Gary Vaynerchuk's Blog, page 83
May 28, 2013
May 6, 2013
I Can’t Code and You Can’t Sell Crap.
So I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about why I’m not angel investing as much lately, and I think there’s a conversation there that I’d like to talk about and bring into our space. And the title of that is:
I can’t code, and you can’t sell crap.
It’s an analogy for what’s going on right now which is that whether you’re a developer or a designer; a CTO or maybe an operator like a COO or a marketer as a CMO, there is a very distinct personality trait that you need to have in order to be a leader/CEO/co-founder/executor of a profitable business. It’s easy to go out, come up with a pitch, raise some money, and start a business. It’s hard to navigate it as the word continues to change. What I’m realizing, and what I want people to think about a little bit (especially VCs, angels, and most importantly 22-35 year old young women and men who are thinking about starting an internet company/startup/app) is that there are a lot of #2’s and #3’s right now who are trying to run companies. That’s just the truth. There are a lot of players who would be amazing right-hand-gals or left-hand-guys – unbelievable #2’s and #3’s – who are trying to be #1’s. We’re going to see a lot (I mean an obnoxious amount) of companies going out of business because those people don’t have the stomach to navigate through the waters.
There is this huge disconnect right now where everybody thinks they can be entrepreneurs and the fact of the matter is that I could think in theory I’m a great python developer, but I don’t have the natural talent to pull it off (and could never really get there. I mean, I’d love to be an NBA superstar, but no matter how much trying or effort I put in, I’m just not gonna get there). You can try to start a couple of businesses and think that maybe on the third try you’ll pull it off, but the fact is that “I can’t code, and you can’t sell crap” really sums up how I feel about the space right now. There are a lot of people starting businesses right now and they can’t win.
Be honest with yourself. Look inside yourself and understand that you’re that #2 or #3; that you could be the boost, the turbo-charge. There are just a lot of people right now who could make a lot more money jumping onto a #1 instead of trying to start their own thing.
Big disconnect in the market guys. Big disconnect
April 26, 2013
Five Companies You Should Be Paying Attention To
People often ask me how I stay on top of tech. It’s literally one of the top three or four questions I get at Q&As when I give talks. It’s always like “well, how do you stay on top of it? There’s so much going on!” And I often answer “it comes to me,” or “well, Phil Toronto vets a lot of my deals and brings be stuff because I’m an avid angel investor.” And then, obviously, I keep an eye on Techcrunch and Techememe.
But the reality is that now in my resurgence to blogging, I’ve decided to follow up on my 19 People That You Should be Following on Twitter but Aren’t (Part II) with a series based on my favorite number in the world: Five.
Five has been my favorite number in the world ever since I was five (the jersey from when I was a kid in this video is #5). So I’m going to do something as often as I possibly can called Five Companies You Should Be Paying Attention To.
My main theory behind it is going to be “five companies that most of you haven’t heard about” — companies that might not have have gotten their first big piece of press yet. I’m on this new obsession, more than ever, to bring value, and I think this is a huge value-add. I’ve scoped out a lot of the other influencers on LinkedIn, and I think I’m uniquely positioned to be able to deliver this consistently with the help of my team.
So here are the first five of companies that I think are exciting and worth your attention, in no particular order:
This was cofounded by two actual small gals (5’3” and 5’, I think), Bianca and Mallory. Two young ladies whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a little bit, and who have enormous drive and enormous hustle. One of my favorite things about them is that they started their business with a bootstrap mentality. They didn’t go out and raise money. They started it with the first client’s paycheck, much like AJ and I did with VaynerMedia, so I’ve always had a kinship with that starting point. I think that they’re just doing a really good job. This comes down to two individuals who really get where the world’s going. I think PR is being disrupted dramatically more than what you hear about. There is some major evolution happening to traditional PR, especially if you’re paying attention to what’s happened with the relationships that digital agencies, social agencies, and PR agencies have with big brands these days. I give enormous amounts of credit to these two because of their pure hustle, and their smarts and wits about what’s relevant in the tech/PR world these days. They’ve been able to make a huge impact, and are clearly blazing a path to young, female entrepreneurship that excites so many today.
Co-founders Lee and Calvin have produced a very interesting platform. I am completely obsessed with operations, and so there are a lot of people playing in the space of “doing your thing for you” (Taskrabbit, Fancy Hands, Exec), but what WunWun’s done for you here is a very lightweight mobile execution of the idea. I’ve been playing around with it, and Phil Toronto (our emerging tech guru here at VaynerMedia) even got a guy in a Mickey Mouse suit show up to his birthday party. Whether you need someone to pick up your cleaning, or you need something delivered for you, this NYC-only app (for now) reminds me of the way I felt about Fresh Direct in some ways. It’s a very NYC thing now, but I see enormous opportunity for it to scale out. Even if you’re not in The City you can still download the app and see where it’s going, and in the spirit of this article, if you’re in a city where you think this would do really well, I highly recommend you reaching out to them and saying so. So check it out! I am completely obsessed with the intersection of technology and real-world. It’s why companies like Uber and Airbnb excite me so much because they’re using technology to make our world better, and I think WunWun’s got a chance to play in that space.
Kickfolio is a company that I noticed from afar several months ago, but then I got to intimately enjoy one of their presentations at a 500 Startups event in NYC. To me, phone apps are a very lucrative and important space. I really think this startup brings huge value to the people that use it. When you can preview an app in a desktop environment, it crosses over a huge number of desktop users who also use mobile devices and gives them a chance to experience your app while they’re surfing the web and stumble on it. Moreover, if you review apps, it gives you the experience to actually test the apps in a browser experience. To me, this is an extremely powerful product. I’m excited that it’s coming from Australia and not from Silicon Valley or New York other typical startup places. It’s also exciting that they’re getting great engagement from users (People actively engage with Kickfolio apps for 1 minute 31 seconds on average). I’m a pretty big fan of things that bring value to promotion, and Kickfolio sounds exactly like that company. Check it out, I think you’ll find it tremendous.
Audicus is a startup that I desperately wish I’d funded. They may still be raising, but I’ve been a little bit more conservative in my angel investments and dragging my feet. This feels like “The Warby Parker of hearing aids.” Now I know you’re laughing, when you read me saying that, but what I can tell you is that this is the kind of business that I fall in love with. Patrickintimately knows the space. He’s done a lot of homework in Europe, and now he’s applying his learnings by bringing a consumer packaged good to the US market (which is $6bn, by the way). I actually see this having a deeper impact than just hearing enhancement. This is a very fruitful company and I think anybody reading this who has hearing issues (and I can tell you, even I don’t hear as well as I did five years ago, so you don’t have to be 80 to pay attention to this), or more importantly if you have an aging parent or grandparent that could be affected by hearing loss, this is a company worth checking out. There is something about this company that excites me. I feel like it has the chance to be a huge winner, and a very valuable company one day, so it’s important for me to post it here not only to make a statement about which companies I think are going to be successful (as is the energy of this article), but also to bring value. So I hope that there are a few people reading this who have hearing issues or know people who are struggling with hearing and will check it out.
Greg Cangialosi, one of the cofounders of Betamore, is a dear friend of mine. In fact, I used his company’s email platform as Wine Library’s email service provider. I met him at the first tech conference I ever went to, which was Tech Cocktail in Washington DC back in 2007, but what I love about Betamore is not that Greg is a great dude, but that it’s putting Baltimore technology on the map. It’s an urban tech campus for entrepreneurship in downtown Balitmore. It’s a huge coworking space with a curriculum (think like Indy Hall meets General Assembly), and the reason it’s on the list is strictly one thing: I am completely passionate about tech startups and innovation coming from many other places besides NY and SF (and more, and more: LA). Think places like Omaha, or Detroit, or Austin. I feel like these three co-founders are going to drive this to huge success and really create Entrepreneurship 2.0 in the Baltimore region. If you’re in Baltimore or visiting, this is a company you need to reach out to and check it out. I hope this project inspires someone in Des Moines, I hope it inspires someone in Walla Walla, WA, I hope it inspires someone in Hunterdon county, NJ.
So that’s it! That’s my first list of five. I hope to be doing this more often. I’m curious, though, for you to leave a comment here on LinkedIn and let me know how many of these companies you’ve heard of before. (Seeing a lot of “0”s will make me feel rad!)
April 16, 2013
19 People You Should Be Following On Twitter But Aren’t (Pt. 2 of 2)
Here is part-two of my list of up-and-comers to be following on Twitter. Who did I miss? Let me know what you think! [Link to Part 1]
Matt Mazzeo (@mazzeo) is a really exciting one for me because he’s a VC at lowercase capital. Chris Sacca will get all the attention, but Matt Mazzeo is absolutely one of the forces behind the growth of this incredible company. I first met Maz’ when he was an agent at CAA, and I took a liking to him right away. He’s got drive, he’s got passion, he’s shockingly good-looking, and he’s definitely starting to get his credit. He was in a Fast Company article about the young Turks that are helping LA, and I completely agree with that. He’s making enormous noise right now in LA in the VC scene and the startup scene (the scenes I think are going to be the most exciting going forward). I have enormous confidence that Mazzeo will be tremendously successful in 10 or 15 years, and I think that for anybody who wants to get a good sense of the LA tech scene, this is a must follow.
Matt Van Horn (@mvanhorn) is somebody I’ve known for a long time since his days back atDigg. He’s making some real headway and having an enormous impact on one of my favorite investments, Path. Matt has always been one of “the guys behind the guys”, helping Kevin Rose at Digg and now helping Dave Morin through Path, he’s a tremendously bright young man. He’s extremely passionate about his Golden State Warriors. He’s the gentleman who turned me onto the opportunity at Karma (which was one of my favorite investments I’ve made in the last couple years), and more importantly, he’s the kind of guy that I think is more than willing to engage and help people on Twitter. He’s an absolutely tremendous follow, because I think he’ll give a lot more effort than maybe some of the other people on the list.
Chris Hutchins (@hutchins) is a young partner at Google Ventures. He’s an extremely bright young man. I have enormous respect for this kid. I’d like to see him work with me one day. I think that he’s a perfect person to follow to hear about what’s going on in the San Francisco startup culture, because he’s younger, he’s leaner, and he’s meaner, and he’s in the trenches. I think a lot of you follow VC’s who’ve made it, but let’s be honest, they’re having $1000 dinners, and Hutch is having burgers at the corner joint with the next generation. I think that’s the kind of guy you need to follow.
Milana Rabkin (@Milanachka) is a force of nature on the digital scene. She’s an agent atUTA. What she is doing and how she’s going about doing it in the convergence of Hollywood and Silicon Valley is quite impressive. I’ve been fond of her work ethic and mindset from the moment I met her. I love the fact that she has Belarusian roots, and more importantly, I am completely convinced that she has a grand-slam in her career. I think she’s extremely worthwhile to follow, especially if you care about the cross section of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. She is pushing the envelope of what can be don with Celebrities and High value Content.
Trevor Owens (@to2) is a hustler through and through. I’ve interacted with Trevor a couple times through the last few years, and I like the way he hustles. He’s just got it, there’s something about him. I don’t know Trevor super well outside of our couple of meetings, but I follow him, and he’s one of those guys where I could conceivably lose touch with him for a couple of years but he pops up with a big win on the board. If I read an article in Tech Crunch about a $100MM exit and I look and see that Trevor’s involved, it probably wouldn’t surprise me. He’s got that pixie dust ( Something Special ). He reminds me of me in that way. Very social, and somebody that I think is worth paying attention to if you have passion about knowing about what’s going on in the up and coming New York tech scene( meaning companies you haven’t heard about yet).
Mike Boyd (@HashtagMikeBoyd) This one’s my personal favorite. Mike Boyd’s working with me right now. He’s a personal friend of my brother’s from college. There’s nobody in the world who knows more about who the next hip-hop artists that are gonna pop are than Boyd. He told me about Future three years ago, Kendrick Lamar three years ago; he’s telling me about Rome Fortune now (completely convinced that he’s gonna pop). Mike Boyd has predicted Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa and on and on and on. If you care about hip-hop musicat all and you wanna be cool around your friends, Mike Boyd has replaced The Source’sUnsigned Hype for me from back in the day.
Greg Shove (@GregShove) is the founder and CEO of SocialChorus, a really interesting advocate platform. I met Greg on a flight from SFO to JFK, and we spent 5 straight hours talking even though we didn’t know each other prior to sitting down. He’s one of those guys that’s not full of crap, and he’ll call you on your crap, and I respect that. He’s hustling, he’s executing, he’s got a very interesting platform, and I think that he’s got a couple more gray hairs than the rest of this list, which makes him extremely worthwhile to listen to. There’s some real knowledge in those gray hairs, and I think any young entrepreneur (or old entrepreneur) would get an enormous amount of value out of Greg. He’s had an incredible career, and is completely worth following.
Michael Schneider (@msfd) is the CEO of Mobile Roadie, a startup that I passed on investing in (but I wish I hadn’t) years ago because of two reasons: 1. I just wasn’t liquid enough, and 2. I ultimately knew that Michael would will that company to victory. I’ve been following Michael for a long time, not only on Twitter, but on Path. I’m genuinely excited for his growth and what he does over the next 4-5 decades. This is an extremely worthwhile entrepreneur, and one that travels quite a bit, so if you’re into knowing what’s going on in Japan or South America from a young entrepreneur’s point of view, I think he can help. He’s also often retweeting and posting about emerging tech. Just a couple days ago he talked about Songza, a music startup that I like. He’s the kind of guy that if you follow, he’ll keep you in the loop of what’s going on in the tech world.
Aaron Dignan (@aarondignan) is the CEO of Undercurrent, one of the few agencies that I respect tremendously. He’s an extremely bright guy; extremely focused. I think he’s extremely valuable to follow on twitter because he doesn’t tweet often, but when he does it’s relevant. He’s probably one of the least frequent updaters on this list, but he’s someone that I respect tremendously, and someone I think people should pay attention to.
April 15, 2013
19 People You Should Be Following On Twitter But Aren’t (Pt. 1 of 2)
Lately I’ve been on stage and I’m talking more and more about value. Whether you have a product or a service, whether you use all the gadgets or the new toys or not, at the end of the day if you bring value, you have a real chance at winning in the consumer market. So I’ve been thinking a lot, and putting pressure on myself to be creating quality posts on this LinkedIn forum, and taking the fact that I’m one of these couple of hundred contributors very seriously.
Last night I had a great thought about what has separated me from some of my competitors, and how I could share that with my audience. I came up with this idea of up-and-coming people I follow on Twitter, because when I think back to 06, 07, 08, it was the up-and-coming people that later became titans and the movers-and-shakers in the industry that I followed early on. They brought me a lot of value, linked me to articles that I read, and really educated me. And I continue to try and do that, day in and day out, and so I’m going to put together a list for you once in a while, maybe once a month, a certain number of people I think you should be following, because Twitter is a really easy way to follow people and get a lot of great content.
This list always going to be made up of people who aren’t necessarily the most famous or the most known, usually under 10,000 followers for sure… so here we go. The inaugural list.(Note: by the time I finished this list it was WAY too long for a single post, so I decided to split it up. This is the first 10. The last 9 are coming tomorrow.)
Ryan Harwood (@RyanHarwood27) is the CEO of Purewow.com (think of it as an older DailyCandy for the female set). Really interesting guy. Ryan is a good friend and a huge Knicks fan, but most of all is a head-down entrepreneur, and someone that I think really, really has a bright future ahead of him. If you’re into email marketing, or the New York Knicks, he’s a must follow.
Ryan Graves (@ryangraves) is the head of operations at Uber. Uber is an extremely hot company and most people surely know the charismatic, brilliant Travis Kalanick who’s the CEO, however Ryan is an unbelievable #2 man. I’ve gotten to spend some time with Ryan recently (playing beach volleyball for 40 hrs in a 44 hr window), but most of all, I’ve watched him for a long time and I’m impressed with his maturity. I think he continues to grow, and I think he’s a worthwhile follow, especially as I believe in this “real-world meets the tech-world”, Ryan will be an interesting character to follow.
Danny Trinh (@dtrinh) is probably the most ridiculous person on this list. If you’ve ever spent any time with him in the real world, you will realize that there is a very good chance that he will get drunk and get completely ridiculous. However, I see Danny continue to grow as an entrepreneur and as a designer. I think he’s got so much raw talent that I felt like I had to put him on this list. If you enjoy some laughs, or, more importantly, if you enjoy the future of design in the digital world, I think Danny is a must-follow.
Colin Devroe (@cdevroe) is one of the people on this list that I’ve known the longest. Colin convinced me to switch from YouTube to Viddler (thanks a lot, Colin), but I’ve always respected Colin as a technologist, and his new project is something that I think has the real chance of blowing up in 2014. Keep an eye on him. I think he’s a great follow and someone who’s always been quite smart as a product guy.
Ingrid Sanders (@ingridsan) is somebody that I just met. She’s the founder and CEO of an interesting site, and more importantly just really blew me away. I meet with a lot of young entrepreneurs and start-ups constantly, and I would say that out of the last 400, Ingrid really stood out in the top one or two. I think she’d got her head on straight, I think she’s got a bright future, and I think that she’s a worthwhile follow as being a big prospect for having a successful startup.
Sam Rosen (@sir) is an interesting one for me. He’s an entrepreneur in residence at GPR Partners, and he’s a hustler. This dude chased me down at SXSW constantly a few years ago, trying to get me to invest in his company. I ultimately passed (and I was super right, because it didn’t work), however there was something in his eye that almost made me invest in an idea that I hated. That alone make him a worthwhile follow, and I believe that he will bring value for people that follow him, especially for anybody into entrepreneurship and venture capital from a young person’s perspective.
Dan Shipper (@danshipper) is a college junior. He clearly has to be on this list because if you go to his profile, one of the things it says is “Jets fan”. My brother @AJV actually turned me onto him, and I’ve just been following and paying attention to him for a little bit now. He’s a young buck that I’ve had my eye on as somebody that I want to work with/have work for me/work along side with. There is just something about this kid that pops in my gut and intuition, and I think he’s an absolute must-follow.
Henrik Werdelin (@werdelin) Is massively underrated. Period. End of story. The fact that he’s only got 3800 followers is a shocking indication of a diamond in the rough. Henrik is not a kid. He’s a mature entrepreneur who’s had a lot of success in his career and he’s doing some amazing stuff right now. I believe in this guy tremendously. I think that he has enormous long-term potential, and if you ask me which of the 30-40 friends I have has the potential to build a billion-dollar company, Henrik would be on that shortlist. I think he’s an amazing visionary when it comes to product, and I also think that that European humility he has is quite attractive. If there is one person on this list that you want to follow in order to be successful with product, it’s Henrik.
Erik F. Kastner (@kastner) is probably the one that I’m post emotional about on this list. Erik is the individual that turned me onto technology. He was the lead developer at Wine Library in 2002, and he started my path to why I’m ultimately even able to write this article. I have enormous love for him, and he has gone on to leave Wine Library and work for places like Kickstarter and Etsy. I have nothing but respect for him and if you’re a developer or coder I promise you that you will get tremendous value out of following this guy. He is, by far in my opinion, one of the most underrated technologists on the east coast. I am a big fan. Also, make sure you look at his profile on a desktop. On the left side, you’ll see tagmy.com. Ask him about it.
Kevin Colleran (@KevinColleran). This one’s interesting to me, because Kevin Colleran is probably the most successful person on this list, but he’s only got 759 follower because he’s just jumped on Twitter. One look at his profile will make you understand why, since the last line is an unbelievable humblebrag: Employee #7 at Facebook. If you are interested in how to monetize your business, sales, or “Fortune 500 company thinking”, Kevin is your guy. Kevin is now a venture capitalist at General Catalyst, and writing for the Wall Street Journal. He’s not only a tremendously bright guy, be he’s one of the nicest people I know. I’m an enormous fan of his, and I highly recommend the follow.
