Podcasts about Adeo Ressi

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at www.vanta.com/twist The Embroker Startup Program helps startups secure the most important lines of insurance, at a lower cost, and with less hassle. For guaranteed 10% off on premiums (& up to 20% depending on quote) go to www.embroker.com/twist. Brave is an internet privacy company on a mission to protect your personal info online. Try the Brave Search API at http://www.brave.com/jason Today's show: Maven Co-Founder and CEO Gagan Biyani joins Jason to break down his startup's live, cohort-based education model (2:28). Then, Gagan dives into his past journeys at Udemy, where he was eventually fired but wound up revolutionizing online learning and going public (35:08), and Sprig, a food-delivery startup that went on to raise $60M and scale to $20M in revenue, but ultimately failed (47:36). * Time stamps: (0:00) Gagan Biyani, CEO of Maven, joins Jason to discuss the future of online learning. (2:24) Maven: the evolution of online learning. (3:23) Exploring Maven's elite courses offered by a diverse pool of passionate professionals. (6:57) Analyzing who is leveraging Maven for education and the cost dynamics of online learning. (10:30) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at https://www.vanta.com/twist (11:36) How Maven's live cohort-based learning emphasizes accountability and interactivity for higher success rates. (13:15) Comparing the outdated cost structures of traditional education with modern alternatives. (23:10) Embroker - Use code TWIST to get an extra 10% off insurance at https://www.Embroker.com/twist (26:31) Unveiling the potential earnings for educators in the online learning marketplace. 28:27) The online educational landscape featuring insights on Coursera, Udemy, and others. (30:56) Brave - Try the Brave Search API at http://www.brave.com/jason (33:40) Jason built the “pit” at TechCrunch50, where he and Gagan first met. (35:08) How Udemy's early days were shaped by the Founder Institute and Adeo Ressi. (41:28) Gagan shares his personal story of being fired from Udemy and his lessons learned. (47:33) The trials, tribulations, and ultimate closure of the food delivery startup, Sprig. (53:39) Discussing the most effective methods for scaling and growing a product. (55:02) The world of fundraising and understanding the power law in venture capital. Check out Maven: https://www.maven.com Follow Gagan: https://twitter.com/gaganbiyani https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaganbiyani * Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo: https://www.launch.co/fourApply for Funding: https://www.launch.co/applyBuy ANGEL: https://www.angelthebook.com Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow Jason: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jason Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Adeo Ressi is an iconic entrepreneur, investor, and teacher. He is the CEO of VC Lab, which runs the leading venture capital accelerator. He is also the Executive Chairman of the Founder Institute, the world's largest pre-seed accelerator.Adeo has launched more than 14 venture capital funds and founded 11 startups, having nearly $2 billion in exits before the age of 30.Adeo speaks about his mission with VC Lab. VC Lab has to date accelerated 236 new VC firms and reduced the time to start a fund from 18-24 months down to 5.8 months.VC Lab is designed to turn venture capital into a force for good in the world.Traditionally, VC is an exclusive club and accessible only in select locations like Silicon Valley, New York, London, Berlin, etc.Regions like Latam or Africa need entrepreneurship the most to solve local problems, but the locally available capital is predatory.It is no accident that venture capital has not yet scaled globally: as so often, the barriers are regulatory. The "dinosaurs of the industry" have set up moats.Starting a VC fund is a black box, and requires a significant amount of upfront capital for legal fees to comply with a set of onerous laws.VC Lab is solving the problem by creating a full-stack: a free acceleration program, standardized legal advice in three domiciles, and fund management software.VC Lab is doing more than anyone to globalize access to VC by reducing the barriers to starting a fund for managers committed to the ethical principles of the Mensarius Oath, thereby unleashing a new wave of innovation through entrepreneurship.Towards the end of the episode, Niklas comments on why he chose VC Lab and how it helped him start Infinita VC.Check out VC Lab if you're thinking of starting a VC fund (applications for Cohort 10 are open): https://govclab.com/Infinita Linktree: https://linktr.ee/infinitavc

On Episode 7 of Season 8 Robert is joined by Shaahin Cheyenne. Born in Iran, Shaahin Cheyene is an award winning entrepreneur, writer and filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles, California. In the early 1990's while still in his teens, Cheyenne spearheaded the “Smart Drug Movement” by inventing and branding the original Herbal Ecstacy and over 200 other award-winning products. During the conversation the two share a wealth of information about how to generate income in the modern internet age, and the mindset behind success as a CEO + much more.   Find Shaahin: https://www.instagram.com/hackandgrowrich/   Sponsored by 3rd Eye Cacao (Use Code 'TIMEWHEEL' To Save 11% At Checkout) https://thirdeyecacao.com/   Visit our Shop: https://SheathUnderwear.com Use code 'RPG' for 20% off storewide Show Notes: 3:21- Cheyenne is an accomplished entrepreneur, specializing in Amazon sales. He runs www.fbasellercourse.com.   5:02- “Anybody can now start an Amazon business, and run it basically while they're on vacation.” (Cheyenne)   6:58- Any business you get into will have its problems, the role of the entrepreneur is solving those problems.    8:20- Cheyenne and his family migrated from Iran to the United States in the late 1970's. His father worked at a pizza shop and dry cleaning business for nearly thirty years to support the family.    10:12- Cheyenne is a mentor at The Founder Institute, led by Adeo Ressi.    11:15- It is not an easy or cheap to train employees.    13:06- ‘Hack And Grow Rich' is Cheyenne's podcast that talks about unconventional hacks for making money.    14:00- ‘Billion' is the book Cheyenne wrote about his rise to ultra success in the herbal ecstasy market.    15:07- “We're really heavily investing in our inventory to make sure the we are ready for any kind of viral moment.” (Patton)   15:56- Cheyenne is excited to try SHEATH during his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training.    17:50- The herbal ecstasy pill was a combination of herbs that would mimic the effects of synthetic ecstasy.    18:20- Cheyenne was responsible for the technology of vape pens  and had the first public vape company.   20:00-“I put all my eggs in the Amazon basket.” (Cheyenne)   22:35- Cheyenne is very weary of drop-shipping.    26:10- Finding the best people at what they do, paying them fairly and having them produce results are some strong points that Cheyenne believes in.   29:50- You can't give up on your brilliant ideas, Patton knew he wouldn't quit with SHEATH.    31:00- Cheyenne experienced bullying and racism growing up in Los Angeles, eventually he learned how to fight and didn't back down when challenged.    34:00- “If you're down, you don't inspire the people around you.” (Cheyenne)   36:50- The two commonalities of successful people are performance and network.    39:30- Cheyenne isn't personal friends with Jeff Bezos, but they have emailed in the past.   41:25- “We have over twenty thousand five star reviews and we have sold over a quarter million pairs.” (Patton)   43:05- Ironically, people can be afraid of failure and success.    45:45- Patton believes in the power of tattooing what you're committed and most passionate about.    48:30- The harder you work, the more likely you're going to encounter a lucky situation.    49:29- “There's gonna be no dinner if you're not cooking anything.” (Cheyenne)   51:07- Cheyenne is a high school dropout.    52:49- Booking people as guests on other podcasts is one of Cheyenne's specialities, he helps run www.podcastcola.com.    55:15- One of the great forms of influence is authority.    57:45- The longevity of podcasting is timeless.    1:00:30- Cheyenne was determined and fearless about getting herbal ecstasy into the nightclub scene.    1:04:20- Patton and Cheyenne are both fans of Onnit.    1:05:16- Having these other competitors with us, it validates our proof of concept.” (Patton)

Today we're joined by Mike Suprovici, Head of Acceleration at VC Lab, the 16 week VC Accelerator spun out of Founders Institute with a vision to help launch no less than 1.000 enduring VC firms by 2025. We're excited to bring you this interview as Mike and his partner in crime Adeo Ressi have made quite a splash worldwide with their program helping more than 100 firms be launched across 5 cohorts and make important VC conceptual innovations like the Proof of Concept-fund, Fund-in-a-box and LP Love be disseminated in the ecosystem. Go register your application for the 7th VC Lab cohort on vcl.to/VC

Greg Orme is an Award winning author and business keynote speaker and is our special guest on Episode 14. Find out why we should stop competing with AI but to instead start to differentiate ourselves. Explore the superpowers you'll need to future-proof your value in the workplace: Consciousness, Curiosity, Creativity and Collaboration. We talk about Greg's, “Dance Steps”. You can learn one-step and put them together in any order. You'll learn: How do you create a culture of creativity? Consciousness gives us the motivation and the time. Curiosity is the fuel for creativity. Why having an experimental approach is key! Follow us and explore our social media tribe from our Website: https://leadership-hacker.com Music: " Upbeat Party " by Scott Holmes courtesy of the Free Music Archive FMA Find out more about Greg and his work below: The Human Edge (Business Book of the Year 2020) Greg's website: https://gregorme.org Greg on Twitter Greg on LinkedIn Read the full transcript below:  ----more----    Introduction Steve Rush: Some call me Steve, dad, husband or friend. Others might call me boss, coach or mentor. Today you can call me The Leadership Hacker. Thanks for listening in. I really appreciate it. My job as the leadership hacker is to hack into the minds, experiences, habits and learning of great leaders, C-Suite executives, authors and development experts so that I can assist you developing your understanding and awareness of leadership. I am Steve Rush and I am your host today. I am the author of Leadership Cake. I am a transformation consultant and leadership coach. I cannot wait to start sharing all things leadership with you. On the show today is Greg Orme. He is the author of the business Book of the Year for 2020, The Human Edge. Before we get a chance to speak with Greg. It is The Leadership Hacker News.   The Leadership Hacker News Steve Rush: In the news today, we explore what age do we really start to develop entrepreneurial spirit. Our spirit can happen quite early but according to combined studies of the Duke University, the Kauffman Foundation, The Founder Institute and Northwestern; the average age of an entrepreneur is actually 40 years old when launching his or her first start up and the average age of leaders of high growth start-ups is 45. While Tech Media is ripe with stories, a successful 20 somethings founding their first billionaire empire, the truth is that 40 somethings are much more likely to start companies and succeed. Adeo Ressi founder of “The Founder Institute”, developed research that shows that older age is actually a better predictor of entrepreneurial success. The research in question is not small scale either. To get the data The Founder Institute tracked 3000 global applicants, examined in detail thousands of organizations, a thousand enrolled founders and track 350 of their graduates. So do we think the age really helps? According to Ressi, older individuals have generally completed more complex projects from buying houses, raising a family and in addition older people have developed greater vocational skills than the younger counterparts. We theorize that the combination of successful project completion skills with real world experience helps older entrepreneurs identify and address more realistic business outcomes and opportunities. This is borne out not only by research, which shows, amongst other things, that people over 55 are twice as likely to launch high growth start-ups than those under 35, but by scanning just a quick list of successful entrepreneurs: Ray Kroc was 52 when he shaped McDonald's into the multi-billion global organization that it is. Sam Walton was 44 when he started small little company called Wal-Mart. Lynda Weinman co-founded Lynda.com at 40 and subsequently sold that to Linkedin for $1.5 billion and not a “twentysomething” among them. The fact is innovation culture suggests that it is more trendy and more youth orientated and it is not as cool for older folk. This leadership mind-set can be limiting for all. It can frame older individuals by making them feel useless or expired once if fit certain age, and can also hold back younger people by making them feel that they haven't achieved or they have failed if they haven't found that their next big social media platform by the time they're 21. And of course, young people can become successful entrepreneurs for sure, but it's extremely misleading to believe that this is the norm so if you haven't hit your first million and you're in your 30s and 40s and 50s, there's still hope yet, and our next story shows that entrepreneurial leadership has gotten no age boundaries. The Utah Highway Patrol said, “a trooper conducting a traffic stop on a suspected impaired driver instead found a five-year-old driver seeking to purchase a Lamborghini”. The highway patrol said in a Twitter post that a trooper conducted a traffic stop in Webber County on what he thought was an impaired driver; but the driver of the vehicle turned out to be a five-year-old boy who had made off with his parents car. The boy who was pulled over at the 25th Street off-ramp of the southbound Interstate 15, told the trooper that he'd taken his parents car after getting into an argument with his mother, who told him she would not buy him a Lamborghini. He decided to take his entrepreneurial spirit to the next level and head off in her car in search of that Lamborghini. The child told the trooper that he did intend indeed driving to California to buy the luxury vehicle for himself and his mom would not get in his way. His only downfall was that he only had three dollars in his wallet. That has been The Leadership Hacker News. If you have any news, insights or information, please get in touch with us and share your stories.    Start of Interview Steve Rush: Our guest today sparks creativity and business innovation in a fast paced, changing world. Is the author of The Human Edge, which has just been awarded the Business Book of the Year for 2020, is Greg Orme, Greg, welcome to The Leadership Hacker Podcast. Greg Orme: Well, I am delighted to be here, Steve. Thanks for thanks for inviting me. Steve Rush: It is absolutely our pleasure, and congratulations, by the way, on winning the Business Book of the Year. Fantastic achievement. I am sure you have been delighted with that. Greg Orme: It has just been fantastic; really, game changing for the book and something I am really proud of, it's just been wonderful. Steve Rush: And so you should be, so before becoming an author, you started-off your career in the TV world, right? Greg Orme: Yes.  Steve Rush: Tell us a little bit about the journey to here. Greg Orme: Well, as a journo, I was a young journalist all the way back in the 1990s. My careers adviser at school advised me that it was not a good idea to go into journalism and of course, that is the only thing I wanted to do then. I clambered my way up from local newspapers, The Solihull Times to the Birmingham Evening Mail to the Nationals, down in London and then into television. Steve Rush: And how did the television bit come about? What did that give you in terms of foundations for what you do now? Greg Orme: Well, it is really funny, you know, because right now, obviously we're speaking when the world has gone virtual and so I'm doing a lot more webinars and sort of virtual presentations. And so the production of those really goes all the way back to producing television news because I was a young producer on London Tonight, which was the local television news there and then with ITN and ITV, and also along the way with the BBC. So, you know, taking stories, really boiling them down to what the nuggets are, then deciding what format to use and writing scripts around it. It's all the stuff that you do when you're presenting, you know, virtual webinars and that kind of thing, so I've come full circle. It is really quite strange. Steve Rush: So fantastic foundations given that when you were starting out your career, you probably had not realized the importance of calling upon them at a later date? Greg Orme: Well, you never do, do you? You never know where your skills will take you. Actually, as a facilitator of face-to-face workshops and, you know, I facilitated boards of directors as well in my work on organizational change. Straight with organizations and via organizations such as the London Business School and Ducsy and various others. I found that idea of what a journalist does, which is to learn, ask interesting questions and then summarize and kind of guide the conversation. Has helped me all the way through my career. So yes, it has become really pertinent now, but I've always relied on those journalistic skills, actually. Steve Rush: Communications are at the heart of everything we do, particularly when we are leading businesses, right? Greg Orme: Yes. I mean, it is really central. I mean, my work now is sort of sits astride organizational change, but it is really working with the leaders that drive that change and catalyse it. And if you think about what leadership is, Steve, leadership is effectively communication and influence, especially in non-hierarchical organizations, which they increasingly are. It is your ability to move people through your communication, so it is separate to management, which is establishing what is going on and making sure there is some kind of consistency. Being a leader is all about communication. So even though I have not been a communication consultant for many, many years. Really, leadership is at the heart of the work I do with organizations and the people that run them. Steve Rush: Right and given that you started out in journalism, you ended up in a leadership role and several leadership roles yourself and executive roles. How did that transition take place for you? Greg Orme: Well, that came about because I went back to London Business School. They asked me back after I had done my executive MBA. To go back to be the founding CEO for a thing called the Centre for Creative Business, and that was a joint venture between London Business School and the big art schools, the University Arts London, which I said number of different art schools and fashion houses. The idea was we were exporting kind of MBA thinking from London Business School to creative businesses because the British government wanted more tax revenues from our creative sector and we were part of that, so that's how it started in terms of that was an executive role running and growing that. And then after that came to an end after four years because we had four years of funding. I then was an interim CEO with a large recruiting and HR services business called Randstad and Randstad; they are sort of global businesses, and I was a CEO of one of their businesses in the UK, so, yes, I had some experience at the front line, which is invaluable when I am helping people in similar situations. Steve Rush: So during that time as CEO of a couple of businesses and getting into the world of creativity and innovation and new thinking. That was when you started your first book Spark, so how did that come about? Greg Orme: The Spark was…it goes back to that idea of the Centre for Creative Business, and so the question that was often been asked, which is what can creative businesses. If we were sort of exporting, MBA thinking to creative businesses and it struck me that there is an interesting reverse of that question. Reversing the polarity issue to ask what can creative businesses, the likes of advertisers and TV production companies and design houses and architects teach the rest of the world. In terms of how they maintain an atmosphere of creativity in their organisations? I always think if you write a business book, you should have a central question that you are trying to answer, and the question there was, you know, what can creative businesses teach the rest of the world? And so that's what the spark is. It's how do you create a culture of creativity? How do you have behaviours of leadership? Because in most of the research, that has gone into creativity in organisations and I mean all organisations, not just ones that call themselves creative. The sad thing is that creativity gets killed more often than its encouraged just by the rules and regulations of business, so it's something that you have to protect and nurture. Steve Rush: In my experience as a coach and leading businesses too; one of the biggest things I find about creativity is often when you are more extroverted and you are able to come and demonstrate and showcase creativity, it's more noticeable. But actually there is an inordinate amount of learning to be had from people who appear less obviously creative, but equally have the same level of thinking and creativity and creative flair, if you like. How do you go about enabling that in people who are maybe more introverted? Greg Orme: Yeah, absolutely. I am not sure. It is about introversion and extroversion for me. You know, looking at the research, I think introverted people can be just as creative as extroverted people. You probably just won't hear their ideas as readily. What is really interesting for me is that creativity is one of those words that's very exclusive. It is often thought of as for geniuses or for artistic people over a certain type of person, whereas the reality is we are all born creative. And then the culture of our schools, sadly, and also the culture of our businesses, kind of beat out of us. We realize that our creative thinking is not as welcome as we thought it might be. So there's a lot of really interesting research that shows that, you know, if you do creativity tests like the Torrance Test on kids that are five years old, something like 98 percent of them score very highly in their ability to apply divergent thinking, which is a foundational stone of creativity. By the time, we are fifteen that is gone down to 30 percent, and by the time we are in the workplace, it is down to twelve, five, two percent, and so it's our environment that knocks it out of us. In effect, I am on a mission with both my books really to try and help everybody to rediscover their creativity, not just the chosen few. Steve Rush: That is a really interesting statistics. It is almost we have unlearned how to be creative by the environment through school, education, work and forced parameters around our behaviour. Greg Orme: Yeah, well, unlearning is a really good word for it. In fact, George Land, who did the original study on this, who came up with these really rather depressing statistics. That was the conclusion of his report after 20 years of studying this cohort of American schoolchildren, that went into the American work environment was that if you are creative thinking is, you know, effectively unlearn it from your environment. Well, anything that can be unlearned can be relearned, so that is the silver lining from this, that actually you can rediscover your creativity as well as been a skill. It is an attitude. You know, you really can step back into your creativity enough, and that, as been a personal journey for me, and also, it's a personal mission for me to help other people do that because it's life changing. Steve Rush: And it is really reassuring for those people who are listening to this who maybe think I'm not as creative as I'd like to be. We've probably got all of those foundations somewhere tucked away at the back of our brain. We just need to pull them forward, right? Greg Orme: Absolutely. You know, I like to think of it as this. If creativity I was saying, is this exclusive word there. That, you know, one of those red velvet rope surrounds that say you can't come in. If you actually dig down to sub worlds that support it, like curiosity, questioning, learning, engaging, sparking two ideas together, talking to other people, we can all do these really simple things like questioning and learning. So if you can do that, our human brains are actually programmed to make connections to do what psychologists call general thinking, i.e. connecting things together. You can't help yourself. You just need to put the fuel and the energy into your brain and have the attitude listen for the ideas that come and don't dispel them. We can all do it. Steve Rush: That is excellent I love that. So moving on to your work now. So global keynote speaker, facilitated hundreds of sessions across the globe for different organizations, and in parallel to that, have written your award-winning book, The Human Edge. What was the inspiration for book number two from where you left off with Spark? Greg Orme: Yeah, well, you know, I was thinking it came sort of five and a half, six years later. And I'd done a lot of work with a lot of big organizations in automotive and banking and all sorts of different places, and had the benefit of traveling around the world and sort of being a fly on the wall in these offices, and so I started getting really interested in where is the workplace. The future going and what is the role of technology and disruption, particularly because I think we're in a very disrupted environment. Of course, is extremely disruptive. Now with COVID-19, but it was happening before that with artificial intelligence and data vacation and new generations coming into the workplace and new digital tribes online and obviously the environmental crisis that we're all battling with. So we're in a very unstable environment, so I started talking a lot about the technological angle of that, and I actually was making a keynote at London Business School. Had gone back for an alumni event and one of the executives, the lady came up to me after I'd finished my speech and said, that's all very well talking about how technology and machines are changing organizations. But what really occurs to me, you're going on about artificial intelligence and how it's going to change the world. Where does that leave me in terms of the skills that I need to survive and thrive in this in this world? And what about my daughters? You know, what should I be telling them to study and become? I thought it was a really interesting question and I didn't really have the answer, and that was about four years ago. From there, I started exploring what I thought were the answers to that question, that became The Human Edge, which is to me. How do you become more human in a world of machines and disruption in order to make the most of what you've got? So future proof your own career. Steve Rush: Got it and it is really interesting when I look at how the world has changed over the last 10 or 15 years. There is genuinely a threat or a perceived threat by many people around the world of robotics and AI and how that's impacting, and I think you call that the human challenge in your book, don't you?  Greg Orme: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that has gone away a little bit now because I think we have all started to…I think it is still there, and that's where the debate was three or four years ago. It was human vs. machine, what is going to happen? And of course, actually in the same way, there's another trend. We have become a lot less trustful of our tech companies, our social media companies. We don't trust the ones on the West Coast, we've got Uber, which had a lot of scandals, and then we've got the Chinese unicorn and tech companies that are sort of veiled in secrecy. So generally, tech is not what it was, and also there is AI, which is, quote/unquote, taking our jobs. I think what I discovered in the book is for most people in the knowledge work industry; AI is not going to take your job, not anytime soon. What will happen is it will cheese slice away the algorithmic routine parts of your job, leaving you a space and this will happen over the next five to 10 years, leaving you a space in which to apply your own humanity. What differentiates you from machines? So that's an opportunity as well as a threat, and so that's what the book is about. It is taking that opportunity and really, really using you're what I call human superpowers. Steve Rush: And for me, it really is an opportunity but many people could be in that threat space because there is this. “If I let go of some of the routine tasks, I might be redundant” vs the mind-set that says no - It gives you more space for creativity and new ways of working. Greg Orme: Yeah, and, you know, just to be clear, and I am sad to say this, I don't relish in bringing this news. That there will be some job types that will go completely. I think, you know, if you are a long distance lorry driver and that's, of course, autonomous driving, but it is really a subset of AI. That will probably go some sometimes or a lot of those jobs will go. Not all of them, because obviously driving in the city centre is far more complex than driving down a motorway, so there will be some types of driving that will go. Effectively you can write down all the data and the decisions in any job type and then feed it into machine learning AI. It will probably get automated sometime in the next sort of five, six, seven years, but I think that's a small portion of jobs. Most jobs, as I say, will be cheese sliced and really what is left is what we do that machines can't, so, you know, we have a sense of humour. We have empathy; we can think generally. We can collaborate together. We can ask the next question rather than answering the last one, so that is curiosity, so this is why I came up with the idea of these 4 C of superpowers in the same way that I wanted to demystify creativity. I am hoping I can demystify all four of these C's and help people to develop them because they are skills that you can practice and get better at. Steve Rush: And the book The Human Edge is about how we use our creativity and our curiosity, and you call them superheroes in our digital economy and I really love that kind of principle, and during the reading of the book, you have bunches and bunches of hacks often you refer to them as dance steps, actually. Let's get into the 4 C, I think it would be really helpful to go through how the 4 C's of The Human Edge work together, so the first of the 4 C is consciousness and you say that's the gateway to the other 4 C. What is the reason that sits as the gateway? Greg Orme: Well, just to explain the structure of it, there are 4 C and under each of the 4 C, there are two what are called dance steps that you mentioned. I call them dance steps, because you can sort of just like a dance step. You can learn one-step and then kind of do them in any order. They are not really linear. I don't think creative thinking is a particularly linear thing. However, there is an order, which is why I have done it in the order I have of consciousness, curiosity, creativity, collaboration and the order is this. I think that is the order of kind of ideation or allowing yourself to be creative and under consciousness. I have the idea of finding work meaningful, and I also have the idea of focus. Being able to direct your attention and find islands of time in which you can devote to your own curiosity and creativity, so the reason that is first is if you don't have the motivation to step forward and be courageous enough to be creative, you won't do it. Because it is an effort and it also implies for failure. Creativity always has failure as a component of it, and the other part, the other dance step under consciousness is this idea of focus and that is really about organizing your day in order or an average day in order to find time to be curious and creative. And so just to summarize that, my favourite quote on this is. Creative Minds may think like artists, but they were like accountants. What I am getting out there is that you really need to concentrate and focus in order to find the time to do it. Otherwise, you end up just chasing your tail in a very distracted world in which we are in now.  Steve Rush: That is a great analogy and one I think can resonate with most people as they listening in. Curiosity is the next C and that runs through the other C, and a particular like the reference that you use around questions are the hallmark for leadership in our century. How did that come about?  Greg Orme: Yes, so if you consciousness effectively gives you the motivation and the time. Curiosity, I think is the fuel for creativity and I think of the 4 C, Steve, as you know, they are all equal apart from their not. Creativity, a bit like the British prime minister. They sometimes say the British prime minister is the first amongst equals, I think, of creativity as the first amongst the C because curiosity and consciousness allow you to be creative. Collaboration allows you to then take the ideas that come out of creativity and do something with them. So curiosity is really important for me because and the two dance steps are learning and questioning. Learning, because actually you need to keep pushing yourself forward and we know ideas come from when they when notions and concepts jump barriers between two different domains of knowledge, so you need to push yourself to learn outside of your specialisms and then what happens is you get these wonderful, serendipitous connections across boundaries in which ideas happen. So that is really, really important, I mean, you know we can all think of examples of that, so, for example. Ducal brings together the idea of academic citations with what was at the time this new-fangled thing called the World Wide Web, and that is what Google came from, so you need to learn…and the questioning helps you to challenge the world around you constantly, which again leads you to see it and frame it in different ways. Steve Rush: And when you talk about creativity as part of your forces, you state within the book that, you know, consciousness and curiosity gives you the framework or the set up success or they set up creativity. And what particularly struck me within that is that you talk about luck as being a skill, and I wondered if we think about skills are refined and they are practised and we get better at them or not as the case may be through practice. How do you practice at getting lucky? Greg Orme: Yeah. Well, I use that because it is a particularly provocative statement, isn't it? How do you practice being lucky? Well, I think the point is that a lot of people, if you ask them where do you have your ideas, they say, well, they sort of come to me, you know, I'm on a bike ride or I'm running or might be in the shower. And they see this as a lucky moment, this moment, this so-called aha moment, and I really find in my research about creativity. Is the aha moment even though it's got a great PR, you know, you could think of a hundred aha moments, the apple drop on someone's head or whatever it might be, what is much more important is the preparation that leads up to that. Aha moment. And that's what I mean about luck is a skill you can actually work on the things that will bring you aha moments, and what I do is put a lot of practical ideas in the book of what you can do to work on that. Steve Rush: Got it, so the whole consciousness of being creative replays back in there doesn't it. It is taken those unconscious thoughts and thinking, bringing them to the conscious. Greg Orme: Well, absolutely and one of the things I say is pay attention. Pay attention not only to the world around you. Look for the unexpected things that happen. A lot of the times we can spend our lives on autopilot. You know, we are driving the car. We are even not aware we were driving and we suddenly, 25 minutes later we are somewhere else. You know, it is about consciously from time to time paying attention to the world around you because that is where you get your ideas from and also listening to your own thoughts, being self-aware, because actually your subconscious brain often whispers to your ideas and sometimes you can miss them if your you're not paying attention. And there are 100 different other ways that creative people who make their living from coming up with ideas and in a way, I make my living from coming with ideas and putting them into books. Actually, they practice these habits every day to make sure they've got a store of new ideas coming. I mean, one of them is to literally waste nothing. When you read you look at a painting, have some way of collecting lots of things around you that you can go back to as a store of ideas. For example, I use Evernote. I don't if you use this online way, so whenever I'm reading something online, I can tag it. It goes into my Evernote store and it is just kind of like having a brainstorm with a former self when I go through the things I have read, so, you know, there are lots of different habits that creative people use to ensure that they get lucky more often than. Steve Rush: That is some really neat ideas and of course, they're lucky become the more successful you become.  Greg Orme: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and, you know, as long as you keep practicing these habits, I mean, another one is to understand our brain does not just work on its own. It is part of a system within our body. So if you want to operate at peak performance and be creative, which is one of our higher functions, you have to make sure that you're fit, that you have time off, you have time to play. You get good sleep. Sleep is incredibly important than the research around sleep now and its connections with creativity is absolutely compelling, so in the book, if people come in there, they'll find something they can do every day that will just, you know, incrementally build up those curiosity and creativity muscles. Steve Rush: It is habit forming, isn't it? It's not one of those things you can just do in isolation. It has to be repeated and repeated and repeated so that you are laying down those neurological pathways to create those tactile foundations. Greg Orme: Yeah. I mean, fantastic. You have mentioned the brain there and neuroscience because, you know, as someone who has applied psychology in my work for many years, I am so excited now that we can actually have some hard science in there as well. No offense to psychologists, but neuroscientists can show you which part of the brain is lighting up, and what is really interesting to me in terms of creativity and exploration, curiosity. That releases a neuro transmitter called dopamine and dopamine is called the motivation molecule is something that makes you want to get up and go and the light side of dopamine is if you can release it, it makes you want to do something, which releases more dopamine, so as you were saying, Steve, it's a virtuous circle. If you can release this dopamine for me when you are exploring in your curious, you want to do more of it, and as you say, it just gets more and more and more and then you surround yourself with more creative people. You do more creative things and then it becomes not just a choice, it becomes a kind of a lifestyle. Steve Rush: Almost a factory that refuels itself on that journey, too. Greg Orme: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you just take one aspect of this, I was talking about how curiosity underpins creativity and I think people should stop aiming at creativity is like aiming at happiness. It is completely pointless. You know, what you have to do is aim at the things that take you there by a circuitous route. Curiosity is the best route. I think that is the motor way to get into creativity and what we know about the curiosity is. It is like a muscle, so if you use your curiosity, if you are asking questions, if you are surrounded by curious people, you will be more curious and if you don't, your muscles won't get bigger and stronger. They will waste away and so be really careful about the people you're hanging out with, the things you're reading, the things you're watching, the podcast you subscribe to. How are you getting your new knowledge? That is what is feeding this desire to find out more. Steve Rush: and in the spirit of curiosity, your last C is Collaboration. This is about building a network of human collaborators. Now, for most people listening to this they will be going yeah that is pretty obvious. Surround myself with a bunch of people who can help me, but what are the dance steps you've got here for collaboration? Greg Orme: Yeah, well, collaboration is the umbrella term for use it but I get quite specific with the two dance steps. So the first dance step is this idea of networking. Now it may be sound straightforward, but I find a lot of people don't attend to their network. They see networking, something kind of, you know, like recruiters do.  It is a little bit oily and, you know kind of business like that, really, it is about connecting to like-minded individuals and not just a small group of them. We all have so-called Dunbar's number, which is the amount of people in our sort of close network but really, it is about connecting to a much wider group because there is great research data to show if you have a wide, shallow network as well as some close colleagues. It is in that wide, shallow network of people away from you. That is where you will get your new ideas. In addition to that, you always have someone to take your new ideas too to get feedback, because honestly, most people's ideas are not very good. If you are going to have a large portfolio of ideas and by the way, that is the best way to be creative. Stop working on one idea. Work on quite a few. At the same time, then you want to try and improve them and the best way to improve them is to take them out to other people and get some honest feedback on it, so it's having this and developing and consciously, intentionally developing the network around you. That is incredibly important. Steve Rush: Getting data for your creative, curious ideas. Is incredibly important because we come with our own biases, don't we? So how do we make sure that is the right data that we've got? Greg Orme: All you can do, say for example, you know, when I'm writing my books, I have a group of twelve people or so who are really trusted colleagues who know the marketplace I'm writing for, who've written themselves, so I kind of just trust they... I don't take it as read. I don't take it is like, oh, I must change that because they said this, but I will really, really closely listen to them, so I think it's a matter of understanding who you're going to for what. In terms of getting feedback and then honouring their feedback and just kind of keeping in mind and choosing the stuff that you really need. Because, I think one of the most compelling kind of insights that I actually find in this book and I did not realize before is, we know that creative superstars have something like 80 percent of the really, really good ideas. You know, you've got to ask yourself in all sorts of domains in mathematics and cooking and art and filmmaking, whatever it may be, Why are these people having so many good ideas? And the reality is they're not. What they are having is more ideas, creative people just generally cottoned on that, if you have more ideas, you will then have more to choose from, I think the follow up to that is even more fascinating that even the most creative people have been proven. They don't even know which of their ideas will work in the real world. They have to try them out and get feedback on them, and the trying out is the second dance step I have in collaboration, which is the idea of having an experimental approach.  Steve Rush: What does that experimental approach entail? Greg Orme: Being experimental is the idea of saying taking an idea and saying, well, what is the shortest possible route of least investment in time and money and risk to find out if this works in the real world? It is trying things out, but in a much more structured and scientific way. It is actually a concept that is being well promoted and use from the West Coast in the tech industry, because, of course, you can release software with very little risk and see if it works. And so it's bringing that approach into your life and thinking it can be as simple as a behavioural change or a new idea. How can I just get some evidence of whether this works or not? So you set up a hypothesis, you try something that you some what happens and then you pivot and move again. Rather than saying, I love this idea, this is what is going to be the rest of my life investing all your gold and time and fortune into it and then 12 months later, finding out it was not a very good idea at all. It is about really doing things very rapidly. Steve Rush: The world is moving so quickly, isn't it? By the time we've kind of got our idea implemented, ready to go, we could be late. We could have missed the opportunity entirely. Greg Orme: Yeah, I mean, that is the other risk. I mean the first risk I was talking exactly. It was the wrong idea. More probably, it is the wrong version of the right idea or it could be that you missed your opportunity because you did not get the first draft in the marketplace. Although I have to say, Steve, I think, you know, if you think about the alternative, which is the more corporate way of doing things, which is say we've got a great idea, we can follow, the motion, we're going to put three million this and we're going to make it happen. And that's the sort of strategic approach that's actually probably faster in the long run but if you think about it, much, much more risky because you've kind of made the assumption something will work and you put a lot of money behind it. I personally, I prefer to not lose money on bad ideas so that is why I think experimentation might be slightly slower, because you are pivoting and moving and learning and pivoting and moving but it's actually is a better way of reaching a really good product or a really good outcome for an idea.  Steve Rush: I am with you. Now The Human Edge has won the Business Book of the Year for 2020. That is available for everybody to access download paperback, but what is next for you? Greg Orme: Well, obviously, kind of my life splits into speaking and writing effectively, so on the speaking in the session's front, you know, obviously, I'm now delivering lots of workshops, both online and off based on the insights in The Human Edge, and that's really exciting. So there is that a sort of kind of applying the knowledge that I have already got in terms of what is next in terms of writing, I don't know. I am looking all sorts of different things. I am very interested in communication, as you are saying, at the start of our discussion. You know, I was a journalist at one point. I have always used communication right at the heart of what I do, so I am kind of mulling ideas about how could I bring a new angle to communication and that is kind of interesting to me, but I'm really looking for questions, you know, coming back to the theme of ask better questions. I am always think, how can I ask a better question? And I'll know when I've got a good question I will start pursuing it with this experimental approach and see what comes from that. Steve Rush: Perfect opportunity for experiments then. Greg Orme: Exactly. Steve, I don't really trust the ideas I bring back off bike ride. I ride my bike around the lanes here in in Warwickshire and I get sort of high on endorphins about 45 minutes into the ride and have a load of ideas. Come back and I just think the best things ever and I always write them down and think I'll leave them for a couple of days, because when I come done off my endorphin high. I often find they are not very good at all, and so it is about not investing too early in your ideas and having enough of them and so I guess having enough questions is rather than getting obsessed by one straight away. But then following through and that is the writing process of when you have actually got the question. You have established, it is a good one, then you really need to focus. Steve Rush: We wish you best with what happens next. Greg, so this part of the show we have become familiar with me hacking into the minds of our guests. And I'd just like to get a sense from yours, if you're able to distil some of your dance steps, some of your experiences as a leader. What would be your top leadership hacks you could share with our listeners? Greg Orme: Wow that is a good question. The first one would be and I have already said it, but you know, I just re-emphasize it for people. I think it is the heart of good leadership; I think is really the cornerstone of good creativity as well. See if you can ask more and better questions every day. I think that is a great leadership technique because it not only sends a signal that you are curious in the world, it liberates other people to come into the conversation. It is a great way of really energizing a team, so I would say ask better questions. Secondly, I would say and I have become very interesting and I do write about it in The Human Edge a little bit and I become more interested even since the book has been published in; the science underpins humour and fun. I would say to leaders in organizations, that you should be bringing humour and fun into the dynamic of your team. Because it helps enormously with cutting through in terms of your communication. It supports creativity and of course, it supports cooperation. If you can make someone smile, they trust you and that is what is needed more in companies now than ever. And generally, I would echo that the thrust of The Human Edge and my third one is if you're a leader, don't forget to drop the mask every now and then. Share your authentic self. Show your humanity. Because I think, people need that from their leaders and obviously, you can't keep doing it. Leadership is to some extent a performance art but I think people want to see a theme of humanity and authenticity and what you are doing, so drop the mask, and bring your humanity to work. Steve Rush: I say great advice, thank you. Greg Orme: You are welcome. Steve Rush: Now to get inside and find out what your Hack to Attack is; and what that means is a period in your life or your work where something has not worked out as you had expected. Maybe it is screwed up. Maybe it has failed miserably. But as a result of the experience, we now use that in our life, and our work as something positive. What will be your Hack to Attack? Greg Orme: Steve, you know, I do a lot of public speaking and keynote speaking. Well in the early part of my career, I was asked to give a speech and it was a kind of a more relaxed, informal kind of after dinner type thing and so I thought, you know, I don't want to ruin my ability to be in the moment and kind of react to it. I won't over prepare. I won't kill the magic, as it were, and I went along to give my speech and of course, as soon as I stood up in front of a couple of hundred people. Your brain works in a very different when you are up there and I could not you know, I did not really have it there at my fingertips. And I kind of realized in that moment, since I've really researched how other people do it and I looked at it and I've realized the actual preparation does not put you in the straitjacket. Being absolutely prepared when you are doing presentations and public speaking. Actually, counterintuitive, it releases you to be in the moment because you've got a very solid structure and so you can only leave a plan if you have a plan in the first place. So I find now when I deliver speeches, I kind of know what I'm saying down to literally 20, 25 second segments. I don't have a script because nobody can remember a script for long periods of time but I really know what I'm going to say, and that allows me to kind of, you know, leave those series of bullet points, because I know it's very solid underneath. So, yeah, I prepare in a really rigorous way for what I'm doing and it really helps. Steve Rush: Super learning and preparation is foundation. So making sure that what you execute is executed in the way that you intend. Greg Orme: Absolutely, you know, as I said, it makes me laugh and people still say to me. I am going to do this presentation. I am going to wing it because I wanted to be really fresh and in my view or maybe just me, but, you know, in my view, that's the wrong way to go. You need to be really super prepared and actually people think you are making it up as you go along. You are so well prepared but it is the preparation that allows for that serendipitous moment to happen. Steve Rush: And then lastly, we would like to explore with you, Greg, is if you are able to do a bit of time travel, bump into the Greg at 21, what would be the best bit of advice that you would give Greg at that time? Greg Orme: So much, I would like to say to the 21 year old me. Sadly, Steve, a very, very long time ago now. I think I only started writing quite late, really sort of seven, eight years ago. I was not writing back then. I would say to that person, I am sure the 21 year old me would not have had the confidence to think that he would go on to write award winning business books. So I would just say write. Write right every day, don't worry about what it's going to become or what it is, but just make sure every day you get 500 words down on something. Because what I have really discovered. Now, I have written business books and other pieces and magazine articles and created products. Actually, you don't know what it is until you start, so you just got to get going in and end the mess is actually where you discover the good stuff. So I would say just do it, whatever your creative output is and for anybody out there, whether you're a writer or whatever else you do, just do it every day because you'll find your ideas in that mess. Steve Rush: Awesome advice. Thanks, Greg, so as folks are listening to this, they are probably thinking, I have heard a lot about The Human Edge. We know it's got awards. How do we get hold of a copy? Greg Orme: Well, you know. Oh, it is on Amazon. It is on…oh crikey. Every online bookseller there is.  It was not until recently in the WH Smith travel stores. I am not sure if it is still there. I have not been out of my house for quite some time but the best place to get it is online. If you put in The Human Edge by Greg Orme, you will find it on Amazon very, very quickly or somewhere else if you prefer to shop with someone else. And of course, if people want to become part of my network, I'm constant releasing videos and snippets and blogs all the time. I am very active on LinkedIn and you can find me at Greg Orme also to a certain extent at Twitter, and I think I am @gregoryorme on there, or you can go to my website, which is gregorme.org. Steve Rush: We will also make sure, Greg that we put details of how to access your book and all your social media sites in our show notes and on our website too, so as folks have listened to this, they can click and follow you straight away. Greg Orme: Fantastic. Well, it has just been a fantastic conversation with you. I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me. Steve Rush: And thank you for being on The Leadership Hacker Podcast, Greg. It has been super and a massive congratulations from us and our team on your superb award. And good luck with whatever the future holds for you now. Greg Orme: Thank you, Steve and same to you, cheers.    Closing Steve Rush: I genuinely want to say heartfelt thanks for taking time out of your day to listen in too. We do this in the service of helping others, and spreading the word of leadership. Without you listening in, there would be no show. So please subscribe now if you have not done so already. Share this podcast with your communities, network, and help us develop a community and a tribe of leadership hackers. Finally, if you would like me to work with your senior team, your leadership community, keynote an event, or you would like to sponsor an episode. Please connect with us, by our social media. And you can do that by following and liking our pages on Twitter and Facebook our handler their @leadershiphacker. Instagram you can find us there @the_leadership_hacker and at YouTube, we are just Leadership Hacker, so that is me signing off. I am Steve Rush and I have been the leadership hacker.

In this specially live-broadcast podcast episode, Founder Institute CEO Adeo Ressi spoke on to a livestream audience of 650+ attendee entrepreneurs about how startups can plan for coronavirus impacts and the expected economic recessionary period to follow. 9X entrepreneur and startup investor Adeo Ressi encourages founders to be smart, rather than afraid in these unstable times, but to consider substantially changing their financial practices in the short term in order to prepare themselves. While Ressi discusses the many challenges the COVID19 pandemic is causing for businesses globally, he also outlines opportunities that are emerging, as well as strategies for startups to survive in a likely recession. Adeo Ressi addresses directly: The big unknowns for startups: how long is coronavirus likely to last, and how bad is the COVID-19 impact likely to be? How to survive the stay-at-home mandates, and general considerations for both pre- and post-revenue startup financial management. How and when to ask for the 'Coronavirus Discount' from suppliers and vendors - be generous, and remember to give back. Why an enormous problem is a collective test, and how founders can take the opportunity to examine their impact in the world. Opportunities for improvements and innovation for startups combatting coronavirus directly. and more! A full transcript of this podcast episode is available on our blog: https://fndri.com/AdeoCoronavirusMarch2020podcast  For additional insights from the Founder Institute, subscribe to our newsletter at https://fi.co/subscribe If you’re building a pre-seed stage startup and looking to join an accelerator, see if the Founder Institute is currently accepting applications in a city near you at https://fi.co/join/podcast 

Three Interviews from Graduation Ceremony of Founder Institute FrankfurtThis is the first interview for all three startup ideas. The founders just graduated in the first batch of the Frankfurt Chapter of the Founder Institute. The Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, having helped launch over 4,000 companies across 185+ cities and six continents. The company was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi and his colleague, Jonathan Greechan. The idea for the program spawned from operating TheFunded.com, where it became apparent that most entrepreneurs at the idea and launch stages lacked the structure, feedback, and support network needed to be successful. Learn more about Founder Institute and the Chapter in Frankfurt here, where you can apply for the next batch as well: https://fi.co/s/frankfurt Interview PartnerYou can reach out directly to the people we have interviewed here: Michelle – Supplino: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-peters-2599263/ Karsten – Xplain: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karsten-helbig-b7575364/ William – TribeLync: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-king-ii-m-s-it-itil-4-pmp-49b51b26/ Some impressions from Founder Institute Frankfurt's Graduation Ceremonyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/B8J5PUfI9vm/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B8J5A5Rodoo/ Find the video interview herehttps://www.startuprad.io/blog/three-interviews-from-graduation-ceremony-of-founder-institute-frankfurt/ Folge direkt herunterladen

Există o mulțime de lucruri pentru care poți să fii supărat pe lumea aceasta. De la tipul cel nou de la birou care pare mai inteligent decât tine, la casierița care s-a uitat urât dimineața la tine când ți-ai luat cafeaua, la afurisitul acela care ți-a tăiat calea la intersecție de dimineață sau chiar la guvernanții pe care îi plătești din banii tăi și care pun borduri peste borduri, peste borduri pe Iuliu Maniu. Situație reală, în cartierul Militari sunt trei borduri una peste cealaltă pe o porțiunie semnificativă de drum... Pe Adeo Ressi nu îl supără nimic și încearcă să vadă doar jumătatea plină a paharului. Are o mentalitate de învingător și singura lui întrebare este: ”ce putem să facem să fie mai bine?”. Și funcționează, a reușit să facă multe lucruri și se consideră mai degrabă un ”inginer social” decât un antreprenor. Este de părere că modul în care sunt crescute în prezent companiile, artificial și cu singurul scop în minte ” de a face bani” este complet greșit. Modelul de business al tuturor companiilor mari de care ai auzit până acum, Facebook, instagram, Amazon, Alibaba, și orice alt nume sonor este complet greșit. Nici una dintre ele nu rezolvă o problemă reală, importantă în societate, ci doar o apasă și mai tare. De parcă greutatea proprie nu era suficientă. Astăzi avem un podcast special, cu un om pe care am ajuns să îl admir și mai mult decât o făceam până acum. Podcast-ul este în limba engleză, sper să aveți răbdare să îl ascultați pentru că spune niște lucruri cu adevărat importante. 

Adeo Ressi, founder of Founder Institute, entrepreneur and investor, talked to start-up.ro during a podcast in Bucharest about the issues of hypergrowing in the startup world and the fallacies brought by superfunds and superfunding. Adeo Ressi talked about the problems in the startup ecosystem: „There are two endemic foolish things that has happened in the world of startups and a correction is underway. The first endemic foolish things is hyperfunding to pursue and achieve hypergrowth. This has massive unintended consequences that have really damaged society. Examples are Uber, Lyft and others. The hyperfunding of them for hypergrowth has really created an untanable labour market, where you’ve got drivers that buy expensive cars, start making money, meanwhile Uber and Lyft are reducing rates, so now you’re creating this situation of servitude where drivers who buy an expensive cars have to maintain them with decreasing living wages. Now they are working just to keep the car, not making a lot of money besides that, having 3-4 jobs to get at the end of the day”. „To some extent, you’re not gonna fix Apple. That company is broken at the core. You’re not gonna fix Amazon, Facebook. What we need to do now is to build better models. The Softbank fund of hyperfunding companies to get the hypergrowth thank God it broke. It shouldn’t work. It’s bad. It’s proven to have unintended negative consequences that outweigh the positive consequences” „We need good business models run by good people, we need good investors, good founders, good incentives in the public markets, good regulation and create a new class of billion and trillion dollar companies to replace the Google, to replace the Facebook, to replace the Amazon, to replace the Apple that are not having positive effects on humanity.”

Adeo Ressi, Founder & CEO of Founder Institute, drops by the show to talk about the future for entrepreneurs and how you need to be focused on yourself first before your startup. Today’s Sponsor: Onnit Resources: Apply to join Founder Institute Continue Reading: Chrismichaelharris.com/ep186

Adeo Ressi is the CEO of the Founder Institute, a startup launch program that operates in over 200 cities worldwide. He is also a        repeat entrepreneur who has sold two $1 billion companies, and he is a recognized mentor for fast-growing technology businesses. He spoke at SXSW in Austin on entrepreneurship. In this episode of Ideas to Invoices, Ressi talks about finding and pursuing your passion, traits for entrepreneurs, emerging global tech hubs and more.  

As the world becomes more connected and technology infiltrates the very fabric of our society, there has never been a better time for tech startups to make a difference and solve big problems in the world. In this episode, Mark Frohnmayer (Founder & President of Arcimoto) and Adeo Ressi discuss the various opportunities in cleantech, and the strategies which today's most ambitious entrepreneurs use to bring their visions to reality. This podcast is produced by the Founder Institute. We're an idea-stage accelerator that works with solo-entrepreneurs and teams during the earliest stages of their business. In our 3.5 month program, participants build their companies via a structured process, receiving feedback and assistance from successful entrepreneurs and investors. To learn about our efforts to help launch meaningful companies, visit fi.co/good.

Founder of The Founder Institute, Adeo Ressi unveils the truth about launching and selling a startup in Silicon Valley, and why entrepreneurs should never plan to exit. Adeo reveals some of the crazy sides of founding a venture. As well as powerful advice for structuring your next company and surviving a buyout.

Founder of The Founder Institute, Adeo Ressi unveils the truth about launching and selling a startup in Silicon Valley, and why entrepreneurs should never plan to exit. Adeo reveals some of the crazy sides of founding a venture. As well as powerful advice for structuring your next company and surviving a buyout.

DTV is a Digital Transformation Channel, focused on the current and future technology trends of software development and delivery. DTV interviews industry experts, Fortune 1000 companies, and leading technology providers to give you a 360-degree view of digital transformation. Sponsored by Infostretch

Brought to you by the world’s first Tech Ambassador, TechPlomacy Talk dives into the challenges and opportunities of present and future technology.

Can we boil down an entrepreneur’s future success to their DNA? Adeo Ressi, Founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, says yes. This startup accelerator determines acceptance into its prestigious launch program in part based on a series of psychometric tests they claim to determine if a candidate has “Entrepreneur DNA.” On the show, we find out how it really works. This episode was produced and edited by Lauren Feiner and Esmeralda Martinez. Our music is "Is That You Or Are You You" by Chris Zabriskie. This podcast is sponsored by Indicative, the leading behavioral analytics platform. Go to www.indicative.com to learn more. Be the first to know when a new episode is released and stay up to date on the latest data news by signing up for our newsletter: goo.gl/forms/FDhgnhRCfkydkjGr2 Read more about the podcast and Adeo Ressi at decidingbydata.com. Follow us on Twitter @decidingbydata

Over the summer we sat down with Adeo Ressi, the CEO of the Founder Institute, a startup accelerator program that operates in nearly 200 cities worldwide. Throughout his time as a founder, Adeo has pioneered innovations in the protection of founder rights, the raising of early-stage capital and the scaling of new businesses.   Previous to the Founder Institute, Adeo has helped to create nearly $2 billion in shareholder value by founding or running nine businesses, including TheFunded, Game Trust, Xceed and Total New York. Adeo previously served on the Board of the X Prize Foundation to pursue his interests in space exploration and techniques to motivate human achievement. Throughout this episode it is clear that Adeo is passionate about mentoring Founders, space exploration, inspiring people to achieve their greatness, and more which includes:    The best personality traits of the best founders   How The Funded improved transparency in the VC industry The role fluid intelligence plays in entrepreneurs Managing your investors and protecting your equity  How Adeo helped 2700 plus founders grow How to build startup ecosystems Why maintaining focus and avoiding distractions is mission critical  How do you give meaning to your life's work   Ambition Today Question of the Day™: "What is the end game? Where do you see Founder Institute and all your life’s work going?"               Quote Of The Episode: "There are a lot of shiny things in the sand, that look very appealing to you and may be a cause for you to think about pivoting or adjusting the business model. I can tell you that most of the shiny things in the sand are not diamonds, they are knives waiting to kill you. You have to be very, very, very diligent to remain focused on your core mission"     Links from this episode: Adeo Ressi on Twitter Adeo Ressi on Linkedin Founder Institute Founder DNA The Funded Toptal   ========== This episode of Ambition Today is supported by: + Founder Institute New York: goo.gl/RGezjW   + WeWork: goo.gl/hyzzuP  + Toptal: goo.gl/OObfM9 + Audible: goo.gl/Urjq6k   ========== Visit Ambition Today on the Web: www.siskar.co/ambitiontoday  Follow Kevin Siskar on Twitter: twitter.com/TheSiskar   Follow Kevin Siskar on Instagram: instagram.com/thesiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Facebook: facebook.com/kevin.siskar Add Kevin Siskar on Snapchat: snapchat.com/add/krsiskar   Kevin Siskar brings you ambitious entrepreneurs inspired by Tim Ferriss Show, How I Built This with Guy Raz, Residual Income, Entrepreneur on Fire, NPR, HBR, TED Radio Hour, the StartUp podcast with Alex Blumberg by Gimlet Media, Pat Flynn, Tony Robbins, The Uncertain Hour, Bigger Pockets, Art of Charm, Dave Ramsey, Planet Money, Jocko Podcast, EntreLeadership, Zigler, APM Marketplace, This Week In Startups with Jason Calacanis, Mixergy, Seth Godin, Joe Rogan Experience, GaryVee, James Altucher, Monocle 24, How to Start a Startup, Crooked Media, and The $100 MBA Show with Omar Zenhom, and Casey Neistat.  Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS (apple.co/1NRRPzL), on Google Play Music (goo.gl/LmmciJ), or on Stitcher for Android (bit.ly/1Rn01dy).

While John Spencer and I were developing the LAUNCH Cycle, we came up with a few areas that were likely stumbling blocks in the creative (design-thinking inspired) process. One of the keys to the Launch Cycle is taking the time to Look, Listen, and Learn throughout the entire process (that is the L in the LAUNCH acronym). In talking with George Couros about the Launch Cycle we had a good conversation about when it was appropriate to share that learning. The quick answer: all the time. From start to finish you can be learning and sharing during the process. Whether it is students doing a Genius Hour Project, teachers creating their own PD, or school leaders implementing an initiative--the key is to be transparent with that learning process. Here's the problem: To be transparent and share your learning means to open yourself up to public failures. This is true for all of us. It is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the creative process. And it's not the failing. It's the resiliency to get back up and keep trying. It's the tenacity to continue attacking the problem and developing solutions. It's the feeling that your work is not complete until you've made some sort of progress. And I know what you are saying in your head right now, because I'm saying the same thing: It's one thing to fail and bounce back myself or in a small group. It's a completely different level to fail in front of what seems like the whole world and try to keep going in the creative process! But, if we want to be great. If we want our students to be great. If we want our schools to be great. Failure, and sharing that failure, has to be a part of the process. It cannot be hidden. It cannot be swept under the rug. It cannot be forgotten. I'm right there with you. I need to learn how to fail better, and bounce back stronger, and not be afraid to share it with the world. For me, it gets me inspired to hear and see others sharing epic failures with an audience. Enter my inspiration: Elon Musk. Learning How to Fail From Elon Musk One of the best lessons on sharing the entire Launch Cycle is happening right now. We are living in an amazing time, where every step of SpaceX's program is being broadcasted, shared, and discussed in real-time. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, here's the general gist (or you can read this 30,000-word article on it that I loved). Elon Musk was a co-founder of PayPal where he made millions of dollars when the company sold to eBay. Instead of buying yachts and living off his riches, Musk decided on tackling three of the biggest problems he could think of: Dependence on fossil fuels, space travel, and solar energy. He formed three companies. Tesla is the car company that makes electric cars and battery gigafactories. SolarCity is the smallest company founded on bringing solar energy to the masses. And then there is SpaceX. SpaceX has brought the Space Race back into the 21st century. Musk's goal is to eventually have a SpaceX team travel to Mars. And he is not joking about this. They are hitting almost every milestone along the way. But the best part of this entire story, is that we get to watch it live. The ups and downs, wins and failures. It's an awesome Design Thinking process happening right in front of our eyes. In 2005 when he was starting out on this journey with SpaceX, Musk said the following: Failure has been a huge part of SpaceX's ethos since the beginning. In fact, they almost failed their way out of business. 2006: First launch—failure 2007: Second launch—failure 2008: Third launch—failure They only had enough money and resources left for one more launch. It needed to be successful in order to get any type of funding.  As described in the post linked to above, here's what happened: A friend of Musk, Adeo Ressi, describes it like this: “Everything hinged on that launch … If it works, epic success. If it fails — if one thing goes differently and it fails — epic failure. No in between. No partial credit. He’d had three failures already. It would have been over. We’re talking Harvard Business School case study — rich guy who goes into the rocket business and loses it all.” But on September 28, 2008, SpaceX set off the fourth launch—and nailed it. They put a dummy payload into orbit without a hitch, becoming only the second privately-funded company ever to do so. Falcon 1 was also the most cost-efficient rocket ever to launch—priced at $7.9 million, it cost less than a third of the best US alternative at the time. NASA took notice. The successful fourth launch was enough evidence for them that SpaceX was worth trusting, and at the end of 2008, NASA called Musk and told him they wanted to offer SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to make 12 deliveries for them to the ISS. Notice, that all of these failures were very public. Livestreamed online. Written about in the mass media. Talked about among colleagues and employees at SpaceX. Then notice something else: You probably didn't know about any of this. One of the biggest lessons we can learn from Elon Musk about failing and bouncing back publicly is that even though you may share it with the world, it doesn't have to be humiliating. Musk and SpaceX failed proudly. It meant they were taking risks. It meant they were pushing forward and trying to make a better world. As teachers and leaders we can often feel defeated when we try something new, take a risk, and end up not getting the results we hoped for. Yet, if we share that journey we are inspiring others to take action themselves. We are showing the world that we aren't "settling" for what we have, but are actively working for something better. Musk on the Fundamental Problem with Taking Risks SpaceX has continued to fail since that successful launch. But with each failure (and with each success) they grow stronger as a company who practices resiliency and promotes risk-taking. Their latest risk is trying to land a rocket (that goes into orbit) onto a landing pad in the middle of the ocean. They have successfully landed a rocket on land, but for bigger launches they need the flexibility of landing the rocket on a robot boat at sea. So far they've had four attempts. All failures. Three were close, one not at all. Now as they go for their fifth attempt, articles like this one from Wired Magazine are popping up all over the internet: "Watch SpaceX Rocket (Probably) Crash Into a Robot Boat (Again)." But for SpaceX this is how they function. Failure is a part of the process. Let's take a look at the LAUNCH Cycle to see how they are sharing, taking risks, learning, and failing throughout this process. L: Look, Listen, and Learn In the first phase, SpaceX (including Musk) look at past experiences, listen to experts, and learn from each other about their next mission or launch. This isn't always pretty or easy. It's a lot of hard work to learn at a deep level, and you can miss things along the way. A: Ask Tons of Questions Now filled with a general understanding, they ask questions and dive deeper into their mission. Why didn't this work? Why did this system fail? Asking questions helps to get to the next step. U: Understanding the Process and/or Problem This leads to understanding the process or problem through experiences. Here SpaceX is failing and learning through those failures. They are also sharing with their team so everyone can be informed and get a deeper level of understanding. N: Navigate Ideas The SpaceX team now applies that newly acquired knowledge to potential solutions. In this phase, they navigate ideas. Here they not only brainstorm, but they also analyze ideas, combine ideas, and generate a concept for what they will create. C: Create a Prototype In this next phase, they create a prototype. This may be many prototypes. It could be a rocket, or a system for landing, or a way to use less fuel. Creation happens with failure often expected to be the initial result. H: Highlight and Fix Next, they begin to highlight what’s working and fix what’s failing. The goal here is to view this revision process as an experiment full of iterations, where every mistake takes them closer to success. This is happening right now at SpaceX by launching four times and failing four times. They continue to highlight, tweak, and fix. This is not easy when you are first starting to take risks. It may feel like the whole world is against you. It may feel like everyone thinks you are crazy. As a teacher or school leader you may be saying, "If I try something and fail, I'll never be allowed to take a creative risk again." Musk dealt with similar sanctions and possibilities when he was starting SpaceX and trying to figure out how to deal with the regulators. Regulators controlled how many "risks" you could take and what the ramifications were if you failed and messed up along the way. But in Musk's mind, the problem was not with the regulators themselves, but the entire system put in place. He points this out in one particular quote: There is a fundamental problem with regulators. If a regulator agrees to change a rule and something bad happens, they can easily lose their career. Whereas if they change a rule and something good happens, they don’t even get a reward. So, it’s very asymmetric. It’s then very easy to understand why regulators resist changing the rules. It’s because there’s a big punishment on one side and no reward on the other. How would any rational person behave in such a scenario? The situation he’s talking about is loss aversion (here's a great post on it). As Shane Parrish says, "it doesn’t stop at regulators, it extends into other areas as well. The same principle applies to most CEOs, managers, leaders, and teachers. If you want to predict behavior, take a close look at the incentives." Let's change the wording in that paragraph for school leaders and teacher scenario: There is a fundamental problem with teachers/leaders. If a teacher/leader agrees to change a rule and something bad happens, they can easily lose their career. Whereas if they change a rule and something good happens, they don’t even get a reward. So, it’s very asymmetric. It’s then very easy to understand why teachers/leaders resist changing the rules. It’s because there’s a big punishment on one side and no reward on the other. How would any rational teacher/leader behave in such a scenario? Does this sound eerily familiar? It's not necessarily any teacher or school leader or student's fault for not taking risks. Often it's based on the system that is in place. When a system actively punishes risk takers, there tends to be less of them.  So, is that it? Should we give up, throw our hands in the air and say, "Well, I guess there is nothing we can do!" Yes, that's an option. It's an option many of us take when we feel like we are beaten down, frustrated, and overwhelmed with the current reality of a system that punishes risks and failure. But, I believe there is another way to think about taking risks. One that provides a more hopeful outcome. As Musk says, "If something is important enough, you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure." How to Take Risks In A System Not Built For It The first thing we can learn from Musk on taking risks is to not do it alone. Sure, Musk put all of his own money on the line, and started the companies by himself, but he has always built and consulted with a Team when taking a risk. Whether it was talking to every rocket scientist and NASA engineer he could find, or consulting with former aerospace experts, Musk decided to take a risk, then brought a team together to make it happen. This team may not be in your own school or space, they may be online and from around the world, but you need support to pull it off. The second piece is making sure to Research and Plan to the best of your abilities. If you take a risk and "wing it", chances are people won't take you or your work seriously. However, if you have a plan backed by research and information, now your risk seems calculated and can be appreciated even if/when you may fail. Third, and maybe most importantly is to Let the work be seen by others. People call Elon Musk the hardest working man in his field. They never question his work ethic. No risks that he or SpaceX take are seen to be based on doing things easy or cutting corners. They are share publicly and put on display to be measures of success and tell a story. When we heard about Musk or SpaceX we then see their failures as an integral part of their story and who they are, and why they have made it this far. Finally, you have to be Honest about consequences. If you fail, and the risk doesn't work, there are going to be consequences. Every time we take a step in one direction it's preventing us to take steps down other paths. Be open with your team and colleagues and students about the consequences of taking a risks. However, failing doesn't always bring with it negative consequences. Some of the best learning experiences happen when we fail. Much of the learning comes from the process, not the end result. Margie Warrell, the author of Stop Playing Safe, has listed these questions as a place to start when we begin to decide whether or not to take a leap of faith and try something new: Do I keep doing what’s always been done, or challenge old assumptions and try new approaches to problems? Do I proactively seek new challenges or just manage those I already have? Do I risk being exposed and vulnerable, or act to protect my pride and patch of power?   Do I ask for what I really want, or just for what I think others want to give me? Do I ‘toot my horn’ to ensure others know what I’m capable of, or just hope my efforts will be noticed? Do I speak my mind or bite my lip, lest I ruffle feathers or subject myself to criticism? Ultimately, we can learn a lot from the experiences (and failures) from people like Elon Musk. Yet, it comes down to our beliefs, and whether we truly think something is important enough to take a risk and possibly end up failing. For me, I know that celebrating failure is hard to do. And maybe we shouldn't celebrate the failure, but instead celebrate the act of taking a risk and bouncing back regardless of the outcome. Here's to trying new things, being passionate about your work, and taking risks in the future that will benefit all our students in the present and in the future.

Boom! This week, Silicon Valley icon Adeo Ressi joins Ben and Carter to talk about founder psychology, and how to make the decision to become a founder in the first place. As founder of The Funded and The Founder Institute, Adeo has worked with countless entrepreneurs at the very earliest stage of their journies and is in a unique position to share guidance with anyone considering starting a company of their own. As always, you can reach out to us—or to our judgmental studio audience—here on Facebook, or via Twitter (@gatewayvc) or Instagram (@gateway.vc) with questions or comments using the hashtag #GatewayOH.

Ready to launch your startup? What if there was a proven training program that could give you all the skills and knowledge you needed? What if you could take this training over a few months without even quitting your job? Today's guest founded an organization that has helped to launch 1563 startups so far and if you get through their training program, you have an 87.5% chance of your startup surviving.Links, Resources & People MentionedFounder InstituteAsanaAdeo Ressi - @adeoressiOmer Khan - @omerkhanEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Ready to launch your startup? What if there was a proven training program that could give you all the skills and knowledge you needed? What if you could take this training over a few months without even quitting your job? Today's guest founded an organization that has helped to launch 1563 startups so far and if you get through their training program, you have an 87.5% chance of your startup surviving. Links, Resources & People Mentioned Founder Institute Asana Adeo Ressi - @adeoressi Omer Khan - @omerkhan Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.