Learn to Duck

When I was a senior in college, I was looking for a job on campus. Looking through the want ads, I came across the highest paying job on campus: University Fundraiser. We were tasked with calling alumni and asking for contributions. I started slowly, but over a six month period, I had the biggest single month and raised more money than anyone had ever done in their entire careers. I was hooked.

I headed to Washington, DC after college with my long time friend, Larry “Bubba” Henderson, and after a few months of ramen, we both landed jobs. He worked for Georgetown University where he was pursuing a graduate degree, and I started at a nonprofit called CASE. While the true name of CASE was the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the joke in the industry we served (college and university alumni, development and PR offices) was that it stood for Copy And Steal Everything.

Its not that we were thieves, but that given the finite amount of ways one can raise money or hold a homecoming, ownership over ideas became secondary to the sharing of ideas. Its an amazing thing to see it occur, where while there might be a sense of competition for resources and acclaim, seeing everyone succeed far outweighed the desire for individual success.

Does that work in the startup world? Can we share? I often talk that the main benefit of Boulder is not the small size, or the vibrant tech community, but that there lives a strong sense of “cooperative competition” in the community that drives collective success further than individual success.

This morning as I caught up with email and tweets, I saw a tweet from Ian Rodgers, CEO of TopSpin. I both admire Ian and Topspin, so, almost without thinking, I clicked through the link, which was a free download to a mixtape. As I entered my email address to get the mixtape, I started to think about how TopSpin connects artists with their fans directly, and if there was a place for that within Graphic.ly. Then I started to think about all the other companies that did stuff that I really enjoyed personally, and how (or if) any of it could be integrated in our product roadmap.

Jake Nickell, who is a friend and investor in Graphic.ly, founded Threadless. I am a huge fan of Threadless (those that know me, know that I wear nothing but Threadless tshirts, and have every day for the past two or three years (except for about 5 days). The Threadless community is amazing. Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Harper Reed, Jake and all the early folks at Threadless built a community that numbers more than 1,000,000, and spends its time talking about art, design, tshirts. Its a solid community, one that is open and friendly. When we were launching Graphic.ly, I spent time thinking about ways that we could build the foundation for just such a community.

There are other companies that do things that impress me. Twitter‘s simplicity is amazing. It takes less than 5 seconds to write 140 characters and send it out into the ether. Often, there is no response, but there is an emotional feeling that some number of people just read a wisp of a thought. The emotional attachment to something so simple is intriguing. How do we help our users feel good about doing little things?

Automattic (makers of WordPress) are another company that I like to pull inspiration from. Both in the distributed, everyone can contribute, way that the software is built, but also in Matt‘s undying desire to meet every wordpress user in the world, and personally thank them. I want, like Automattic, for our users to see their fingerprints in Graphic.ly. And, both Kevin and I want to shake the hand of every Graphic.ly user current and future, and tell them the importance of their participation in what we are collectively building.

Sharing is ok. Competing is ok. They are not mutually exclusive. I had lunch with Rantz, from Longbox Digital, a few weeks ago. Great guy. Great conversation. We talked about how our companies could help the comic industry and each other. Look for an interesting announcement in the near future.  The next time I am in NYC, I plan to reach out to David from Comixology (we have had several conversations in the past), and Wade from Panelfly (who I have never met). When I am down at SXSW, hopefully, I will be able to connect with Michael of iVerse (since I will be in his home state, and would love to meet him). I want to talk about ways that our companies can competitively cooperate. I want to find ways that our companies can collectively do things to help the comics industry.

As you set about to build your company, think about the pieces that you personally enjoy with other companies. Think about the things you dont enjoy. Dont just build something because your board, advisors or investors tell you to. Focus on the things that you love, that problems that you face, the things you can learn.

And then share those. Make the people and companies around you better. Even if they are your competition.

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