Thoughts & Inquiries

Lots has happened since the last time I blogged. We came out of stealth mode for my start-up, Medella Health. I became a Thiel Fellow. I’ve made new friends, caught up with old ones, and moved away from others. I’ve learnt a lot about new technologies and business best practices. In the midst of all this, I’ve been taking notes on my thoughts, feelings and questions. Throughout this journey, I have been reflecting about what I’ve learned, where I’ve stumbled and how I’ve grown. When I get the time, I will be compiling all this into digestible pieces and uploading it to this blog. 

As entrepreneurs, most of us will probably end up going to the Silicon Valley at some point. Whether it’s to meet potential investors, building relationships or learning about the “Valley mentality”, these are five things I have learnt in my trip to San Francisco:

Take any entrepreneurship advice (or any other type of advice for that matter) with a massive grain of salt. Even this one. Advisers, angels, VCs, fellow entrepreneurs, all give advice based on their experiences and their expertise. That’s it. And therefore no one knows your business better than you. Walmart and Google are great examples of companies that received heavy negative feedback on their businesses in their early phases, but they decided not to listen to their advisers and investors, and it worked out for the better. 

Customer Validation solves some of this (and when you have time to do it), but mostly it’s just an advice-filter that matters. The trick is knowing what to do when you don’t have the data in front of you.

“Sorrow is crucial for an entrepreneur.” This was a quote from George Zachary, who has invested in some of the most successful companies in the world, including Pebble. He said 80% of the entrepreneurs he invests in have gone through hard times prior to being an entrepreneur. It’s not something he looks for (or knows of) when he’s investing, but it’s something that comes up once he gets to know the entrepreneur better over time.

Entrepreneurs have a need to constantly oppose the status quo and that’s where true passion comes in. This need comes from feeling extremely down at some point, and developing the skill of being able to take the emotional roller-coasters needed in entrepreneurship. If everything is daises and champagne, we as humans, never feel the deep desire of changing the status quo. And if you’re an entrepreneur, this need for change is your bread and butter, and must be oozing out of you.

Know your elevator pitch extremely well, so you can be ready to pitch at any circumstance. On my first day while I was taking the train from the airport, I got lost with social entrepreneur in healthcare from Bahrain and a tech entrepreneur. I elevator pitched to them and got some great insights via their networks and hubs I should visit while here. Having a solid elevator pitch creates more opportunities to impress the right people in a very short period of time, and is extremely crucial.

When talking about your start-up, focus on the “why” and “how”, rather than the “what”. People are intrinsically motivated by the stories, how you and your team got there, why you are building a company, and the vision. At the end of the day, the idea becomes a relatively small part of the selling point for a mentor, adviser or investor. Most investors (angels and VCs) are interested in companies because of the team. When investors in the Valley talk about the infamous Twitter story, where the original idea was something completely different than what Twitter ended up being. They invested in Jack and Evan, because they thought they could make the right pivots at the right time (which they did). The only reason they were convinced by Jack and Evan was because they had a compelling “why” and “how”, and the “what” didn’t matter.

“Experiences are just a set of biases.” This was a quote by Vinod Khosla, one of the most prominent VCs in the Valley. The older you get, the more you start understanding the world, and the more you understand the world, the more your mind becomes attuned to follow the rules. The people who do not know the rules are much better at inventing or re-inventing them, whereas those who know the rules just know how they work. The naive entrepreneur is typically in the former category and the veteran mentor is usually in the latter category. This is because the naïve entrepreneur is “stupid” enough to try something crazy and the veteran has the experience and the know-how to make the crazy vision come true.

That was one of the quotes that came from a panel I recently spoke at. It's probably a quote I would not have agreed with two years ago, but since then I have had many mindset changes, and this is one of the big ones.

Competition is a beautiful thing. First, because of the obvious reason, that it pushes you to work and hustle harder. Second and slightly less obvious, it builds credibility and customer validation of your market, especially if you are a start-up. This is crucial, especially in high-tech and untested markets. Almost every investor, funder or mentor will ask you about the competition when you're pitching about your company. In most of the cases, it's a way for them to validate your knowledge of the market, but more importantly, that there is a (large enough) market for this and that the technology is feasible. Thirdly and finally, if a mid-size or a large-size company is working on the same technology as you (especially a Google or a Microsoft), it builds a lot of positive PR for the industry, which is extremely valuable in an untested industry.

Here is a "concise" list of the biggest things I am learning as I am building my start-up. I am sure there is a lot more coming my way, but over the past 6-7 months, these are the most important things I have learnt.

Do it for the passion, not the money. Money is just a by-product that comes out of building a great company. It's not the thing that will get an entrepreneur through the long nights, the unbearable hours, the emotional roller-coasters. It's the passion that does that magic. If money is the sole motivator, a substantial "low" will make the entrepreneur quit. Above all, to make a successful venture, making money is a necessity, only a necessity that comes as a by-product of solving a major problem.

Help Others. Build a community of awesome people around you by caring for them, providing support, and most importantly being resourceful. As this community starts to grow, they will support you when you need them as well. Just like every other important thing, it's a two-way street.

Flirt with the line that defines your comfort zone. Chances are, if you are already building a company, you started because you decided to step outside of the comfort zone. The trick is to continue doing this even when your company is in full-throttle. Jumping between the comfort zone and the non-comfort zone not only pushes our boundary further, but it also helps define who you are.

Understand your customers. One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make is they don't find a strong product-market fit. Find a problem, and then the solution. It sounds simple but most of us don't follow this in practice and rather find a problem for the solution that we are creating. Don't let that be you.

Balance your life. As an entrepreneur, you are working on your venture for about 50-70 hours a week, and probably thinking about it even outside of those 12 hours a day. With that level of commitment, it can be frustrating, easy to burn out, lose the passion, and neglect personal health. That's why it's so important to keep your friends and family close. They will not only keep you relaxed but also keep you in check if you are make mistakes in your personal life (which you will because you will lose your emotional intelligence as you grow your professional skills). 

Build your unfair advantages. Sooner or later, you will inevitably face the following dreadful question, "why can't [some big company] do the same thing you're doing?" and the answer is usually, "they can, but...". What you say after that 'but' is your unfair advantage. An unfair advantage is typically something very few people can replicate - this can can be a certain skill set, IP protection or the type of team you've developed, but the best types of unfair advantages are the ones that come from people you know and have built great relationships with (see the "Help others" section above). Unfair advantages are crucial when starting a new company and staying competitive, especially in those industries with low barriers to entry.

Accept failure. A big part of start-ups is based around iterative learning, where a MVP (minimal viable product) is created and changes are made to the product based on constructive feedback. This mentality isn't limited just to the product, but should also apply to the company as a whole. The company strategy must be made on sound reasoning and logic, but should be open to failure and constructive criticism. Failing to accept these "small" failures, and iterating based on them can define the success or failure of the venture. The magic here is to take calculated risks in a way that the worst failure allows you to continue to make more calculated risks. You will only lose if you make a failure such that you can't take further risks.

Masses of people are captivated by their mobile devices, computers and tablets everyday to play games such as Farmville, Words with Friends, Plants & Zombies and countless more. In 2010, the virtual goods market (such as game upgrades, virtual items etc.) reached $7 billion. This increase in demand has led way for a new field of study, gamification. So what is gamification? Kevin Werbach, an Associate Professor at The Wharton School and a prominent author in the subject, defines it as “the use of game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts.”

Despite being a crucial part of several industries, gamification has not been given a formal process from a design perspective until much recently. Companies such as Foursquare are built on the core principles of gamification, and have reached immense success by successfully incorporating game elements into their business model. Models similar to these are being adopted by more and more companies to create social change, specifically by using gamification as a motivator.

Zamzee was established by a non-profit research organization to improve the health of children and young adults. It uses a meter provided by the company to track the user’s activity, which is then uploaded to Zamzee’s website. Based on the activities completed by the user, he/she is given points and badges, which drives the motivation to further increase their physical activity. It doesn’t sound like a worthwhile investment, but on average, Zamzee users increase their physical activity by 30% once signing up for it.

Another example of gamification within a social enterprise is Opower. Opower takes energy consumption data and gives it a social media twist — users are allowed to compare their energy savings to their neighbours, friends and their past. Based on the changes users make to lower their energy consumption, they are able to save money and are being environmentally conscious. Since it’s start, over 1 trillion kilowatts (and counting) of energy is saved via Opower — talk about peer pressure used for social good.

With these examples, it can be seen how gamification can be used to drive social change and create positive impacts on communities, but it can also be used to drive out intrinsic motivation and deteriorate social impacts. Here is a popular video that shows one horrific example of gamification:

A Futuristic Short Film by Sight Systems

Just over 19 years ago, one of the most unorthodox Nobel Prize Winners walked onto deliver the prestigious yet simplistic Nobel Lectures. Like many of his colleagues, he looked slightly nervous and mostly overwhelmed as Kary Mullis had been just awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. PCR is a method by which a few fragments of DNA can be duplicated into millions over a couple of hours. This invention has paved the path for many scientists to develop valuable tools, overlaying a smorgasbord of research and advancing the field of biotechnology to new levels. Currently, an overwhelming majority of biotechnology or bioinformatic analysis holds a basis in the PCR method. It was a remarkable invention that was sure to push biotechnology to new heights.

Despite this and many other inventions of similar calibre, the biotechnology industry has not met the expectations set out by industry speculators, and has grown rather slowly. So what went wrong? Here are three elements that are crucial in fostering innovation in the biotechnology industry:

Collaboration Platform

Until recently, there was a minimal amount of collaboration present except for (once in a new moon) conferences where a meeting of the minds took place. With the implementation of the current IT infrastructure, scientists are able to easily share ideas, transfer massive amounts of information, and create collaborative solutions. Platforms such as the InnoCentive and NationalCenter for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) have provided researchers with tools for collaboration and standardization, thus solving problems that plagued biotechnologists over the years.

Increasing Diversification

Today’s scientists come from a diverse background, usually specializing in multiple areas rather than a singular area of interest. This mindset allows for multi-faceted and interdisciplinary solutions. As an example, in 2006, Oliver Mason and Mark Verwoerd introduced the intersection of graph theory with cellular networks, leading to systematic understanding of the activities that take place within the cell.

Innovation Ecosystem

Unlike other industries, many of the biotechnology companies work in silos to develop their own hardware with respective software and applications, protected by walls of intellectual property rights. Although this promotes barriers to entry and increase profit margins for existing companies, it limitsinnovation. To create an innovation ecosystem, biotechnology companies need to provide with specific solutions that complement to create a supportive environment rather than operate in detachment.

With the quick pace of technology in the robotics industry, our fear of loss of jobs is cropping up again. Will the fears portrayed by science fiction movies come to realization if we live in the world full of robots? Will we lose our jobs because robots will be more capable than us? I don't know the answers to these questions but I do think that as leaders and innovators, we have the ability to control the outcome of this shift. This ability needs to be developed by doing the following:

Keep learning. We can never out-grow ourselves when it comes to learning new things. There is an astounding amount of knowledge required to be (even remotely) good at something. As long as we are constantly improving ourselves, the market won't give us the boot.

Care for human element. What will differentiate us from robots is our ability to be humane. Find something that plays a part in human interactions and requires connecting to people rather than mundane tasks. This is the basic idea of having a competitive edge, and yes, we have an unfair advantage here.

We are seeing massive changes in the education space and the labour market as we transition from the industrial age to the information age. Less jobs are being posted on the open media, and more jobs are being acquired by network and knowing the “right” people. At the same time, youth unemployment is on the rise with universities pumping out thousands of graduates, and thus diminishing the jobs to student ratio. So, as students and young people, what can we do to make the break in the job markets?

One answer is choosing yourself. A way to do this is to go to a company you are interested in and find a solution to a problem that they might be facing. Email the company with your solution (with the respective value propositions) and how you are a good fit to carry out that solution. In most cases, companies will be interested in hearing new ways in which they can improve their operations to better serve their customers, unless they are severely short on budget. Even if you don’t receive the position, it will show that you have done your research about the company and the industry, and will show your enthusiasm and interest in the company. This will set you apart as a strong candidate, simply because you are differentiating yourself from the rest to go a step further.

In his last lecture, my first year accounting professor (who was slightly nutty but mostly witty) told us that if we hadn't taken any accounting knowledge away from his class, we should at least take away the idea of "strong opinions, weakly held".

It's wasn't the "strong opinions" that was hard to accept, it was the "weakly held". We love the idea of stability, thus making ourselves innately dismissive of changing our opinions once we've reached a conclusion (plus, most of us hate being wrong). This is the core human tendency that prevents us from adopting this "weakly held" mindset; we look at being wrong as a negative, rather than a way to grow and develop.

Birthdays are awesome. Not because you reach an age milestone, or because you can drive now, or because you are officially an "adult". They're awesome because it gives people a trigger to catch-up with you, and more importantly, it's an excuse to celebrate life. Objectively, a birthday is just the passing of 365 days (and sometimes 366), but birthdays hold value because of the meaning we give them, much like all the other things that make life worthwhile.

Early mornings, epistemology, tennis, self-reflection, entrepreneurship, biotechnology, badminton, meeting new people and learning are some of the things I love. When I'm not working, I'm playing some sort of racket sport, meeting new people, running late for a party, or trying to finish the ever-growing bucket list of things I want to do.

In this blog, I'll talk about the controversial and otherwise, some self-reflections, science ethics, entrepreneurship, and any other weird thoughts that come to my mind.