, Samsung and PwC. He is an adjunct professor at New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-curator of JnrlStr. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Doug Jaeger on What Makes Some Collaborations Better Than Others

In Chapter 14 of 14 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and brand marketer Doug Jaeger answers "What Have You Found to Be the Keys to Creating Successful Project Collaborations?" Jaeger shares what he has learned about collaboration building film teams for production and post-production. He finds ways to build working relationships with people that have different skills and to bring the right mix of skills together when hiring production crews and project teams. Working in a creative director role, he shares the challenge of getting the skills mix right on a project and how he and his business partner have learned to assess fit take people off teams with the fit is not right. Doug Jaeger is co-founder and creative director at JaegerSloan Inc. where he focuses on brand and experimental marketing for clients such as Squarespace, Samsung and PwC. He is an adjunct professor at New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA) and co-curator of JnrlStr. He graduated from Syracuse University.

Ken Biberaj on Getting Parenting Advice Before Becoming a Dad

In Chapter 3 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City Council Candidate Ken Biberaj answers "How Did You Go About Getting Advice as You Prepared for Parenthood?" Biberaj notes his policy was to ask everybody for advice. He focuses much of his inquiry asking his parents and wife's parents. As a new parent, Biberaj learns how physical it can be to care for a newborn baby. Ken Biberaj is currently a 2013 Democratic Candidate for City Council in New York City. He is also a public relations executive for the Russian Tea Room restaurant at One Fifty Fifty Seven Corporation, a family business focused on real estate development, investment sales and retail leasing. Previously Biberaj was Florida Research Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President Campaign. Biberaj holds a JD from New York Law School, a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from American University. 

Ken Biberaj on Learning the Campaign Finance Part of Politics

In Chapter 8 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, New York City Council Candidate Ken Biberaj answers "What Did Raising Money for the Primary Election Teach You About Campaign Finance?" Biberaj learns how New York City creates a grassroots campaign finance system via its matching program. This creates spending limits and also helps make every contribution count. He compares this to what he saw working the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign and how 527 independent expenditures, for example, change the dynamics of an election and its influencers.

Ken Biberaj is currently a 2013 Democratic Candidate for City Council in New York City. He is also a public relations executive for the Russian Tea Room restaurant at One Fifty Fifty Seven Corporation, a family business focused on real estate development, investment sales and retail leasing. Previously Biberaj was Florida Research Director for the Kerry-Edwards for President Campaign. Biberaj holds a JD from New York Law School, a Masters in Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a BA in Political Science from American University.

Slava Rubin on How a 5 to 5 Policy Improves CEO Productivity

In Chapter 6 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "As a CEO, How Do You Decide What Time Horizon to Focus on in Your Work?" Rubin shares how growing from 15 to 60 employees has changed his and his co-founders' job responsibilities. He manages his commitments and priorities by using a "5 to 5" policy of working on things that can get answered in 5 minutes or that relate to 5-year company goals. Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: As a CEO, how do you decide what time horizon to focus on in your work?

Slava Rubin: I think that’s a great question ‘cause it’s probably one of the things that I’ve really evolved in my work. When it was just Eric, Danae, and I, as the three founders, we were constantly just be working on everything all the time, collaborating, whether it’s something that need to be done in the next 5 seconds, or whether that needed to be done in the next week, or whether that needed to be done in the next 3 months, we all work to collaborate mainly on it. I think as we’ve slowly grown, and now that we’re harboring around 60, and we’re really looking to establish the foundation to potentially grow and to even be a bigger company when I talk to you next year, I think I’ve learned—Well, I’ve spoken to the team that my new policy is I work on 5 to 5, and they work on everything in between, and what that means is I work on things that need to be answered in the next 5 minutes or things that we’re working on to figure out in the next 5 years, and everything in between is what my management team should be working on with their team to figure out, because if I as CEO is too much involved in the between, it means I’m stepping on their toes and not empowering them to do the work, right? And if I’m forcing them to work on the things on 5 years without knowing what it is for me, then they’re not working towards a vision, and, similarly, sometimes things need to be escalated appropriately in the next 5 minutes. So that’s usually how I’m working on things.

Erik Michielsen: How does that compare and contrast, say with what Danae and Eric are doing?

Slava Rubin: Yeah, so we all have different roles. Eric, you know, built the site and moved over to be head of insights, and then Danae was the heart of the company and now is really focused on thought leadership and people-recruiting culture, so we all have our distinctive roles and it’s working out really well.

Slava Rubin on Empowering Leaders as Startup Grows to 60 Employees

In Chapter 9 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Leadership Skills Are Becoming More Relevant to You As Your Career Progresses?" Rubin shares how his startup, Indiegogo, has grown from 15 to 60 employees in the year between his 2012 Year 3 interview and this Year 4 interview. Rubin notes how it no longer is about individual work but rather empowering new leaders to make decisions in a supportive structure that uses relevant business processes. Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What leadership skills are becoming more relevant to you as your career progresses?

Slava Rubin: As a founder, it was all about just getting the work done, seeing a wall right in front of you and just like putting your head right through it. That was the core skill of being an entrepreneur. I think now we’ve grown in the last year since I last spoke to you, from about 15 employees to 60 employees. I really need to rely on my leadership team to do a lot more than managing and empower them to do a lot of the core decision making. It’s really about empowering my leaders, about listening whether it’s from my leadership team all the way down to the most junior person, and to try to suss out that information as to connecting the trends as to what’s going on, and it’s also about analyzing data in a good way that can make big decisions easier.

Erik Michielsen: And what does that look like when you’re 15 versus 60? 

Slava Rubin: I mean definitely the aura is changing in terms of what the structure looks like, but it’s also you need to set up systems and processes that are just more scalable and just escalation policies in place, so you can’t constantly be running around like a chicken with your head cut off on any decision, and we can’t have every decision go through one individual whether it’s the CEO or not. So we just need to really figure out, you know, how do you escalate decisions? To what level? When and why? How? And who do you empower? For what? How do you manage? And, yeah, just use a lot more data as part of the decision making.

Slava Rubin on How to Build Startup Teams That Perform Under Pressure

In Chapter 14 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Does It Mean to Perform Under Pressure in the Work That You Do?" As a CEO of a venture capital-backed startup that has raised over $17 million dollars in financing, Rubin notes that the work environment is intense and the investor expectations are high. As a result, Rubin looks to hire employees who thrive under pressure and meet the company's "FACE" values formula, fearlessness, authenticity, collaboration, and empowerment. Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What does it mean to perform under pressure in the work that you do?

Slava Rubin: Pressure definitely is part of the job. We’re a VC-funded company, with some people like to say that’s like getting on the treadmill and never being allowed to get off. We don’t have the luxury of saying tomorrow, I think maybe I wanna take a break and slow down and maybe not try to build a bigger company ‘cause we already have some significant investors. We took 17 million dollars of VC money. So I think people thrive in the pressure, that’s who we’re looking to hire. We have our values as part of our recruiting process, and one of those values is fearless “face”- fearlessness, authenticity, collaboration, and empowerment. First one, fearless. So we need you to be fearless and do things that you never thought you’d be able to do and know that we need to accomplish things that are just challenges and no one else has done, so pressure is just part of the process.

Clara Soh on Communication Keys to Project Collaboration Success

In Chapter 11 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Have You Found to Be the Keys to Creating Successful Project Collaborations?" In her policy research work, Soh takes an open communication approach to set expectations around project goals and potential outcomes at the start of a project. This gives the team direction and a more clarified sense of purpose and understanding of objectives. Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.