Why are you an entrepreneur?

I spoke at Boulder Ignite earlier this year and I talked about the Squiggly Line. I realised that the path to truly incredible results is not the linear line we learn in school: work—get rewarded—enjoy the benefits. Great, exceptional things follow a very different route than this measured, progressive “traditional” career path.

I got on the squiggly line by accident.

I studied law and started my career as a corporate attorney in New Zealand. I recall looking around my law firm and realizing that future wasn’t for me and I knew I had to move onto something else.

So without much thought (which is embarrassing to admit) I quit my job, got on a plane in January of 2012. I flew to New York, I’d never been there before. It was not the best time to make a career change, New York was in recovery but I kept talking to people and searching. I worked for free. I still say to people wanting to transition “if you work for a company you believe in, and help them grow, you will create your own job.” It take a degree of tenacity to do that. The trick is ultimately sheer self-belief, because it gets pretty brutal; the uncertainty of not knowing what tomorrow looks like. The rollercoaster of navigating the squiggles, it’s very unsettling.

But I think It’s like pain, you forget what it really feels like. And building new things gets pretty addictive.So I didn’t actively seek to be an entrepreneur, but I got the bug. And now I am hooked.

What led you to become interested in entrepreneurship? Was there a certain opportunity/event/instance that convinced you, “I want to do this?”

It definitely found me. If I look back I can see some causality. I helped establish the technology team at my law firm and did a lot of technology law as a junior attorney. I ready economist and fortune at a young age. I loved business and technology and and was naturally inclined to both. And I have always marched to the beat of my own drum. I have never been too interested in following the crowd, in fact I excel in obscurity and managing chaos.

So it’s in my DNA, but it was accidental and not carefully planned, strategies, thought through. In fact, that’s why I am a big advocate of instinct. It’s easy to overthink things and freeze, not get in market. Making big leaps and jumping in the deep end has worked for me, you activate survival mode and force yourself to figure it out!

What projects are you focusing on right now?

I’m focusing on a super idea — a really big idea. If we pull it off, it would sort of redesign advertising on mobile. I’m excited about pushing forward with new media channels. It’s a mobile idea app, mobile is such an exciting platform with so much growth. It feels in some ways that we are back in 2002 watching the growth of the digital media channel.

Another project is a networking project. I was really inspired by working with Pamela Ryckman on her book, Stiletto Network. She’s great example of a squiggly liner, she left finance and retrained as a journalist. She started to notice that a number of successful women talked about their dinner groups and created these indelible networks of support. With incredible results. Her book tells these stories we have never heard and exposes a powerful phenomenon of what I call feminine networking. Because I have encountered many men who do it to. It’s the networking where you help people you believe in just because you want to see them succeed. It’s powerful. It got me thinking of a couple of relationships that started for me that way and I asked myself, how can we use tech to create these purposeful connections?

How did you finance your businesses when they were at the early stage?

Massive morphed out of a company that was already backed by investors. From there we grew more investors. It was a very traditional VC approach. With V&S it was a lot more closely held, we had a very supportive early investor and had a revenue-generating model from day one. So in essence it was more of an angel approach.

The best advice I’m hearing these days is to bootstrap, get traction, then go out for money. Whether it’s angel, VC or otherwise. And obviously crowdfund if that’s available. And I would add to that, don’t go into debt personally. I think it puts too much pressure on an already very intense situation. You just don’t want to give up too much equity upfront. It requires creative thinking about how to get people in to help you without having to pay them, but if you can figure it out you’ll be smiling when you have success.

What’s the worst mistake a founder can make?

To be too controlling of what you’re doing. If you try to control everything about your company, you’re not going to have the looseness I think you need to let the business and market show you the sweet spot. And no way can you control all of the moving pieces once the business starts to truly gain traction, you need amazing people around you who can make things happen.

Was there a time that you failed? What did you learn from that experience?

I have an issue with failure being almost celebrated. I get why we are saying it’s a great learning experience; the squiggly line is all about backwards and sideways being more likely than moving forward. It’s a lot of bad days. But it’s not failure unless you stop there. Failure is just a potential stopping point. It’s part of the journey.

What is your favorite mobile app?

Any.do—it’s simply brilliant. From the app, to the feedback loops, to the Calendar addition. Mad props.

Any words of advice for entrepreneurs who are trying to get their ventures launched?

There is no such thing, in my experience, as a bad idea. But there is a lot of terrible execution, so go with what you believe, test it with some smart people. Ask them how they would execute. I never really thought cameras in phones seemed like a good idea, a friend of mine turned down investing in AirBnB; idea validation can be a very erroneous process.

Believe in yourself, it always comes down to the individual entrepreneur (or even better your team) and your ability to execute.

Best thing about being a female entrepreneur?

Mentoring—feeling that you can inspire others to get in the game. And seeing them succeed. It’s the best reward ever to see other people stretch themselves to achieve the exceptional for themselves.

US-based Kiwi Claudia Batten will openly admit she is digitally obsessed. From an early successful law career in New Zealand , Claudia launched herself into the extremely competitive entrepreneurial US environment. She has been a founding member of two highly successful entrepreneurial ventures. Starting with Massive Incorporated, a network for advertising in video games, she helped pioneer “digital” as a media buy. Massive was sold to Microsoft in 2006, where Claudia then spent 3 years scaling the in-game network. In 2009 she co-founded Victors & Spoils, the first advertising agency built on the principles of crowdsourcing. After two years in market, V&S was majority acquired by French holding company Havas Worldwide. Claudia is a passionate advocate for what she calls the Squiggly Line, the often uncomfortable path to achieving exceptional outcomes. She is a regular speaker on the future of marketing, the impact of connectivity, and on building businesses of the future. Batten’s experience has informed her business savvy, while her appetite for new challenges, unerring sense of timing and intuitive handle on the pulse of the industry guarantee that she will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

You can find Claudia on Twitter @ClaudiaBatten

This post was created by Raine Dalton, WIM’s editorial and community innovation intern. Raine is passionate about finding creative ways to empower women globally through tech. In addition to WIM, Raine has written, tweeted, and posted for the Global Banking Alliance for Women, WITNESS, and 90.7 WFUV News. You can find her work at www.rainedalton.com or get in touch with her through Twitter @rainedalton, or by emailing raine@wim.co.