Kevin F. Adler

Let your perception of beauty and iridescence lead your way. Places and people who have answers for you will appear more luminous and attractive.

- Celestine Prophesy

Or, in the practical advice of DJ Turly, “Ask out people who are exceptionally beautiful to try to find out why you find them so beautiful.”

Lesson one of eight from my day with the DJ, aka Jenn Turliuk.

Jenn and I met at a Blackbox Mansion event about a month ago. She’s easy-going and even-tempered, but confident and direct. I liked her immediately. 

I was impressed with the great people she’s been able to meet (Steve Blank, Dave McClure, Eric Ries, Reid Hoffman, and more). She just moved here in June. From Canada.

Assuming she did not just have some Canadian magic about her, I was curious to learn her approach for not only connecting with great people, but forming meaningful bonds.

After spending the better half of a day together last week in a type of “person shadow,” I thought I’d share key lessons from DJ Turly on engaging in the startup world. I haven’t tried all of these yet, so please share your experiences below.

1. Follow beauty, wherever it leads you. [summarized from above]
    
2. In general, the best way to start a conversation is to say “Hi, my name is ____.” And nothing more. Let the other person respond next. Just be confident.
3. You can enter into any group with the above remark, with the notable exception of trying to enter a group with a speaker after they just spoke at an event. Then, it’s rude and won’t work. Wait in line and let others have their day in the sun.
4. Be gracious in your emails. Respect their time and business. They have the option to help you, not the obligation.
5. Facebook is a relationship builder. “Friend” true friends + people you want to get to know more that you have actually hung out with once or twice. Facebook can help you know what you have in common with another person (see friendship), and start building a rapport. Just don’t be creepy or a stalker.
6. LinkedIn is for shared connections. You will benefit most by being able to name drop if you want to meet someone. Add people who are key influencers (again, who you have actually met).
7. Keep business cards and look through them regularly. Small tear in less-relevant ones, and put separately in circular recycling bin. Keep important business cards handy. Out of sight, out of mind.
8. Set goals for the next 3-6 months. Engage people who can help you reach those goals. And think about where you are at in life, and what you can do now that you won’t be able to do in 10-15 years time. Do it now, brave one. You are the best person you will ever be, so be you.

This weekend, Mark Zuckerburg challenged attendees at YC’s Startup School to solve a problem.

As Mark indicated, what problem we select is less important than whether we are convinced that the problem needs solving and whether we are passionate enough to dedicate “at least the next five years” toward trying to solve it. 

The idea of spending five years solving a problem is a refreshing departure from how most of us conceptualize our time. Even if we spent five years on one problem, we tend to think of our time as spent “working at X company” or “running Y startup” rather than addressing a real problem, much less actually solving a problem. [example]

Mark helped me realize that there is a difference between trying to build a company and trying to solve a problem. 

If we are trying to solve a problem, we will make many mistakes and probably not succeed.

If we are trying to build a company, we will make many mistakes and probably not succeed, and even if we do “succeed” we probably will not really succeed, as we almost certainly did not solve an actual problem, unless our problem was how to build an entity to do donuts in the Wal-Mart parking lot, or whatever else it is that our company actually does.

Why not start by thinking about building a company as secondary and directly contingent on solving an actual problem? Could we start by solving a problem, and then build a company only if/when it makes sense for solving that problem even better?

This will be our approach for Alumn.us.

After 2.6 decades of experience, I have learned that it’s better to direct every ounce of our brain power toward figuring out how to solve a problem rather than how to build a company that may or may not actually solve a problem, but will almost undoubtedly create headaches and, if really ambitious, total busts (see Silicon Valley, cerca 2000).

Let’s say that we are focused on solving an actual problem. Awesome. After months of toiling, let’s say that cache of Einstein between our ears loads a 404 error message and we don’t know what to do next. Or maybe we know exactly what to do, but know we can’t do it ourselves.

So we bring another human being to our party as

1. an advisor (paid in thank you’s)
2. an employee (paid in peanuts, or if they have a nut allergy, another food)
3. a co-founder (paid in strips of paper with a % on it. But really, they pay us, because they are crazy enough to believe that we may actually be able to solve a problem and they want to help us do it).

Now we have our crazy sidekick(s)*, and we ask ourselves and this new person (if they are still around) what assumptions we have made about how we will solve a problem.

And we figure out how to test those assumptions.

BTW, go read The Lean Startup if you haven’t already. Don’t just buy it so Eric Ries can write “Kevin, Welcome to the Valley!” cause that would be a waste of $15.40 and $5,000 worth of deals on AppSumo.

Now that we know exactly how to test our assumptions, we set-up a few experiments and surveys. A master’s degree in Sociology from Cambridge can definitely come in handy here (trust me). We put forward our hypothesis, and we’re wrong.

We iterate, and we’re wrong again.

We become demotivated, waste a ridiculous amount of time tinkering with our Facebook fan page which has two fans (ourselves and the crazy sidekick mentioned above), and realize that those faulty tests were probably a better use of our time and society’s time.

So we experiment.

And experiment again.

And experiment some more.

At this point, we realize that setting up a few pilot cases might make sense. We take whatever lessons we learned from our experiments, and start doing.

Sustainability will be key someday, so we start thinking about how we might make a buck in the future directly or indirectly from the people whose problems are being solved by us. FYI, this will be especially challenging if we are running nonprofits.

Now we have an initial revenue model. 

And maybe, just maybe, we are at the point where we start building a company to solve a problem that we cannot solve as effectively if we were “just” solving a problem.

I like to reflect on the fact that Mark Zuckerburg never intended to start Facebook the company. He intended to make online more social. He did this, and then built a company to make online even more social than before.

So we must ask ourselves: do we intend to start a company or to solve a problem?

My bet is on the crazy ones solving problems.

-

*The “(s)” in sidekick(s) stands for heaven forbid.

1. Goodwill Foundation is a value-recovery organization, of discarded products and people. They are the largest employer in Bayview / Hunter’s Point.
   
   
2. “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” - Henry Ford, from Jen Medbury during Kickboard’s pitch


   
   
3. If you pitch, and a judge on the panel asks a question about something that was not covered in your talk, don’t say “oh that question comes up all the time” because you will sound like you weren’t prepared or are being slick. Integrate their feedback into your presentation. Or say, “oh that is a really good question.” And answer it.
   
   
4. Start w/ customer needs. (via Curtis @ Innosight, lessons from Clay Christensen for #4-7). Prototype by “jobs to be done.” Customers hire products/services to fulfill jobs. No one buys a drill for it’s own sake… you buy drill to make 1/4 cm hole. Jobs include social, emotional, and functional. Using example of iPhone, stay connected to wife and kids, feel cool, and make calls. Who are your stakeholders?
   
   
5. Next comes integrated business model. (ibid) What is customer value proposition? (tech platform) How can we capture value proposition? (earned income, crowd-funded) What resources are needed to capture value proposition? (brand, people)
   
   
6. Piloting and Testing follows. (ibid) What assumptions are embedded in this? (parents will love this app & pay for it). Prioritize assumptions according to risk. Design experiments to test assumptions cheaply and quickly. Fail fast & often.
   
   
7. Scaling model (ibid).
   
   
8. Each high school needs an active Center for Alumni Relations and Professional Networks. Especially under-served, low-income schools.
   
   
9. Let your users drive the design process.
   
   
10. Kalimah Priforce and Jason Young are education entrepreneurs I admire.
    
    
11. In the US, we have sick care, not health care. (Adam Dole, Mayo Clinic)
    
    
12. Alex Gilliam’s Public Workshop and Veronika Scott and her innovative design work on homelessness in Detroit rock.
    
    
13. If a college student has a tough time finding a job, imagine what it is like for a person who has been homeless for 20-years with a horrible record, addictions, and no support network? How do they get a job? (Scott)
    
    
14. Go from “I’m here to help you” to “I need your help” at homeless center with design. Eventually, if you are designing a product like a coat that will be used by someone sleeping on concrete in the cold, you better do the same. Offer drinks and food to your college-aged friends to join you in the experiment. (Scott)
    
    
15. Homeless people, like all people, want to provide for themselves, create something, not be reliant. Basic human motivations still apply. Build for an emotion (e.g., pride). (Scott)
    
    
16. In a break-out session on prototyping behaviors, one guy spilled water on the big white paper in the middle. Initial reaction was “uh oh.” But group jumped to action, took on roles, and solved problem. Our minor “disaster” brought people together quicker than anything else could have. Gilliam highlighted this well.
    
    
17. Put yourself out there.
    
    
18. Consider whether you should aim to achieve your goal slow or fast. Sometimes slow is better. If you walk into a bar in a Superman outfit with the goal of making friends, at first you will be laughed at. If you sit down, have a drink at the bar, and mind your own business, someone will eventually ask you about what you are doing. You will have the chance to change from “that crazy guy” to “that courageous guy” if you can establish a larger theme in common with the other patrons. In this case, the slow approach works.
    
    
19. Use Pathable 3-14 days before conferences to arrange meetings with people you want to meet. 0-2 days is last-minute. During the conference, everyone is too busy to check-it, and you are better off searching for the person or pinging them directly.
    
    
20. We must ask: what behaviors do we need to prototype to promote better networks?
    
    
21. Day 1 of SOCAP/conferences: feel like everyone knows everyone else (except you). Day 2: meet amazing people and feel like this is your community. Day 3: hone in on the people most directly tied to your work that you want to collaborate with after conference is over. Post-conference: be inspired… and work.

I lucked out with my current room. Mission Dolores. Great housemates. Spacious apartment. Beautiful room. Rooftop deck. Unbeatable price.

But before I found such a good deal, I scanned through hundreds of craigslist ads on rooms for rent. I probably sent about a hundred emails. In each email, I’d express my interest in the room, and tell a little about myself.

Most people didn’t respond (70%). Another 20% said the room had been filled, or they were looking for a female, or something of that sort. The last 10% followed-up, usually with a few questions and times for coming by.

I was in Mexico at the time on a Rotary scholarship, so it was particularly tough to find someone willing to go the extra mile to chat with me on the phone or via Skype. 

One of those people who did respond was Angel. She seemed pretty nice in her quick response, though it was clear she was “overwhelmed” by the many responses to her ad - most people reported at least 70 responses to their ads! - and was looking for a way to narrow down the applicant pool. She asked me about Rotary, and why I had mentioned it:

Can you tell me what exactly the fact of the Rotary scholarship should tell me?  That you’re really smart or conservative or what?  angel 

I think her question reflects a common perception of Rotary, unfortunately. I decided to respond with a few words on my own experience with Rotary. My response is below; I hope it offers readers an insight into the Rotary I know: one of the largest and most important service organizations in the world.

I’ve cut out some of the niceties and house-related comments on both ends, FYI.

Hi Angel,

The below picture is what many people probably think of when they think of Rotary:

As one of the oldest service organizations in the world, Rotary started in a more conservative era, even though it’s motto and work - “Service Above Self” and focus on eliminating polio, poverty, and empowering communities locally and globally - was well ahead of its time.

Today, after meeting hundreds of Rotarians from around the world throughout the US and Mexico, I can attest that Rotary is more like this:

There are 1.2 million members worldwide, with 33,000 clubs dispersed in large cities (Mexico City has at least 7) and small towns (Huajuapan has one).

The scholarship I received is the oldest scholarship offered by the Rotary Foundation. Each year, Rotary invests $16.2 million to send 700 scholars from around the world into other communities to learn languages and cultures, help out and learn from local service projects, and give presentations about their experiences and home communities as a goodwill exchange between countries.

With well-over 1 million Oaxacans in the US and the vast majority in California (statewide, 1 our of every 4 field laborers is from Oaxaca), I decided to serve in Mexico’s second poorest state to better understand the people and cultures of my own community. If you are unfamiliar with the vibrancy of Oaxacan cultures, food, people (70% indigenous), and natural resources, I’d encourage you to visit soon. I’d be happy to connect you to the wonderful Rotarians I know there.

My experiences with Rotary in Mexico include the following:

1. Teaching business classes to women artisans in a small pueblo;
2. Volunteering for a Rotary-backed organization that offers worms to pepinadores (people who make their living by scavenging through trash at waste sites) to compost organic waste materials into fertile soil that can be resold or used to grow plants.
3. Helping out with the first-ever international project festival in Oaxaca, which brought together 100 clubs from southern Mexico and connected them to resources in the US and internationally to help them continue their work with burn victims, children with cleft-lip palettes, clean water projects, clean wood-burning stove projects, women’s health and sexuality clinics, orphanages, and health and nutrition.

Previously, through my participation in Rotary-sponsored events since I was 14, I have gone to New Orleans for a week to gut houses and serve at a volunteer center after Hurricane Katrina, teaching kids the perils of drunk driving through Every 15 Minutes, and helped fund an education nonprofit. Neither my parents nor grandparents were Rotarians: in fact, the scholarship I received is only available for people who would be first-in-their-family to be Rotarian. The organization has done a lot of good in the world.

Regardless of the house situation, I’d invite you to join me at a SF club meeting soon.