Product & Startup Builder

Things My Family Taught Me

Added on by Chris Saad.

Been talking about the way our families and cultures affect our behavior, capacity for risk and more. Remembering that my family (Maggie, Richard and Mitchell) have given me many gifts and behaviors that I take for granted.

Things my family taught me (either explicitly or by example) that seem non-uniform include...

- You can take risks and be whoever you want to be. You always have a safety net. You can come live at home at any time. We love you no matter what.

- Always get up to pay first. Sacrifice your money not your honor/dignity. Be generous and kind.

- Truth and rational thinking is paramount. Find it, spread it, fight for it.

- Entrepreneurship is the way to impact the world and earn a living. Work to manifest your own vision in the world

- Home is a place for friends and family to gather to share special experiences. Movie nights, pool parities, holidays.

- Relationships can end, and that's ok. What matters is that you're as kind as possible on the way out, remember/hold on to the love and remain friends.

- The kids come first. When budgeting, figuring out where to move or what to do, the kids must be offered every opportunity to get a stable, empowered and fulfilling childhood.

- Don't be cheap on quality food. Don't have scarcity when it comes to snacks and sweets either. My parents never ordered chicken nuggets off the kids menu for me - they let me order the steak and the lobster even if I could never finish it. My mother always had the fridge filled with fun sized candy. The lack of scarcity made it a "sometimes food" without any rules.

Originally posted on Facebook

Appreciation Post: Amazing People in my Journey

Added on by Chris Saad.

I was speaking to my friends Doriane and Jacob today about the people who've helped me along my journey.

I don't mean people who've partnered with me, worked for/with me or invested in my success for a clear ROI. I mean people who could have simply ignored me or given me some simple platitudes and moved on. They had very little to gain by helping at that moment in time but they did it anyway.

There are too many to list them all but some that jumped to mind include...

- Nik who has been supportive and encouraging of me since I was like 9 years old. Showed me the first PDA (before smart phones kids), my first high-rise apartment and my first Porsche. Of course we then went on to work together on Faraday Media, APML, DataPortability etc.

- Martin who randomly reached out to help a kid in the Aussie community. He was so generous I literally had to ask him "Why are you doing this? What do you want in return!?". I was confused when he said "Nothing". He nudged me to create APML which then lead to DataPortability

- Michael who wrote very kind things about DataPortability and, when finding out I was a poor entrepreneur planning to come to Silicon Valley, allowed me to stay in his guest room for free. Wow what an experience!

- Bill Hudak (who seems strangely absent from Facebook) who lent me his guest room and gave me his awesome Pontiac Solstice so I could drive up and down Sandhill road pitching my startup. For free. He and Marty also introduced me to all the VCs and even helped me pitch!

- Ben who I ran into at an event at the Computer History Museum where he proceeded to tell me (after my 30 second pitch) that my startup idea was dumb and no one would use it. At first I thought he was an asshole. Then I realized he was also correct. He then lead me into the city and introduced me to amazing people (and Twitter! - this was 2007 hah). We've since done a lot of things together including working at Uber.

- Chris and Kristie who noticed me at their Web 2.1 conference and gave me a chance to speak - and introduced me to so many amazing people and experiences. They've since become dear, dear friends.

The list goes on and on.

I've had so many people tell me "I don't want to rely on other people" or "I want to do this on my own" - they don't understand that no one who ever achieved anything did it alone. It takes generous people offering spontaneous acts of kindness for no immediate reward.

Of course it also takes partners and collaborators who jump in the trenches with you and do the hard work - but that's a different list.

Originally posted on Facebook

Looking Back to Go Forward

Added on by Chris Saad.

I recently turned 35. I've had quite a life so far.

Wrote and re-wrote little programs on a library computer every lunch in primary school (it wouldn't save!), "borrowed" my mother Maggie's savings every few years for a brand new PC to feed my BBS/Code/Internet obsession, built and distributed some fun freeware while in high school, ran an Interactive terrestrial and online radio show with my co-host Cassandra, built and ran a web strategy agency with my family and friends Richard and Kerry, built a startup with Ashley, Stephen and Nik, created open standards like APML and Backplane, launched the DataPortability Project with my startup founders + Elias, Daniela, Robert, Ben, Marshall and so many other volunteers, lived at TechCrunch HQ in its formative years (i.e Michael Arrington's home/guest room), co-founded a "Real-time Cloud Services" startup with my friend Khris, curated an amazing network of friends by hosting a series of parties at my SF Loft, lived in a Startup mansion (epic parties, dinners and movie nights) with friends Ben and Hermione while they were the stars of a multi-million dollar reality TV show on Bravo (exec produced by Randi), and been running product for the Uber Developer Platform with my friend Adam + a team of amazing people.

Along the way I've informally advised some great startups and people + made amazing friends like Gema, Todd, Tygh, Ben, Stowe, Gregarious, Jeremiah, Ben, Martin, Julia, Brian, Stephanie, Josh, Michael, Ken, Richard, Chris, Kristie, Werner, Doriane and so many more. I've also dated some of the most beautiful and amazing women I've ever met (I'll spare them the tag). Not quite sure how I got away with that last one.

I should write it down in a book one day. In theory I'd love to write an outline during my upcoming travels. Sadly writing a narrative feels incredibly daunting - especially since my memory is so crap.

On the other hand - a lot of it has been live tweeted and posted on Facebook - so there's lots of raw reference material!

I'd probably call it "Paying Attention". Or maybe "Failing up". Or maybe "Timing: Being early is the same as being wrong".

Originally posted on Facebook

The Left Feels The Bern

Added on by Chris Saad.

Fascinating.

The left in this country is now represented by Bernie Sanders and the Right by Hillary Clinton. The insane right is Donald Trump.

Hopefully the insane right implodes under its own stupidity and a new center emerges.

Of course this is just wishful thinking.

Bernie should start an NRA style lobby group to raise money and motivate action for his issues long after this general election.

See following video. He's basically saying if Hillary wants his voters she has to move left

Being an Entrepreneur means...

Added on by Chris Saad.

Being a founder, leader and entrepreneur means...

- Having a vision for how the future should be and pouring your very heart and soul into pulling it into the present

- Ignoring the rules - making big bold bets

- Looking at problems, and solutions, differently

- Knowing what people need, not what they think they want

- Thinking past any given decision or quarter to the ultimate vision and mission

- Making mistakes, learning from them, making them again

- Being the boss + being camp councilor

- Making big decisions - fast forwarding to the future

- Reminding people to let go of their fear - by demonstrating optimistic leadership and giving them permission to dream and agency to act

- Trusting your people to be entrepreneurs - to encourage them to always be hustling

- Hoping your work will speak for itself - being inside out

- Having the weight of the world, and your employees, on your shoulders

- Wearing your heart on your sleeve, but not letting people see you get defeated or emotional

- Begging others for funding - while posturing that you don't need it

- Dealing with investors whose incentives are never properly aligned with your own (and that's if you're lucky)

- Dealing with people who don't know how to be entrepreneurs

- Dealing with those on the sidelines who snark and jeer - substituting pessimism for insight; conventional wisdom for actual wisdom.

- Riding the rollercoaster that takes you from high, highs to low, lows within hours

- Getting all the blame

- Getting much of the up-side (Hopefully)

- Risking everything

- Often getting little of the praise

- Often putting your company, team and vision ahead of everything else.

- Being alone

Being an entrepreneur also means evolving as fast your company does. Being the leader it deserves. But when your company evolves from 0-world domination within 6 years (largely thanks to your own relentless focus, firefighting and hustle)... I don't think there's an entrepreneur alive who can evolve that fast. Nor should they be expected to. There's also not an entrepreneur alive who, once placed under a microscope, will come out looking like the hero of every encounter, incident and decision.

Ultimately, though, being a founder and entrepreneur means it's your damn company. No one else's.

Unless you have lived this (and not as part of a lifestyle business with a few employees - but with 50+ employees backed by venture capital, with real customers and years of personal, emotional investment on the line) then you can not understand it.

Travis embodied (and in some cases taught) me these things. There wasn't a moment or a minuscule detail that he noticed that he didn't immediately spring into action to help me solve - with that wry smile and enthusiastic glint in his eye

The cost of losing him as Uber's CEO will be incalculable.

Defying Limitations

Added on by Chris Saad.

Some people have everything but see themselves as a victim. Some people have started with all the disadvantages and yet find a way to defy all the odds.

Of course, our challenges, frustrations and failures are all relative. We're all calibrated to our own experience. Examples like this, however, help to remind me how broad the full spectrum of human experience really is - and how defiant one can be of their own limitations.

Make sure you see the last part!

My Axioms to Live By

Added on by Chris Saad.

What are the axioms that you live by? Some of mine are...

- This too shall pass

- Change is the only constant

- Everyone is the hero of their own story

- Pay attention

- You can only control your own behavior

- Moderation in all things - including moderation

- Open, transparency, love > Closed, opaque, hate

- Luck = Preparation + opportunity + execution

- Life is hard, once you accept life is hard it gets less hard

- Everything is relative

- Everything is fractal/recursive (turtles all the way down)

- If nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do

Mostly learned from my parents and Star Trek haha

Originally posted on Facebook

Personal Feedback Results - Mid 2017

Added on by Chris Saad.

A week ago I asked my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networks to give me feedback by filling out a survey. I also said I might share the results. Here they are...

 

How well do you know me?

3 words to generally describe me

My 3 best features

My 3 worst features

Screen Shot 2017-06-03 at 10.32.34 AM.png

How likely are you to recommend me to others?

If I Care, I Criticize

Added on by Chris Saad.

Is this just about checking the friend graph for links to known persons of interest, or would it also include checking for "anti-American" posts?

If it's the latter, and depending on your definition, I may not be able to get my visa renewed.

Ironically my posts are very pro-American. I care. That's why I criticize.

*shrug* if a place doesn't want me I'll go somewhere else. Horrible trend for the world and people with fewer options, though.

Serious Consequences of Trump's election

Added on by Chris Saad.

This is one of the inevitable and serious consequences of Trump's election.

Not changing tax rates or healthcare rollbacks - those are temporary glitches localized mainly to the US.

The real, lasting and potentially catastrophic effect of this cold shock to the system will be the loosening of traditional bonds and norms that have held the world together in a fragile peace since World War 2.

If other countries can't count on the US as a rational, predictable and "normalized" (powerful) actor, then they will begin forming new alliances, strategies and tactics to compensate.

With a lack of US leadership, these new trajectories are likely to present a weakened counter balance to opposing forces (e.g. Russia) and could, themselves, intersect in destabilizing ways.

The result: More frequent and/or larger scale conflict over the course of decades.

Trump's Speech

Added on by Chris Saad.

I called Trump's speech in Saudi Arabia good. Goes to show how complicated the world is - and how oversimplified the media narratives are. It requires masterful scholars and diplomats to navigate - threading the needle towards a good outcome.

Obama was the president we needed. Sadly, Trump is the president we currently deserve.

Creating a Vision for Yourself

Added on by Chris Saad.

Life is full of contradictions.

It's hard. And yet as soon as you accept it's hard it gets a little easier. (Reference "The road less travelled")

It's too short to get hung up on trivialities, but yet life exists in the small moments and little details.

It's so easy and comfortable to tolerate the common and ordinary, but only those that dare to dream and devote themselves to do extraordinary things have any chance of truly making a dent in the universe (reference: Steve Jobs).

And yet, while so many people work endless hours chasing their version of greatness, on their death bed, many simply wish they had spent more time with their family.

There's contradictory advice for every situation. Wisdom is knowing which advice applies to your specific circumstance. The reality is, actually, that the correct course of action depends almost entirely on what you're optimizing for.

Which is really the key to all of it maybe. Having the clearest possible sense of your grandest vision for yourself (reference "Conversations with God") so that you can balance the contradictions in such a way as to drive the outcomes you ultimately, truly want. And (this is key) recognizing - happily - that you chose the outcomes when you finally get them (be careful what you wish for!)

Originally posted on Facebook