Focusing on your "why" and building a diverse team with aligned values and behaviors can lead to innovation and success in entrepreneurship, as demonstrated by the founder of IndieGoGo.

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  00:00

  Small business owners struggle to access capital, but the speaker found a bigger mission in building IndieGoGo into the largest global online funding platform.

  • The speaker shares their story and emphasizes the importance of finding a bigger mission behind wanting to be an entrepreneur, while discussing their experience building IndieGoGo into the largest global online funding platform.
  • Access to capital is a big problem for small business owners, as they struggle to get loans from banks and have to bootstrap for years.
  • Attended an event called "Where Hollywood Meets Wall Street" hoping to learn about the business, but instead found a room full of people socializing.
  • At a party full of emerging artists, a young investment banking analyst was overwhelmed by the attention, but later received a script from a filmmaker who hoped to finance his next film through her, despite her lack of control over any money.
  • After a frustrating experience at a bank, the speaker's idealism was shattered and her mother's advice to "go do something about it" led her to start her own business.
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  05:04

  Failed theater production about racial profiling post-9/11 led to realization of broken finance system and inspired business school attendance, emphasizing importance of knowing your "why" before starting a company.

  • Failed miserably in helping a theater producer raise money for a play about racial profiling after September 11th, despite renting out a venue, packing it with an audience, and getting actors to volunteer their time.
  • Investors didn't want to invest in a play despite its success, which made the producer realize the broken finance system and motivated them to go back to business school.
  • Lessons learned from starting IndieGoGo: know your why before starting a company.
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  08:03

  Focusing on your "why" can lead to innovation and perseverance in business.

  • Having a clear and authentic "why" for your business helps attract like-minded partners and can guide you towards unexpected solutions, as demonstrated by the founder of IndieGoGo.
  • Focusing on the "why" instead of the solution of the original idea can lead to innovation and perseverance through difficult times, as demonstrated by the speaker's experience launching IndieGoGo.
  • Passion for your why is crucial to sticking it out in tough times and informing your strategy.
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  11:10

  IndieGoGo empowers individuals to pursue what matters to them by democratizing funding through equity crowdfunding and raised over $2 million to bring their crowdsourcing genome and biome idea to life.

  • Being an open platform allows for global accessibility and empowers individuals to pursue what matters to them.
  • The company focuses on customer happiness and offers various funding options to democratize capital, including equity crowdfunding.
  • Attracting amazing people and customers is possible by having a company that allows them to do what they believe is right and important to them, and by having a clear mission.
  • IndieGoGo raised over $2 million to bring their crowdsourcing genome and biome idea to life, validating their market and leading to further success with a $4.5 million Series C.
  • Use the five why exercise to get to the irrational belief behind your company's purpose, as it will reveal a real reason for your motivation, such as democratizing funding due to the broken and inefficient finance system's reliance on gatekeepers.
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  15:36

  Prioritize diversity and intentional culture for success in innovation and building meaningful things.

  • Be intentional with your culture as it determines whether you're successful or not, and make it a priority.
  • Diversity is crucial for success in innovation and building meaningful things, as it brings diverse perspectives and ideas, and it is important to prioritize diversity in teams.
  • Culture is who you are and how you act every day, and there are only strong and weak cultures, not good or bad ones.
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  18:22

  Founders should reflect on their values and behaviors, early team came to work for 4 reasons, empowerment and fearlessness are important values, diverse team with aligned values and behaviors is crucial, and culture is influenced by all team members.

  • To determine the values and behaviors needed to succeed, founders should engage in an exercise of self-reflection, such as drawing pictures that answer the question "why do I love coming to work?"
  • The early team of co-founders came to work for four reasons: to change the industry, bring their whole selves to work, collaborate with others, and spend their time helping people.
  • Empowerment and fearlessness were important values for the company, and they defined the behaviors that embody fearlessness as ruthlessly prioritizing.
  • To democratize access to capital and maintain authenticity, it is important to have a diverse team with aligned values and behaviors, which can be achieved through operationalizing and reinforcing these values in the hiring process and company culture.
  • Iggy's and wiggies eggies are given out democratically to those who embody company values and make us laugh, reinforcing the idea that culture is not a top-down creation but influenced by all team members.
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  23:14

  Measure engagement and happiness for a strong company culture and focus on problem-solving as an entrepreneur with the help of technology.

  • Measure your engagement and happiness to ensure a strong culture where people embody the company's values and behaviors, leading to increased productivity and happiness.
  • Technology is not the end, it is a means to an end, and becoming an entrepreneur is about focusing on a problem and finding the best way to fix it, which may involve technology, as seen in the private sector's commitment to innovation.
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  25:33

  Build something meaningful and important for the world, and success will follow.

  • Different American companies believe in tapping the potential of every American for the betterment of all, and have achieved recognition for their meaningful work.
  • Build something meaningful and important for the world, and success will follow, as seen in the Hour of Code campaign raising $5 million to bring coding to 100 million people worldwide.
  • Fund the campaign and think about how to attract people who think differently, while remembering that technology is a tool for change, not the end goal.