#166 Executive Chairman & Former CEO Attentive, Brian Long: Problem Hunting

Grit

Joubin Mirzadegan द्वारा प्रदान की गई सामग्री. एपिसोड, ग्राफिक्स और पॉडकास्ट विवरण सहित सभी पॉडकास्ट सामग्री Joubin Mirzadegan या उनके पॉडकास्ट प्लेटफ़ॉर्म पार्टनर द्वारा सीधे अपलोड और प्रदान की जाती है। यदि आपको लगता है कि कोई आपकी अनुमति के बिना आपके कॉपीराइट किए गए कार्य का उपयोग कर रहा है, तो आप यहां बताई गई प्रक्रिया का पालन कर सकते हैं https://hi.player.fm/legal।

11M ago 1:04:46

MP3•एपिसोड होम

Guest: Brian Long, former CEO of Attentive and author of Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook

Brian Long’s most recent company, Attentive, was originally designed to help clients communicate with their distributed workforce — but about six months in, he and his co-founder realized that that business would not grow as quickly as they had hoped. So, they decided to pivot to SMS marketing, at the cost of a few dubious employees and a well-known Fortune 500 client. The successful pivot confirmed Brian’s belief that it’s possible to over-commit to one solution, when in fact there may be bigger and better problems to solve. “I’ve just seen so many entrepreneurs spend years of their life building something being stuck with it,” he says, “and then trying to figure out how to fit it into something that doesn’t work.”

In this episode, Brian and Joubin discuss zero to one building, the problem with how entrepreneurs solve problems, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Matt Mochary, Tom Mendoza, transactional relationships, the dangers of ego, optimists and realists, best man speeches, defining a unique culture, reverse selling, Lunar Holdings, Peter Reinhardt, marketing conservatively, and business book sales.

In this episode, we cover:

New York vs LA (00:54)
How Brian feels, six months after stepping away from the CEO role (02:37)
Product-market fit and TAM modeling (06:07)
Build last (09:05)
The qualities of great entrepreneurs (13:24)
Tap Commerce and starting in sales (15:49)
Listening and remembering names (20:40)
The day after selling Tap Commerce (23:32)
Starting another company, Attentive (25:07)
Resilience and optimism (29:21)
Fear, doubt, and the worst-case outcome (32:50)
What Brian would tell his 29 year old self (37:13)
Hiring and pivoting at Attentive (41:17)
Text message marketing (45:49)
How Brian interviews people (50:12)
His new holding company, Lunar and its first startup (51:52)
Don’t go social (55:21)
What Brian is personally excited about and what “grit” means to him (01:01:57)

Links:

Connect with Brian
- LinkedIn
- Buy Brian’s book, Problem Hunting: The Tech Startup Textbook
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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