by Brad Feld
My experimentation with out-of-office meetings has primarily taken the form of bicycle rides in and around the foothills of Boulder, where I live. While I typically do this with others, I’ve also found that over the course of a lunch ride alone I’ve gained clarity on business issues that had often been percolating with little result for days or weeks. In the case of heading out with colleagues, the casual nature of a hike or ride is the perfect environment to catch up on business.
My efforts at lunch rides and meetings started with Ari Newman, the cofounder and CEO of Filtrbox, a Techstars 2007 company. The idea was purely social. Ari is an accomplished rider and we thought it would be fun to head out together for a ride. I quickly realized that to keep up with him on our rides, I needed to get him talking, otherwise I would be biking by myself. So, I started to ask him questions about his business, which was something I knew Ari was happy to talk about at length. Our bike rides became a natural extension of the more formal time we were spending together through the Techstars program, as I served as lead mentor to Filtrbox during their Techstars summer and continued working with the company after they exited the program and received institutional funding. Not only did our discussions have the desired effect of slowing Ari down, but our rides proved to be perfect settings to talk about the progress of the company. Away from the office, riding the hills of Boulder, it was easier for us to collectively gain perspective on the business in ways that we weren’t able to when we were physically confined by the walls of the Filtrbox office.
Sadly, the 2008 Techstars company I mentored was not as athletic and our meetings took place in the more typical format in a conference room, but Ari and I continued to work on Filtrbox that summer on our regular rides. In 2009 I started mentoring Everlater in the Techstars program and by then cycling had become a meaningful part of my summer agenda. With a large group of cyclists involved in the Boulder tech scene, there were regular lunchtime rides throughout the summer (the group, called Geeks on Wheels, used Twitter to arrange rides). With this as the backdrop, it was natural to make cycling a central part of my work with Everlater’s founders, Nate Abbott and Natty Zola. Nate, Natty, and I scheduled regular weekly rides (sometimes several times a week) and while we didn’t keep a formal agenda, each ride had multiple topics planned out for us to cover. While biking together, we worked through many of the early challenges the business faced as it moved from idea to reality during the summer of 2009. Our typical rides lasted from 60 to 90 minutes and we were able to focus on the business without interruption. And even though getting some fresh air helps bring perspective, it’s hard to avoid thinking about problems in a new way when you’re out of the office, surrounded by the beauty of the Boulder foothills while your mind is completely clear.
Although one obvious side benefit of these activities was getting in shape, I also found that cycling with Ari, Nate, Natty, and others was a great way to get to know them personally. These friendships—started in Techstars but nurtured over hours in the saddle—have been some of my greatest joys from participating in the Techstars program.
These days, when I have a particularly challenging issue or a problem that seems unsolvable, it’s not uncommon for me to grab my running or cycling shoes and head out for a hike or ride. The clarity and perspective that a little time outside the office can provide is priceless.
We periodically hear our entrepreneur friends from the East or West Coast make comments like “No one in Boulder really works very hard—everyone just wants to live there so they can mountain bike and ski.” The enlightened among us no longer get defensive when we hear things like this; rather, we just smirk and avoid engaging in what is inevitably a silly conversation.
The beauty of living in a place like Boulder is that you are minutes away from whatever you want. Your commute is short—15 minutes at most unless you bike or run to work, in which case you don’t really care how long it is because you are biking or running. Some of the greatest hiking trails in the world are within a five-minute walk of downtown Boulder. And if you want to go skiing at some of the best resorts in the world, it’s less than 90 minutes away.
As Seth’s essay shows, getting out from behind your computer and working to solve hard issues are not mutually exclusive. One of Brad’s mentors, Len Fassler, would start every hard conversation with “Let’s go for a walk.” Brad and Len covered many miles over the years they worked together walking, talking, enjoying being out in the world, and figuring out answers to whatever they were struggling with.
Seth, Ari, Nate, and Natty show us another way to mix work and play. And their results as entrepreneurs demonstrate how successful you can be when doing this.
Chapter 82
Stay Healthy
Andy Smith
Andy is the cofounder and CEO of DailyBurn, the premier fitness social network for detailed tracking, online accountability, and motivation, which raised $500,000 from angel investors after completing Techstars in 2008. DailyBurn was acquired by IAC in 2010. Andy is a board member for Urban Engine, an accelerator in Huntsville, Alabama.
In an environment like Techstars, a lot of work has to get done in a short period of time. For three months, you work at least 18 hours a day, seven days a week. This way of life is not sustainable, but for a short-term burst, it is almost always necessary. Starting a new company is a full-out sprint, but building a lasting company is a marathon, and you need to train for both.
Just like preparing for any race or athletic event, you need to prepare your body for the extra stress that happens when you start a business. Proper nutrition, exercise, and rest are more important during periods of high stress. The following are some specific tips to minimize your stress levels and maximize your output during the early stages of a startup.
Exercise five days a week. Even 20 minutes a day of high-intensity exercise, such as a mix of cardio and weight training, will decrease your stress and increase your focus. While I recommend fast, high-intensity workouts such as Crossfit, the most important thing is that you do something!
Eat right most of the time. You should aim to eat healthy meals at least 80% of the time. The best things to eat are lean meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and some fruit. When you go grocery shopping, stick to the outside perimeter of the store for fresh (not processed) food choices and don’t eat anything that has more than 10 ingredients listed on the label. If one or more of the ingredients has a word you cannot spell, or you don’t recognize it as food, don’t eat it.
Don’t forget to sleep. You should aim for at least seven hours of sleep a night. Don’t binge on caffeine. An all-nighter once in a while is okay if you are young, but don’t do it every other day.
At least once a week, step back and think about the big picture. As an entrepreneur, it is very easy to get lost in the day-to-day madness of starting your company and lose sight of the bigger picture of your life. This applies to fitness, too; you don’t just wake up fat and unhealthy one day—you get there by not making the day-to-day choices that are best for you. A healthy you will ultimately be better for your company.
Now that we are a half-century old (Brad is 53 and David is 50), we appreciate this advice even more. When we were in our 20s, we were both indestructible. All-nighter—no big deal. Four hours of sleep night after night? Whatever. Red-eyes—bring them on. A gigantic plate of fried fish, clams, and oysters followed by three scoops of chocolate ice cream. Yum.
All that extra weight came from somewhere. We are tired more often, and we’re less likely to exercise—because we’re tired and overweight! It’s satisfying to get eight hours of sleep on a regular basis, and to wake up with renewed energy to conquer the day. And now, six beers sounds like five (or, for Brad, six) too many.
Take care of yourself. Nothing lasts forever.
Several of the Techstars from 2008 take a break for a quick hike.
Chapter 83
Get Away from It All
Amy Batchelor
Amy is a writer and philanthropist
and runs the Anchor Point Foundation. She serves on the Board of Trustees at Wellesley College and is an Albright Institute Global Ambassador. She is married to Brad Feld (for better or for worse).
If you’re like most startup entrepreneurs, and anything like my husband, Brad Feld, you work every day—Sundays, holidays, your birthday. This seems necessary since so much depends on you, but it’s not. It’s actually a terrible way to live, and simply isn’t sustainable over the arc of an entrepreneurial lifetime. When you always have your head down and are focused only on what’s right in front of you, it’s impossible to develop perspective and ensure that you’re heading toward the right goal on the horizon. Being as goal-driven and structured with your vacation time as you are with your work is an important step toward achieving that elusive work–life harmony—and make no mistake, achieving harmony is a huge achievement.
When you’re caught up in the adrenaline rush, you get a lot done, but you also raise your cortisol levels and other stress hormones. Along with the likely sleep deprivation you’re experiencing, this is bad for you. Taking a break, especially from all of your electronic devices, allows your brain and body to recover so that you can plunge back into the fray. Play is good for you physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Brad and I went to a hiking boot camp in which they had you do a life balance self-assessment by dividing your days into a pie chart of hours of work, play, and sleep. This can be a very revealing exercise. In a startup entrepreneurial mode, it’s unlikely and probably not even desirable that every day divides nicely into three slices of eight hours of work, play, and sleep. It’s worth trying, however, to have a graph that over the course of a year includes big peak work times and then some high curves for rest and relaxation, restoration, rejuvenation, and recalibration—what I call the four R’s. Even if you define your work as “play,” which is often a fortuitous consequence of being an entrepreneur, it’s still wise to change gears on a regular basis. Brad and I have different definitions of his work. He often does define it as play, but I define his work as any time he’s not available to play with me.
Years ago, when he had nearly exhausted my tanks of patience and support, we agreed we would get away from it all for an entire week every quarter: no work, no phone calls, no email, no electronic devices—no exceptions. A week every three months seems like a lot of time, especially in our American culture in which many people don’t take even the two weeks they’re allowed. But if you’re working 70-hour workweeks 48 weeks a year instead of 52 weeks a year, you’re only missing 280 hours out of a possible 3,640 hours, or about an 8% commitment to time for yourself. When you look at it like that, four weeks a year doesn’t seem like very much after all.
When we first started trying this, the first few days of withdrawal from the constant stimulation of electronic input weren’t pretty to watch. Now it’s easier. Over the past 20 years or so we’ve developed a good habit of going away, and since we have a history of choosing to disconnect, it’s easier to make rare exceptions to the no-work rules.
There are excellent pragmatic reasons to go away. Getting ready to go always entails a mad burst of rushing around and desk clearing and last-minute fits of excessive efficiency. I always clear my desk before I go away so that I won’t dread returning, or at least won’t dread seeing my desk even if I’m loath to leave the beach. It’s astonishing how much you can get done when an airplane departure is your deadline.
Returning with a clear, well-rested mind results in very high levels of productivity, and you’ll have renewed enthusiasm for your work. As an entrepreneur, some of the most valuable work you do in your company is to create a healthy culture. Work smarter, not harder. Work hard, work healthy. You can be a role model to all of the other energetic hard-working people in your company, and show them that although everyone’s contributions are important, no one is indispensable, not even you.
It’s important to have teams with whom you can trust that things will work in your absence. Building a company with systems in place in case there is a genuine emergency while you’re away is a good growth model. You’ll be amazed how rarely a real emergency arises that requires you to leave your piña colada and Dan Brown paperback by the pool to take a phone call. It’s a good ego adjustment to realize that your company can continue without you.
The emotional, spiritual, foofy reasons to go away are at least as important as considerations of increased efficiency. If you’re in a committed relationship, sharing an experience of sleeping as much as you want with no alarm clock, and then spending entire days without any calendar appointments, is a delightful chance to remember that you enjoy being together, doing things together, and doing nothing together. It also restores the patience and support levels of your partner and demonstrates that your relationship really is important to you, even in the midst of creating an entrepreneurial venture.
If you’re not in a committed relationship, go away and take some friends. Social networks that involve eye contact and no typing and lots of laughter are just as important in the twenty-first century as in the past one. Or, if you don’t have any friends who are able to get away, go by yourself. You’ll get the chance to practice David’s principles of “meeting random people,” you’ll probably learn a lot about yourself, and who knows? You’ll probably make some new friends.
Getting away from it all can lead to new perspectives.
Conclusion
We have worked for over 35 years with thousands of founders and startup companies to help them be successful, but Do More Faster is not the “David Cohen–Brad Feld” guide to entrepreneurship. In our experience, there is no one path to successful entrepreneurship—not ours or anyone else’s. (In fact, we’re still surprised at the companies and founders that make it and those that fail.) Our approach in writing Do More Faster was to ask the successful mentors and entrepreneurs from Techstars, “What is the one piece of advice you would give to startup founders?” and the results are found throughout this book.
The contributors offer a depth of understanding on building a company and they provide a diversity of ideas and experiences, as well as insight on the challenges that they needed to overcome. Some of them were successful, some were not; some positioned their company for an IPO, some positioned their company to be privately held. Some sold their company, and some still work with the idea they started with. The contributors provide a broad spectrum of experiences that we think most startup founders will eventually experience themselves.
Even though we provide a diversity of perspectives and experiences, there are some threads common to most of the chapters. The idea of mentorship is the foundation of the Techstars approach, and that idea permeates the book. It is critical to have experienced entrepreneurs prod you with questions, provide alternative views, suggest data to be collected, help you think about your business model, market, pricing, hiring, and myriad other issues, especially during the early startup’s life.
The idea of mentorship, of course, is thousands of years old, and one of the earliest references is found in Homer’s Odyssey. In the Odyssey, Odysseus’s journey separated him from his twentysomething son, Telemachus, who was in grave danger. Telemachus was clueless, unsure of everything, misdirected in his actions, and disconnected intellectually and emotionally from life. In short, he was very much like the startup founders who arrive at Techstars, although their journey is not a life journey, but an entrepreneurial journey. Through the God Athena, a family friend, Mentor, was called to help Telemachus, and he did so by instilling in him mental strength.
The idea of connecting the mentor’s mind to the person who is clueless and unsure about their next steps is very much the role of the mentors within Techstars. We explicitly address the role of the mentor in “The Mentor Manifesto,” and provide two additional chapters on cultivating a mentor relationship: Chapter 24, “How to Find and Engage Mentors” and Chapter 29, “Engage Great Mentors.” Chapter 29, by Emily Olson, was from a founder who shares her perspective
on how to maximize the value from a mentor, and how to keep them engaged in you and your business. Chapter 24, by David Cohen, looks at the mentor–founder relationship from the mentor’s perspective and he shares how random people engaged him.
Although most of the chapters are written to help a startup founder take appropriate action, a few are written to warn people not to do something stupid. Don’t hire your brother-in-law to be your lawyer; find a domain expert instead. Don’t celebrate the wrong things and provide you and your team the sense of a hollow accomplishment. Don’t quit your idea if you’re intrinsically motivated and obsessively consumed by it—and the reverse: don’t keep working on an idea that doesn’t intrinsically motivate you.
Those are some of the obvious mistakes founders make. But there are also more subtle mistakes shared in many of the chapters and we pointed these out in the debriefs as “classic” or critical mistakes. For instance, a classic mistake is to create a product for which there is no market. Does the world really need (or will consumers buy) a gasoline-powered squirrel cage? Paul Berberian notes in Chapter 17 that his Zenie in a bottle idea was built for his ego, not the market. Another classic mistake is starting a business on your own, and Mark O’Sullivan noted that the solo entrepreneur struggles more than the team with cofounders.
We can’t emphasize enough that tightly hanging on to your idea, working by yourself, and not sharing with others can lead to disastrous results. Failed entrepreneurs wait too long to share their idea, too long to seek mentors, too long to pivot from their idea and replace it with a better idea—one that the market will embrace. The failed entrepreneurs, if they do share their idea, share it with friends and family who are great at providing encouragement, but lousy at providing practical experience and insight.
