Jeff the Great Says to Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Early stage startup founders have a problem. Early stage startup founders in Portland really have a problem. Too often, we look at venture funding as the goal, rather than a means to the end. Once you start focusing on raising money, you have failed.

I am currently in the process of raising financial backing for my early stage startup and sometimes I find myself taking my eye off the ball. Funding is not the goal. Building a wildly successful company that makes everyone involved rich is the goal. Every time I fail to focus on that, I am not taking a step forward.

The idea of investment dollars is to accelerate your company. Not to pay yourself more or to get a fancy office. Sure, those things *might* come with the territory, but they are not the goal. When you take an investment, that's when the work really begins.You now have more work and more responsibility. You just have some cash in the bank to help you through it all. If you take an investment and don't feel more pressure to succeed, I think something is wrong with you.

While high-fives may have gone around the Portland companies that have recently been funded, like ShopIgniter, PHP Fog and Urban Airship, I can guarantee you that the celebrations didnt' last long. They now have to work their asses off, and they know it. While I don't know the founders of these companies, I can confidently say that they were given that venture capital money because the investors knew they were focused on building wildly successful companies. They did not focus on getting funded. They saw funding as a means to the end.

As I network around the Portland startup community, I see too many of us that are focused on getting funding and not building wildly successful companies. I think part of the problem is that we read about all these funding events on TechCrunch and we fail to see all the hard work that has gone into those companies and we are not exposed to the greater vision they have. We don't see the pressure that those founders feel after the funding happens. We think its all ice cream sundays and stuffed animals. We want that TechCrunch recognition. We want ice cream and stuffed animals. It sounds so great, right?

All those companies on TechCrunch...funding wasn't the goal. Building a wildly successful company is the goal. They didn't accomplish anything by raising venture capital. Now that they have capital, they have to go accomplish something. Funding isn't the goal.

So next time we talk at a Portland area event, don't tell me about your fundraising efforts. Tell me about your product. About your customers. About your vision. Don't tell me how much you need. Don't say that if you just had X dollars, you would be set.

Make sure I do the same thing. If I start talking to you about my fundraising efforts, remind me that I need to focus on my product, customers and our vision. Don't let me take my eye off the ball. After all, I am writing this blog post as a reminder to myself.

Sure, we need money to realize our vision. Let's just not focus on that. Once we are focused on funding, we have failed. Our chances of building a wildly successful company are next to nothing once we take our eyes off the ball. Focusing on funding means your eye is off the ball.

Funding is not the goal. Building a wildly successful company is the goal.

Jeff the Great Does the GPIE, Again!

If you follow my blog you'll remember that I am participating in the Great Portland Interview Experiment, brought to PDX by Chris O'Rourke. The idea is that someone interviews me, post it on their blog, and I interview someone else, post it on my blog, rinse, repeat. I was interviewed by my now good online friend Ramona White and I just finished my interview of Cameron Adamez. Check out my interview of Cameron below and use the above link to learn more about GPIE!

1. I see that your blog started as a travelogue. Tell us about the travels that inspired your writings?

I met my birth father in August 2005 when he was living in San Francisco. Later that year I was accepted into the Washington Semester program at American University in DC, so I stayed with my father in December and started my 3rd year of college in DC. After that, I went to LA where my dad lived briefly, and then went back to school outside of Dallas, Texas. It was a fun journey and a great way to keep in touch with family and friends. It also sparked my enjoyment of blogging.

2. It Looks like you have lived in Texas and Oregon. Are there any other places to add to that list? Which have you enjoyed the most and why?

I keep ending up in California, and I lived in Hyattsville, Maryland for part of my DC stay. Despite living in a formerly condemned house, I liked the town. Incidentally Jim Henson lived in Hyattsville as well. I also liked Santa Barbara, California. Another nice town. Honestly speaking, I would rather live in a beach town.

3. You are an anthropologist by training. How does anthropology come into play during your daily life?

I use it to understand interactions of people within groups to further my social skills. My high school teacher told me, "If you can't make it, fake it," and anthropology has helped me be able to talk to non-tech people. Thanks, anthropology!

4. I read that you are training as a Librarian. What drew you to that and how does it compare to other work you have done, specifically on the web?

Sorting books according to any of the library organizational systems is much easier than classifying music. I was an intern at the Smithsonian, where I saw the Folkways category database firsthand. Most focused collections are organized based on outliers than on systems that already exist, because every collection has a different emphasis. Smithsonian Global Sound was meant as a way to share the Folkways collection with people who may not know about it otherwise, but it is based on a purchase model. The Q Center library is more of a distribution of knowledge without profit, which appeals to me.

5. Like many Portland tech types, you use Twitter. What first draw you to this new communication tool and what makes you stay?

I had a pact with a curmudgeon friend of mine to shun Web 2.0 as much as possible. When I moved to Portland, people kept telling me to get a Twitter account, but I didn't register for one until I was asked by Anselm Hook to start working on Citybot and join Makerlab. I didn't bother with it much until my curmudgeon friend told me he already had a Twitter account, and so I started using it more often to spite him.

Now I use it because no one seems to know how to operate the phone anymore. It's also useful for finding out news that isn't handled by mainstream media.

6. Who's the favorite person you follow on Twitter?

I don't have a favorite person per-se because Twitter's ridiculous character limit makes it hard to make meaningful conversation, but it helped me to get to know Bram (@brampitoyo) and Aaron (@jarvitron). Cool dudes indeed!

7. MySpace or Facebook?

Both. MySpace is great for finding bands or getting involved with anarchists, and Facebook is... uh... less annoying.

8. Bacon or Facon (in other words, meat or no meat)?

Avocado, though Red & Black Cafe makes a good BLT using tempeh bacon. I don't understand bacon, actually. I know that its appeal comes from the fat and salt content, plus it's savory, but it's a horrible cut of meat (if we're talking about the meat-ness of it). Plus most meat isn't worth eating if it comes from a CAFO, hurting the poor pigs. Not that I am high and mighty on the subject either - most fruit and vegetables are picked by migrants who are overworked and live in difficult conditions. The only true solution is to go as local and as humane as possible.

9. If we conduct this interview again in 5 years, what types of questions might I be asking you then?

Let me fire up my time machine. It runs on absurdity and popcorn.

10. Is there anything you wish I would have asked you about?

Things like that assume that I am self-involved enough to ask you to ask me something so I can go on about it. Pfft, that's silly! I can go on about lots of things without being prompted. See? Now I have a diatribe about nothing!

Make sure to visit Cameron's blog or twitter stream to learn more! Thanks for reading.

-Jeff the Great