Bootstrapper.com - Confessions of Serial Entrepreneurs

I was going back and forth with a friend of mine over email and I’d like to public acknowledge him because I felt special by this email.

It came from a blackberry and was a personal note saying: “Sorry, I’m a party right now and can’t properly respond to this note as I would like to”

Now, this was uncalled for, he was at a party and could have just responded in the morning, instead he sent me that note and I went ‘wow, that’s really nice’.

So a major shout-out to my buddy Jeff Pulver for being so dam courteous.

So I recently made an introduction between 2 colleagues and one of them sent an email to the other person saying thanks for the connection and moved me to BCC so I don’t get stuck on the email chain. Now, I’ve never seen anyone do this before despite being party to thousands of introductions and you know what, it’s brilliant. BCC the introducer and save the extra email chains!

For any of you who are in NYC, stop whatever you are doing and go directly to time square. There you will find a new American Eagle store with a gigantic video billboard of a young girl in suggestive poses with this amazing very long hypnotic video billboard with swirly patterns on it and nothing else. I was across the street at the time and the giant swirly stuff led me across the street and the video billboard got me stuck there. It’s perhaps the best outdoor ad I ever saw. Simply amazing. Go see it.

I’ve got a friend, let’s call him Bob. Bob is a successful entrepreneur with a recent exit of a company he owned 100% of under his belt. Bob is also an engineer. Bob doesn’t properly value relationships. He values building shit. Now building shit is very valuable but after the product is live, relationships (distribution) is worth many times product. Why? You can always hire a firm to build a product. It’s really friggin hard to line up marketing partners that can put serious firepower behind something without having to spend any money. Really really hard. Ask most startups how many large distribution partners they have. Most will say Zero. Bob calls me all the time asking for advice and what I would do, I tell him, line up distribution and you have users and likely acquirers and you can create excitement as well.

My policy these days is to only build companies where we line up distribution (large biz dev deals) in advance so we know we can get the product out and essentially eliminate marketing risk and expense. Yes, this is very hard but it’s far more productive to spend time in advance lining up partners than raising money. If you have the right distribution raising money will become easy as will recruiting management. Start with distribution and the rest will fall into place.

The media industry is really the communication industry, yet it doesn’t communicate well within itself. In fact, there is no cohesive ecosystem supporting it, you would think there is, but there isn’t.

There seems to be a huge disconnect between entrepreneurs (startups), venture investors and media companies (acquirers). The startups are uncomfortable talking to investors and investors rarely talk to corp dev (except when they hire a banker) yet if all 3 parties were on the same page from day 1, better companies would be built and funded with greater likelihood of exits.

I announce a call for collaboration between the builders, the financiers and the buyers.

So people don’t know how to handle honesty. I should re-state, people can’t handle compliments well. On occasion I meet people I really like and I would say something like “you’re now on my friends list and welcome in my life forever” and I would mean it. Almost every time I’ve said that, I’ve scared the person away. In business, I would say “I really am looking forward to working with you” and it gets dismissed.

I’m not sure the lesson here but its good to keep in mind to control your compliments and avoid making direct compliments, even if you mean them unless you already have an established relationship.

So I’d like to recount one of the hands I had at poker over last week.

The Setup: I was playing Texas Hold-em at a 1 / 2 No Limit Table. The average bet was around $12 and average pot around $75. I

The Hand: I was dealt Pocket Rockets (Aces) and bet $20 pre-flop. Everyone but one person folded. The flop falls, an ice hits the felt (Yes, I go!) Trips. He checks. I check. 4^th street falls a random card. He bets $20, I double the bet. Now there are 2 flush draws on the table and I figure he’s playing a flush draw. The final card falls, a 2 of diamonds. I go all in, he calls. I lose. It turns out he started with 3 / 5 diamonds and was playing an inside straight draw all the way through and he caught it on the river. I played the hand text book perfect, bet heavy to fight off fisherman, checked on the ace and re-raised on 4^th (representing a high flush draw) and he still called, played the hand horribly and won.

The lesson here is no matter how well you play your hand, you can still lose all your chips.

PS. I left the tale swearing and pissed J

I spent a few days in Cape Cod & Martha’s Vineyard (first time there) and it’s interesting. It feels like The Hamptons but less younger people, less to do though more relaxing because it doesn’t have the same exodus of NYC feel. Very nice beaches in Cape Cod, relaxed little town in Martha’s Vineyard with a ton of ice cream shops (I think I counted 5 on one block). Fun vacation though I think I prefer the Hamptons.

So I just spent a couple of days at Mohegan Sun and while it’s a gorgeous hotel, I have terrible luck there. I’ve been there 3 times. The first time I was extremely depressed and read about a serial killer (really good for when you’re in a bad mood), the second time it was the tipping point leading to a break up with my then gf of 5 years. Finally this week I lost money on 3 bad beats at poker. Arg!

 Hi everyone:

 November is quickly approaching, with the promise of Thanksgiving and the winter holidays (and vacation!) not too far away.  For many of us, the holiday season reminds us of great memories of family, friends and yes, great food. 

But for the nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers who rely on emergency food services to feed their family, it’s this time of year that can be the most difficult, offering them a stark reminder about what they are missing.  

 I am writing because I’m hopeful you’ll join me in making a difference in the lives of those New Yorkers most in need.  I’ve decided to join Robin Hood (www.robinhood.org), New York City’s largest anti-poverty organization, as a Co-Chair member of their Food for Good initiative, where they are partnering with Fresh Direct to deliver holiday meals to 120,000 New Yorkers. For just $50, you can purchase a delicious holiday meal, complete with turkey and all the fixings, that will feed a family of eight.  100% of every donation will go to helping to feed people.

I want to invite you to join me on Thursday, November 12th at Robin Hood’s Food for Good event at M2 in New York City from 8pm-11pm.  

Robin Hood is known for their events, and this evening will be no different.  It’ll be an amzing crowd with celebrities and people from every conceivable industry, great music, lots of drinks, and an inspiring message.  Price of admission:  The purchase of at least one $50 holiday meal through Fresh Direct, with a VIP ticket available to anyone purchasing at least 10 holiday meal boxes ($500 donation).   

Even if you can’t attend, I hope you’ll still consider helping those less fortunate this holiday season by going directly to Fresh Direct and donating at least $50

Just visit foodforgood.eventbrite.com to purchase your meal and donate to the cause.

Just be sure to let me know when you donate, so I can keep track of who’s attending the event and ensure that you are on the list, and so I can see how many New Yorkers my friends can help feed this holiday season.

Thank you in advance for considering this request.  I know for many of us, it’s been a challenging year.  Yet I think we all also recognize that we are fortunate compared to so many others who are having trouble simply putting food on the table.  Working together, we can brighten the lives of many people in need during this time of year, and give them some great holiday memories of their own.

I hope to see you on November 12th!

Warm regards,

Richie 

p.s.  And help us spread the word about Robin Hood.  Follow Robin Hood on Facebook at www.facebook.com/robinhood and on Twitter at @RobinHoodNYC (http://twitter.com/robinhoodnyc)

I don’t remember where that line was from but I thought it was hilarious. I was out and someone made the comment “are you ordering from the fucking side of the menu” to which I replied “Sure, that sounds fun”. I don’t remember the context but it was hilarious at the time. And no we weren’t in a strip club.

Hey Everyone,

As some of you might already know, I have been brought in at the last minute as an Associate Producer of a film titled,  How To Seduce Difficult Women, an hilarious comedy in which a smooth, yet flawed, Frenchman writes a best-selling book and teaches a group of loveable losers the secrets of woo’ing women. Definitely a must see film as it is as romantic as it is funny. The film comes out on October 30^th  at The Village East Cinema in New York, where it will be featured there for two weeks before its  nationwide release.

I am helping to promote this film with my dear friend, the amazing Ms. Evelyn YK Lee of www.vinegroup.com. She was invited by the movie’s Producer Mr. Richard Temtchine (at the last minute), to advise on marketing & distribution strategies (because of her seasoned international business experience). Evelyn is a part time New Yorker and global trotting entrepreneur.  I was brought in to work as part of her team. Evelyn said “yes” to Richard because of the fun nature of this movie. We’re helping Richard to spread the word about the film and bring awareness among our friends and members of the media industry. 

Richie

Everyone my good friend Valerie Gurka is on tv today, it’s an awesome full length web tv show about being fearless and going for what you want! http://www.fearlessbusiness.tv

Check it out!

R

Focus magazine covers 25 things they learned about business from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Must read, if you’re as much a fan of the depraved show as I am.

Two other lessons they could draw from the sleeper success of the show:

• “If you build it, they will come.”  The show languished in the ratings for a while, but kept putting out great content. Eventually, Hulu came along and the show’s popularity skyrocketed.
• As the quotable H.L. Mencken phrased it, “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”  The show proudly plumbs new lows of immorality, and it’s always fun to watch.

Nowadays, I always hear the same clumsy phrase on loop:

EVERYBODY’S ___________!

In reality, here’s an alphabetical list of what “everybody’s” doing:

• semi-actively setting personal goals
• semi-passively seeking entertainment
• sleeping or worrying
• thinking about family
• thinking about food
• thinking about friends
• worrying or sleeping

Happy Discoverer’s Day, y’all!