 Survey how many entrepreneurs people working for startups in the audience here? Wow everybody else is a VC Great or something else Great to meet everyone here We all love to talk about success. Maybe you like to hear about success a little less I don't know and talking about failure is in vogue But I find it often not that helpful if we don't get specific So I thought I'd just share a few lessons learned from failure over the last several startups Talk a little bit about background these lessons learned and what I think Is gonna be the most one of the most important skills for entrepreneurs? To refine and develop Background I think you know I've like many of you started and sold a number of companies over the years Born in Vietnam live there now My most recent company was a company called misfit wearables. We made wearable technology that was beautiful That was what our focus was on Look making technology beautiful or invisible. We're required by fossil group three years ago, and I left it's really a fashion group brand and Since then since leaving about a year ago. I've been investing in and advising deep tech startups Focus mostly on the climate change reversal. So that's what I guess pays the bills these days But I wanted to talk a bit about these lessons because over these several startups I've really I feel like I've personally had a chance to learn a lot. So I'm gonna go rapid-fire through this if you don't mind And try to be as specific as possible Hiring, you know, we all have to do that and I've you know over the in the very first startup one of the things I learned was it wasn't just about hiring for really smart people IQ IQ IQ Brain teasers. It was really about getting people with great skills Hiring for strength instead of of lack of weaknesses something that took a while for me to figure out and And I found out that this is something that's really held up over the years It's fun and you know and after learning these things as I felt, okay Let's just hire people with lots of experience and I and I That didn't always actually work out well and what I've learned is that it's really about trying to hire people with great wisdom How do you interview for wisdom in an interview in a you know when you're? Considering a candidate. That's that's not the easiest thing. I find that it's most useful To really work with someone even if it's like for a week a lot of this comes out and Finally at misfit one of the most important things we I learned there It sounds a little trite, but it's very true cultural fit above all making sure that teams are cohesive and that they bond well that they look after each other and Yeah, so these are the things that I've learned about hiring. I'm sure you've May have felt the same way in in your own journeys And at the end of the day, you know, it's about the the cell to great candidates to great recruits is The fact that you in the startup you get one of the great benefits is you get to do things that you're not qualified for Like what this kid's getting to do. How cool is that? You know when I was eight? I never had the chance to drive a Whatever a bulldozer like that and speaking of hiring And we talk about culture and whatnot. It a lot of it comes down to values. I think we talk about this a lot and But I also find that a lot of the discussion can be very watered down very deluded because a lot of the values that We see out there a lot of times on the posters, you know in in offices and whatnot. I find a very They're not specific enough What I found is that having values that Can actually help drive decisions that can be very cutting And oftentimes some of these values can be kind of controversial, but it very clearly defines who you are it defines who you are not Pretty important at misfit. We had our set of values be a misfit that is do things that are different We often ask ourselves is that a misfit thing to do and that really became a thing doing more with less and Be a servant leader leaders are servers first In and what we did, but I would just encourage you to really think for yourself, you know, it's this is It's about having values that Res that that's important for you and that you have conviction around that your initial team has conviction around and that you're gonna stand By and values are things that can change over time that you'll add and augment to I'd suggest keeping it few Instead of having you know, 10 I've seen companies with 10 company values, and I just find that very hard to To remember One of my favorite companies that has a really cool Vision and mission statement very clear set of values this company called V and they make a really cool Hearable in AI fitness coach and so the product is really cool But they what they do is but what a simple vision we exist to help people reach their full Potential in body and mind, you know a very clear statement there and a very cool product the No, so you've got your team. You've got your values now. We got to lead the team You know we talk about leadership a lot as well and again how to be very specific about things And I'll just share with you three things that I've learned over the years Having conviction is very important strong opinions, but I found that Some of the best people that we've had are people who have conviction But are able to change their minds that when they're wrong they say yep I'm wrong they admit it and they move on and it's not a big deal. I find that Exceedingly rare actually but when you have folks like that on your team, it's just it's just wonderful It's a great quote by Groucho Marx here and Along the lines of servant leadership, which I think is very important You know at the end of the day as the founder as a CEO as a senior team member of your startup Just you're serving your team members. That's your role. That's what you're doing day in day out So eat last fly coach keep that mindset for a long time we were well-funded for years and we Yeah, we always asked this of our leaders and and Finally stand up for what you believe in having strong convictions being able to change that's good but standing for what you believe in even in the face of of a lot of opposition, it's very important and all it's and There's a great quote I learned from a mentor that I think summarizes why this is important It's because the regret that comes from doing something that you shouldn't have Is often temporary, but the regret that comes from not doing something you should have is Inconsolable, you know, how true is that? I think it's one of these lessons that once again took me several startups to learn but you know Learning is half the battle, right? So have strong opinions loosely held eat last fly coach serve your teams and stand up for what you believe in And finally execution You can have great team great values Amazing leadership, but if execution is not at the core of what you're doing if building a company is not what's important to you versus Building a product then it's gonna be a hard road. So Build a business not just a product and If you're in building a business be lean Who here has read the lean startup? I feel like it's like standard Well, yeah, it's a great book if you haven't read it the quick summary the 15-second summary is this It's about always getting user feedback It's about knowing when to pivot change your business model in some way or your product in some way And it's about maximizing the number of pivots by minimizing the cost of experimentation. So that's it that's the summary of being lean for the most part and So the core part of execution Building business not just a product as a CEO. That's what you're focused on It really has anyone in the in the core team. That's what it's about and be lean as you do this and whether you are a sass Software company or a deep tech company working on biotechnology or something Everybody every company I find has a lean playbook that is accessible to them One of my favorite companies that's super lean a company called since Evo I'm gonna give I actually brought one of mine and one of these products is one of my favorite products They are shipped. They shipped over nearly a hundred thousand units built the hardware the cloud the app Just an amazing product and what it is is it's a controller for your air conditioning unit It makes sure these remote control air conditioning units By Wi-Fi controlled and that's the and you think you know They're doing millions of dollars in revenue. You think massive team, right? That's the team two people They've hired two more since then But it's just an unbelievably lean team that has really learned how to get to product market fit And so I thought in the last few minutes I would just wrap up with one final point and that is around What I think is the most important skill for entrepreneurs So, what do you think is the most important skill? I mean, this is largely opinion. I suppose but For me, it's a born out of my experience out of these few startups any any takers I'm gonna give the I'm gonna give a sensible unit to whoever Whoever gets it right, which is whoever recently Learning that's a great one. That's your the best skill. That's a pretty important skill someone here Yep I'm sorry Grit having grit being able to survive being the cockroach and never and surviving to fight another day a very important skill. Yes indeed Passion having passion having that conviction to go against, you know Common wisdom very important anyone out here. Yep The ability to adjust to adapt also incredibly important I'm sorry Empathy that's a good one empathy, you know, all of these things are really important, right? But remember we're about building a business here so I'm sorry listening. Okay, listening. I think you could probably build a business through listening Profit who said that? Oh, man That's right We can build products. Maybe not throw things Sales the stereotype is this right? It's not what I'm talking about You do have to sell the customers, you know move product and get Profit, right? Very important But you're also trying to convince people to join you for half the salary that they would normally make, right? You're trying to get investors to give you money when they probably should be investing in something a lot less risky, right? Trying to get partners you get your wall of logos, you know companies to work with you when they probably Shouldn't work with you because you might be running out of money in about three to six months And of course the media you're trying to get Tech crunch to write about you when there's really not a whole lot to write about but you just need the press so that you can get customers and so these are all incredibly important and that's what you're doing really as a founder as a Leadership team day in and day out is your your selling these different constituents to an extent So that that is an incredibly important role and Just to leave you with a few tips on the sales things not a talk about sales But I would just leave it to a few things first is doing your homework. You got to know what you're who you're talking to What they're interested in and what stories will resonate with them? And then once you've done your homework, then it's about telling those stories It's about you know if you're trying to get someone to write about you It's about making sure that you do a lot of that work for them and If you're trying to convince someone to part with their money or in some ways their reputation because they're gonna write about you Or support you in some way. It's about focusing on amazing value. That's there's no qualms about it People often ask what's the secret to sales? It's about amazing value and finally It's about showing up and as a great a wise man once said showing up Is 80% of life, right? So that's it. Do your homework tells so build a business Sales is what you're doing and to do so do your homework tell stories that resonate focus on Exceptional value and show up. Thank you so much for your time