Setting up his books at the the book stand, you can see it behind me and he’s got an interesting story. He, like myself, was a developer that fell into business. So once you tell me a little bit about that story that that that would really resonate with the kind of people that follow me around got a developer, centric audience.
So your your journey into being a business guy and how how you went about learning so so late. I actually right out of college, worked a job at Procter & Gamble, doing kind of hardcore web development stuff, and in a couple months I found myself working in on marketing campaigns and, as a result, by the time I graduated, I had a offer to be an Assistant brand manager, procter & gamble, so like really hardcore marketing in the largest company in the world, and so that was intimidating.
It was really scary. You know coming from an engineering background, coming from a programming back where you know what you’re talking about most of the time yeah and you can really kind of understand what you’re doing and use kind of fundamental ideas to make your job easier and going into a Business position – and you know not having my MBA that was very intimidating, and so it didn’t make sense for me to go to school to get a job already had.
And so I basically decided to give up on the credentialing part, but not on the education, and so I went to barnes a noble and the Cincinnati Public Library and I started reading right and six years later, I’ve read thousands of books and have kind of taken That jumble of information and made sense of that sense of it, which is the personal NBA first Llambias so and you’ve got a community that goes along with this website right there on the front of the cover personal NBA com.
That’S right! So you! Your mission is not just about doling out information as static form, but you actually have a community of people that you helped out actively and and helping helps each other out. So we have a community of thousands of people from all over world who are in the same situation. They may be a creative person or a programmer or designer or an architect, and they need the business knowledge, but they don’t need the piece of paper that says they theoretically know something, and so the purpose of the personal MBA is to help people understand the fundamentals Of business, but then to connect people from all over the world who are trying to get a world-class business education, but on their terms.
So do you do you deal with mostly like boots trappers or do you do you have advice for folks that want to seek funding kind of like it’s very common in the valley, one of the beats that we cover so so, what’s? What’S what’s your advice, I guess, or what what things you have to say to people that are in this, like kind of a bubbly atmosphere right now or money’s, getting handed out left and right? What are some of the things you tell them to look out for in that kind of environment in that kind of business totally.
I really advocate that anyone who’s trying to start a business, whether they’re, bootstrapping it or whether they’re trying to get funding for it. They really need to understand the fundamentals of what businesses and how it works. If you’re trying to raise money, the clearer you are about how the business will come together and make money the easier it will be to talk to a VC and show them a plan that makes sense and actually get the funding.
So really businesses have five parts. Every business create something of value, they attract attention which is marketing, they close sales transactions right, they deliver what they promise and they make more money than they spend enough to keep going right. That’S a business right, and so with a bootstrapper. I tell them basically start there, that’s essentially the basic, the the essentials of a very basic business plan and then, if you’re, trying to get funding, you take those fundamentals and just add on another layer which is.
This is going to be a solid business, but the people who are lending you money or giving you money and investment need to see a return, and so you do the math for them and the clear you can lay that out the more effectively you can stand In front of the VC and say this is a plan, that’s worth investing millions. So I imagine, since you’ve got your finger on the pulse of this this world of the you know the bootstrap and the startup guys.
So what are some of the new, because VC universe, the VC universe, has really changed in the last year or so really, maybe a couple years, definitely the last decade. So what has what has been the biggest new problems for folks that are trying to go that route that didn’t exist before yeah? I think it’s, some! The new problem is a couple decades ago. It’S like anything that might hypothetically make sense it.
You know, vc’s were making very large bets on very tenuous ideas and making a lot of them and hoping just a couple of them worked we’re getting a little bit more bubbly now, but vc’s really want to see a solid business model. Where are you charging or who are you selling to where’s the money coming in? What multiple can they expect on what what they have given and so the business fundamental stuff? It really never changes so you’re, saying, basically, is what I’m here using hearing you say is that business business sense is more important now than it may have been.
You can’t just be a great hacker with a dream totally totally. You have to have a plan to bring in revenue from real paying customers and the clear you can prove to vc that you have those the easier it will be to raise money very good and you got it. You’Ve got a book reading. Is it tomorrow with a is it yeah it’s tomorrow, at 4pm, in ballroom, g and i’ll be reading selections from the personal mba tomorrow being friday? We’Re recording this on thursday, we’re not sure when this will air so friday at ballroom G here South by Southwest.
Thank you thanks. So much take it easy.
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