A: Tons of people. People who are passionate about what they do. For one? My friend Jana, the creator of Doodlebooth and Bike-A-Bee. She puts her energy into doing things she loves, things she cares about, first and foremost. The money comes after. She’s so passionate about what she does, knows so deeply the things she works on. I aspire to that kind of directed positive creative energy.
Q: Why are you an entrepreneur?
A: I like working for other people, but I’ve seen how bureaucracy and titles keep the right people from working together. On the other hand, I’m worried at the new rubrics of success we’ve been following. Number of companies flipped, number of websites built. I’m more interested in how many people you’ve learned from, how many you’ve passed that knowledge onto. I think that’s what being an entrepreneur is really about. Learning everywhere. Teaching constantly.
Q: What was a defining moment in your career?
A: Sitting in the basement of the Field Museum and realizing I didn’t want to observe cultures as some kind of “other” in the past, but to create and engineer a new one.
Q: How is your company different from your competitors?
A: I focus on real needs now. My goal is to help people find who they need, when they need them. There’s an amazing network of talent out there, and no one has figured out how to connect it. Not everyone is good at introductions. Not everyone is a good citizen of their community. I want to teach folks to do that just by showing them what really works.
Q: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
A: Standing on a lot of stages teaching people to do things they forgot they know from childhood. Yes, I’m talking about drawing dinosaurs. But this really about teaching people to think visually. To connect to ideas emotionally so they remember them.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: I’m taking some front end development and graphic design classes. I haven’t touched HTML/CSS since 2002, and I’m excited to get dirty in the code again. I never took any design classes, so it will be interesting to see how classical art training translates into design. This is about learning to speak coherently on these topics, even more than being able to build for myself. Hopefully, there will be a beta launch of something awesome in the near future…
Q: How did you finance your business when it was at the early stage? (Self-funded, crowd-funded, Angel Investor, VC)
A: I’ve begged and bootstrapped my way to where I am. Learning what you know, and what people are willing to pay you to do is one of the biggest challenges. What comes naturally to you someone else will struggle at. This isn’t just about coding and writing up legal docs. We all have something, it’s pitching and finding it that keeps you afloat.
Q: Tell me something about yourself that we don’t know already.
A: After quitting my job at the museum, I got a job bartending. I wanted to see another side of life. When folks asked what I “really did” I told them I was researching the fall of the local bar in Chicago and the ramifications of chain restaurants on neighborhoods. I hears some amazing stories from folks after telling them a little white lie. Something to show them I was there to listen.
Q: What is your guilty pleasure?
A: Aside from chocolate, whiskey, shoes and books? I like talking to strangers. It’s this strange interaction where there is zero expectation of a second conversation. You can say anything, ask anything. When the conversation stops, or gets strange, you can just leave.
Q: Describe a time you failed. What did you learn from that experience?
A: For four years I ran TyK (Thought You Knew) as everything from creative director, to fundraiser to pr and content creator. The only product the company had was a printed calendar, put out once a year, and with the high minded intent of raising money for women’s health care. I spent so much time convincing people to work with me that I never thought to look for others with the same goal to collaborate with. Later down the line, I watched others make the same mistake: wanting to create something from scratch that was 100% “theirs.” There’s too much focus on the individual these days. I’d like to see less “beat them” and more “join them.”
Q: What is your favorite mobile app?
A: I use gmail for nearly everything. Reminders, to do lists, contacts, scratch paper… the only thing it doesn’t do is edit photos. For that, I’ve got Instagram.
Q: What do you do to help focus?
A: I put on headphones. They don’t even really need to have music playing. But headphones in a public space is perfect. Other than that, I run. I never enjoyed running til a friend casually mentioned to me “You know you can stop whenever you want to, right?” That changed everything. Now running is about a space to focus, a time when no one can contact me. I come back refreshed with all the noise gone from my head.
Q: What’s your cause?
A: I want people to get to work on what inspires them. I spend a lot of time making introductions. Really thinking about what each person should know about the other. Figuring out what they’ll get out of a meeting or a collaboration. Connecting people so they can build things and work on what they love, that’s the root of it all.
Q: Any words of advice for entrepreneurs who are trying to get their ventures launched?
A: Ask for help. Pitch your idea to EVERYONE. No one will steal it, because they’re all convinced their own idea is the going to be the next big thing. Look for people who like not only what you’re doing, but who you get along with. A good team that trusts each other really is the benchmark of success. Don’t ask for money unless you know exactly what you’re going to use it for. Raising money takes even more time and effort than you can imagine, and if you’ve been telling everyone the whole way along about your great idea, by the time it’s built enough to bring in some cash, you’ll have people ready and waiting to get in on the game.
Q: Where can we learn more?
A: I create sketchnotes about complex and interesting ideas at GraphiteMind.com I tweet as @agentfin
You can see my work in Mike Rohde’s new book The Sketchnote Handbook.http://www.amazon.com/The-Sketchnote-Handbook-illustrated-visual/dp/0321857895