Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders:  Hi. This is Lucy Sanders. The CEO and co‑founder of NCWIT. The National Center for Women and Information Technology. With me is Larry Nelson, W3W3. Hi Larry. Larry Nelson:  Hi. I'm happy to be here, of course. This is a wonderful series. Everything will be posted on w3w3.com, and on our blog and our podcast directly in addition to the ncwit.org site. Lucy:  Yeah. It's exciting today. We're interviewing somebody who has been a leader in the tech sector for a many successful efforts, including start ups that required by companies we've all heard off like eBay. While you've heard of them, Kate Matsudaira is the founder now of Popforms, which is a pretty cool company for all you go‑getters out there, self starters who are really eager to use some neat tools around empowering your own leadership around growing successful teams, engaging people, etc. We'll hear more about Popforms in just a moment. Kate is a very interesting and accomplished person, an author, a speaker. One of my favorite things she does is she sits on the board of ACMQ. Now, this is a test. I don't how many people know what ACM stands for. ACMQ is an editorial board for the association for computing machinery, which is a very old and very large professional society for us computing people. I one time had the honor of speaking to the ACMQ Board about voice over IP. Larry:  All right. Lucy:  It was a long time ago. Kate's very technical, CTO, lots and lots of technology skills like cloud computing and distributing systems and everything else. We're just really thrilled to have you here Kate, welcome. Kate Matsudaira:  Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be on the show. Lucy:  We have a lot of different kinds of questions to ask you about entrepreneurship, but let's just start first with technology in general. You're a very technical person. How did you first get into technology? Maybe you could share just a bit with listeners about the things you see that are particularly interesting and are emerging, in terms of technology. Kate:  Well, I first got into technology when I was a kid. I always loved math and science and figuring things out and I remember having a microscope as a child. There was a pond where we lived and I would go get pond water and put it under there and there was all these things crawling in it and I thought it was the craziest thing that you could see all these weird things swimming in the water. I always remember that was one of my earliest experiences with science. Then, just the passion for science and technology. I ended up studying computer science in college, largely because it was my favorite set of classes. I just felt like it came really natural to me. When I did my computer science, it never felt like work. It was like the stuff I would save for last because I like doing it so much. It's kind of a natural thing for me to study. In terms of cool technology trends, well I'm really into wearable computing. I was complaining the other day that my computer...I have a MacBook with a solid state drive, and I was running out of space. I'm like, "I got to get a newer computer because I need to store everything. I remember when my hard drives weren't even a gigabyte. It's just amazing to see how fast technology has grown and how it has empowered so many cool things. I love the wearable tech and just all the things that you're going to able to do when computer gets smaller and faster, and there's more memory and more power processing and things like that. The applications are just mind blogging, so it's really my thing. Oh, and 3D printing and laser cutting are other really cool technology application. I'm really into physical goods. How technology bridges that gap I think is fascinating. It's going to be really interesting to watch over the next few years. Lucy:  Well, just sort of a follow up to that. We just got a 3D printer here at NCWIT. We're very excited for MakerBot, great company. We've interviewed MakerBot before Jenny Lauten. Somebody told me, I haven't verified it, that you can now go get 3D printed dress online. Larry:  Whoa. Lucy:  I believe it when I see it. That's classic, right? Larry:  Yeah. [laughs] Lucy:  I don't know what's that like. Anyway, we really love wearables also. Wearable computing is such a great way to teach kids about computing. Larry:  Before we get into all the different thoughts and questions that we have that you're going to help our audience with, could you give us the latest in Pop Forms? Kate:  Yes. What we do at Pop Forms, we like to say we help super stars shine at work. What we're essentially trying to do is bridge the gap that exists...Right now, if you're an executive or a really senior leader and you want to better at your job, there's all kinds of things you should do. You can spend thousands of dollars going to leadership training, seminars, conferences or hiring a coach. If you're just a high potential employee and you really want to advance in your career and you have a smaller budget, what exists for you today? We're really focused on online education around helping people be better leaders, be more productive and just kind of shine and do amazing on their job. Lucy:  Give one example, perhaps, of a kind of things that people can do at your site. Can people come to your site and learn? Kate:  We have a lot of different courses on topics around getting things done, around improving your communication skills, on being a better public speaker or pitching and to speak at a conference. All those kind of soft skills are what we focus on. We have a lot of, what we call, our leadership sparks that are focused on weekly lessons that take less than 5 to 10 minutes to do, to help you build those skills over time. Instead of one course that's hours, and hours that you might not complete, we try to partition it out in small actionable pieces. Larry:  You've really answered this next question that I have in my mind, but let me just see if I can rephrase it. Now, just why is it you are an entrepreneur, and then what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Kate:  Let's see. I am an entrepreneur because when I first started my career, I thought I wanted to work the corporate ladder, and I was promoted a lot by companies like Microsoft and Amazon. I started off as an engineer, became a manger, and then a senior manager and so forth. I realized, as I was climbing the ladder, that what I really wanted to do was not just be in charge of the technical team. I really wanted to be involved with strategy, and I wanted to learn the business. The only way I saw that could really happen was to join a small company, and that really started my passion for start‑ups. I've been on the team of three successful start‑ups as you mentioned in my interaction, and now I do own start‑ups. I just love, when you get the ability to work with customers, to build products, to make the money. All of those things are very fun, and it really caters to my desire to learn all these new things, and constantly be pushing myself and challenging myself in a new way. Lucy:  It's the variety of tasks that entrepreneurs... Larry:  Yeah. Lucy:  Have to do that... Kate:  Challenges too. Lucy:  And challenges. Yeah, exactly. On your entrepreneurial path, who influenced you along the way ‑‑ mentors, or others potentially? What kinds of help did you get along the way? Kate:  I've had a lot of help, including from people who didn't necessarily even know they were my mentors. There's a ton of resources on mind. There's philosophies you can follow, but I also have some people who I'm very close to that I've learned from. Binders to my company are, one of them is named Dan Shapiro. He's had several successful companies. He's the one I've looked towards. Another one is Ethan Shot. His metrics is also in several successful companies. They're people that I follow, and use as my own personal advisory board, but there's also a ton of other people. Just looking at Sheryl Stenberg, and looking at the people who are even just executives in the bigger companies that have had a lot of success, and being them, and being able to emulate the things that you like, the things that you don't like. Even from afar, you can learn their philosophies, and the way they do things. You always take the best of what you see, and integrate it into your life. Larry:  Yes. Wow. I have to ask this, Kate. You have done so many different neat things. You've helped companies grow, you've grown your own company. What is one of the toughest things that you've had to do in your career? Kate:  I think it's letting people go. It's the hardest thing. Lucy:  We hear that a lot. Yeah. Kate:  I think any time you have to let someone go from a company, or a roll, whether it's to take care of your underwear like a layoff, it's really hard. Because the hardest problems, they're always people problems. They're not business problems, or technology problems. In many ways, I feel like those are figureoutable, but the people problems are always the most difficult and challenging, I think. Lucy:  We do hear that. We do hear that a lot. That is one of the hardest things. Larry:  I think it's greatly in part, because leaders really care about people, and that's why it affects you that way. Kate:  I think you have to care about people to be a good leader. Lucy:  Absolutely. People follow leaders, and I think they care about them. I think it is a very difficult thing no matter the circumstance to let a person go. Switching tracks just slightly in terms of advice to young people, what kinds advice would you give to young people about following an entrepreneurial path? Kate:  I would say that the best thing you can do is focus on building your own career capital, and really try to do the hard work. I think that building what I call career capital, which is like knowledge, and know‑how, it's a network, it's a track record of success, and projects, whether you're at a different company, or you're in school. Building that capital on my own to accomplishments, and all of that will palate into whatever success you have. Whether you follow up as an entrepreneur, or you decide to stay and become an executive in a big company. Consistently working on building yourself, and increasing that capital is the most important thing. I wish someone had talked to me so much about that, because I think you optimize, otherwise, for the wrong variables. Sometimes you're like, "Oh, I need to know finances," or, "I need to know sales," but I don't think you need that. I think you just need to be the very best at what you do, and when you do that, it's actually easy to build a company around that. It's easy to bring that into a company. I think that focusing on being exceptional is the number one thing that would help people. Larry:  Very good. I like that advice. Lucy:  I do too. Larry:  Yeah. Lucy:  I don't think we've heard that yet in all of these interviews. Larry:  That's right. Lucy:  Yeah. Larry:  Now, what personal characteristics? Now, having a look at yourself for a minute, a little introspection here, that has given you the advantages of being an entrepreneur. Kate:  I think that I work incredibly hard. [laughter] Kate:  I always talk about, that what I make up for in to like intelligence, or experience. I make up for and just share. To me, it's just hard work. I'm not afraid to work nights, I'm not afraid to work weekends, I'm not afraid to get a 100 percent. I think that that has definitely made a difference because I don't give up, and I am willing to do what it takes to make things happen. Lucy:  Relentless, tenacious. Larry:  Yes. Lucy:  You work really hard, and that's what it takes. Focus on being exceptional, right? Larry:  Yep. Lucy:  That's all hard work, but we also have personalized. How do you, in some sense, balance the two, although we don't like the word balance particularly, but we can't think of a better way to ask the question. How do you bring balance into your life? Kate:  Well, I just had a baby in May, so I'm a new mom. Lucy:  Congratulations. Yay. Kate:  The question is actually really close to my heart, because I really feel, I know this is so clichÈ, but having a baby, and becoming a parent changes your perspective on what's important, and time, and the lack of sleep, and the fact that you want to spend a lot of time with your baby. Like makes you prioritize. It forces that function of balance, whether you wanted to or not. You can call it balance, you can call it managing, or you can call it living. It's all part of it. How do I do it? I think there are kind of like really to see things that I do that I think make a big difference to my ability to keep everything in a way that makes sense. The first one is that I don't plan my personalized, my profession life separately. I treat it all as one life, so I use one calendar, I use one giant to‑do list, and I think that's the difference than a lot of people who'll be like, "Here's my personal work, and here's this." Part of it, I think, is because I'm an entrepreneur. I will work on the weekend if it means I get more time with my family during the week. I don't say, "OK, starting today, it's just family time." I say, "OK, I work fast after my child goes to sleep, so I'm going to work seven days a week in the evenings when he goes to sleep, so that I can spend dinner time and breakfast times with my husband, and my child." I think building through how you manage your time in a more holistic way, then like this is work, and this is weekend, for example. My other tip around this would be planning. I am ruthless about how I spend my time, and what I do, and what I don't do. The reason I'm able to do that is I plan my day every day before I start doing anything. I set out a goal of like, "Here's what I want to get done, here's what's important. I do this at a weekly level too." My co‑founder said like one of the smartest things I ever thought, which is that the secret of time management is knowing what to do with an hour. When you have 15 minutes, or you have a set hour, do you know what you can do? That is actually going to be the most important thing you can do. If you don't, then that means you're not planning you time well enough. Lucy:  I think that sounds like a Popforms lesson. [laughter] Larry:  Yes, exactly. Lucy:  Absolutely, and this whole idea about treating things as one holistic life is spot on. Larry:  You and I both with kids. We understand that. Lucy:  Would be totally right. We're simply not nodding like, "Yep, yep." Larry:  [laughs] Absolutely. Kate:  Well, you have to, right? It's better to work some on the weekends, and to be able to have that time every day with your children. I think, anyway. Lucy:  Yeah. I did that with my two sons. Exactly that same approach. Plus, I found that if you send busy people, not that I'm advocating this, but sure works for me. If you send busy people email on a Sunday afternoon, you actually get it answered. [laughter] Larry:  With busy people. Lucy:  Yeah, because they're always checking anyway. Larry:  Oh boy. Kate, you've already accomplished a great deal in so many different ways. By the way, your listeners out there will have, on all of our sites, and podcasts and everything. The website address for Kate's business, and you'll learn a lot there. What I'd like to do is to ask you, what's next for you? Kate:  What is next? This year, I've been setting my goals already, I'm really focused on continuing to grow Popforms to make it even more successful. I have a baby, I'm really excited about watching him grow. That's a big part of my life right now, but yeah, just making Popforms bigger and better. We're launching some software products in 2015, so I'm really excited about that, and yeah, it's going to be a great year. Larry:  That is super. Lucy:  Well, wow. Larry:  I'm really proud of you. Lucy:  Yeah, really, and this is really interesting, and especially a lot of the things that Popforms does in terms of careers. Larry has done some work in that space himself. Larry:  Yeah, a little bit. Lucy:  A little bit, yeah. Well, thank you so much Kate. It was great spending time with you, and we really appreciate all the tips. Larry:  You bet, and you listeners out there, you can tune in to 3333.com, and listen to this any time. Also on our podcast, and our blog, but also, and most important, is ncwit.org. You'll see the site, and you'll have links to everything that she said. Lucy:  Thanks Kate. Kate:  Thank you. Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Kate MatsudairaInterview Summary: Kate Matsudaira is the founder of Popforms, which creates tools that are designed to help today’s technical leaders shine in their roles. Their tools empower leaders with the knowledge they need to keep growing their skills, plus strategic tools to help them engage and grow amazing teams. "I think that building what I call career capital, which is like knowledge, and know‑how, it's a network, it's a track record of success, and projects, whether you're at a different company, or you're in school," said Kate about building a successful career. "Building that capital on my own to accomplishments, and all of that will palate into whatever success you have. Whether you follow up as an entrepreneur, or you decide to stay and become an executive in a big company. Consistently working on building yourself, and increasing that capital is the most important thing. I wish someone had talked to me so much about that, because I think you optimize, otherwise, for the wrong variables." Release Date: March 22, 2015Interviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 17:53

National Center for Women & Information Technology

Interview with Kate Matsudaira

Interview With Christina Wallace

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Terry Morreale:  Hi, this is Terry Morreale from the National Centre for Women in Information Technology, or NCWIT. This is part of a series of interviews with fabulous entrepreneurs, with women who have started IT companies in a variety of sectors. All of whom have incredible stories to tell us about being entrepreneurs. With me is Larry Nelson from w3w3.com. Hello Larry, how are you? Larry Nelson:  I'm magnificent and I'm so happy to be here today. At w3w3.com we record all business people from all over the place. We really like to focus in on entrepreneurs. You can listen to this interview and others on w3w3.com. Terry:  Great, thank you. Today we are interviewing an entrepreneur with more than 35 years experience in the startup community. Carol Clark is the co‑founder of "Mind Leaders Inc" and served as the CEO and chair of the board of the company from its formation in 1981, until "Mind Leaders" was acquired in 2007. "Mind Leaders Inc." integrates talent management and e‑learning resources to deliver development solutions from a single platform. Carol currently serves on the board of directors at "Ed Map Inc," "Sia Linden Associates Corp," and "Ecolibrium Solar Inc," on the investment committee for the "Patient Capital Collaborative 13" fund, and on the executive committee of the "Ohio TechAngels Fund." Before we start Carol, tell us a little bit more about your current endeavors. Carol Clark:  What I'm doing now, is I'm an active "Angel" investor. That means that we invest in young companies. I am on the patient collaborative investment committee. That's part of investors circle. We focus on impact investing. The "Ohio TechAngels" group in Ohio, naturally, we focus on medical devices, technology, Ohio company. I'm also a member of Golden Seeds, which is an "Angel" group in New York City. They have chapters on the west coast and in Texas. Two years ago I founded "X Squared Angels" which is a group here in Columbus, very much after "Golden Seeds." We focus on women led companies. Women companies can be anywhere in the country, actually anywhere in the world, because you apply to us from Canada, and it can be in any market. We're just trying to invest in companies that have women in management teams. Being an active angel investor is a lot of work [laughs] . But it's also a lot of fun. You get to meet the investors, you hear all kinds of interesting ideas for companies, and you meet lots and lots of interesting people. That's what I'm doing now. Terry:  Sounds fun. Larry:  Wow, I love it. Terry:  [laughs] Tell us how you first got into technology, Carol? Carol:  I was a math major in college. Way back in the dark ages. When I graduated from college, the large companies would go around and interview at the liberal arts schools. "IBM" was one of the companies that came to interview at Gettysburg College where I graduated. I thought, "well, that sounds like fun, computers," and I wanted to go to New York City anyway. Back then they gave you a programmer's aptitude test. If you passed the test and some series of interviews, then they offered you a job. I started as what was called the system service representative, which ultimately became a systems engineer in one of the Manhattan offices in New York City. I got into computers in the early 60s, really when computers were just starting. Terry:  Wow. Carol:  It was just so much fun. Terry:  That's fantastic. What technologies do you think are cool today? Carol:  I never thought I would say this, but I think "Twitter" is. When "Twitter" first came out, I thought, "this is technology looking for some application. What is anybody going to do with it?" What I think has happened is that "Twitter" is really our news of the world today. Nothing really can happen in the world without somebody knowing it, and somebody sending it through their cell phone over "Twitter". I think "Twitter" is really cool. That would be one thing. The viruses that are popping up all the time are really cool. You write a program and I look at the program, and I say "well, I can get around your program" until I do, and then you look at what I've done and you get around it. This particular thing is what's pushing the programming world today. It certainly doesn't have nice ramifications, but I think it's really cool technology. The third and final thing would be what they're doing with Quantum calculations. Encryption on the web, the World Wide Web, is done with RSA encryption. It basically is just multiplying random numbers together, prime numbers together, and then encrypting them through an algorithm. It's done once each time data is sent. Nobody can break it, because it takes too long to re‑engineer that calculation. What they're doing now is they're using quantum mechanics to calculate in a different way, and they're going to be able to encrypt everything a whole lot faster. I just saw a TV show on it about two weeks ago and I thought it was really cool. They're my three things. Larry:  Wow. We'll have to look that up for sure. Just to switch gears, Carol, a little bit, why are you an entrepreneur? What about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Carol:  I think people become entrepreneurs because they want to control their own time, control what they do. What you quickly find out is, many people say, "I'd like to become an entrepreneur because I'm my own boss." You're never your own boss. When you're an entrepreneur, your customers are your own boss. I really liked having the customer as my boss because there were very few politics involved in it [laughs] . They either like what you're doing and they pay you money for it, or they don't. It's a very simple, nice relationship. I thought I would be an entrepreneur because you can control your own time, you can create what you want and make it as good as you want it, but what I really found that I liked was the fact that you're working for your customers. They're leading the way. I liked that a lot. Larry:  With that kind of comment about the time, that you mentioned, you ought to teach a class on time management. [laughter] Carol:  I would probably make people crazy. I already make my husband crazy with my time management. [laughter] Terry:  Carol, tell us who influenced or supported you to take this career path? Role models, mentors, people like that? Carol:  I gave this one a little bit of thought. I would put my parents first. They really provide the unconditional love, self confidence, and they say you can do whatever you want. My mother did that. My father also did that. My father would say, "I don't have a clue what you're doing with these computers, I don't understand it. I don't know what it is, but I'm all for it" [laughs] . He built ships, so he had physical things that he created, and for me to go into software was really hard for him to understand. Nevertheless, he supported it and was the cheering section all along the way. Then I would have to say that my husband was there the whole time and said, "just go do it. If you think it's the right thing to do, go do it." Terry:  That's great. Larry:  Wow. With all the different things you've been through, you've got such a fabulous background. Along the way you've had a lot of interesting things happen. What are the toughest things that you've had to do in your career? Carol:  One of the toughest things you have to learn, maybe two things. One is, don't take yourself seriously. Really, nobody's watching. If you fall on your face, nobody's paying any attention. You might feel silly, but I think the first thing is you can't take yourself too seriously. It takes a while to learn that. That would be number one. The second thing is, if you're going to lead, and if you're an entrepreneur you are going to lead, the first thing you have to remember about leadership is you have to make sure people are following [laughs] . You could have the best idea in the world, but if nobody agrees with you or nobody will come with you, you're not going to get very far. You have to keep looking over your shoulder to make sure that those people that are every bit as important, maybe more important than you are to the success of the company, are right there with you. Those are the two toughest things to learn. Larry:  Yes. Terry:  Indeed, in life and in entrepreneurship [laughs] . Carol:  Right [laughs] . Terry:  If you were sitting here with a young person today and giving them advice about entrepreneurship, what advice would you give them? Carol:  I actually do a fair amount of counseling with people of all ages, but many young people. The first thing I say is, "Is there a market for this product? Is there a large market for it? 500 million or larger?" Because when you start out with this product, you're only going to get a little teeny tiny piece of the market. The market has to be big enough for you to make money doing this. Number one is the market. Number two is the product. You might think you have the coolest technology in the world, but if nobody's going to pay you for it, you don't have a business. Talk to those potential customers and find out whether they're interested in buying what it is you want to sell. That would be number two. The third one is, you absolutely need to understand the financial statements. You can't go anywhere without understanding the financial statements. If I say to you as a potential entrepreneur, "OK, give me three years of projections month by month, and make a list of the assumptions that you're making about this business," and you can't do that or you don't want to do that, you're going to really have a difficult time. You have to understand the numbers. You never should run out of cash. The final thing is you need to understand your own limitations. You need to know what you don't know and go hire it, or find someone who will do those things for you. Those would be the four things. Make you've got a big, big market for this. Make somebody will pay money for this product, understand the numbers, find out what your limitations are, and get a team around you that can make up for your limitations. Terry:  That is wonderful advice. Thank you, Carol. Larry:  Excellent. Maybe I shouldn't even ask this question. It just seems natural with everything you've said so far. What personal characteristics do you think you have, that have given you the advantage as an entrepreneur? Carol:  The first one if a sense of humor. [laughter] Carol:  I really do. You're going to do things wrong, you're going to do stupid things. You're going to say stupid things. You just have to laugh about it. It's not the end of the world, you're still you. You pick yourself up and you go forward. That is probably the first one. The next is hiring good people. Those are the only two things. You need to be able to hire people that complement who you are and what you want to do. You're going to make mistakes there too. I guess the rule is hire slowly and fire quickly. I think that's true. Terry:  Carol, what do you do to bring balance into your personal and professional lives? Carol:  I think it's a gift, but I really can turn off the professional piece. I do have four children. They're all grown, of course. Certainly, you have to be able to turn off your professional life when you're raising a family. My husband and I love to travel, so we travel. I love to ride my bike. I go out on the roads or the trails. I'm not fast. I just mosey along, stop and talk to people or stop and look at flowers or insects or trees, or whatever happens to interest me. That just as peaceful. It is pure joy. You need to have interests other than professional or you make yourself crazy, and you need to be able to turn them off. Larry:  Absolutely. Carol, you've already achieved a great deal. We'll make sure that we have all those links and ideas and stuff up on the home pages and so on. What's next for you? Carol:  I think I'm going to remain an active "Angel" investor. I really do enjoy that. I love, as I said, meeting entrepreneurs, hearing the new ideas, staying current with the technology. I think that's going to be what I do for the next little while. After that, I don't know [laughs] . We'll see what presents itself. Larry:  We'll follow you, so we'll know. Terry:  Absolutely [laughs] . Carol:  Just so you don't stalk me, that's all right. Terry:  We'll follow you on twitter, how about that? Carol:  [laughs] There's a thought. Terry:  Carol, this has been an absolute pleasure, getting a chance to chat with you, getting a chance to know you a little bit better and learn from you. You gave some fantastic tips for our listeners. We look forward to sharing them with our entire NCWIT community, and with the w3w3.com community as well. Larry:  Over the years, my wife and I, we've started 12 different companies, I wish we had know you back then. Carol, thanks. Your advice was absolutely super. Thank you. Carol:  Thank you, my pleasure. Terry:  Have a great afternoon. Carol:  OK. Bye bye. Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Carol ClarkInterview Summary: Carol Clark, co-founder of MindLeaders Inc., www.mindleaders.com, served as CEO/Chair of the Board of the company from its formation in 1981 until MindLeaders was acquired in 2007. Carol has more than 35 years of management experience as well as an extensive background in computer programming, software development and education. Carol currently serves on the Board of Directors of EdMap Inc., Sealund and Associates Corp. and Ecolibrium Solar Inc.; on the Investment Committee for the Patient Capital Collaborative ’13 Fund; and on the Executive Committee of the Ohio TechAngels Funds. "When you're an entrepreneur, your customers are your own boss. I really liked having the customer as my boss because there were very few politics involved in it." said Carol about what it means to be an entrepreneur. "They either like what you're doing and they pay you money for it, or they don't. It's a very simple, nice relationship."  Release Date: November 19, 2014Interviewer(s): Terry Morreale and Larry NelsonDuration: 15:10

Interview with Carol Clark

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders:  Hi, this is Lucy Sanders. I'm the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology, or NCWIT. This is part of a continuing series that we're doing of interviews with wonderful, creative, innovative women who have started successful tech companies. With me, Larry Nelson, w3w3. Hi Larry. Larry Nelson:  It's my pleasure to be here. We've got about... Lucy:  About a hundred. Larry:  ...About a hundred interviews with women in this area. It's very exciting. It's very popular on our website. Lucy:  It's wonderful. We've got a great one coming today. Larry, it's summer. People are hitting the road. All kinds of car trips everywhere. The person we're interviewing today is a serial entrepreneur in the transportation sector, as well as being one of "Time 100 Most Influential People in 2009." Today we're interviewing Robin Chase, who is the founder and CEO of Buzzcar. Got to love that. Before that, the founder and former CEO of Zipcar. I'm sure all of our listeners have seen Zipcars out and about. A very novel concept. We've seen them everywhere. Zipcar is an industry leader today in car sharing in the United States, but Buzzcar's only available in Europe. It does some things slightly different, in that it allows users to rent out their own cars. Larry:  Oh. Lucy:  I know. Pretty interesting, right? Has over 5,000 cars in France, with 15,000 users. That's a real novel twist to ride sharing, for sure. Robin has also appeared in national media on "The Today Show," the "New York Times," and "National Public Radio." Welcome, Robin. Why don't you tell us a little about what's going on at Buzzcar? Robin Chase:  It's nice to be here. The update on Buzzcar is that we have now about 7,500 cars owned by people across France available for rent, and about 80,000 users who are renting them. What's exciting and fun for me when I think about this company, that the reason I started it is that Zipcar will only place cars where it knows that it's going to get a return on investment. I was constantly being asked as CEO, and once I left, "How come Zipcar doesn't have cars in my neighborhood, downstairs in my building in my town?" Zipcar doesn't want to take those risks. We only put them where we're really sure that it's going to happen. What's exciting for me with Buzzcar is, since we're using people's own cars, and if they rent it once a year, they're happy, because they've already paid for it. If they rent it once a month, better. A couple of times a week, best yet. It means we can have cars for rent in places that are any population density. While we do rent a lot in Paris and major cities, it's always exciting for me to see a rental happen in a place where there would never be any car chain or car rental for that matter, because it's such a small location. It's a new way of providing services I'm very excited about. Lucy:  It's certainly very novel. We were just in Europe, my husband and I. We used Uber for the first time... Larry:  Oh. Lucy:  ...which is a great way of finding a cab or a ride when there aren't any taxis. Robin:  Both of those services and many others, is something that I see happening now. I think there's a real organizational shift. There's this new organizational paradigm that I've been calling "Peers Incorporated," which is a collaboration between independent individuals or small companies and a larger institution or government of company on a platform for participation. If you think about Buzz Car, we are doing that. As a company, we made this platform, got insurance through the nice online payments, great apps facilitate everything. We give individuals the power of the corporation and the individuals are micro‑entrepreneurs. I call them auto‑preneurs. [laughter] Lucy:  That's great. Robin:  Uber is the same organizational structure, in that Uber offers a platform and then people who are current black car drivers or current taxi drivers or current individuals who want to drive their cars as taxis, can leverage the Uber platform. It's something we are seeing. Other examples would be Arabian Bee. I look at them and I think Google, Facebook, Flicker, and YouTube are all examples of this new kind of business model that is really on the rise and has a lot of great attributes. Lucy:  I'm sure it uses a lot of technology. These kinds of platforms do. Why don't you tell our listeners how you first got into technology, Robin? What kind of technologies do you like? You've already talked a little bit about these types of sharing platforms but do you see any other technologies out there that you think are especially interesting? Robin:  My other fascination, and also still in the realm of transportation, is I'm interested in mesh networks and how wireless is going to be playing out in the future. What we're seeing increasingly is that we need heterogeneous networks that we don't use. Lots of healthcare products use different types of...spectrum, and in our cars we use Bluetooth or the upcoming vehicle to vehicle. I see the future as having these heterogeneous networks and a lot more emphasis on WiFi and getting to WiFi through these mesh peer to peer networks. Two things. One is, I've co‑founded another company in Portugal called "Veniam Works," that is providing vehicle communications for public buses and in ports to the trucks. If we think about dark spots or urban canyons, having a box in your car in your car that has 3G WiFi and vehicle‑to‑vehicle means that we can use vehicle to vehicle to get to a WiFi hotspot without you having to pay for cellular. It gives you a very low‑cost, reliable network. Back to my earlier comment, this is of the same ilk, which with mesh networks, which means my wireless device doesn't just send things and receive things, it also can serve as a router. We, as individuals with our own devices, can create a wireless infrastructure on the back of the assets that we've already bought. We're rolling this out now in cars. Why cars? Because cars are batteries that are being recharged constantly and it's an easier start than in your cell phone. For me, it's an incredibly exciting part of the future of thinking about infrastructure as being built by stuff that we already own. It's infrastructure being collaboratively built and collaboratively financed. I'm excited also about it because of the resilience and redundancy it gives, so that we don't have to be reliant on an uphill. Larry:  With your interesting background, I have to ask this question. What is it that made you become an entrepreneur, and what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Robin:  I was talking to my mother about this, and I think that I've always been a person who's very interested in how things work and doing things myself, doing it myself. Way back, when I had braces, I was constantly asking the orthodontist, "Why are you doing that? What's happening now?" Or the person's cutting my hair, I now am a great hair‑cutter, so say my children. I've always been a person who wants to make it themselves, to try that. That is a fundamental piece of an entrepreneur, maybe there's two parts. One is that every problem I see, I'm always thinking about how you solve that problem. Some of them, I put my hand in and try to start it, try to make it. I make things before I buy things. I think I've had that in me for a long time. Larry:  [laughs] Good. Lucy:  She's a maker. Larry:  Yes. Lucy:  A maker entrepreneur. Along the same line of questioning, who influenced you or supported you to take this type of an entrepreneurial career choice? Robin:  I feel that especially since we're talking about women and technology, I am a woman in technology but I'm not an engineer. My husband is an electrical engineer from MIT and he was my CTO for Zipcar, was my CTO for seven years. He's been my CTO in my later efforts. I definitely have relied on him to advise and to do the technology piece that is not something that I pretend to have skill in. I was listening to something recently, and there are needs for translators. I would say I'm perhaps a translator between engineers and the common man. If we think about Zipcar or other things that I've done, I could do Zipcar because I'd never done car rental, and I didn't have any firm stereotypes about how people mistreat cars. I could do Zipcar also because I didn't know anything about wireless networking, and I had no idea that we were going to have to build our own from scratch, doing a consumer product for wireless that no one had ever done before. I could see issues that made sense, but I didn't know all the barriers and impediments. In general, I think that multidisciplinary endeavors and diversity of people is incredibly helpful. I've been lucky that I've had my husband as a great help, and that I've had a lot of advisors. I have my go‑to in the technology realm, and today my inspiration is people who are building what I see as new economy companies. There's a whole bunch of them and I'm always awestruck how these individuals are breaking the mold and doing brand‑new things that are hard, and some of them successfully. When you see people doing hard, crazy things and succeeding at it, in places where no one imagined it was possible, it's very inspiring. Larry:  Robin, with all of the different things you've done, and doing a lot of business outside of the United States, what is the toughest thing that you've had to do in your career? Robin:  I think some of the toughest things that I had to do are firing people, which is remarkable thing. I've done business issues and negotiations that were incredibly difficult, but having to do negative things with people that you know and like was the hardest thing. For me, those interpersonal, unpleasant things were harder than technology barriers. I want to give you a metaphor that I came up with talking to my cofounder [indecipherable 10:41] that talks about these issues. I was thinking about what it's like to be a start‑up versus an old company, so here, listen to my metaphor. When you're a start‑up, you have your hand‑plough in an untilled field that is something completely overgrown. You're there pushing your plough through things and you'll hit pebbles and you'll hit rocks and then, "Darn it!" You hit these gigantic boulders and you have to go round, and you didn't expect it and it's a gigantic, gigantic effort. You're pushing and slogging and sweating, and it's huge [indecipherable 11:13] , and you have this vision of what you're going to do with this piece of land. Then you look over to the right, and you see the person on their tractor riding high and their field that's been ploughed thousands of times going down the same furrows. It's like that's the legacy that is [indecipherable 11:32] . And you look to the left and right, and it seems so easy that all the money, and it just seems so clear sailing. In meantime there you are, pushing, pushing tons of instructions. It's hard work doing this, thinking novel thing. You think, "How is that start‑ups ever manage to succeed?" Lucy:  That's a wonderful metaphor, and obviously start‑ups do succeed. Entrepreneurs have great skills and have great advice to give to others, so if you were sitting here talking to a young person about a career, an entrepreneurship, what would you tell them? Robin:  Generally overall, I talk a lot about intellectual honesty ‑‑ there's a lot wrapped up into that. To be an entrepreneur, you are constantly selling your concept, your vision, and you're selling it to prospective employees or selling it to prospective suppliers, to consumers, to investors. You're hyping it because it doesn't exist yet, and it's always got plenty of problems. I think intellectual honesty is constantly being aware of what isn't working and what you personally aren't good at, and whether your idea is a worthwhile one. I think of entrepreneurs, and we can think of people who can waste too much time on bad ideas and ruin their lives or people who don't hire others to match their own weaknesses, so to be very clear on what your own weaknesses are. I'd say the most important thing to going back to the plough versus the tractor, start‑ups succeed when they are fast‑learners, when they are learning organizations. It still comes back to this intellectual honesty. When you hit that rock and that giant boulder, recognize it for what it is. Instead of keep pushing into that same spot, figure out, "How do I go around this? What do I need to do? Do I make some serious adjustments?" Start‑ups can move very quickly, because they hit the rock right away and they can decide and make decisions that same day. Whereas if you think of big companies, it takes some months to realize there's an issue, months for it to go up the ladder, months for people to decide, "What in heck is going to go on?" and correct it. So this is how I do think start‑ups succeed, is that they can be learning organizations and learn at a pace that is just so much faster than a bigger organization that has bureaucracy and lots of layers of people and separation from their customers. Larry:  With all the different things you've done and your different companies and all, what are your personal characteristics that have given you the advantage of being an entrepreneur? Robin:  [laughs] I have to say the luck of fabulous parents and a good education, and the luck of some great genes. I have to attribute a lot of that to things that were outside of my personal control. To give myself some credit, I am very tenacious and incredibly hardworking, and I do my homework and I work hard at things. I give myself lots of credit for the hard work part. Larry:  Boy, that is for sure. Lucy:  We hear a lot from entrepreneurs about being tenacious, relentless, and resilient ‑‑ not quite the same word. [laughs] But we hear that a lot. You mentioned earlier that you've become quite a good hair‑cutter with your children's hair. Larry:  [laughs] Lucy:  Our next question has to do with this sort of, always talked about balance between professional and personal lives. What are your secrets for achieving it, if it in fact exists? Or how do you manage to integrate the two? Robin:  I think my children will tell you that I'm a terrible balancer. I constantly have my laptop open, and the joking refrain is I'm always saying, "Let me just finish this email, let me erase this one email before I go do something." [laughter] Robin:  On the other hand, I feel that I have demonstrated to my family ‑‑ I have a husband and three children that are now really grown ‑‑ that there's a real consistency in my values and my interest within work and my personal life, that they are very integrated. That itself is a kind of balance, that I work on things that I care about, I am interested in those topics, and my values and many of my friends and things I like to do all match. While I am terrible on the balance and trying very hard to work on it, it feels very unified inside myself. Lucy:  That word, "unified" is an interesting word, like, "integrated." And I don't think we've heard it used before, that unifying family and work. It's interesting. Larry:  I like it. Being a father of five, I like unity. [laughter] Robin:  I particularly think about values, and I would like business to have the same values as I would have in my personal life. I'm reading right now a book by Michael Lewis called "Flash Boys," and there's this one aspect in it that it's about a young Wall Street‑technology‑guy. At a certain point, he's thinking he's figured out how everyone or a large percentage of firms on Wall Street are screwing other investors. He has this choice, this young Canadian‑blood, that he can either correct the problem or start making money in the same, very deceptive, horrible way. He decides to figure out how to correct it and have everyone do things in a less deceptive way, rather than having uncovered the secret and starting to cheat people. I was struck by that this is a great book, and that this is the subject of the book, and I think, "Wow! Why is it that that's a novel idea, that we begin to know fair value for things that we do, and we are honest and helpful and fair and all of those things?" That's where this unity‑piece is coming from me. I'd like to businesses ‑‑ I think we're seeing more and more of them ‑‑ that have social and environmental goals that are now very embedded in their mission statement and how they do things. I don't know if you've heard of this, but there's a new form of corporation called the Dcorp. Dcorp embeds in its mission some social attributes, and therefore we think of companies that always must be following in other shareholders, and what's the best for shareholders. These Dcorps are required to follow their mission, and they are not for profit, but it's a balance that they have to be a profitable company and they have to fulfill their other mission, goals. I think we'll see more of those. Lucy:  Maybe there'll be a financial investment fund for B Corps. Larry:  All right, let's go. Let's do it. Lucy:  401K. [laughter] Larry:  Boy, we are certainly very impressed with everything you've been through, what you've done and accomplished, but I have to ask this. What's next? Robin:  Right at this very minute, and at the very minute I'm talking to you, I'm writing, and not writing, a book on this new organizational paradigm that I've been calling "Peers Incorporated," and how it's going to be changing the way we build businesses, the way we work, and the way we use assets. I think it's kind of leading edge to what I see is a new collaborative economy. That's what I'm doing right now when I'm not doing all the other things I do. Lucy:  [laughs] Fascinating. Larry:  It really does. [laughs] Larry:  It really does, wow. So, Robin, thank you very much. Our listeners will just love this interview and all of your insights into the different kinds of business models and everything is just very interesting so thank you very much. I want to remind listeners they can find this on W3W3.com, and also on the NCWIT website, NCWIT.org. So, thank you. Larry:  You bet. Robin:  You're welcome, bye. Lucy:  Bye. Larry:  Thank you so much, Robin.   Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Robin ChaseInterview Summary: Robin Chase is the Founder and CEO of BuzzCar, and also the founder of ZipCar. ZipCar is an industry leader in car sharing in the United States. They provide cars on demand for users with thousands of available cars around the globe. BuzzCar is only available in Europe, but it allows users to rent out their own cars, and has over 5,000 cars in France with 15,000 users.   " I've always been a person who wants to make it themselves, to try that. That is a fundamental piece of an entrepreneur, maybe there's two parts." said Chase on being an entrepreneur. "One is that every problem I see, I'm always thinking about how you solve that problem. Some of them, I put my hand in and try to start it, try to make it. I make things before I buy things. I think I've had that in me for a long time."   Release Date: October 20, 2014

Interview with Robin Chase

Interview with Moira Hardek

Interview with Jules Pieri

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Terry Morreale:  Hi, this is Terry Morreale from the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT and this is part of a series of interviews we're having with fabulous entrepreneurs, women who have started IT companies in a variety of sectors, all of whom have fantastic stories to tell us about being entrepreneurs. With me is Larry Nelson from W3W3.com. Hello, Larry. How are you? Larry Nelson:  I'm excited to be here, of course. This is an absolute favorite series that I'm involved with, W3W3, and the fabulous women and the entrepreneurs and the people who are doing things. You can hear it all here. Terry:  Good. Tell us a little bit about W3W3.com because these will, of course, be available on W3W3.com as well as the NCWIT site. Larry:  We'll also have it in our podcast directory so those that listen to it via podcast. We'll have it on our blog, also. We've been doing this since January '99. We are just really excited and pleased that we are focused strictly on business. Terry:  Today we are interviewing a serial entrepreneur who has started everything from bookstores to IT consulting firms. Jenny Lawton is the president of MakerBot. MakerBot is a company that specializes in 3D printers and has been on the cutting edge of the industry since its inception. Jenny has been with the company since 2011 and has been responsible for the overall strategy and growth of the company, including strategic partnerships, product development, and retail. Before we start, Jenny, tell us a little bit about the latest at MakerBot. Jenny Lawton:  MakerBot's been busy. We just came back from a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas where we announced three new hardware product lines and five new software products and applications that create a 3D printing ecosystem. We're very proud to finally launch these products after a good, long year of development. Terry:  Tell us how you first got into technology. Jenny:  My getting into technology was, my parents would probably, say a real accident. They don't quite understand it. My father has a PhD in Middle Eastern History and my mother has a master's degree in Sociology so my graduating from college with a degree in Applied Math was a real anomaly to them. On top of it, my only brother went to art school so to say it was an accident is not an overstatement. All of my upbringing was around Liberal Arts and reading and learning about history and how people work. When I went to college I started out to become a doctor and I found out when I started my program at school that chemistry was really hard. And so, I decided to do something that I felt was a lot easier for me which was math. That's where I really fell in love with learning about logic and how things work and solving problems, which I think is a lot of what's behind technology. My entrance into technology came in going to college as a math major. My path to technology wasn't direct. I left college and worked with several engineering firms that really weren't technology based but my third job I started working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, which is an academic laboratory that's funded by the military as well as MIT where there's a lot of defense work that goes on. I really fell in love with real time programming. I worked on a radar project. I just loved the way that computers could make things work. That's really where I fell in love with technology and all things...And the Internet and learning how to make things work. Terry:  What technologies do you think are cool today? Jenny:  I still am really connected to the Internet. I know it's passÈ at this point but I left the technology industry for about 10 years. I was both shocked and also really heartened to come back into the world and find out that there have been a lot of advancements in technology but there's still so much more to do. I love the concept of connecting things to the world and the Internet is just this amazing network. It's built to not break. I love the tenacity of it. I love its flexibility and all the different things that you can do with it. I really like some of the projects that are going on in the hardware space, the world of robotics and how you can make things be smarter and do more interesting things. Those are the areas that are really intriguing me right now. Larry:  Let me throw a little curveball at you, a two part question. One, why is it that you're an entrepreneur? After all, it's not like it was in the family. And then, also, what is it as an entrepreneur today that makes you tick? Jenny:  I get asked this question infrequently, but I also spend a little bit of time trying to figure out what makes me tick. When I look back at it, I realize that I've been an entrepreneur since I was a little kid. I always kept files on everything. As a kid I was very curious and was always starting clubs and projects and getting people to join in and do things. I, of course, was always in charge. I probably still have some of the paperwork from some very complex clubs that I created in fifth grade. I started out early and then I did a lot of different things as a kid. My dad was in the military when I was young. After the military he was an academic, so we never really were in one place a lot. We traveled around, so I got to sample the world a lot and do a lot of different things. I read a lot. I was always into organizing things. I was a really big reader, so I created my own library. I did a lot of calligraphy as a kid, and I went and sold my services to everyone in the little town that I grew up in. I made all the little signs in most of the little stores and I sold those services. I had a very, very healthy babysitting business in high school. Not just babysitting, but doing summer camps and organizing things. In middle school, I organized birthday parties for kids. I was always putting together a concept that would make money that I needed to make. It supported my other interests and habits, but also let me sample the world and see how things work. I got to interact with selling services to people. I got to figure out what people needed, what pain needed to be taken away from people that I could satisfy. I really feel like, growing up, I was sort of entrepreneurial in most of what I did. My first four jobs, I was working for someone and I loved my fourth job. I loved working for the CEO of the company. The CEO was Bill Poduska. He's well known in the Hardware Technology Space. He started Prime Computer. He started Apollo Computer. He was just so fascinating to me. He talked about being an entrepreneur and what that meant. I hadn't really heard that concept before that. When that company went under and I started my own company, it took me awhile before I realized that that's what I was, because it wasn't quite a buzzword yet. I love being able to start something and then see it grow into something that goes somewhere. I realize that that's what fuels me as an entrepreneur. Terry:  You mentioned a previous boss you had that influenced you. What other mentors or influencers did you have along the way? Jenny:  I always have to give my mother credit. I was born in the 60s. My mother was probably one of the first subscribers to "Ms. Magazine," and was always telling me that I could do whatever I wanted to do. I believed that. I took that on whole‑heartedly and my whole approach to life has always been, I could do what I wanted to do. It was that concept that my mother taught me, that if you want to set your heart on something and you want to set a goal for yourself, you're the only person in the way of achieving that. Whether you achieve it, or don't, is in your control. I have to give my mother a lot of credit there. My first boss, Nadine Yates was an early mentor of mine. She was just such a wonderfully well poised woman, who also gave me a lot of latitude in my first job. She could see that I had a lot of ambition, a lot of different interests. She tried to fulfill those, see what they were and give me lots of different options and the ability to grow and learn in a company, even though I was a young kid out of college, working for a very old‑world consulting engineering firm. She also gave me the sense that if I put my mind to something, or I set my sights, I could go for that. Another interesting influence on my life ‑‑ and I wouldn't call it a mentor ‑‑ my tenth grade math teacher told me that I would most definitely fail math because girls can't do math. [laughter] Jenny:  When I decided to become an Applied Math major, those words were ringing in my head. I was pretty satisfied to go back to visit him after I had become a math major, to let him know that he was dead wrong. [laughter] Jenny:  Then, Brad Feld, who is a friend of mine, serial entrepreneur, VC, is a long time mentor of mine. I just always love to see what he's doing, and really enjoy the group of people that he interacts and works with. I've never gone wrong interacting with his [indecipherable 09:22] group. Larry:  I can see now where I must have met you in the past around Brad Feld and his teams. Jenny:  [laughs] Terry:  You'll be happy to know I saw Brad about a week ago and he was wearing a MakerBot t‑shirt. Jenny:  Oh great! Terry:  [laughs] Larry:  Very good! Jenny:  [laughs] Larry:  You know, with all the different things that you've been through, it's really interesting, your history and the different things that you've tried. What is the toughest thing that you've ever had to do in your career? Jenny:  There have been a lot of tough things. Some of them sound trite. Some of them are heavy. Traveling a lot has always been a tough thing in my career. It's sort of part and parcel to my job, but it was really hard for me being a mother of young children, having an entrepreneurial business and traveling a lot. It definitely caused a lot of stress in my relationships and just made me tired a lot. Travel is always something that I list. It's something that's just tough and I know it can sound trite, but I think that in some ways it could have been a limiting factor in my career because it's just always been something that's tough. I sold my company and that's tough. It's like selling your baby to someone. There's this awesome amount of good stuff that comes out of selling a company, whether it goes well or not. It's a big achievement to grow something to the point where someone else wants to acquire it. Just that milestone itself is a huge success, but it's also a really tough thing to do. I think equally, buying people's companies is also really hard. I love doing it. I love the synergies. I love all the energy that comes out of it but it's also a really tough promotional exercise to go through. I also think that I had to shut down, not quite shut down, my coffee shop and my bookstore in sort of a down market. That was really tough, really hard stuff to do because you become really very emotionally attached. Retail is really one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. It's just gut‑wrenchingly hard. You're living on the edge and especially small retail. It's just a lot of hard work. I think that the toughest thing I've done is taken time off. It's really hard to take time off and getting out of balance and not giving yourself enough time, I think is not good for your career but forcing yourself to take some time off is just an incredibly difficult thing to do. Terry:  What do you do to bring balance into your personal and professional lives? Jenny:  I started exercising, at one point. One of my assistants at my consulting company was an ultra‑marathon runner and a personal trainer. Good for me and also a little scary for me when I realized she was going to take her executive assistant role beyond my scheduling and make me work out and do exercise. Terry:  That's really funny. Jenny:  It was also just one of the best things anyone had ever done for me. It really brought me an appreciation for taking the 30 minutes to 40 minutes out in a day to give yourself some down time to do something just for yourself. Exercise became an important part of one of the things that I do to bring a little balance into my life. When I had my bookstore and cafÈ, my kid was a rower for his high school at that time. I became very involved with a master's rowing program. I rowed competitively which was just awesome. I loved being with a group of people who are people I wouldn't normally meet to be able to do something that we all loved, rowing, and being able to do something. Also, being able to compete. I love getting medals. Going and winning medals was really awesome. That was another way that I brought some balance into my life. I think what I got out of all of that, I just learned some wonderful lessons. I love being able to take the concept of if you over‑control the oars in a boat, you just don't row very well. If you over‑control what you do with your employees in your company they just don't work very well. Being able to take those lessons that you get from doing more balance things in your life and bringing them into your business world has also been really satisfying to me. Larry:  I can just tell from the various things you've said and outlined that you've been through, that there are many different characteristics that would give you the advantage of being an entrepreneur. But if you were to pick out a single, most important one, what would it be? Jenny:  That's a tough one. Just one? [laughter] Jenny:  I think that probably what bubbles up to the top all the time is I just have a natural curiosity and energy. I'm always curious about how something works and I want to know how it works or curious about where something's going to go. Learning more about a topic or how things are going to grow and impact the world. I'd say the curiosity is probably the single characteristic that would come up, in my life as an entrepreneur. Larry:  I can believe that. Terry:  Jenny, if you were sitting here with a young person and giving them advice about entrepreneurship, what advice would you give them? Jenny:  The first advice that I always say is that you don't ever get to be an Olympic athlete without falling on your butt a few times. You have to be willing to fail and try and try again in order to be able to get to the success. The other thing that I tell people, over and over again, is that networking is key. You need to meet people, understand what your relationship is with them, and stay engaged with people that you meet in the world because you just never know where it might go. I've found that almost everything I've done in my life has come out of a relationship that I've developed and nurtured and maintained with people. The other thing I tell people, I tell people this in interviews, I tell people this when I'm reviewing them, I tell people this in general, is that, if you're not happy doing what you're doing, don't do it. Life is way too short to spend your time doing things that aren't satisfying to you. Go out and find out what is that is satisfying to you and then do that. Larry:  That is excellent advice. I have to say just one thing. If somebody's driving down the highway right now listening to this interview in their MP3 player, tell us your website. We'll have it posted in a number of different places too. Jenny:  The website for MakerBot is www.makerbot.com. Larry:  All right. You have achieved a great deal. By the way, you listeners out there, go to her website. It is absolutely excellent. There's a lot to see. It's really fascinating. Now Jenny, you've already achieved a great deal. What is next for you? Jenny:  MakerBot has a long way to go. There's a lot of stuff I'm doing at MakerBot that is really exciting. We more than doubled last year in size. I'm continuing to grow MakerBot right now and leading the next industrial revolution. Larry:  That is one heck of a great statement. Wow, I want to thank you for joining us today. Terry:  Yes. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time and we know the folks listening to this are really going to enjoy it. Thank you. Jenny:  Thank you. Terry:  Have a great afternoon. Larry:  Yes. Jenny:  OK. You too. [music] Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Jenny LawtonInterview Summary: Jenny Lawton is the president of MakerBot, a company that is leading the way in 3D printing and printers. "When I look back at it, I realize that I've been an entrepreneur since I was a little kid," Jenny said of when she became an entrepreneur. "I always kept files on everything. As a kid I was very curious and was always starting clubs and projects and getting people to join in and do things. I, of course, was always in charge. I probably still have some of the paperwork from some very complex clubs that I created in fifth grade...I love being able to start something and then see it grow into something that goes somewhere. I realize that that's what fuels me as an entrepreneur." Release Date: March 31, 2014Interview Subject: Jenny Lawton, President of MakerBotInterviewer(s): Terry Morreale and Larry NelsonDuration: 16:43

Interview with Jenny Lawton

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders:  Hi. This is Lucy Sanders, NCWIT, the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Today we have another interview with a woman who started an IT company ‑‑ a very innovative company, very technical ‑‑ I'll be talking with her. With me, Larry Nelson, w3w3. Larry. what's going on? Larry Nelson:  We are really interested, in particular, working with entrepreneurs. We love working with women ‑‑ I have four daughters, so I have that leaning. In the mean time at w3w3.com, we have thousands of actual interviews up on our website right now and the better ones, of course, are NCWIT Heroes. Lucy:  Like the one we're talking to today... Larry:  Exactly. Lucy:  ...who happens to be a former Disney Imagineer/Engineer, I have to say, which is pretty cool. I'm sure that she had that little Mickey Mouse on her business card from when she was working there. She has a great passion for large‑scale projects especially, were she can lend her creativity and technology skills together. Being an engineer by training ‑‑ she did go on to become vice president of product development and also software development at Time Warner Cable. Today, we're interviewing Sherisse Hawkins, the co‑founder and CEO of Beneath the Ink. Just a really awesome company that I know she's going to want to tell us a little bit about. But it provides Apples enhancements for E‑Books. It's like you get to provide additional content and not disrupt the flow of your story or the flow of your book. The way authors do that is, they embed these enhancements called Binks which, I think, is so awesome, like beneath the inks. Anyway, they give readers more insight into the characters and data, places and things like that. Just so you can do that if you want to and not disrupt the story either. Before we start, Sherisse, tell us a little bit about what's going on at Beneath the Ink. Sherisse Hawkins:  Beneath the Ink is at a very interesting phase in our life cycle. I think every day is an interesting phase in the life cycle and I was joking with the co‑founder of Loyalty about how we're in what I referred to as engineer or entrepreneur hours. That is every hour of physical work to a week in real world, every week of mine is once a year. It is an incredible fast paced. We're looking at bringing on new authors to the office portal and they are releasing our fifth book this week into world. There's no shortage of excitement and not a lot of sleep. Lucy:  I remember when you were just kind of hatching this idea. How long ago was that? That was, couple of years ago, right? Sherisse:  It was. I actually left my corporate position with a great role. I really enjoyed that phase of my career. It was on Friday, April the 13th. I left my corporate position back in 2012. Lucy:  It's exciting to see you bring this concept forward! I know it's something you are really passionate about. Sherisse, tell us a little bit about how you first got into technology. You have an awesome technical background. How'd you get there? Sherisse:  I really credit my interest in technology and pursuing my education as well as my career, with one person. That was my high school geometry teacher. His name is Mr. Worth. He knows that I speak about him whenever I have an opportunity. He turned math into a very exciting experience. I believed I could conquer anything in his class. I excelled in that particular class. It was through that experience of really loving math and science in his class that made me pursue and even think about taking on an engineering degree. I knew as soon as I left high school that I wanted to be an engineer. It was just a matter of what type. Lucy:  That was a real gift. Excellent teachers. I had a high school math teacher in [inaudible 03:53] that piqued my interest, also. Just that subtle form of encouragement of having a great teacher. It's awesome! Sherisse:  Literally, he put on a cape with a Pi symbol on back and come into class with this enthusiasm and tongue‑in‑cheek. He made the entire class so much fun. He wasn't afraid to take risks and just really be...Bring some life into a subject that can often be taught in a way that's not as engaging. Lucy:  As you look out at the technology spaces today, and you're a technologist, what technologies do you think are particularly interesting? Sherisse:  I'm absolutely biased because I love content. It wasn't until I started this company that I realized that my career has pretty much been associated with entertainment, leisure activity and content for the past...over 20 years. At each job I've thought, "Oh this is different. I'm doing video now. I'm doing invented software for..." In that case, it was that [inaudible 04:49] . When I really sat back, I realized that in every case it was the wrong story. It was the wrong content. It was the wrong entertainment and learning. I have a very strong bias around those things. How we learn. It's the stories that impact our lives. It's the analogy that helps us learn. I'm very interested in things that allow us to unlock the story behind the story and learn to go through that process and connect with other people through that process. Nelson:  That was all the different things you've done! You were with some very big and important companies. Why are you now an entrepreneur? What is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Sherisse:  My boss at my last job, he would ask me every year, "Where do you want go? What do you want to do?" Each time, I would say, "I can't wait until we get this product out." We had a goal of having it reach every subscriber at Time Warner Cable so we could literally send it right to the people. We designed the system. We hired the team. When we started out, I was employee six starting out of this large company. It just grew to the point of across the United States and every Time Warner Cable subscriber. I found out near the end of that journey, and my boss asking me, "What do you want to do next?" I didn't have good answers for him, because it was that part of starting from nothing and taking it to something really large, that's the part that I really enjoyed. For some people, once you get to that place, it's, "OK, we can enhance that or we can move a little bit further." It's that really steep learning curve, that fear of whether or not it's going to work at all that I realized it really made me tick. The same thing is that when I was at Disney and building their theme park in Paris and wondering whether it was going to open on time. It's that really steep learning curve, the pressure of getting it done, the pressure of bringing it to scale, that I love. Once it's out there and in that scale, honestly, that's when my enthusiasm wanes and I knew it was time to move on to the next project. Lucy:  You've got your hands on something you're bringing to scale right now, huh? Sherisse:  That's true, yes. [laughs] Lucy:  It's so interesting. Along this career path of yours, and you mentioned your high school math teacher, who else has influenced you to take the career path that you've taken? Sherisse:  There have been wonderful mentors. There was a guy named Ron Howell that I worked for at something called [inaudible 07:14] and I had just had my daughter. He said, "I think you'd be great in management. I think you'd be a great project leader and I think you should try it." I remember thinking, "I wonder if that's true. I don't know. It sounds like it could be interesting." But I made him promise that he would hold my system architecture job open for a few months, because I really wasn't sure I wanted to leave technology behind and lead others and go into a different role. It turns out, I loved it. I loved working on new projects. I love seeing people excited about things and we can have such a broader region impact when you're helping others move through a process, whether you're leading them through the project or leading them through a successful new design process that's much, much than working as an individual contributor. I credit people, like Ron, who were giving me the chance and encouraging me to take more of a leadership role, that really shifted my career into a completely different space of leading larger projects, having larger teams and impacting people in a broader way. Nelson:  That's super. Lucy:  Sounds like a real sponsor. Nelson:  Yeah, you bet you. Now, with all the different things that you've been through and that you've done and accomplished, what's the toughest thing that you've had to do in your career? Sherisse:  Without question, it is when projects do not go well and when you are in that leadership space and you have to either cancel, downsize or change the dynamics of the team. People don't talk about that very often, but in the lead positions that I've had, there are situations where we had to lay off people or make major changes or cancel projects. That's true whether you're [inaudible 08:53] or not, but it is definitely the hardest thing to do when you're dealing with people, projects getting lost in their livelihood. That's definitely the hardest thing on an overall standpoint. The hardest technical problems we've had to solve are absolutely the ones we ran across with Disney. There was a project where they said, "Well, assume the fault," every two minutes and then, reform. [laughter] Sherisse:  That was the hardest technical problem that we've ever had to solve and we did solve it, but I just can't tell you how. [laughter] Lucy:  A secret, a Disney secret. Nelson:  I lived in Tokyo when they opened up Disney in Japan. Sherisse:  Oh awesome. Lucy:  Do you know any Disney secrets? Nelson:  Nothing that I can talk about right now. Sherisse:  That shows you that whatever you can imagine, there is a solution. It took us a lot of trial and error, but I truly believe that anything is possible if you apply yourself. Lucy:  Yeah, it's the power of invention, right? Nelson:  You've got it. Sherisse:  Yes, absolutely. Lucy:  If you were sitting here with a young person and giving them advice about entrepreneurship, what would you tell them? Sherisse:  I've thought about this question and the thing that struck me the most was that the description was a "young" person. I am not a young person and I started to be an entrepreneur. There are advantages to realizing that you can be an entrepreneur at any age. I think that we focus very much on working right out of school and taking advantage of when you're in your 20s you should be an entrepreneur. One of the things that's most powerful about our team is our collective ages. Our ages range from 21 to mid‑50s. We're all doing this for the first time. There's just something wonderful about creating a new experience and a new product, no matter what your age is. Even to a young person I would say, "Don't feel like if you don't do this before you get married or before you're 30, that you can't do it." When you have a good idea and the market lends itself and you have the chance, I say you should go for it. Lucy:  That's an excellent point. I think the research bears out the fact that a very high percentage of first time entrepreneurs that are successful are not young. They are not in their 20s. Nelson:  That's right, absolutely right. What do you think has given you the advantages of being an entrepreneur, especially with all the things you've been through? Sherisse:  My husband would answer this question for me. He would say tenacity. Tenacity taken to an extreme can maybe not be as positive of a personality trait, but I'm one of those people that just won't quit. If I want to understand something or learn something or I'm curious about something, I will continue to work at it until I figure it out. I think that's what got me through engineering school. It wasn't like I was some brilliant Einstein kind of brain going to college, but it was working hard and realizing that you take small steps to get to big goals. It's that tenacity that has really helped carry us. I'll tell you a story about Beneath the Ink specifically. When Alex and I went to a book conference earlier this year, we had a particular piece of technology working. We had multiple people come up to us and say, "That's not possible." We just sort of smirked, because literally in his back pocket was iPad running a prototype of Beneath the Ink where we had gotten this specific feature to work. It was almost a sense of we didn't know that you shouldn't be able to do it that allowed us to keep working at it months ‑‑ week after week ‑‑ until we had it to a point where it was commercially viable. Lucy:  There's no question about it. You all are really inventing some new technology with what you're doing, which makes it even more exciting for an engineer, huh? [laughter] Sherisse:  Definitely. Lucy:  Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about how you bring balance between your personal and your professional lives? Sherisse:  That's another one that's hard. I think having done this for over 20 years have helped. I won't say that it's perfect yet, but I think making sure that there are certain priorities. I go home every night, and I have dinner with my family. It doesn't mean that I don't have a second shift after everyone's asleep, but it does mean that I make it a rule to be home at certain times of the day ‑‑ help my daughter with homework, be available on the weekends, and have some balancing time for myself. I'm a big believer in yoga. I like to do triathlons. There's carving out time each week to do those physical activities. They keep you healthier. They keep your mind sharp. There's always studies about if you go out and have a walk in the middle of the day, how much more productive you will be than if you skip lunch and you don't ‑‑ kind of change your perspective. I hold those things very, very dear. I won't give you that it's not hard. In the one sense of starting an entrepreneurial business when you're younger, not having as many roles, I can see it being somewhat easier. But there's still a juggle to keep balance and to keep your health. Even if you don't have a family to go to every night, there are still responsibilities that you have to meet. Nelson:  You've done so much. You've achieved a great deal already. What's next for you? Sherisse:  We have a goal of having a billion books with Beneath the Ink content in them. We're very serious about being able to see this technology in places that we haven't even imagined yet and work this project goes beyond its initial commercial launch. I believe strongly in giving back to the community. I want to see our Beneath the Ink core available at every school so that students can utilize the tools to enhance their projects, their research papers, and have ways for kids to compete, get awards, get recognition for their creative writing and their research. I see the next phase of the project being a great product, revenues, sustainability, growth in all of the commercial sense, but also success for us being able to give back and seeing this used in the educational system across the US and maybe abroad. Nelson:  Wow. Lucy:  There's no reason why it's not a global product, right? Nelson:  You bet. Sherisse:  Right. Lucy:  Absolutely no reason. I'm sitting here. I wrote this down. It's a billion books with Binks. Sherisse:  A billion books with Binks. Lucy:  B cubed. Nelson:  I like that. [laughter] Lucy:  I love that. I'm so in love with this Binks. [laughter] Nelson:  I know. You talked about it before we called her. Lucy:  I love it. Sherisse:  We've been shocked at...Without any promotions, we've done several books as promotional titles without any advertising. We've gone from having 100 downloads a week to over 100 downloads a day ‑‑ not just in the US ‑‑ but I think we're up to 9 or 12 countries. There's clearly an interest and the desire to explore different content. I wish we could talk to each of those people and figure out how they did hear about us, but it continues. The momentum is building, and we see a bit of a snowball effect. When we looked at the numbers last week and saw over 100 downloads in a single day, we were thrilled. I hope that trajectory continues. Lucy:  Best of luck. I'm sure it will. You've got a great concept, and we know you're a great leader and entrepreneur. Thanks for talking to us. Nelson:  Yes! Sherisse:  Thanks for having me. Lucy:  I want to remind listeners that they can find these podcasts on W3W3.com and ncwit.org. Nelson:  You bet. We'll make sure we'll have it on our podcast directory and the blog. Lucy:  Sherisse, thank you very much. Sherisse:  Thank you. Lucy:  All right, bye. Nelson:  Bye‑bye. Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Sherisse HawkinsInterview Summary: Sherisse Hawkins is the co-founder of Beneath the Ink, a company that provides app-less enhancements for ebooks. "There are advantages to realizing that you can be an entrepreneur at any age," said Sherisse about when she became an entrepreneur. " I think that we focus very much on working right out of school and taking advantage of your youth when you're in your 20s, but one of the most powerful things about our team is our collective ages. Our ages range from 21 to mid‑50s. We're all doing this for the first time. There's just something wonderful about creating a new experience and a new product, no matter what your age is." Release Date: February 19, 2014Interview Subject: Sherisse Hawkins, co-founder and CEO of Beneath the InkInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders and Larry NelsonDuration: 16:49

Interview with Sherisse Hawkins

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders:  Hi. This is Lucy Sanders. I'm the CEO of NCWIT, the National Center for Woman and Information Technology. This is another in a series of interviews of interviews that we're doing with just fantastic women who have started IT companies, very, very inspirational women. With me is Larry Nelson from w3w3.com. Hi, Larry. Larry Nelson:  Hi. I'm so happy to be here. I'm really looking forward to this interview. w3w3, we launched it in January of '99. We have thousands of archives stories up and the important ones are NCWIT Heroes series. Lucy:  You don't say? Larry:  Yeah. Lucy:  That's great. Well, today, Larry, we're going to interview a mobile evangelist and internationally exhibited artist and she's also an author, just like you with a passion for fusing her creativity with technology. Sian Morson is the founder and CEO of Kollective Mobile. Kollective Mobile is a mobile development agency that focuses on bringing mobile solutions to start‑up and agencies. This is a top space. We're busy trying to get into mobile applications at NCWIT, a little more slowly than I would like. Sian, also, speaks and writes about mobile strategy for a number of publications and works with a variety of non‑profits. Thank you, Sian, for doing that, especially in this space of bridging the digital divide. She has a new book coming up in December. Maybe, we'll have a chance to ask her about that, "Learn Design for iOS." Before we start, Sian, welcome. How are you? Sian Morson:  Thank you. I'm doing great. I'm doing great today. Lucy:  Why don't you tell us just a little bit about what's going on at Kollective Mobile? Sian:  Right now, at Kollective Mobile, it's the end of the year. It's traditionally a pretty busy time for us, because everyone's trying to get rid of their budget. [laughter] Sian:  We're getting proposals for lots of crazy apps and vetting those and trying to deliver. Lots of projects before the end of the year, so it's a pretty busy time for us. Lucy:  If you have any left over money, send it to NCWIT. [laughter] Larry:  Or, w3w3 would... [laughter] Lucy:  If it's just... [crosstalk] Sian:  ...sure to do that. Lucy:  If it's just too crazy of an app. Sian:  We're just wrapping up the year. It's our third year. We celebrated our three year anniversary in October, so we are pleased as punch to still be around and still be turning out good apps for your clients. Lucy:  Good luck with the end‑of‑year. Being in the corporate IT space myself, I understand the end‑of‑year is a busy time. The end‑of‑year budget is important. Sian, how did you first get into technology? Our listeners are always eager to know people's paths along the way. Sian:  Let's see. I've always been really interested in the way that things work. It's funny, I was asked this question once or twice before and started to really think about it. In thinking about it, I thought about how fortunate I was, because I actually had a computer lab in my junior high school that I attended in the Bronx in New York. When I started telling people about that, they were like, "You actually had computers in your school?" I just thought that was normal for everyone, but apparently, especially, if you think of now, kids don't really have that much, so I was quite fortunate that I was introduced to technology in junior high school. We had a computer lab. We learned the basic and I was one of those kids with a Commodore VIC‑20 and then, the Commodore 64, sitting up late at night, making my own programs. That was my first foray linking technology, but it certainly stuck. Lucy:  Basic was my first language, too. Although, my first language was actually a little register swapping language on [inaudible 03:52] desktop machine. That just shows I'm really old Sian. Just following up on that, if when you look out on the technology landscape, today, obviously, mobile apps and the technology that underpins them very cool, other types of advancing technologies, that you see out there? Sian:  These days, I'm a little bit excited about the Internet of things. I find that to be fascinating of just how pulling together all of these different facets of your lives to...I don't know if it's to build a profile, but the way that technology just affecting every single aspect of our lives is great and I'm particularly fascinated by the Internet of things. That's cool. I'm also really interested in health techs in how there are so many advancements in that space, specifically as it pertains to mobile, that's one of the fasting growing segments of mobile is health tech. I remember when I first studied creating apps, I was working for a pharma agency. Pharma and health is very restricted and limited in terms of what they can say and what they can do, but there have been lots of advances in health tech in the last couple of years. I'm super excited about that, as well. Larry:  That's really super. I've got to ask this question, why are you an entrepreneur, Sian? Also, what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Sian:  Why am I an entrepreneur? That's a good question. I don't know any other way to be. I've just always been a little more independent than all the other kids. I was always that kid saying, "What else?" I was never just happy with one answer or the status quo. I was always a seeker and that's probably largely, that coped with my need to know how things work, probably laid the ground work for me becoming an entrepreneur today. That, particularly, learning how things work and getting to the root of the problem and issue, whether it be a technological one or even a human resource issue, that's what makes me tick. I like figuring things out. I like getting to the bottom of things, so for me, that's probably why I'm an entrepreneur today. Lucy:  Along this entrepreneurship adventure, as you will, because that's sort of what it is, who supported you on your career path? Do you have mentors or role models? Anything come to mind there? Sian:  Even though, she never branched out and started a specific business, my mom really influenced me. She was always doing little side projects. My dad was an entrepreneur, as well, certainly not in technology, but those are the people that I saw around me just doing their own thing and it always made me want to do my own thing, as well. Today, I look up to a lot of the other women in technology. There are other women that are doing amazing things. Kelly Hoey of Women Innovate Mobile is someone that I look up to. I met her a year ago at a conference and she's been really supportive of my career and all the projects that I work on, so I certainly do look up to her, as well. But there are tons of women who are doing great things, now. I'm super excited that there are so many of us in this space. It's great to just look around and observe all the amazing things that women are doing. Lucy:  We agree. Right, Larry? Larry:  Absolutely, 100 percent. Lucy:  We agree. We can't wait, really, when all the creative ideas and thoughts of women are instantiated in our technology. We are excited about that. Sian:  It almost makes me want to be a teenager again. [laughter] Sian:  Because I figure it's such a great time to be growing up and to be learning and to have access to so much. It really makes me want to go back in time a little bit. Lucy:  Maybe, we could skip the acne or something. [laughter] Larry:  Just as a sidebar there, it was something that Lucinda said earlier, she actually did some of that software work when she was only like five, six years old. So she's not as old as some people might think. Lucy:  No, I didn't. Probably 25 or something. Larry:  With all the neat things that you have done over the years and so on, what is the toughest thing that you've ever had to do in your career? Sian:  Let's put it this way. I've got two things to answer that question. If you'd asked me the question before a month ago, I would have said, the hardest thing that I've done in my career was quit a regular, great paying job to start my own company, because that was pretty challenging and that was scary, certainly scary, because you're giving up that "security" of a paycheck in order to do your own thing. That was tough, but now, I can say, that writing this book. [laughter] Sian:  It's the hardest thing that I've done. I really have to tip my hat to what I considered to be real writers who are out there, doing this stuff every day, all day. It really was challenging for me to do it. I would say, starting my company and then, writing a book would probably be two challenging things I've had to do in my career. Lucy:  I've heard writing a book is hard and now, I'm lamenting. [laughs] I guess I'll find out, Sian. Larry:  You bet. Sian:  You think it sounds easy because you do know it. It's all stuff that's in your head, but really putting it out there and crafting it and making it into something that people want to read, is certainly a process. I am in awe of that creative process. I'm not sure that I'm ready to do that any time again soon, but it was fantastic. I learned a lot about discipline and I learned a lot about myself, as well, in the process. I definitely think that's...I'd be curious to hear what you think when you're done with that, as well. Lucy:  I'm a little in awe of the whole process. Sian, if you were sitting here and talking to a young person about entrepreneurship, what advice would you give them? Sian:  Always follow your gut. I would give that advice to any young person, but especially if it were a young woman. I, certainly, would tell her to really follow her gut. We, as women, are intuitive. There are times when we second guess ourselves for whatever reason. We don't always go with that intuitive nature that we're given. That's served me so many times in my career. It's often the times that I have gone against it or I second guessed myself that I ended up making a mistake. I am like "I should not have done that." I knew that, but went against it anyway so here I am. That is probably the biggest piece of advice I would give to a young person. Follow your heart and go with your gut always. Larry:  I love it. I am a father of four daughters. I'll make sure they get this message. Sian:  Four daughters, wow that is pretty amazing. I have a cousin who has five daughters. For a good couple of years, he was the only male in his household. [laughs] Larry:  What are the personal characteristics that have made you not just a good, but a great entrepreneur? Sian:  I am stubborn beyond belief. [laughter] Sian:  I am insanely competitive. But, I can also admit when I am wrong. You can only be stubborn for so long, to be competitive for so long. If you know when you lose then the key is to learn from all of those. I do think that being competitive helps. I look at a lot of situations as a competition as well. As competitive people, I want to win. I don't always win but my competitive nature makes me want to do my best regardless. I don't always win but I take the "L" when I need to. I learn from it. Lucy:  That's a great phrase. I take the "L" when I need to. That's awesome. You're busy and you have a busy life, you're so involved in your work and giving back, writing, and being an artist. How do you bring balance into your life between work and your personal endeavors? It sounds like you do great job and perhaps our listeners could learn something from that. Sian:  This is a really important question. It's easy to get caught up in the rat race and to push ourselves beyond belief. There is this school of thought that entrepreneurship means that you are working all night, every night, no sleep. There is a sort of glory that is associated with that for some people. Certainly I have pulled my share of all‑nighters. I don't make it a regular thing. I don't recommend that for anyone. It's certainly not sustainable. The way that I bring balance to my life is that I'm a runner. I love running. I don't run races. I don't run marathons. I like to run by myself. If I have a rough day, I go home, put some headphones on and I just run as far as I can. I make my way back and that makes me feel great. I also mediate. I try to do that in the mornings before work or in the evenings when I get home. That is a good way to set up the day. It's a great way to decompress at the end of a crazy day. Those are the two things that have been constant for me throughout my career. Lucy:  Great advice. Larry:  Great advice, for sure. You've done so much. You've achieved a great deal. What's next for you? Sian:  Lots of rest. [laughter] Sian:  Wrapping up the end of a pretty busy six months, I opened this space. I'm in Atlanta at the moment. I opened a co‑working space and communi‑tech center called Kollective South. I am trying to get that off the ground. That has taken me away from the Bay Area. I've done all of that and wrote the book on Kollective Mobile in that last six months. That's a lot. I am ready for some time off. I am looking forward to that as soon as I get this place up to where I need it to be. That's next. It's a pretty ambitious project. I don't know how realistic it is for me to think that I am going to be able to get any rest. [laughs] I am certainly going to try. We're trying to open these communi‑tech centers in urban areas across the country in order to increase digital literacy and to bridge the digital divide. It's fairly ambitious. It's a lot to do, but I am super‑passionate about it. I'm really excited about it. Larry:  If anybody can do it, you can. Lucy:  I have no doubt. This is a great close for this because that is what entrepreneurs do. They don't necessarily see the end in sight. They set off, they dodge, they weave, they experiment, they fail, and they succeed. Through it all, they're driven by passion to get something done. It's very commendable. Good luck with that. We are very eager to hear how that goes. Larry:  We'll follow up on that, too. Lucy:  Totally. Sian:  Please do. I love to have a follow‑up conversation. I love to hear about your book as well. Lucy:  [laughs] I don't know. We'll see it how that all goes. Sian, thanks so much for joining us. It sounds like you have a wonderful life. Good luck with all of your endeavors. Larry:  That's a fact. Sian:  Thank you for having me. It was awesome speaking with you both. Lucy:  Remind listeners that they can find this at W3W3.com and also ncwit.org. Larry:  That's it. You listen to it. It will be on a podcast as well as a blog. Lucy:  Great, thank you Sian. Sian:  You're welcome. Bye‑bye.   Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Sian MorsonInterview Summary: Sian Morson is a tech entrepreneur, mobile evangelist and strategist. In 2010, Sian founded Kollective Mobile to help other businesses and startups with mobile development and strategy. "I don't know any other way to be," Sian said when asked why she became an entrepreneur. "I've just always been a little more independent than all the other kids. I was always that kid saying, "What else?" I was never just happy with one answer or the status quo. I was always a seeker and that's probably largely, that coped with my need to know how things work, probably laid the ground work for me becoming an entrepreneur today." Release Date: December 6, 2013Interview Subject: Sian MorsonInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 15:51

Interview with Sian Morson

Interview with Leslie Bradshaw

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Interview with Beth Krodel Lucy Sanders:  Hi, this is Lucy Sanders the CEO of NCWIT, the National Center for Women in Information Technology. With me today is Larry Nelson from W3W3. Hi, Larry. Larry Nelson:  W3W3.com is happy to be here. This is a fantastic series and I must say I'm extremely impressed so thank you. Lucy:  What's shaking at W3W3? What are you guys up to? Larry:  We interview all kinds of really neat people. We have a business focus. We really love entrepreneurs and venture capital so we just get into that thoroughly. Lucy:  Today, we're interviewing one of my personal favorite entrepreneurs. She is also an award‑winning newspaper reporter from the "Detroit Free Press," I have to say. Larry:  I was born in Detroit so I like this. Lucy:  You were born in Detroit. Maybe she covered your birth. Larry:  That's right. Lucy:  You never know. Larry:  Maybe not. Lucy:  No, maybe not, but she is an expert at building companies and building websites and helping companies with all kinds of media needs. Beth Krodel, a co‑founder of Insight Designs Web Solutions. They're a Boulder‑based company, happy to say, right here in our backyard. They specialize in creating and developing websites and interactive online products. They've been a great partner with NCWIT over the years, and I can speak highly of their work, all the way from 3D modeling to websites to programming. They do it all. Wonderful for all you listeners, take advantage of Insight Designs. They've been a mainstay here in Boulder County and have made the "Boulder County Business Report's" Mercury 100 list of fastest growing companies for the past decade. Welcome, Beth. Beth Krodel:  Thank you. Lucy:  Really happy to have you here. What's going on with Insight? Beth:  The company continues to evolve, just like the technologies that we work with. We have, since 1999...We started by making websites, and now, obviously, that goes in a lot of other directions, because there's mobile and there's responsive design and there's applications, both desktop apps and mobile apps, native apps, all of that. We try to stay on top of a lot of different things. Some of the things that we're working on right now, that are exciting...One is a new desktop app that'll then have mobile versions to go along with it, that'll help people keep healthy. It helps them measure their fitness and their nutrition and how much fresh air they get and how much sunlight they get each day. We also are doing work with social media, doing social media strategy for lot of our clients now. Obviously, working on lots of websites. I think we're in process on about 25 different sites for for‑profit companies, for startups, for non‑profits, for universities, list goes on. Lucy:  Sounds very exciting. I really think that application sounds like a keeper. Beth:  Hopefully, that's what a lot of people will think. Lucy:  Let us know when it's able to be purchased. [laughs] Beth:  Will do. Lucy:  How did you first get into technology, Beth? We have your background as a reporter. What caused the leap into the technology space? Beth:  Like everybody, when they are a child, they have a first experience and mine was in sixth grade. Back about 1982, my elementary school got its first computer. It was in the library and there was just one and it was an Apple II. At the same time, our English teacher had us reading books. I think she assigned us 40 different books to read. She said, when you finish these 40 books, you can go spend the reading hour in the library, each day. I finished my 40 books by January and then I had, from January until June, an hour each day to spend in the library. I didn't spend that time reading, I spent that time on Apple II and exploring it and I was just mesmerized. Fast forward to high school, I went to the North Carolina School of Science and Math and that's where I had my next big aha moment with technology. It was 1987 and one of the first things, I came in contact with, was one of the computers, that was just outside my dorm rooms. I found that you could actually message students, on another side of the campus, in a fishbowl room, lots of windows, lots of computers. I realized that technology would really change communication. That fascinated me. Since then, I went to college and actually studied physics, math and public policy. I went to Duke's and went into journalism from there. In journalism, I kept seeing all of these changes in technology, from the way we publish newspapers, to the way we communicated with our colleagues and all of that. A co‑worker, a photographer that I worked with, Nico Toutenhoofd, he and I had talked a lot about what would be the next big thing. This was 1998. We decided that...We weren't sure how long newspapers were going to be around, in the way that they were around while we worked there. We wanted to try something else. We decided creating a web design or development company would be a great way to go. It would carry on our commitment to communication, which is what you do as journalists, but it would allow us to share stories of companies and organizations specifically on the Internet. That's what we did. Lucy:  I think that's really interesting, too, because a journalism background, you can easily see it being so relevant especially to social media, right? Beth:  Yeah. There's a lot of story‑telling that happens online... Larry:  [laughs] Beth:  ...in social media, blogging, even in the content upon people's websites. Lucy:  Interesting. Larry:  Yeah, that's for sure. Now, here you've been through these different things, that is, working for a newspaper. What is it that makes you an entrepreneur, and what is it that makes entrepreneurship tick for you? Beth:  , I worked for "Night Raider" newspapers, and I did that for seven years. They're a very large company, and while I learned a lot and had a lot of great experience there, I also saw that sometimes when you work for a very large company change is difficult. It takes a long time. I was interested in starting my own business and having it be a small business, something that would be nimble, and where we could decide to take a new path and try new things on a regular basis. I like problem‑solving, I like sharing ideas and I like leading a team. Being an entrepreneur allows me to do all of those things. My husband would probably say it's because I like being in charge and... Larry:  [laughs] Beth:  ...my own boss. Lucy:  [laughs] Beth:  I'm type A and all those things, but ultimately, I still have a lot of bosses. They're just called clients. I'm not the ultimate decision‑maker in a lot of cases. It's ultimately the client. But I do like to help guide them and help them solve their problems. Lucy:  Along this path from journalism into technology, entrepreneurship, and I would also argue building and leading a company in this space, who influenced you? What types of role models or mentors or sponsors? Who kind of supported you along the way? Beth:  I would say early on, and a couple people I go back to throughout my life, were my high school math teachers actually, Joanne Watts and Helen Compton. Helen Compton actually also taught me my first computer science class which was the BASIC. I wrote a little program that wrote out the Chinese characters "Ni Hao", and then made the audio sound. I thought that was quite amazing that you could get a computer to do that. Anyway, Helen and Joanne really taught me to be concerned about the application of whatever it is that you're learning. Not just to memorize formulas but to really apply these formulas, and figure out why it's important to learn them. That I've carried into all of the jobs I've had, whether it was journalism or Internet work. I think that that carries on big‑time in terms of interface design and creating websites and applications that are very easy for people to use, whether that's someone trying to navigate or search for something in particular on a website, or whether it's for the company or the organization that needs to update the contents on the back end to create content management systems that are logical. Another role model would be an executive editor at one of the newspapers I worked for. Her name's Vicki Gowler and she's still in journalism. She's a publisher of the "Idaho Statesman" now. She taught me a lot about business and about leading a team, about encouraging the people that you work with to do their best and to take ownership and to motivate those people to do great things. I've tried to emulate her in my leadership skills. There are also my colleagues here in Boulder who run other web design and development in active firms. I actually get together for lunch three or four times a year with the CEO's of about eight other firms. We use each other as sounding boards, we share ideas, we share stories of things that happen with clients and happen with staff, and what would you do in this situation. We all learn from each other. I get a lot of support from my colleagues. Larry:  Yeah, that's great. Lucy:  Interestingly enough, the person who taught me programming was my high school math teacher. We learned it was less than basic. [laughs] Beth:  Ours was pretty basic. Lucy:  It was less than basic. It was pretty basic or something. It was on a little Olivetti desktop in our classroom, so amazingly important these math teachers. Beth:  Oh yeah. Lucy:  Amazingly important. Larry:  Of course. One of the things that we learned about a great deal is the challenges that we faced. What is the toughest thing that you had to do in your career? Beth:  My first answer would be letting someone go from a job. As a business owner, as the person who runs the company, that job falls to me because we're a small business, there are 14 people here on my staff. That's the hardest thing. That has been the hardest thing. Luckily, I haven't had to do it very often in the 14 years that I've been running Insight Designs, but it's very difficult and it's very personal, even though you try not to make it personal. I felt, in the couple of times that I had to do that, that it's a failure, and it's not necessarily just a failure on the part of the employee who doesn't make it, but also on my part because perhaps I didn't do enough to train the person or perhaps I wasn't a good enough judge of character or a judge of skill set when I hired the person. That's something that I have struggled with. Then, in a broader sense, I'd say one of the biggest challenges for a company like mine, a 14‑person Web company, is the ever changing technology and trying to decide which types of technology we are going to invest in and really master, because there are so many paths you can take. Just as an example, when we started in 1999, we decided ‑‑ Nico and I ‑‑ that we were going to use PHP and MySQL as our platform. PHP is open source and the equivalent of that in the non‑open source world is ASP. That choice was very important at the time and it's still been our choice 14 years later. In the meantime, there's been ColdFusion and Ruby on Rails and a lot of other ways to do the same work that we do using PHP and MySQL. We have to take a look at those other options and decide which ones are worth pursuing. There are always new platforms and new content management systems. I'm sure you've heard of WordPress, and Magento, and probably Drupal and Joomla, which are all open source content management systems. Those are the four that we've used the most, but there are also scores of others and you have to be selective. You can't try to master all of them or you spread yourself too thin. That's a challenge, just picking which thing that you want to focus on. Lucy:  That would be quite a challenge. Shifting gears just a bit, if you were sitting here talking to a young person and giving them advice about entrepreneurship, what one or two things would you tell them? What kind of advice would you give them? Beth:  I think being a successful entrepreneur takes a lot of structure. I think that's one thing that has helped our company along the way. There are a lot of people who have great ideas, and I think you have to also be able to execute those ideas. One piece of advice would be to make sure that when you're building your team that you have the operations piece, the execution piece, handled. Whether it's something that you're doing yourself or whether you find a partner who can tackle that side of things. I would say another piece of advice would be to make sure that you are not taking on too much at once, not spreading yourself too thin, along the lines of what I've just said about the other issue of what's been challenging for me is to not try to do everything. I know of some other firms that haven't made it in our space because a client has asked them to take on one project in this language, another project in this language, another project in this language, another project in this language, and then they lose a programmer and they don't have any way to maintain that particular project that's programmed in this language that they don't have anybody else on their staff that they know anything about. I think that that often could be the beginning of the end for a small company. I think staying focused and making sure that you have both the ideas and the ability to execute them. Larry:  That's a very good advice. Now, I want to hear some more good advice, and I have a feeling you've got some here. On your personal side, what are the characteristics that have made you a great entrepreneur? Beth:  That's a hard one. You ask me about mentors before, and I didn't mention my father, but I do think that some of the traits that I got from him. One is a very strong work ethic, and another is perfectionism. I think both of those things have certainly helped in the success of my business. I also think that being a good communicator is crucial to success in any walk of life, but as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, a team leader, good communication is incredibly important to create an efficient operations, and, obviously, the more efficient you are, the better your business is. Lucy:  I can say that the perfection shows in the work that Insight creates. Super high quality. Beth:  Thank you. Lucy:  You're very welcome. I'll compliment you on that. It's very great. With all the things you've been doing in your work life and at the company, getting advice and talking to mentors and communicating with teammates, I also know that you've got a personal life and maybe listeners would be curious to know how you bring balance between your professional and your personal lives? Beth:  When Nico and I started our company in 1999, we created this list, a very simple list, of six guiding principles and one of them was to earn enough money to afford to buy houses in Boulder, and I'm proud to say that 12 of the 14 people on our staff own homes in Boulder now. Lucy:  No small feat. Beth:  Another one of the guiding principles was that we wanted to have a work life balance. A lot of people say they live to work, and then other people say they work to live, I think both of those are a little misleading. I like to think that life and work can go hand in hand and that you really can have a balance, and your personal life can accentuate your work life and vice versa. I do think that as a company, we've been very good about not having people work 50 or 60 hours a week, including myself and Nico. Certainly, there have been times over the years where there's a big project and we've worked through a weekend, but we don't stay here all night and we prioritize so that we can all get home and be with our families, or go for our bike rides, or our hikes, cook our dinners, and read books, and do all those things that help us stay sane and keep us balanced people. I'm very into math and I think that if you limit the amount of time that you spend in your office, that's going to help you have balance. That's not to say that when I'm at home I'd don't check email and I don't check in on projects and things like that, I do. I think in today's world, in some ways, that's a necessity, especially if you're a project manager or somebody who owns a business. But I think it's important to try to limit those things. Certainly, I try not to check email in the hour before I go to sleep at night otherwise it might just keep me up all night. Larry:  That's good. You've already achieved a great deal. I know you started your business in 1999, and by the way, we launched w3w3 Talk Radio in January '99, so we can relate to you quite a bit that way. Now, you've already achieved a great deal. What's up for you in the next few years? Beth:  I think there's going to be some more fun in the application development world. I mentioned the one healthy habit app that we're working on, but there are others on the heels of that. I think a lot of the apps that we will do have to do with improving life, making life easier, making it more enjoyable. I can't say too much about some of them, but we'll help you organize your life and also keep track of all of your personal encounters. Let's just leave it at that. Beyond that, I think there are other things going on in technology that I think are exciting. I'm curious to see how soon certain things will come about. One of the things that gets in the way sometimes when you're developing for the web, is obviously the speed with which users can experience what it is that you're developing. Processing power and Internet speeds are often the things that limit what we create. I'm sure you've seen that, Larry, with audio playbacks and obviously, video. As people are using their mobile devices especially their iPhones and they're watching videos, and there's all this buffering and it's choppy, and all of that. I'm excited to see what happens with the companies out there that are working on new chips that are low power consumption chips, with outstanding graphics and processing power. I think as that comes about, then the things that we can create that make use of that increased processing power, will be amazing. Lucy:  I'll bet Insight Design is going to be right there, right in front. [laughs] Larry:  I have a feeling. Lucy:  I guess, absolutely. Beth, thank you so much. Great answers. We loved talking to you, as always and I want to remind listeners they can find these podcasts at ncwit.org and also w3w3.com. Larry:  You bet. Beth:  Thank you so much. Larry:  We're proud of that, yes. Lucy:  Thank you, Beth. Beth:  Take care. Larry:  Take care. [music] Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Beth KrodelInterview Summary: Beth Krodel (Beth Crow-del) is the co-founder of Insight Designs Web Solutions, a Boulder based company that specializes in creating and developing websites and interactive online products - "I think being a successful entrepreneur takes a lot of structure. I think that's one thing that has helped our company along the way." she goes on to say, "There are a lot of people who have great ideas, and I think you have to also be able to execute those ideas. One piece of advice would be to make sure that when you're building your team that you have the operations piece, the execution piece, handled. Whether it's something that you're doing yourself or whether you find a partner who can tackle that side of things." Release Date: July 8, 2013Interview Subject: Beth KrodelInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 20:55

Interview with Beth Krodel

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Interview with Hilary Mason Lucy Sanders:  Hi, this is Lucy Sanders. I'm the CEO for the National Center for Women in Information Technology, or NCWIT. Today, we're continuing with our series of wonderful interviews with women who have founded technology companies. We really love this interview series and are very excited about the person we're talking to today. With me is Larry Nelson from W3W3.com. Hi, Larry. Larry Nelson:  Hi. Boy, I'm really happy to be here. This is a wonderful series. It's extremely popular on our W3W3.com website. In fact, we archive all the interviews so you can go back and listen to them also. Lucy:  Also, listeners you can find this interview on the NCWIT website as well. Today, we're interviewing a very special person, Hilary Mason, who is the chief scientist at Bitly. We'll have to have Hilary explain it more precisely than I will, of course. But Bitly is primarily a URL shortening service, a bookmarking service. It really provides a fun and easy way to save and share and discover links from the web, by using links that they call bit marks. Reducing that URLs pretty important. Those things can get pretty beefy. You can't really share them very easily when you have only so many bytes that you can send along. This is pretty important to services like Twitter, for example, and others. Hilary's got a great job at Bitly. She's the chief scientist and her work crosses peer research, math and the development of product focused systems. Another thing we know about Hilary. She loves New York. Absolutely loves New York. Loves everything about New York, entrepreneurship, I'm sure she's going to tell us about that. She also gave one of my very favorite TED talks of all time, Replacing Yourself with a Very Small Shell Script, which I listened to several times. Hillary, welcome. Hilary Mason:  Thank you so much. Lucy:  Tell us a little bit about what's going on at Bitly. Hilary:  You gave a great overview of what Bitly is. But it's a fantastic example of something that is extremely simple that becomes quite interesting at a large scale. At Bitly, we see the links that people are sharing across all their different social networks. These are things like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress, Live Journal. Even strange places like YouTube or inside a virtual world like Habbo Hotel. Then we analyze the data in aggregate that comes from that social behavior. The kind of work that my team does is looking at human behavior through our social data. We work on things like building a search engine to try and find the most popular links about any topic you might be interested in. We also work on content recommendations. Some other really fun applications that are only possible because of the data set that comes from that very simple mechanism of shortening and sharing a link. Larry:  Wow. Lucy:  That's pretty interesting. All the social networking and sharing that's going on, we just redeveloped our website so we could more easily share our resources and also shorten our URLs. Very timely for us. Hilary, tell us a little bit about how you first got into technology and as you look out across the landscape today, which technologies do you find particularly interesting? Hilary:  The question about how I first got interested in technology was actually when I was a little girl. I was fascinated by computers. I taught myself to write code from reading the back of magazines when I was still in elementary school. I remember my first program. It was the Absolutely Wonderful 10 Print Hilary is Great 20 Go to 10 Run. [laughter] Hilary:  I thought it was amazing because it was an infinite loop and my teacher had no idea how to turn it off, who was even funnier. Lucy:  I know, infinite loops are pretty funny anyway. Larry:  Yes. [laughter] Hilary:  Yes, so I've always been fascinated by it and I always knew that it was what I wanted to study. Then I went off and majored in computer science. As to what technologies I think are exciting right now, they're so many different ways to think about that. On the human side, I think the way that I can carry a computer in my pocket that's more powerful than that computer I had when I was in elementary school is amazing. I'm excited to see how our devices interact with the real world in the next few years through projects like Google Glass and other sorts of augmented reality things, things people have been trying to build for decades. Only now has the tide caught up to the idea that people have. I'm also really excited about data technologies and the way that we can use data. We have data available, we have compute capacity available. We can use it to make our lives better and more interesting. As a throwaway side project, I went and got all the menu data for all of the restaurants that are not fast‑food restaurants in Manhattan and was able to find...If you want Thai food, you should go to the area around Hell's Kitchen because it has the highest density of high‑quality Thai restaurants in the city. That's something I could do in a day that never would've been possible even a couple years ago. Larry:  Wow. Lucy:  Things are changing really quickly. Larry:  Very quickly. I must say, just a couple days ago, a colleague of mine sent me an email. The link was so long, it was incredible and I get these long links from him frequently. I'm going to make sure I send him your website. [laughs] Hilary:  Definitely should. I think email is still the biggest social network. Larry:  Yes. Now, let me ask this, Hilary. It's two parts, all related. Why are you an entrepreneur and what is it about entrepreneurism that makes you tick? Hilary:  I've always had mixed feelings about the word "entrepreneur" because it's so overloaded in our culture and it's become really trendy in a way that I'm not sure is healthy. The way that I like to describe the work that I do is that I tend to find problems and then try to make things that solve those problems. Sometime those things might be hacks, like the one I just described to you. At one point, we also built a door knob that you could text to unlock a door. That was very clearly a hack to solve a problem. It was not a company, it was not a product. Sometimes they're products, sometimes they're companies, sometimes they're non‑profits, like HackNY, which is an organization I co‑founded a couple years ago. The way I like to think about it is more engineering the right thing to solve the problem. Not so much about starting a business just for the sake of being an entrepreneur. Lucy:  That's pretty interesting. Larry:  It is. Lucy:  What is it about that problem solving that you really like? Can you expand a bit more on that? Hilary:  Sure. It's very much my philosophy about how we should build and develop technology. I really think it should give us super powers. The ability to do something we really couldn't do before. We're extremely lucky to live at a moment in time, when if you're willing to put in the time and energy, it is actually possible to build things that have not existed before, that actually do make people's lives a bit more interesting. Lucy:  That's a great answer. I have to think a lot about your answer around entrepreneur being too overloaded. Larry:  Yes, me, too. Lucy:  That's a fascinating point of view. So far along your career path, who would you say influenced you? Who would your role models be, or your mentors? Hilary:  That's a really wonderful question. I've had a few. One of them is definitely my mother, who, in her retirement years, went and became a ski instructor. Because it was something she really wanted to do. Now she's kicking ass with people much younger than her and having a great time. But really, I realized a couple years ago that the idea of entrepreneurship has always been in my family. I think it's also tied to the traits of stubbornness and impatience that tend to run in our family as well. But several people in my family who I admire, including my dad, have started their own businesses. Generally doing something that was not entirely normal. So, creating a solution to something that had never quite existed before. I've also really been inspired by certain authors. People who write things that just change the way you think about the world. In computer science, I've been reading the work of Richard Hamming, who was a mathematician who worked on the Manhattan Project and taught at West Point for many years. He has a wonderful book called On Science and Engineering that has quotes like, "In science, if you know what you're doing, you should stop. In engineering, if you don't know what you're doing, you should stop." Most of us live in the middle of that. I'd highly recommend it to any scientist and engineer. Lucy:  I need to get out and read it because I love quotes like that. Larry:  Boy, yeah, me, too. Lucy:  I think that's really interesting. Larry:  You've done so many different things. I want to congratulate you for that. But let me just ask you this... What is the toughest thing that you've ever had to do in your career? Hilary:  Wow. Thank you. I really feel like I'm just getting started so it's really a pleasure to hear something like that. I think the toughest thing I ever had to do, and this may be an artifact of my own failings and weaknesses, is that it took me a long time to realize that, to succeed at anything, you really need other people to want you to succeed. And you need their help. The hardest thing, for me, was to learn how to get other people excited about the things I'm excited about and to work with them, hopefully helping them at the same time, to build things together in a community. Lucy:  That's a hard lesson for, I think, a lot of people. That kind of a lesson, they don't teach that in school. Larry:  Nope. Hilary:  Not at all. Especially for somebody who grew up very nerdy and very independent, it's a hard thing to realize that you really do need other people to accomplish what you want to accomplish. Lucy:  That leads directly to being able to communicate about, to be able to enlist people to be passionate about it in some external way, right? Hilary:  Absolutely. Lucy:  So that people can really sign on. When I worked at Bell Labs we had, obviously, hundreds and hundreds of engineers who had to excite other engineers about their approaches. Many of us had to learn that the hard way. That's a great lesson to learn for anybody, entrepreneur or not, I think. I you were sitting here, though, with a young person and giving them advice about entrepreneurship, given our prior conversation about the word itself... But given that we'll call it that for now. If you were giving a young person advice, what would you tell them? Hilary:  Funny. I was invited to speak to a bunch of college students from NYU on Saturday. I spent quite a long time thinking about the answer to this question. I actually do have one for you. My answer to that is just to have adventures and to say yes when you're not sure about something. You're going to learn something fascinating along the way. Larry:  That's really good. I like that. Hilary:  Also, if you keep that spirit of adventure with you, even if the thing you're doing is a total failure, you'll have had a great time. It doesn't matter. Lucy:  This is important for technologists, especially, because technology's on the edge. Like Hilary and others, who are inventing new things. That whole invention process is really an adventure. You can't invent something you already know what the end is. Larry:  [laughs] Yes. Lucy:  That's a pretty important observation. Larry:  There's a real good question here that's good for any entrepreneur. They ought to take a look at it. That is, how do you, Hilary, bring balance into your personal and your professional lives? Hilary:  Another good question. It's one that, I think, we tend to set up personal life and work life as if they're diametrically opposed and they're two things that should have a wall between them. I don't really look at it that way. I try and make sure I enjoy what I'm doing in my professional life. I try to make sure that it doesn't overwhelm what I'm doing in my personal life. But, in general, a lot of the things that I do are on that line of both. Where, for example, I'm taking a trip to San Francisco this week. I'm giving three talks. That's definitely professional. I'm also meeting up with friends. It's going to be a great time. I think it is a challenge. But it's one that, as long as you're happy, it's OK. Lucy:  That blended answer, we get that a lot. One of our most popular answers and also an answer that says, "What balance?" Larry:  [laughs] Yeah. Lucy:  Totally imbalanced. You've already achieved a lot. You mentioned you were just starting out. You mentioned your love of adventure and always keeping that adventuresome attitude. What can you say about your next big adventure? Hilary:  That's really a good question and one that I try to think about quite a lot. There are a couple of things I'm pretty excited about that I don't think have really caught on in the community, which means it might be an opportunity. Or it might be a terrible idea. I'd like to pursue those things. In general, themes around how technology can help us be better people. Lucy:  That's interesting. That's one of the themes today, in fact, as the beginning of computer science education week. Some of the themes around technology to serve the world, technology to make people better, those are great things. Larry:  Yes, absolutely. I love it. Lucy:  Well, thank you so much, Hilary. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Have fun on your trip to San Francisco. Hilary:  It's been great speaking with both of you, too. Lucy:  I just want to remind listeners that they can find this interview at w3w.com and ncwit.org. Larry:  All right. Lucy:  All right, thank you. Larry:  Thanks Hilary. Hilary:  Thank you. Lucy:  Have a safe trip and have fun. [music] Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Hilary MasonInterview Summary: Hilary Mason, Chief Scientist at bitly, describes problem solving and the development of technology as a super power - "the ability to do something we really couldn't do before." She goes on to say "we're extremely lucky to live at a moment in time, when if you're willing to put in the time and energy, it is actually possible to build things that have not existed before, that actually do make people's lives a bit more interesting. Release Date: February 1, 2013Interview Subject: Hilary MasonInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 13:57

Interview with Hilary Mason

Interview with Asmau Ahmed

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Interview with Brandy Alexander‑Wimberly Lucy Sanders:  Hi this is Lucy Sanders, the CEO of NCWIT, the National Center for Women and Information Technology. With me is Larry Nelson from W3W3. Hi Larry. Larry Nelson:  Hi, I'm so happy to be here. This is talk radio show but we really like to do anything we can to help promote young girls, young women in business and technology and we have been lucky enough. We've interviewed seventy plus now and it's really great. Entrepreneurship is a big thing. Lucy:  Right and we've been promoting in social media as well. Please pay attention to our Twitter and Facebook feeds and you'll hear more about these wonderful women. So today we're interviewing Brandy Alexander‑Wimberly, the founder and CEO of Buyvite. Buyvite is really, really cool. I've pulled a few tag lines from their site because I just love them so much. Never front the money for your friends and family again. Group pay for event tickets. Planning on getting your cousin a gift from your entire family? Now these are all situations that I think our listeners could really relate to because they volunteer to buy a group present or to pay for a group trip and they have the unenviable task of going back around and collecting money from family and friends which can be stressful. So Buyvite ‑‑ and we'll hear more about this from Brandy in a moment ‑‑ is an online community that really facilitates and simplifies this type of group purchase. Basically, family and friends can all contribute to one transaction. You can invite friends to group purchase as well. A beautiful site. You're going to hear that Brandy is a serious user interface person as well and you can see this at her site. So welcome, Brandy. Brandy Alexander‑Wimberly:  Thanks for having me. Lucy:  So tell us a little bit about what's going on and Buyvite and how you make this all less stressful. Brandy:  Yeah, Buyvite just went live in May, after about a year in development. So we are actually kind of happy to announce we just closed an angel round. We'll be doing some additional tweaks to our platform but we're really excited about the future of social commerce and group payments in particular. We see what we've created as almost like a Kickstarter or a Crowdfunder, but for retailers. So that is kind of the essence of our platform. Lucy:  It's a gorgeous user interface. Let's just really go to the site and take a look at it and go buy something for Samba. And get your friends to buy it with you. Brandy, tell us a little bit about how you first got into technology and as you look out today on the technology landscape, what particular things do you think are pretty hot from a technical perspective? Brandy:  Well, I actually had an interesting arrival into my career in technology. I was actually working in old media and I always tell people that I transitioned from old media to essentially new media. I started my career working in radio and television and saw that everything was essentially moving to the Internet, and I decided that's where I wanted to be as well, so I had additional course work and kind of worked my way up from a small web design firm back in 2005 to where I am today. Larry:  Wow. Lucy:  Wow that's awesome. So obviously you think online media is pretty cool? Brandy:  Definitely, absolutely. Larry:  Boy, I can tell you I can relate to that so much. My wife and I were co‑hosting on a couple Clear Channel stations radio shows and this Internet stuff started popping up and we decided, "We're gone." Brandy:  Yeah right, exactly, exactly. I've worked in it since 2005 so many many years now at this point and in terms of what I think is cool right now, I have my eye obviously on social commerce, responsive design and the future of mole advertising in particular. Especially coming from kind of a traditional broadcast background, I really understand advertising and I see a really great future for mobile advertising. That space is just so kind of new, so there's a space for innovation there. Larry:  I think I can take a few lessons from you and I certainly will. Here is a related question ‑‑ it's different, but why is it that you're an entrepreneur and what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Brandy:  Well you know, that's a good question, and the true entrepreneur for me is someone who has a need to create. So if you're working inside a company, kind of functioning as an entrepreneur, people that have those needs are really essential for innovation anywhere from a start up to a multi‑national company in my opinion. For me personally I guess I like to infuse them in doing things, or what I see as cool concepts, and then try to make the idea into a reality. Going from concept to company is really the true challenge and great ideas are everywhere but making them a reality is what really makes someone an entrepreneur. Lucy:  And so you just opened your company in May, you just closed an angel round, and along the way people have supported you in your career path as an entrepreneur. Can you tell us a little bit more of who is serving as your role models or mentors or have in the past? Brandy:  Over the course of my entire career I've had the really great support system of personal and professional people in my life, and great friends and families that have always been supportive of my ideas. I'm just one of those idea people. I'm always kind of coming up with something but I've also been surprised at how supportive the tech start up community has been particularly because I'm a female founder. It is always important for me that the product I've built be the main recognition, but it's also been awesome that so many groups have been interested in promoting female‑run companies. Lucy:  We like to hear that. Brandy:  Oh definitely. You guys in particular for sure. Lucy:  Absolutely. Larry:  It sounds like you've done a number of very interesting things. I can't help but ask, what is the toughest thing that you had to do during your career? Brandy:  You know that's another interesting question and I think if you haven't had a tough career then you probably haven't learned much, I would suspect, along the way. But creating this company, creating Buyvite was definitely the most challenging thing I've ever done professionally, but it's also been the best thing I've ever done. I'm currently in the midst of everything so I can't say what the end game will ultimately be for the company but it has been such an awesome experience so far that I recommend to anyone else that if you have the passion and expertise necessary to launch a venture, don't hold back from creating a company because the experience in itself would be worthwhile in the end. Lucy:  Along those lines, you're sitting here with a young person, you're talking to them about entrepreneurship. What advice would you give them past the place where they decide they're going to start a company, what specific advice might you give them about entrepreneurship? Brandy:  It's something that I get asked a lot and I would suspect a lot of people would say things like kind of go for it, but I would personally take a different approach. I would say get into a career first and build some experience then start your company, and I say that for many reasons. First of all, I know a huge trend especially with technology start‑ups is to give millions to recent college grads. Now it has paid off big time for a lot of investors, but how many along the way have failed ‑ not because the concept wasn't great but maybe because of execution. I'm not sure but I have met a lot of recent grads with great ideas but they have no idea how to run a business and what that means. So that's a gamble for both parties and I'm not saying that across the board for everyone. Certainly there are exceptions and it really depends on the person, but I know I could not have created my current company as a 22‑year old. So my advice is you need a solid understanding in business to really take a holistic approach to running a company. Just because you can code and have a good idea at the end of the day does not necessarily make you a CEO. So I think investors are always kind of searching for another Mark Zuckerburg when he was really one in a million and also at the right place at the right time. I would say to younger people right out of college, give yourself a few years to be able to intelligently answer things like what is a P and L sheet for example. Lucy:  Right. Exactly right and I think that that's an excellent point. There is a report and I'm sorry I can't remember the exact name of it but I'm sure if you went to the Kauffman Foundation website you would see it. It talks about the average age of successful entrepreneurs and it's a lot older than what I think the public view is. Reinforcing your point. Brandy:  That's right. Exactly. You know at the end of the day these things that we call start ups and companies, they really shouldn't be viewed as someone's baby. At the end of the day it's a business and that's where the investment should be made in the business for the long term. Larry:  Brandy, you know that's some great entrepreneurial advice and I don't think I've heard that for a long time at all. So what are your personal characteristics that what are the things that give you the advantage of being an entrepreneur? Brand:  Two things I think really give someone an advantage that is a successful entrepreneur may be, in my situation, would be not necessarily being afraid to fail, and having perspective, that's really critical to me personally. I've had a lot of people tell me they've had great ideas but they did not want to fail. Well I don't have a fear of failure and I see everything I do as a learning experience and I definitely enjoy the challenge. Now I'm not saying I'm fearless but having perspective is also key to being able to take risks. For example one of my colleges came to South by southwest with me to help promote our start up, and her company t‑shirt did not fit right. We were kind of heading out the door for an event and she was upset but we both looked at each other and started laughing at the kind of "First World Problem" of it all. Whining about your start‑up t‑shirt not sitting at South by Southwest really kind of brings perspective to your world. [laughter] Lucy:  Well, I hope her experience turned out OK. So you just started a company I know things are pretty crazy and it's going to be an exciting year for you. What kinds of things, shifting to the rest of your life outside Buyvite, what kinds of things do you do to bring balance into your life? And we put balance in parens these days because we get a lot of answers around "I have no balance" or "I'm totally unbalanced" so what kind of things do you to keep sane? Maybe that's a better way to ask this question. Larry:  Well, there you go. Brandy:  Well it's interesting not only kind of working full time essentially, more than full time and I do have children as well so that also obviously takes a lot of my life. But again, organization is critical. The philosophy of doing one thing per day to move your start‑up forward is also something that I've taken with me along the way, and see that as something really important to do even if it's just kind of an exhausted tweak. One thing everyday that has always been my philosophy but it really comes back again as a perspective for me ‑‑ we are so lucky to be even be able to start a company in this country that I think keeping a more global perspective really keeps me balanced. My background really kind of speaks of that. My mother's family is from Lebanon. They had to flee the country back at the turn of the last century because of persecutions. Here I am, two generations later, with nothing but opportunity available to me, especially as a woman. And then we just live a bit in a bubble here. My great grandfather was from Syria. I would say, "Well, what if I was living there now?" You know now, crazy. So a lot of people also ask me if I'm doing OK, working so hard, and I tell them that you know I not only love it but it's a privilege to have the education and professional experience that I've been given. Not everyone even in this country has the ability to go to college let alone get a masters degree and do a lot of cool things that I've been able to do. Lucy:  That's so well said and I really like this ‑ do one thing to move it ahead everyday and it's something I try to do with NCWIT because it's a start‑up in many ways and pretty time consuming. But if you do that with your family, if you do that with your job, your company, your non‑profit and then you also do it for your health, you know you make sure that you keep moving ahead one thing everyday. You just feel pretty good about that. Brandy:  Right, absolutely, definitely. Larry:  Wow that's super. Lucy:  So Brandy, you've already achieved quite a bit. What's next for you? Brandy:  I totally subscribe to a LEAN start‑up philosophy and I know that's really hot right now and everyone's kind of jumping on board with it but it's totally relevant to our product. Like I mentioned we just received an angel round of investment and are in the process of adding some very cool kinds of software as a service functionality that will essentially make Buyvite a group funder for retailers. In our minds retailers are missing out on a growing segment as payment vertical that is social commerce. The goal with our product is to give retailers that missing piece in their carts. Our API is really is seamless to any kind of checkout cart. Buyvite gives friends and family the ability to contribute individual funds to a single transaction, so like you mentioned, Lucy, it works well for group gifts, vacation rentals, all other travel costs really and especially event tickets. So these are the types of companies that we would like to work with. Larry:  Well with many relatives and a father of five, I like this Buyvite idea. Lucy:  I do too. I wish you all have been around when we had to be the chaperones on our son's soccer trips. Brandy:  Exactly. You know I talked to tons of different people and people immediately connect with the concept so we're excited about the future of the company and where we can take it. Lucy:  Well it's been great talking to you and the best of luck with Buyvite. We will tune in again with you and see how you're doing but I'm sure its going to be exceptional. Brandy:  Looking forward to it. Thank you. Larry:  We're really excited we're going to have this on w3w3.com and ncwit.org. See you soon. Lucy:  Thank you Brandy. Brandy:  Thank you. Bye‑bye. Lucy:  Bye‑bye. [music] Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Brandy Alexander-WimberlyInterview Summary: Brandy Alexander-Wimberly says that creating Buyvite has been the most challenging and also the best thing that she has ever done professionally, and she reminds entrepreneurs that "if you haven't had a tough career, then you probably haven't learned much along the way." Release Date: August 1, 2012Interview Subject: Brandy Alexander-WimberlyInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 14:08

Interview with Brandy Alexander-Wimberly

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Interview with Hilary DeCesare [music] Lucy Sanders: Hi, this is Lucy Sanders and I'm the CEO of the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT and we're back with another interview and a series of interviews that we've had with just tremendous women who have started technology companies. With me is Larry Nelson from w3w3.com. Hi Larry. Larry Nelson: Hi, Lucy, it is really great to be here. A lot of people ask what does w3w3 Business Stock radio do. Well we've been around for 14 years. So that was way back in the early days and we have partners like NCWIT certainly one of our most popular and most important to us. I must say that we're extremely proud to be able to help promote young women in technology. Lucy: Well we've got another great interview today as I've said. It's with Hillary DeCesare, who is the founder of Everloop which we're going to find out in a minute. It is just a terrific company for kids. So she is a digital parenting expert and a mother herself. She recognized the unmet need of a safe environment for children to share, to talk, to chat on the Internet. She came up with the idea of Everloop, an idea around privacy protection and mentoring technologies to ensure the safety of youngsters. This is a very comforting thought. I know Larry, you and I are both parents. So it's nice to know that something like Everloop is out there. Perhaps Hillary will tell us some about their innovative technology called loops, looping, how children join loops that they share common interests. They talk to each other and of course that is all with parental approval. So welcome Hillary. We are very happy to talk with you today. Hillary DeCesare: Thank you for having me. Lucy: So tell us a little bit about what's going on at Everloop. Hillary: Well as you mentioned, Everloop is a social media platform and it is designed for kids under 13. There is a huge craze going on out there where kids are using devices far earlier than even two year older children of today. So you've got kids as young as 5, 6, 7, going on their parents' smartphone, the iPads, desktops. What we're trying to do is make sure that when these kids finally go out into the wild wild Internet and they are exposed to adults, that they're ready to actually be there and that they're not making mistakes. So Everloop's purpose is to really keep these kids safe across all devices. Larry: Well I love it. Lucy: I know. It's great, isn't it? I'm sure that some of the companies' strategies will emerge as we talk to Hillary in this interview. Why don't you let our listeners know how you got first into technology? Hillary: I started in technology at a company called Oracle. I was there for 10 years and really became passionate about different products that are out on the market. I was hungry to learn about new things being brought up and I thought of my own children and I do have three kids. As my own kids became interested in technology, I thought, you know, I've got the background and yet I still feel that I'm not connected to my kids in their digital nomadship when they are out there really exploring. And I thought, well if that is happening to me as a parent, it must be happening to others. So two other moms and entrepreneurs, we decided to join forces and create a company that was really designed to as a mission, help with safe communication. I mentioned across multiple devices and it was really mobile devices were coming into play and desktop, giving them the ability to have kids feel safe. Because they ultimately want that too but also give parents a place that they can trust. And that's why we really created Everloop. Lucy: I like that phrase, digital nomadship. Larry: Yes. Hillary: Haha. That might be a new one. Larry: There you go. Lucy: Absolutely awesome. Larry: Hillary, you've got a family. You obviously are very busy. Why are you an entrepreneur? And what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Hillary: Well it's interesting because someone said last week "So you're a mompreneur?" I said, I really am because I believe so strongly in giving kids a voice, having them have a homebase, having them stay kids longer. I think that today's society makes kids grow up much faster than they need to. And there's always that desire as a tween, I've heard it statistically said that kids want to be 17. But the problem is that where we have technology now, taking this kids, they're getting to the place where it took us years and years and years to get. They can get to pictures, images, videos in five seconds by going online. So for me going into being an entrepreneur and having children, you have to take a step back and say how are you going to do it all? And that is really the question. How do you create balance in your life? And I felt so strongly about what I wanted to give my own children that I use them in my test cases. I use them as my focus group. I actually engage them in the company. Larry: That's super. Lucy: Now that is very cool. I believe that's the first time we have heard that. That's awesome. Along the way Hillary, who influenced or supported you to take this career path? Hillary: Well it was interesting because I have had the privilege of really being located in the Silicon Valley. I have had the change to meet truly the top people in the industry and when I worked at Oracle, got to know just some, you know, the creme de la creme of the men and the women. I saw what it took them to really be successful and to gain the respect and you know I talked about trust. You have to, and this is really important for any entrepreneur, when you're thinking about starting a business, you have to be able to identify with at least three people that you think can mentor you and be able to coach you. What was interesting is after Oracle, I actually started a business where for five years I have helped CEOs in the Valley put strategic frameworks around their business. And sometimes when you do things like this you think, well I've done this. I coach other people. Who's going to help me figure out next steps? What's interesting is that there is always more to learn. There's always comments and feedback that people can give you. People have experiences and you have to be so willing to throw out where you are in your company and what challenges you are having. People want to help other people if they're willing to listen. So I went ahead and found three absolutely incredible mentors. I ping them all the time and throw off questions. Sometimes these are 10 minute conversations and sometimes they are an hour. Larry: That's great and I hope you listeners out there heard that because it's a great thing to go after. Now with all the different things you've done. It already sounds you are a serial entrepreneur. What was the toughest thing that you've had to do in your career? Hillary: I think the toughest besides always having the pressure of being a mom right? Because that's my number one job. That's my number one love. That's my number one focus and everything. So besides the juggling of just really being there and I'm also a single mom. So you add the element of trying to be there for your kids. I think that what you always have to remember is that this is just a job. I mean that is ultimately what it is. It's a career choice and that's the key that I just said. It is a choice. You're doing this because you ultimately want to spend your time and your hours doing it. Sometimes what happens is that you can get caught up in wanting to have something be so successful that you lose sight of why you actually started to create it in the first place. I had the opportunity at one time specifically that I will talk about. I had a chance to merge the company with another and it all sounded great. But then when you started to look at the real terms behind it, it took me away from the core focus of what I had set out to accomplish initially. I believe that you will be successful if it goes with what you are passionate about. So it was a challenging time for me because there was a moment where I could have sold myself short. I chose not to and I chose to continue down the path what I truly believe in and where I believe that this company can go. But those were tough decisions. Lucy: Absolutely and it's a great transition to our next question. Around giving advice to young people about entrepreneurship, so it seems like one piece of advice you would clearly give them is keep your perspective. What other things would you advice them about? Hillary: I would absolutely say ideas can become big, way to big to even handle so focus, focus, focus. Really put together that one page on what are you hoping to accomplish? What are your milestones going to be? Because we lose sight. You're trying to go to that end game, you're trying to get to be that, the big picture. Where you have to appreciate the small things that you accomplish. So putting plans together and I'm dig on a 30 day plan, a 90 day plan. You have to be organized enough that when you hit those small successes, you stop and you take note and you say you know what? That was really good. I was able to accomplish this. Because if you don't, what happens is you spin and you spin and you spin and you don't think you're moving forward at all. You kind of just plateaued. But in reality you actually had. You've accomplished and you're getting closer to ultimately what you're trying to build, which is a successful company. Larry: That's very good advice. Now let me ask you a related question and that is: What are the personal characteristics that have made you a good entrepreneur? Hillary: The characteristics that an entrepreneur needs to have is one you need to have very thick skin. I mean you just have to have the ability to get knocked down and get up again. It's this idea that you've got your integrity. You've got what you initially started the business to be. But then you are also flexible. I see many entrepreneurs kind of get on their path. You can't deviate at all and especially if you're dealing with technology. Technology, you can't jam in your product. The square into the circle peg. You can't do it. Sometimes you have to be able to pivot. You have to be flexible enough to realize, you know what, this idea isn't that great of an idea anymore. But willing to say, but hey, maybe this other one is a really good idea. Lucy: And that's really evolutionary right? Which is a thing that we hear a lot in these interviews that things will emerge. So Hillary you mentioned your personal and your professional lives, what kinds of tips or techniques can you share that help you bring balance to the two of them? Hillary: That we're balanced...You know what if you really showed me someone who truly balanced their lives, please introduce them to me. Lucy: We don't know anybody. Larry: We don't. Hillary: I think it's a fallacy. I think what you can try to do is realize what's important in your life and look at it as a way to say as I'm doing right now. I don't feel as guilty when I know over the dinner table, I'm discussing a new concept or new direction with the company and I'm gaining the feedback of my own children. It's interesting, I once heard that you have your life and it's in the shape of a triangle and it's you. Your family, the last is your career and the right is kind of this whole understanding that the health around you, not just your family. I think it's almost the point where you have to schedule things into your life in order to get balance. It's as crazy as saying that for these two hours I'm going to schedule time with my family at dinner and I'm not going to do anything else. You have to actually make it into a meeting so that you know in your head, nothing else. Cos if you're in a meeting with people, right now, I'm talking to you but I'm not going off and doing other things. I'm completely focused on you. You have to do that with your children. You have to do that with your health. It's so important because if one of these pieces fail, it has the tendency to spin off into other areas as well. Larry: Wow that's also great advice. By the way, I love your website. It's really super, isn't it? Lucy: It really is. Hillary: Well thank you. I'm really proud of it. I think again, trying to be this trusted source for any parent out there and giving kids a homebase where they can just go and feel like yeah this is mine. This is my place. Larry: Yes that's very good. Now you've already achieved a great deal both personally and professionally. What's next for you? Hillary: OK, you're asking an entrepreneur what's next? Well I think that I'm passionate about the kids phase. I love everything about it. I'm so excited with new partnerships that I'm developing for Everloop. I get approached all the time with new technology and it just fascinates me on how we are spending our lives these days. How everything is just gammafied around you. How do you make people interested in doing things without having everything be about a reward system? You look at kids and I'm a mom that does it. Hey if you do this, you get this. But it's interesting because how far will we go? So when I look at where technology is shaping kids. I just read that kids are learning to use an iPad before they can even tie their shoes. This is fascinating to me! I think where I see myself is really uncovering those great technologies in the future that aren't detriments to a kids life but enhances. Larry: You know I think that's so true. I've heard that kids today are taking three months longer to learn how to walk. That's only because they've got to learn how to text first. Hillary: I agree with you. Lucy: But they can't text while walking. Hillary: Exactly but when you have my daughter who is 14 and she texts about a 100 texts a day. She can do it in about 30 seconds and I'm still the thumbs and trying to get my text. She will look at me and say "Are you still sending that one text?' She's just light years ahead of me. I laugh at my 11 year old when she says "Mommy, are you in this new app?' She knew Instagram months before I did. It was so great. She's now telling me " Have you seen this? Have you seen this? Are you playing draw something?' I love it because I sit down and I'm like OK again. She's educating me. Now how can I educate all the other parents in the world? Lucy: And that's why a one final tip right? Make sure your subject matter experts live with you. Hillary: You know what they are the domain experts. I just realize that right now, but make sure you're not disconnected with it. Make sure that you embrace it because it is their way of life. If you want to communicate with your kids going forward, it's not your way. It's their way or the highway. Lucy: It's really true. My son was very impressed with me last night when I sent a photo with a text message. Larry: Whoa, very good. Lucy: I know, I graduated. So Hillary, we can't let you go without asking about your recent appearance on Secret Millionaire. How was that? That's pretty cool. Hillary: Oh I have to say I have always been passionate about giving back. I felt a little hypocritical as I was sitting here on Everloop, letting kids join fabulous charities and hearing more about what kids love to volunteer and what they do if they had the ability to go out and actually make a huge difference. I was approached by this opportunity and initially I thought I'm not definitely into the reality world. I barely even watch TV. I thought more about it and the fact that I could uncover by being placed in a city that I'm unfamiliar with and uncover wonderful charities and be able to help them become known. All these unsung heroes that are doing amazing things. I thought you know what? This is such a great way now. We've taken one of the charities that I've uncovered when I was doing the show and this little boy who started a charity called Love in the Mirror when he was eight years old. He now has a loop on Everloop and he shares what he is doing in the community to help make it a better place. It all came together. It made me feel good. It made the people that are hearing about what we did feel good. The charities that I got to meet. I mean I'm still friends with every single one of them. It's one of those that you feel blessed where something fell into my lap that was just so outside the box for me. It proved to be one of the highlights of my life to date. Lucy: Well it was very compelling. I went and looked out on it on the web and I think it's the perfect way to end an interview because it just really defines you and Everloop and what people are using Everloop for. I know that your site has a page that lists the charities in case listeners are interested. Hillary: Well thank you for taking the time to talk with me and I love talking to you both. Hopefully we will be able to do this again soon. Lucy: Great I want to remind listeners again that they can find this interview at ncwit.org and... Larry: W3w3.com Lucy: All right, thank you Hillary. Larry: Thank you. Hillary: Take care. Bye-bye. [music] Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Hilary DeCesareInterview Summary: As the mother of three young children, Hilary DeCesare recognized the unmet need for a safe environment for kids to connect online with friends, play games, share pictures and music, and learn new skills. With her children in mind, she created Everloop, a social media platform for kids under 13. Release Date: August 1, 2012Interview Subject: Hilary DeCesareInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 19:12

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National Center for Women & Information Technology

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