#CEO 11: Shifting Gears: How to Master the Art of the Pivot w/ Bettina Hein

WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:10.589 As an entrepreneur, you do not have the right to insist on being right. 2 00:00:11.109 --> 00:00:15.789 That is not entrepreneurship. If you want to do that, become a 3 00:00:15.949 --> 00:00:22.339 politician. Welcome back to another episode of the CEO Series on the BB growth 4 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:26.100 show. I'm your host, John Belas. Are Editor of the CEO Playbook 5 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:31.500 and online publication full of stories from real CEOS and practical sage advice for founders 6 00:00:31.539 --> 00:00:35.700 and CEOS of high growth companies. Today we're talking about the art of the 7 00:00:35.810 --> 00:00:40.090 pivot. Mike Tyson has a famous saying. Everyone has a plan till they 8 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:42.609 get punched in the mouth. Believe it or not, that saying is a 9 00:00:42.689 --> 00:00:46.450 perfect description of what most startup founders encounter when they launch an you venture. 10 00:00:46.649 --> 00:00:50.600 For example, during my first venture, my cofounders and I met every Saturday 11 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:54.280 for over a year to discuss and hone the idea for a new venture. 12 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:59.000 We eventually left our jobs to create the future of software development. I literally 13 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:02.359 would walk around with a box of legos. We spent months writing a business 14 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:06.030 plan and honing our market sizing and getting a good sense of how we were 15 00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:08.469 going to attack the market. We were ready within the first thirty days of 16 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:14.549 launching our venture and experiencing the market, we realize we were among a sea 17 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:21.060 of comparable companies, companies tuting similar wares in a space that was completely different 18 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:23.819 than what we had planned. These other companies were well funded ones of that 19 00:01:25.299 --> 00:01:27.620 and I remember that day clearly. We decided to head over to a pizza 20 00:01:27.700 --> 00:01:32.930 shop and lick our wounds. Our mouths were bleeding. After a few slices, 21 00:01:33.290 --> 00:01:37.769 some microbrew and an impromptu thought experiment, we had the beginnings of our 22 00:01:37.890 --> 00:01:41.689 first pivot. It took several more over the next couple of years to get 23 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:44.489 to the finish line, but the company that we sold the one thousand nine 24 00:01:44.530 --> 00:01:48.079 hundred and ninety nine, looked nothing like the one we had planned. Such 25 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:52.400 is the startup founder journey. So you have this great idea for a product 26 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.680 that will change the world, you assemble a team, you start developing the 27 00:01:55.799 --> 00:02:00.040 technology and revealing it to the world and Bang, just like that, there's 28 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:04.629 a pandemic that triggers a global economic downturn. What do you do? Well, 29 00:02:04.709 --> 00:02:07.670 as Mike Tyson puts it, as long as we persevere and endure, 30 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:12.189 we can get anything we want. So to persevere, you have to master 31 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:15.900 the pivot. Today I am joined by my good friend and passionate entrepreneur, 32 00:02:15.979 --> 00:02:21.099 betina hind. Bettina is a serial software entrepreneur that has built technology companies in 33 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:24.300 both Europe and the United States. She's most recently the founder of Julie Health, 34 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:29.819 a digital health company, her third software startup. She is also the 35 00:02:29.939 --> 00:02:35.330 founder and board member of fixability, a video advertising company in Boston. Prior 36 00:02:35.409 --> 00:02:39.689 to fixability, Bettina Co founded s box, the Swiss based speech Technology Company, 37 00:02:39.889 --> 00:02:45.000 which was acquired by nuance communications for a hundred and twenty five million dollars. 38 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:49.840 Bettina has received numerous awards and recognitions, such as the two thousand and 39 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:53.840 eighteen immigrant entrepreneur of the year award, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, 40 00:02:54.199 --> 00:03:00.110 Loriw Next Generation Award and the Boston business journals forty to forty award. Bettina 41 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:06.710 holds a master's degree from Mt a law degree from the University of Constance and 42 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:10.629 a business degree from the University of State Gallon. Bettina holds two software patents 43 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:15.419 and is the CO author of video marketing for dummies. She is also a 44 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:20.020 shark on the Swiss version of Shark tank. Bettina and I talked about when 45 00:03:20.099 --> 00:03:23.060 technology is ahead of its time, how to pivot until you find a market, 46 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:27.770 course, correction, of course, and working with your spouse, and 47 00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:31.409 we also talk about being a woman CEO and how to deal with the challenges 48 00:03:31.569 --> 00:03:36.169 of being a solo founder and so much more. Okay, let's get into 49 00:03:36.210 --> 00:03:40.520 it. Bettina, welcome to the show. Hi John, thanks for having 50 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:44.919 me on. So, as I understand it, you're just coming out of 51 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.080 Warrantine that you had to do. Yep, we visited Boston, where I 52 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:53.360 lived for twelve years, and to see my parents, and we just returned 53 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:58.590 to Switzerland and they require a ten day quarantine when you return from a list 54 00:03:58.629 --> 00:04:02.189 of Red Zone countries and unfortunately the United States is on that list. We 55 00:04:02.310 --> 00:04:05.310 were as red as it gets at this point, unfortunately. And is it 56 00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:09.310 police like, to somebody sort of come and check on you or anything like 57 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:11.180 that, or is it more sort of like a, you know, honor 58 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:15.659 system? It's hard to say. They say they do spot checks, but 59 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:19.500 we weren't checked on, but they do impose a tenzero dollar fine if you 60 00:04:19.660 --> 00:04:25.649 violate the quarantine require months. So we were trying to beat damn sure that 61 00:04:25.810 --> 00:04:30.250 we abide it by the rules. Wow, ten thousand now I've said that's 62 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:31.930 amazing what Betina, we're going to be talking about a lot of things. 63 00:04:31.970 --> 00:04:34.610 I'm glad you came out and I hope everybody's safe and healthy. We're going 64 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:36.730 to talk about a lot of things today. I first want to get the 65 00:04:36.769 --> 00:04:41.920 audience to get to know you. I'm going to start with just telling us 66 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:44.759 about your journey. Let's start with where you grew up. So you lived 67 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:46.720 in Boston for twelve years, give or take, but you're not originally from 68 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:50.560 there. Where you're from? Originally? I was born in Berlin, Germany, 69 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:56.949 back when it was West Berlin, during the Cold War, and I 70 00:04:57.870 --> 00:05:02.870 then moved with my family to western Germany, to Dort want, and then 71 00:05:03.189 --> 00:05:09.699 when I was six years old my parents separated and they both married Americans and 72 00:05:09.779 --> 00:05:14.379 their second marriages. So when I was six we moved to Columbia, South 73 00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:18.420 Carolina, and we lived there and then we lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 74 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:23.529 and then, as a teenager, I also lived in Dallas, Texas, 75 00:05:23.769 --> 00:05:27.290 where my dad moved with his new wife. But then I went back 76 00:05:27.290 --> 00:05:30.569 to Germany and finished my school there, middle school and high school, and 77 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:34.689 then I went to Switzerland for college and that's where I met my husband. 78 00:05:34.689 --> 00:05:39.959 And that's where I started my first software company. Amazing. And what did 79 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:45.079 you study at University? What was your Undergrad and I studied business administration with 80 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:48.480 a specialization and finance and counting. And how did you meet your husband? 81 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:54.670 He is actually a student about two years ahead of me at the same university. 82 00:05:54.790 --> 00:05:58.829 So we're at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland. And Yeah, 83 00:05:58.949 --> 00:06:03.540 he had a major in information management. We met through common friends and I 84 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:10.899 knew him as a friend for a few years and after I graduated we became 85 00:06:10.899 --> 00:06:15.019 a couple and he had already started, he was already three years into starting 86 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:20.129 his own tech company at that point. HMM, just day before we sort 87 00:06:20.170 --> 00:06:26.930 of get into your first entrepreneur adventure. Am I right in that you were 88 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:30.569 an activist on campus or something like that? Oh, yeah, I totally 89 00:06:30.850 --> 00:06:35.519 was. Yes, tell us about that. So I have been sort of 90 00:06:35.639 --> 00:06:41.959 involved in student initiatives. Yeah, from early on I was, you know, 91 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:48.149 a class representative in school and when I was in high school I actually 92 00:06:48.269 --> 00:06:55.389 I did internships in the US House of Representatives. I worked actually for, 93 00:06:55.790 --> 00:07:00.709 at that time, the only black woman in Congress and she's still in Congress 94 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:04.620 thirty years later. Eleanor Holmes Norton. She is a legend. So I 95 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:10.100 worked for her for a summer and then I also interned in the German parliament 96 00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:16.410 and I was the president of a youth umbrella organization and our town that represent 97 00:07:16.689 --> 00:07:25.290 into all of the different youth organizations, from political youth organizations to the Volunteer 98 00:07:25.689 --> 00:07:30.079 Fire Department youth, to the Choir Youth and you know, all of these 99 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.920 things. So I did that when I was still in high school and then 100 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:38.600 when I went to college, in my first semester I was elected to the 101 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:42.680 student parliament and then for the three years following that I was in sort of 102 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:47.189 the executive branch of the student government and in my last year I was president 103 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:50.589 of the student government and it was pretty much a full time job. I 104 00:07:50.750 --> 00:07:55.990 had a hundred and fifty people that were working in the different initiatives. I 105 00:07:56.189 --> 00:08:00.779 had over a million dollars in budget, and this was a long time ago, 106 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:03.819 so that was a lot of money bank then. Amazing. Yeah, 107 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:07.939 and so I learned a lot about management and during that time, I mean 108 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:13.170 I was twenty two when I became president of the student government, and it 109 00:08:13.649 --> 00:08:20.329 was yeah, it was politics, it was management, it was getting projects 110 00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:24.649 done. It was fundraising. It was an amazing experience and you know, 111 00:08:24.689 --> 00:08:28.560 I can recommend it highly to anybody to do that as practice for the real 112 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:31.799 world. Yeah, fantastic. Would definitely have to come back to X. 113 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:35.000 I want to see how that influence your role as Seeo down the road. 114 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:39.120 And so you alluded to the first venture. Tell us about that. What 115 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:41.990 was that about? Where did you started? Started here in the states or 116 00:08:43.230 --> 00:08:46.950 abroad? I started it and to witzer land. My first company was called 117 00:08:48.429 --> 00:08:52.629 s box and it was a text to speech software company that was spun out 118 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:58.779 of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and we licensed the technology from 119 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:05.419 the university and created this company and we thought this was in two thousand and 120 00:09:05.539 --> 00:09:11.129 one and we were very sure that by two years later everybody would be having 121 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:18.330 their email read aloud to them and there would be this constant communication with machines 122 00:09:18.450 --> 00:09:24.279 that speak to you. Sounds very well. That took another twenty years for 123 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:30.559 everybody to see that that was the way to do things, with a serie 124 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.399 and Alexa and Google home. But yeah, so we did that and we 125 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:39.149 struggled a whole lot. I mean it was really hard to get this company 126 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:43.870 going and to figure out a market for it. While we were trying to 127 00:09:43.990 --> 00:09:50.590 figure out our way, we we ran first of all into thecom crash but 128 00:09:50.789 --> 00:09:56.100 then, for us even worse, into the telecom crash of two thousand and 129 00:09:56.539 --> 00:10:01.860 one, the WorldCom scandal, those things that were happening. And we were 130 00:10:01.139 --> 00:10:07.809 trying to sell into telecommunications companies and we were trying to sell by something back 131 00:10:07.929 --> 00:10:15.889 then people called a telephony channel and we we had our business plan all planned 132 00:10:15.889 --> 00:10:18.730 out and we said, okay, we're going to get eight hundred euros per 133 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:22.879 channel and this is how it's going to scale and we had a beautiful spreadsheet 134 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:28.159 that, you know, showed all of that. Well, within the course 135 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:33.399 of two months, they amount that you got for a telephony channel went from 136 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:39.830 eight hundred euro down to one hundred euro and so boom, that business plan 137 00:10:39.110 --> 00:10:43.909 and went up in smoke. And there wasn't you know, we knew that 138 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:46.149 with the competition that was out there, there were not enough, to lef 139 00:10:46.230 --> 00:10:50.700 any channels in Europe to make a living with us. So we had to 140 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:54.860 look somewhere else and we tried a bunch of things. We tried like talking 141 00:10:54.940 --> 00:11:01.899 avatars and cows that spoke messages from the Swiss Milk Federation and we went through 142 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:07.850 all kinds of iterations. So we finally landed in the automotive industry. And 143 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:13.129 you know, when one door closes, another opens. So what was happening 144 00:11:13.169 --> 00:11:18.799 at the same time was this boom in GPS devices and you had these personal 145 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.600 navigation devices, the Tom Tom's of the day, right, yeah, I 146 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:26.519 had one of those. Yeah, yeah, and and that became the hit 147 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:31.240 gadget. We made it somehow, and you know our competition that we were 148 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:37.149 a check the box item for these gadgets, because what we could do, 149 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:41.669 and you know, we had these grand dreams of lots of natural voices being 150 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:46.990 read out to you and great literature. Lahallah, the killer feature was reading 151 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:52.820 street names, right, that's street. It's not. You know, it 152 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:58.980 wasn't it glorious, but it was a good business model, and so we 153 00:11:58.179 --> 00:12:03.450 sold into those companies. But what was even more lucrative is that we sold 154 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:07.049 into the automotive industry. But to get there, I mean we ran out 155 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:09.850 of money, we had to fire more than half of our people, I 156 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:15.570 think like seventy percent of the people we hired. You know, we furloughed 157 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:20.720 people and went on government assistance and got some grants to put some people on 158 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:26.320 research grants and all kinds of crazy stuff. So it was quite the first 159 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:31.870 four to five years were huge battle to really get anywhere. Amazing. Now 160 00:12:31.990 --> 00:12:35.870 when you say we, who was we? Was Your husband in this company 161 00:12:35.950 --> 00:12:39.470 to or? No, no, he had his own company. He encouraged 162 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:41.309 me to do this. You know, I as a young woman, I 163 00:12:41.990 --> 00:12:48.100 didn't have the self confidence really to found my own company straight out of graduate 164 00:12:48.179 --> 00:12:50.539 school. I thought, you know, I would just have to pay my 165 00:12:50.659 --> 00:12:54.460 dues, work my way up and, you know, go to a corporate 166 00:12:54.500 --> 00:13:01.730 job. But I did a lot of internships during college and also already during 167 00:13:01.730 --> 00:13:05.690 high school. My Dad would make me like every school vacation I had to 168 00:13:05.850 --> 00:13:11.690 go do an internship, and what was interesting about that was that I had 169 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:16.919 these liberation fantasies every time I worked with people and they had such great ideas 170 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.200 and they would talk to me about how their boss would not let them do 171 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:22.440 this. If they could only do this one thing, things would you know? 172 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:26.039 They could open up a whole new market or do these great things. 173 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:30.389 And you know, I was the little intern. I wasn't going to threaten 174 00:13:30.429 --> 00:13:33.149 anybody. So they could fide it in me and I always thought, man, 175 00:13:33.669 --> 00:13:37.230 I should have a company where I get all these cool people and just 176 00:13:37.509 --> 00:13:41.460 let them do their stuff. So so that was, you know, that 177 00:13:41.659 --> 00:13:46.620 was sort of my experience with corporate jobs. And then I had an internship 178 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:54.139 with mckinzie, the renowned or notorious consulting company, and this was considered the 179 00:13:54.379 --> 00:13:58.649 best thing that could happen to you if you were at my university. I 180 00:13:58.730 --> 00:14:03.529 mean I was the envy of my whole class right that I got picked for 181 00:14:03.649 --> 00:14:07.529 this prestigious internship, which I was skeptical about, and I proceeded to do 182 00:14:07.690 --> 00:14:11.240 this. It was a ten week long internship and it was the longest ten 183 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:18.519 weeks of my life, professional life. It was so horrible that I started 184 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:24.279 to take really long bathroom breaks and if you've ever been in that situation, 185 00:14:24.509 --> 00:14:30.149 your professional like you know something is wrong. So that experience really put the 186 00:14:30.190 --> 00:14:35.029 nail in the coffin for me for this kind of corporate path. I really 187 00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:39.500 didn't want to work for an investment bank. I really didn't work for consulting 188 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:43.580 company. Like everybody in my college, my university, you know, those 189 00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:46.980 were the dream jobs back then. So I chose the path that was a 190 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:54.769 lot less lucrative at the time, and my fellow students actually looked at me 191 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:56.649 with pity when they met me, you know. They I was like, 192 00:14:56.889 --> 00:15:00.409 what are you doing now, Be Tina? I'm like, Oh, I'm 193 00:15:00.529 --> 00:15:03.090 with this startup company, and they looked at me like they said, oh, 194 00:15:03.210 --> 00:15:07.159 that's nice. They thought, Oh my God, how far has she 195 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:13.679 fallen? Right right, look at you with much pity. Huh. Yeah, 196 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:16.120 they looked at me with a lot of pity. Yeah, I mean, 197 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:20.629 I'm sure you had experiences like that as well. Absolutely so, tell 198 00:15:20.669 --> 00:15:24.070 me about the founding team of the first company. How many founders and what 199 00:15:24.230 --> 00:15:28.549 was your role on the team? We were four and a half founders. 200 00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:31.870 One came a little bit later, and that's why I say four and a 201 00:15:31.909 --> 00:15:39.100 half. The two original founders that worked on the technology while it was still 202 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:46.259 inside the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, HMM, were eventually the CEO, 203 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:52.370 Folkusen, and the CTEO, and then later it became chief scientist, custuff 204 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:58.090 Taba, and when I was in discussions with you know, I'd started this 205 00:15:58.289 --> 00:16:04.320 entrepreneurship initiative and college called start that still exists twenty odd years later. I 206 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:07.639 had learned, you know, I've trying to teach myself entrepreneurship. I had 207 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:11.519 learned that you have to have a salesperson on board. So I talked to 208 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.519 these two founders. They were trying to find people to cofound with them, 209 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:19.029 and I said, okay, I like this, I think it's really great, 210 00:16:19.309 --> 00:16:23.429 but we have to have a salesperson on board. So they also recruited 211 00:16:23.509 --> 00:16:27.149 a salesperson, and so that was the four founders. The sales guy was 212 00:16:27.269 --> 00:16:34.940 Tomas Bends, and then later we hired somebody for marketing and business development called 213 00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:41.779 Alex fries, and he we recruited him from Silicon Valley. He was Swiss 214 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:45.779 and he wanted to come back home with his wife and kids and we recruited 215 00:16:45.820 --> 00:16:48.330 him and he became the fifth cofounder. And so among that group. Maybe 216 00:16:48.330 --> 00:16:52.210 I missed it. What was your role in at five? Oh, sorry, 217 00:16:52.330 --> 00:16:56.250 yes, so I was the COO got it, which is, you 218 00:16:56.330 --> 00:16:59.769 know, we just came up with a title. I mean, you know, 219 00:16:59.929 --> 00:17:02.679 these are startups. We were young. How did you meet the two 220 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:04.759 guys? The two guys that told like the core technologist, if you will, 221 00:17:06.200 --> 00:17:11.640 interesting story. So I founded this initiative start, which is a huge 222 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:15.829 entrepreneurship conference these days. That was, you know, I found it it 223 00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:19.670 sort of as a self help project for me and others to learn about entrepreneurship, 224 00:17:19.910 --> 00:17:23.789 because we didn't, you know, I went to business school and we 225 00:17:23.950 --> 00:17:27.990 didn't learn about how to write a business plan, how to secure Ip, 226 00:17:29.269 --> 00:17:33.099 how to fund a company. So I thought we're going to found a student 227 00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:36.619 initiative around this. So I did that and I recruited people and became really 228 00:17:36.660 --> 00:17:41.500 successful, and the second generation of the people that were doing this later founded 229 00:17:41.619 --> 00:17:47.369 a company called brains to ventures and was kind of a founder dating platform. 230 00:17:47.650 --> 00:17:49.849 So interesting. Yeah, so they convinced me said, look, got to 231 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:56.329 walk your talk now, Bettina, you're always preaching entrepreneurship. You got to 232 00:17:56.490 --> 00:17:59.319 sign up for our platform, and I said, okay, I'll do it, 233 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:03.559 and so they matched me with a couple of companies and it turns out 234 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.640 that one of them bid was as Fox, and I was off to the 235 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:14.069 races with them. That's amazing. Yeah, even better is that that company 236 00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:18.910 then morphed into a venture capital fund and when we came back to Switzerland two 237 00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:23.630 years ago, they contacted my husband, who they also knew from university, 238 00:18:23.829 --> 00:18:27.619 and now he's a partner in their digital fund. Wow. Yeah, so 239 00:18:27.859 --> 00:18:33.059 fantastic. Full circle there. It went full circle exactly. Yeah, so 240 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:36.779 complete the art of s box for me. Yeah, so we finally got 241 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:41.420 into the automotive industry. It was quite the battle, but we found a 242 00:18:41.609 --> 00:18:51.089 lucrative business model, which was that we integrated our technology on the particular chips 243 00:18:51.130 --> 00:18:57.039 at that an automotive manufacture had and we charged an integration fee for that and 244 00:18:57.160 --> 00:19:02.000 then when the car went off the assembly line, which was a few years 245 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:06.680 later, we would get a royalty for every single car that was produced. 246 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.829 At the beginning we were charging like thirty grand for this because for us it 247 00:19:11.910 --> 00:19:15.269 was not a lot of effort to do this. And then we figured out 248 00:19:15.470 --> 00:19:21.470 at some point that that our competitors were charging three, four, five hundred 249 00:19:21.549 --> 00:19:29.539 thousand dollars just for the non recurring engineering expenses and our ease. And you 250 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:33.579 know, it was it was yeah, we just buy our CEO. Tried 251 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:37.700 it, like the entrepreneurial principle is like raise your prices by x and see 252 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:41.970 if anybody buys. Well, we did this and suddenly the company was profitable. 253 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:45.970 Sure, no problems. Yeah, we were so close to bankruptcy so 254 00:19:47.210 --> 00:19:52.690 often and then we did this and boom we were profitable. We could finance 255 00:19:52.769 --> 00:19:56.640 the whole company from this. And then those per unit license fees. That 256 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:02.720 was just pure profit. And so after five years we had gathered a lot 257 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:07.309 of these and I then left the company because my husband has sold his first 258 00:20:07.430 --> 00:20:11.589 company and work for the choir for a while and then didn't like that very 259 00:20:11.630 --> 00:20:17.269 much and wanted to leave. And we had wanted to do something abroad and 260 00:20:17.390 --> 00:20:21.349 a different country, and so I decided, after five years, after s 261 00:20:21.500 --> 00:20:26.299 box was profitable, to go with my husband to might and become a sloan 262 00:20:26.420 --> 00:20:32.380 fellow there. So we both applied to might, we got accepted and we 263 00:20:32.779 --> 00:20:37.849 in two thousand and six we did a master's degree there. So I left 264 00:20:37.089 --> 00:20:41.809 S Fox. I left my cofounders that it was sad because I wasn't really 265 00:20:41.970 --> 00:20:45.210 ready to leave and we were just starting to scale. So the company from 266 00:20:45.210 --> 00:20:51.480 then on scaled really well and took more years, but in two thousand and 267 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:56.799 eleven we sold the company. All told, we had raised eight million dollars 268 00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:00.680 in equity and we sold it for a hundred and twenty five million dollars. 269 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:04.230 Wow, congratulations. Something to be said for you know, longevity and pivoting 270 00:21:04.269 --> 00:21:08.509 before the word was in vogue. Yeah, and finding the product market fit 271 00:21:08.549 --> 00:21:11.789 right, finding the place where you can build a business. Fascinating. Yeah, 272 00:21:11.829 --> 00:21:15.670 that's been my experience. I mean you never end up where you start 273 00:21:15.710 --> 00:21:18.940 with business, as you always have to pivot, as anybody that says it 274 00:21:18.980 --> 00:21:22.579 any differently is lying. Yeah, absolutely it. Yeah, it's been my 275 00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:26.660 experience. Even the company I'm running now, it's kind as a constant sort 276 00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:30.460 of course correction as you're driving, you know, fast on the road kind 277 00:21:30.500 --> 00:21:33.410 of thing, to find the right route. Yep, exactly. What are 278 00:21:33.450 --> 00:21:37.009 the learnings from that first venture? What would you saar that like a top 279 00:21:37.089 --> 00:21:42.009 three from from s box? MMM, don't get ahead of your skis as 280 00:21:42.049 --> 00:21:45.250 a little bit one of them. So we were just young and naive and 281 00:21:45.369 --> 00:21:48.880 we thought, you know, our business plan is totally going to work out 282 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:52.440 and we're going to write so we can hire all these people and we're going 283 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:57.960 to do that optimism apter. So being a little bit more conservative with that. 284 00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:03.670 That's one of them. The next one is transparency. HMM, when 285 00:22:04.150 --> 00:22:10.910 we went through this period where we had to go on furlowing people and then 286 00:22:11.029 --> 00:22:15.259 actually firing the majority of them, it was really, really hard because, 287 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:18.180 you know, first of all, I mean I wasn't even thirty, I 288 00:22:18.339 --> 00:22:23.420 was so young, and I had to I felt really horrible about, you 289 00:22:23.500 --> 00:22:29.660 know, destroying people's livelihood. That was really I mean that was that was 290 00:22:29.819 --> 00:22:33.890 so hard. And in Europe it's also it's taken a lot more seriously. 291 00:22:33.130 --> 00:22:37.809 Like when you fire somebody, they have a notice period, so you see 292 00:22:37.890 --> 00:22:41.450 them every day for another three months. Yeah, you have to look them 293 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:45.400 in the eye every day and you know, there's you and there's your two 294 00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:51.359 children and your spouse and everything that you know, the family back in Spain 295 00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:57.359 that you support, and I fired you because I am incompetent. So yeah, 296 00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:00.990 so the reason that I talked about transparency is that, because we were 297 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:07.509 young and very optimistic, in our all hands meetings we would always, you 298 00:23:07.549 --> 00:23:11.390 know, say we have some opportunities here and there's a great lead there and 299 00:23:11.589 --> 00:23:15.579 we're doing a pilot here, and everybody was only hearing the RAW Rara. 300 00:23:15.940 --> 00:23:22.019 We did talk about other things, but what people heard as everything is great, 301 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:26.259 this is going upwards into the right and all is great. And then 302 00:23:26.259 --> 00:23:33.009 they were shocked beyond belief when we said sorry, we have to send you 303 00:23:33.210 --> 00:23:37.849 home because we're all furlowed. Now you can come in for one hour a 304 00:23:37.970 --> 00:23:42.319 week and the rest you'll be getting eighty percent of your salary through government assistance. 305 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:47.880 And people were like, they didn't trust US anymore. They said, 306 00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:51.319 why did you lie to us? We didn't lie, right, we didn't 307 00:23:51.400 --> 00:23:55.440 lie to anybody, but we just weren't transparent enough. First of all, 308 00:23:55.480 --> 00:23:59.230 we were afraid to give people the whole truth. We thought they would leave 309 00:23:59.910 --> 00:24:03.710 and all of that. And so what I learned from that for Pixability, 310 00:24:03.829 --> 00:24:10.299 for my next company, was that you should really make everything that you can 311 00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:17.539 transparent. So epics ability the only thing that was private and confidential with salary 312 00:24:17.660 --> 00:24:21.500 information. Some people argue that it shouldn't be that either, but that was 313 00:24:21.660 --> 00:24:23.930 the only thing. Everything else, if you wanted access to that, you 314 00:24:25.049 --> 00:24:27.690 could just go on the Google drive and take a look at it and ask 315 00:24:27.769 --> 00:24:32.569 me any questions you wanted to. That's great. So that's the second learning. 316 00:24:32.730 --> 00:24:36.410 The third learning is that, I think the pivoting thing, that's the 317 00:24:36.529 --> 00:24:40.000 third one, right, that you have to be nimble with what you're doing 318 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:47.240 and you can't be stubborn. As an entrepreneur. You do not have the 319 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:52.670 right to insist on being right. That is not entrepreneurship. If you want 320 00:24:52.670 --> 00:24:57.349 to do that, become a politician or something. You have to be humble 321 00:24:57.549 --> 00:25:02.029 enough to say, I was wrong and I need to correct this. I 322 00:25:02.150 --> 00:25:06.269 need to correct it quickly, because livelihoods are at stake. I can't afford 323 00:25:06.309 --> 00:25:08.740 to be stubborn. That's fantastic, just so does playing those back. Don't 324 00:25:08.740 --> 00:25:12.900 get ahead of yourself, because the business plan you right is most likely wrong. 325 00:25:15.140 --> 00:25:18.059 Second, be transparent with your team. Don't be afraid to share two 326 00:25:18.140 --> 00:25:22.490 things that you're most likely often afraid to share, because they'll make the whole 327 00:25:22.529 --> 00:25:26.970 team stronger and they'll be with you when things are tough. And the third 328 00:25:27.130 --> 00:25:32.369 is be humble. Don't be so stubborn about being right. Be Humble and 329 00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:34.759 be prepared to be wrong and, course, correct appropriately. Yes, so 330 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:40.079 now this fast forward a bit to fixability, which was your next venture and 331 00:25:40.200 --> 00:25:42.000 this one, as I understand that you and your husband Co found. You 332 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:45.160 had other co founders in that one. Actually, my husband didn't co found 333 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:48.680 the company. I was the sole founder. Is that right? Yeah, 334 00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:53.589 yeah, I founded it by myself and that was hard. I really hesitated 335 00:25:53.670 --> 00:25:57.230 to do that. There were some people that said no, go ahead, 336 00:25:57.230 --> 00:26:00.829 you can do it, but I would not have found it by myself if 337 00:26:00.869 --> 00:26:04.819 I had been able to find co founders. I was new to the United 338 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:08.500 States, you know, in my professional life I had never lived in the 339 00:26:08.579 --> 00:26:12.460 US. I was at might and I met lots of people there, but 340 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:18.970 I couldn't find anybody that really wanted to do this idea. And so, 341 00:26:18.369 --> 00:26:23.690 yeah, I embarked on it by myself and just recruited people then to work 342 00:26:23.809 --> 00:26:30.009 with me as early employees, and my husband then became my Cteo two years 343 00:26:30.130 --> 00:26:33.319 in, actually two and a half years, and and we did that for 344 00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:37.680 a variety of reasons. First of all, I think he's awesome and a 345 00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:42.079 great technologist, but also I was pregnant with our first child and we thought 346 00:26:42.119 --> 00:26:45.880 we could coordinate that better if we were working together. And also it was 347 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:52.150 a visa issue. His startup that he founded right out of MIT didn't make 348 00:26:52.190 --> 00:26:56.349 it through the financial crisis. They raised money but then couldn't raise anymore and 349 00:26:56.549 --> 00:27:00.910 so his visa was in jeopardy. He would have had to leave the United 350 00:27:00.950 --> 00:27:04.980 States and I didn't want to give up on pixability yet. So I said 351 00:27:06.019 --> 00:27:08.619 look, I'll hire you and we'll see how that goes. For six months 352 00:27:08.660 --> 00:27:12.299 and I got the board to agree to it and everything. And Yeah, 353 00:27:12.420 --> 00:27:17.690 and out of that six months became eight years. Amazing. Yeah, I 354 00:27:17.769 --> 00:27:19.769 didn't know that. That's fascinating. And did you put him through a formal 355 00:27:19.809 --> 00:27:26.529 interview or anything like that? Joking, who is this? I don't noticed. 356 00:27:26.690 --> 00:27:32.400 Well, for time I was really fixated on the top grading interviews. 357 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:36.200 So I did that with even like friends, and I put through with this 358 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:38.960 that I was recruiting and that after a while they were like, Pettina, 359 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:45.710 just stop it. Upgrading. I mean, yeah, I do. I 360 00:27:45.069 --> 00:27:48.589 love it too, but if you look at the original book, I mean 361 00:27:48.670 --> 00:27:51.789 it's as thick as a Bible. It's pretty thick. Yeah, and so 362 00:27:51.869 --> 00:27:56.309 if you really do that religiously, it is. It's kind of crazy. 363 00:27:56.589 --> 00:28:00.940 It's pretty good. One interview we did in our I think was a second 364 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:03.220 company. We were doing the top grading and it's one candidate just said like 365 00:28:03.420 --> 00:28:08.819 could I have some food? Starving right now? You know, so funny. 366 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:14.130 This thing is long then. Yeah, yeah, no, so I 367 00:28:14.170 --> 00:28:17.650 don't think I put him through an interview. I wouldn't put it past myself 368 00:28:17.690 --> 00:28:21.210 that I would do something like that, but he did have to interview with 369 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:22.690 a board, though. Got It. Yeah, it makes sense to the 370 00:28:22.849 --> 00:28:26.849 pretty important role. So tell us about fixability. But either or not, 371 00:28:26.049 --> 00:28:30.240 I have your playbook in front of me. It's one of the best playbooks 372 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:32.359 I've ever seen, so I'll read the mission to you and then you can 373 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:36.799 translate it for our listeners. To power the changing video economy by precisely connecting 374 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:41.829 marketers with the right consumers. Yeah, so pisability and it's current incarnation is 375 00:28:42.190 --> 00:28:51.349 a video advertising optimization company. We help large marketers to optimize their video advertising, 376 00:28:51.710 --> 00:28:56.220 mostly on Youtube, you know. We optimize for certain metrics, like 377 00:28:56.700 --> 00:29:03.660 attention that people pay to these videos, for clicks, for brand recall all 378 00:29:03.700 --> 00:29:07.980 those kinds of things, and for price. But that's not how fixability started. 379 00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:12.809 We were actually something completely different, and in the process of fixability I 380 00:29:14.130 --> 00:29:19.210 became the queen of pivots, because we like rewind a bit. So I'm 381 00:29:19.250 --> 00:29:22.970 new to the United States, right. I had just done this very much 382 00:29:23.250 --> 00:29:30.079 whale hunting startup that sold to the automotive industry and I and my Hubris thought 383 00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:37.829 that not only can I change the country and change the industry, but also 384 00:29:38.029 --> 00:29:42.789 I can change the distribution channel can go from be to be, to be 385 00:29:44.029 --> 00:29:48.589 to see. So here was what pixability was. It was a consumer product 386 00:29:49.190 --> 00:29:56.099 that took way back when this all existed, all of your VHS tapes and 387 00:29:56.180 --> 00:30:00.299 Super Eight tapes and, you know, all the video material that you would 388 00:30:00.299 --> 00:30:02.900 collect, and you know, this was in two thousand and eight, right, 389 00:30:03.019 --> 00:30:07.809 so people didn't have cameras on phones and stuff to record stuff and we 390 00:30:07.849 --> 00:30:12.410 would digitize all of that and edit it together to a highlight reel of like 391 00:30:12.569 --> 00:30:18.690 for a family reunion or birthday or a wedding, edit that all together, 392 00:30:18.970 --> 00:30:23.200 and we were looking to do that, not really automatically, right, with 393 00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:29.240 artificial intelligence. Again, this was two thousand and eight, so that wasn't 394 00:30:29.480 --> 00:30:32.920 really very feasible at the point, but we were going to do it with 395 00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:40.869 technology enabled services and I launched the company any in October of two thousand and 396 00:30:40.910 --> 00:30:45.390 eight. We went live with our services and our website right into the financial 397 00:30:45.430 --> 00:30:49.299 crisis. Wow, so that was terrible, you could say, but I 398 00:30:49.420 --> 00:30:53.859 would actually argue that it was a good thing, because if I had done 399 00:30:53.980 --> 00:30:57.980 this in a boom market which before, you know, people had money to 400 00:30:59.099 --> 00:31:02.380 spend left and right, people would have said this is a great idea, 401 00:31:02.700 --> 00:31:07.809 wonderful, super what I realized within the first four months of doing this is 402 00:31:07.289 --> 00:31:14.650 that the people that were buying my two hundred dollar service had household incomes of 403 00:31:14.690 --> 00:31:19.200 two hundred and Fiftyzero dollars plus. That was not a scalable business. Got 404 00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:25.160 They're not enough people. That was not a market. So we went through 405 00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:27.720 a number of pivots. We thought of all kinds of things. Should we 406 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:33.509 do highlight reels for college applications, now that nobody had money and people had 407 00:31:33.509 --> 00:31:37.430 to get scholarships, sports scholarship? Should we do pet videos because people were 408 00:31:37.470 --> 00:31:41.549 so devoted to their pets? But what actually then came out was that a 409 00:31:41.710 --> 00:31:47.259 lot of people in my entrepreneurial network that I had been building said, hey, 410 00:31:47.539 --> 00:31:49.819 can't you do this for us, like I need a company video, 411 00:31:49.859 --> 00:31:55.059 I want to explain to my customers. And so I put an ad in 412 00:31:55.140 --> 00:31:59.019 this newsletter and I said, okay, well, you know, maybe we 413 00:31:59.140 --> 00:32:01.970 need to pivot to this and otherwise I might need to do something else. 414 00:32:02.089 --> 00:32:05.809 So I put an ad in I don't know, it was like two hundred 415 00:32:05.930 --> 00:32:08.690 fifty dollars and I said, okay, if I get five takers for this 416 00:32:08.849 --> 00:32:14.890 service of editing a business video for five hundred dollars. I'd increase the price 417 00:32:15.369 --> 00:32:19.119 quite a bit for five hundred dollars. If I get takers for this, 418 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:22.960 you know we might have another way. And so I got twenty takers for 419 00:32:23.240 --> 00:32:28.680 this out of one newsletter, and so I was like, okay, let's 420 00:32:28.759 --> 00:32:31.789 pivot this direction. And so we started making company videos. And then we 421 00:32:31.990 --> 00:32:37.589 realize that making the videos was great, but people weren't getting bang for their 422 00:32:37.589 --> 00:32:40.950 buck because people weren't watching them, and so we created software to market that 423 00:32:42.109 --> 00:32:46.339 software. We wrote a book called video marketing for Dummies, and we did 424 00:32:46.500 --> 00:32:52.460 all these crazy things and ended up with video advertising. We started experimenting with 425 00:32:52.859 --> 00:32:58.809 Youtube Advertising Back when it was in Beta and early Beta and we figured out 426 00:32:58.930 --> 00:33:04.849 that our software that was meant for organic optimization, could just really, really 427 00:33:05.049 --> 00:33:09.009 get huge bang for your book with advertising. So that's what the company morphed 428 00:33:09.049 --> 00:33:14.519 into. And today, you know, we work for the largest advertisers out 429 00:33:14.519 --> 00:33:19.279 there and we do a lot of work for Nintendo and for Amazon and for 430 00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.119 Loreale and channel and you know, all the brands you can think of. 431 00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:27.750 We've worked with a lot of them. Amazing and did you find that pivoting 432 00:33:27.789 --> 00:33:30.750 this time around from your perspective. Obviously the others in the room probably didn't 433 00:33:30.750 --> 00:33:34.990 have a lot of experience pivoting, but having gone through the sbox series of 434 00:33:35.029 --> 00:33:37.349 pivots, was it easier for you? Was it just sort of a natural 435 00:33:37.430 --> 00:33:38.829 thing you did and says, oh, that's not working, that's pivot. 436 00:33:38.950 --> 00:33:42.500 Well, I knew that it had to be done, so I knew not 437 00:33:42.700 --> 00:33:45.940 to be stubborn about it. But it's what I mean. You remober open 438 00:33:45.980 --> 00:33:47.980 to it. Yeah, but it's always painful, right. But I developed 439 00:33:49.059 --> 00:33:52.700 actually a real system around it. What I did was that, okay, 440 00:33:52.940 --> 00:33:57.049 I was seeing so it was not always that other stuff that we were doing 441 00:33:57.289 --> 00:34:01.650 wasn't always was not working, but it wasn't scalable enough oftentime. So I 442 00:34:01.769 --> 00:34:07.049 was always looking for that scale, which is important when you take investor money. 443 00:34:07.049 --> 00:34:09.840 Right. So it there were times where it just didn't scale enough. 444 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:15.239 So what I always did is I kept doing what we were doing, because 445 00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:22.360 from the beginning we were financing half of our expenses through revenue. So I 446 00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:27.349 kept going with the stuff that was bringing in revenue and took a couple of 447 00:34:27.469 --> 00:34:30.670 people aside and said, okay, two of you work on this or the 448 00:34:30.789 --> 00:34:36.869 three of you work on this and see if we can get some traction from 449 00:34:36.949 --> 00:34:42.780 that. And once we got more scalable and more profitable traction from that other 450 00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:46.300 realm, once that was about twenty percent of our revenues, I kind of 451 00:34:46.380 --> 00:34:51.980 started shutting down the other part. So I never did these super hard pivots 452 00:34:52.500 --> 00:34:57.769 because that would get your growth curve really in trouble and investors wouldn't continue to 453 00:34:57.929 --> 00:35:01.050 finance you. So I kept the old revenue going until I could pick up 454 00:35:01.050 --> 00:35:05.969 the growth curve with the other stuff. God, yeah, so it became 455 00:35:06.010 --> 00:35:08.760 like really a method of doing stuff for me. It's fantastic. I like 456 00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:12.840 it. I like it. So let's let's talk about the CEO seat. 457 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:16.480 So this time you are the CEO really for the first time. What was 458 00:35:16.519 --> 00:35:20.800 that like at Pisability? Yeah, it was the first time I was the 459 00:35:20.920 --> 00:35:22.590 CEO. What did it fee? How did it feel? What was that 460 00:35:22.750 --> 00:35:28.869 like for you? It was so at my first company, the CEO and 461 00:35:28.949 --> 00:35:34.829 I were really had a great symbiosis, like we worked just super and sink 462 00:35:35.230 --> 00:35:39.500 and I never had the feeling that I was sort of second class to him 463 00:35:39.500 --> 00:35:44.619 or anything of that sort. At the beginning I even said, you know 464 00:35:45.099 --> 00:35:47.019 I can do the CEO thing, and then he's like, well, you 465 00:35:47.099 --> 00:35:50.849 know, I had a prior company, so I think I should do it. 466 00:35:50.969 --> 00:35:53.090 And I was like, okay, fine, and it didn't seem that, 467 00:35:53.730 --> 00:35:57.289 you know, it didn't seem such a big deal for me to go 468 00:35:57.489 --> 00:36:01.610 from CEO to CEO. But once you're CEO you realize, oh my gosh, 469 00:36:01.690 --> 00:36:06.800 the buck stops with me. And then I replayed some of the scenes 470 00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:09.440 to myself that I had sort of we had had at s Fox, and 471 00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:14.280 I'm like, Oh, this is what Folco was doing and this is what 472 00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:16.960 he had to do, and it's it's kind of a hat that you wear, 473 00:36:17.079 --> 00:36:21.429 right. It's not that you're a different person, but you have to 474 00:36:21.670 --> 00:36:27.989 wear this hat and you people look to you for decisions and for guidance that 475 00:36:28.150 --> 00:36:31.900 you only have to take because you have this label on your forehead that says 476 00:36:32.019 --> 00:36:37.500 CEO. If you switched the label to somebody else, then they would be 477 00:36:37.780 --> 00:36:42.940 completely capable of making that decision. But sometimes it just needs somehow. I 478 00:36:43.019 --> 00:36:45.900 don't know, human groups are built that way that sometimes you just need that 479 00:36:46.250 --> 00:36:50.730 leader, and that was that was a little bit. You know, it 480 00:36:50.929 --> 00:36:53.610 was a tough at times because I didn't want to say I don't see myself 481 00:36:53.809 --> 00:36:59.130 in any way as an autocrat or, you know, my way or the 482 00:36:59.210 --> 00:37:01.840 highway, and sometimes I was like, I don't know a better answer than 483 00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:06.559 this person does, but you have to learn to live with that and saying 484 00:37:06.760 --> 00:37:12.320 look, you may feel very equal to your peers, but they don't feel 485 00:37:12.440 --> 00:37:15.469 equal to you. So you have to live with that, and that was 486 00:37:15.710 --> 00:37:19.309 hard. I don't like some people are, you know, say Oh, 487 00:37:19.389 --> 00:37:22.190 I don't want the responsibility. You know, it seems like such a tough 488 00:37:22.349 --> 00:37:28.630 job. I thrive and taking responsibility for things. So that was never my 489 00:37:28.869 --> 00:37:32.059 issue. But what was the issue is that were people were putting like, 490 00:37:32.219 --> 00:37:36.340 you know, their destiny in my hands, if I'm going to exaggerate a 491 00:37:36.420 --> 00:37:39.659 little bit. Yeah, so interesting. I think people very often assume that 492 00:37:39.699 --> 00:37:44.690 it's sort of an easy seat to be in and until you experience it yourself 493 00:37:44.730 --> 00:37:47.250 right, you realize only smokes, like I'm the only one in this seat 494 00:37:47.929 --> 00:37:52.130 and yeah, the buck stops with me. People are relying on me, 495 00:37:52.250 --> 00:37:55.570 that sort of thing. Yeah, most people don't realize how tough it is 496 00:37:55.650 --> 00:38:00.679 to be in the seat and just giving your background experience with the will call 497 00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:04.559 them the political adventures you had at school, which weren't shabby. I mean 498 00:38:04.599 --> 00:38:07.679 these were serious programs you were running. Any of that experience sort of being 499 00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:10.920 in that project management leadership role in these programs help you when you were in 500 00:38:10.960 --> 00:38:16.869 the CEO Sat? Absolutely yeah, I mean I learned how to negotiate things, 501 00:38:17.070 --> 00:38:28.460 you know, with to you know, the goal that you had envisioned, 502 00:38:28.500 --> 00:38:31.300 and so I learned that. But I also learned I think the most 503 00:38:31.340 --> 00:38:38.420 important lesson for me was the importance of team and that hiring as hard we 504 00:38:38.579 --> 00:38:44.130 already had at the university. We were seven people always in the student government 505 00:38:44.369 --> 00:38:47.610 and it was a rule of thumb that one or two of those people would 506 00:38:47.690 --> 00:38:52.250 totally crap out over the course of the year that somebody else would have to 507 00:38:52.489 --> 00:38:58.159 essentially do their job for them, and those were just the odds and even 508 00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:01.639 though these were motivated people, something would go wrong. So that was one 509 00:39:01.719 --> 00:39:07.440 thing and also I just realized what a huge difference the team makes. I 510 00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:13.869 mean I had some good ideas as projects, but they had mediocre or less 511 00:39:14.110 --> 00:39:17.909 mediocre teams and it was just horrible. And then I had other teams like 512 00:39:19.150 --> 00:39:24.059 this start entrepreneurship conference thing. The team was phenomenal and all, and that 513 00:39:24.300 --> 00:39:30.099 organization still exists almost twenty five years later. So that was very, very 514 00:39:30.219 --> 00:39:35.980 stark contrast for me where I learned about this and I also learned fundraising. 515 00:39:36.059 --> 00:39:38.170 We had to at the University of St Gallen. You know, money didn't 516 00:39:38.210 --> 00:39:44.449 just appear. Every single project had to self finance, and so I learned 517 00:39:44.570 --> 00:39:49.210 how to run around and pitch, you know, my projects and get money 518 00:39:49.250 --> 00:39:52.050 for them. Fantastic, and that that all helped you in the role, 519 00:39:52.369 --> 00:39:54.719 you know, actually pixability, I would imagine. I mean fun right. 520 00:39:55.119 --> 00:40:01.159 I feel like I've spent eighty percent of my professional life pitching my company two 521 00:40:01.199 --> 00:40:06.079 investors. It's like a never ending process. So yeah, I have a 522 00:40:06.199 --> 00:40:09.429 lot of experience indeed. Indeed. I went at Zoom in on that Opit. 523 00:40:09.510 --> 00:40:13.710 So when you inside the company there was a perception of you and you 524 00:40:13.750 --> 00:40:16.030 were just learning about how that, you know, stamp on your head sort 525 00:40:16.070 --> 00:40:22.579 of change people's behavior towards you. You channeled your experience. Has Entrepreneur and 526 00:40:22.860 --> 00:40:25.980 pre entrepreneur experiences there. Tell me about when you left and you went out 527 00:40:27.300 --> 00:40:30.300 to the road now and you had to represent yourself as Ceeo fixability and you 528 00:40:30.380 --> 00:40:34.460 were going into an environment that, you know, let's be frank, is 529 00:40:34.659 --> 00:40:37.530 not open to people that look like me or people who look like you. 530 00:40:37.969 --> 00:40:44.250 Did you feel any difference when you approached investors as a female CEO? Yeah, 531 00:40:44.489 --> 00:40:46.730 tell us about that. Short answer. Yes, yeah. What was 532 00:40:46.769 --> 00:40:51.000 the toughest challenges there? It already started at as Fox. I mean I 533 00:40:51.239 --> 00:40:55.840 was COO and CFO and when I you know, investors came or bankers came. 534 00:40:57.159 --> 00:41:00.519 We were small team and I would welcome them and say hey, do 535 00:41:00.559 --> 00:41:04.429 you want something to drink, and they would, you know, say what 536 00:41:04.630 --> 00:41:07.989 they wanted and then I came back in and sat down with them and you 537 00:41:07.150 --> 00:41:10.750 could tell like their face and I, you know, then handed over my 538 00:41:10.869 --> 00:41:16.110 business card. Their jaws dropped that they were talking to the CFO of the 539 00:41:16.230 --> 00:41:21.219 company and they thought I was the secretary. So, I mean this is, 540 00:41:21.340 --> 00:41:24.539 you know, lots of experiences like that. So you know this, 541 00:41:25.820 --> 00:41:30.579 this happens to you all the time. And you know, I fund raise 542 00:41:30.739 --> 00:41:36.010 twice while pregnant, so that had a huge set of challenges. With my 543 00:41:36.170 --> 00:41:42.849 first baby, I just wore really large suits and lean right over. Yes, 544 00:41:42.889 --> 00:41:45.929 yes, I'd Lee. I leaned over chairs. You know, I 545 00:41:46.050 --> 00:41:52.880 was like pontificating standing up behind a chair. With the second baby, I 546 00:41:54.360 --> 00:42:00.920 I had a different thing. So I actually am said to investors, look 547 00:42:00.960 --> 00:42:02.670 at this belly and it was, you know, getting bigger. If you 548 00:42:02.909 --> 00:42:07.949 invest before, I'm cheap right now. If you invest before this pops out, 549 00:42:07.030 --> 00:42:14.150 I'll give you a discount. And it worked. Wow, that's yeah, 550 00:42:14.230 --> 00:42:16.579 so you got you know, I mean they're always disadvantages, right, 551 00:42:16.699 --> 00:42:20.420 but you got it. You got to live with them and you can't you 552 00:42:20.500 --> 00:42:23.860 can't complain and say, Oh, whoe is me? Got To accept that 553 00:42:23.980 --> 00:42:28.619 this is out there and you've got to do your best. And so I'm 554 00:42:28.699 --> 00:42:31.329 female. Okay, right, but that's you know, I can't change that. 555 00:42:31.489 --> 00:42:35.289 So I have to go and live with that. And you know, 556 00:42:35.690 --> 00:42:40.289 some an investor said, okay, I'll invest in you, but I'm I'll 557 00:42:40.369 --> 00:42:45.679 consider you my social experiment because, you know, I was pregnant and I 558 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:49.400 had my husband working for me and he thought that that was like this huge 559 00:42:49.480 --> 00:42:52.519 social experiment and I, you know, I was. I was so livid 560 00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:57.800 at times when people asked me like, do you think you'll still be committed 561 00:42:57.880 --> 00:43:00.510 to the company, you know what, after the baby comes, and I 562 00:43:00.710 --> 00:43:05.590 was so furious because I said, you know, I said, if I 563 00:43:06.030 --> 00:43:09.710 were a man and I told you that I am the main bread winner and 564 00:43:09.750 --> 00:43:14.019 I'm adding a new member to my family, do you think I would be 565 00:43:14.179 --> 00:43:17.619 more motivated or less motivated to make this a success? I don't think you 566 00:43:17.659 --> 00:43:22.739 would even ask that question. So I was you know, you got to 567 00:43:22.739 --> 00:43:25.099 roll with the punches, John. I mean, this is this just stuff. 568 00:43:25.260 --> 00:43:30.690 Just happens. And you know you've had your own experiences with thinking that 569 00:43:30.849 --> 00:43:35.769 people. You know, you know people. You were some sort of flower 570 00:43:35.889 --> 00:43:40.289 level help person, right. So you just you gotta deal with that and 571 00:43:40.679 --> 00:43:46.440 you can use it to your advantage because if you are are one of few, 572 00:43:46.719 --> 00:43:52.679 you are more memorable. If you are on a stage and there are 573 00:43:52.239 --> 00:43:58.429 eight men and you're the only woman, people will remember you. You know, 574 00:43:58.989 --> 00:44:01.789 if you're the only black guy, people will remember you and say, 575 00:44:01.869 --> 00:44:07.670 Oh my God, this is so interesting and you will get more press mentions 576 00:44:07.829 --> 00:44:12.099 if you can use that to market what you're doing. And you know that's 577 00:44:12.579 --> 00:44:15.539 you can try to make up for that disadvantage by using, you know, 578 00:44:15.699 --> 00:44:21.099 that novelty factor. Yeah, fantastic. Did you ever do that? I 579 00:44:21.260 --> 00:44:24.010 did that often. I would always marvel, much like you know, you 580 00:44:24.130 --> 00:44:28.690 just alluded to the the shock that people would have when I was the CEO, 581 00:44:29.010 --> 00:44:31.730 or I'd start a conversation and, you know, someone would introduce me. 582 00:44:31.969 --> 00:44:36.210 They knew I was the CEO and this person would start talking to me 583 00:44:36.369 --> 00:44:38.360 and at some point they would sort of glance down at the business card that 584 00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:43.239 I had had handed to them earlier. Really what he suppokes, this is 585 00:44:43.360 --> 00:44:45.599 this, this is the CEO, you know. So I would sort of 586 00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:51.519 always chuckle inside, and you're right, it made me more memorable because, 587 00:44:51.760 --> 00:44:53.030 number one, I didn't make a sort of way to chip on my shoulder. 588 00:44:53.230 --> 00:44:57.469 I just understood how people are wired and that this would happen. And 589 00:44:57.670 --> 00:45:02.030 once that's clear in your mind, you can leverage it and actually make it 590 00:45:02.110 --> 00:45:06.909 work to your advantage to some extent. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, 591 00:45:06.949 --> 00:45:08.780 that's that's what I had to learn as well. Yeah, so, 592 00:45:08.900 --> 00:45:12.900 I know we're running short on time. My last question is tell us about 593 00:45:12.900 --> 00:45:15.139 your their eventure. You're your company. If you have a few minutes, 594 00:45:15.219 --> 00:45:16.300 just kind of give us in a review of what it's about, what was 595 00:45:16.340 --> 00:45:21.889 a genesis of it. So I I'm really excited right now. We're starting 596 00:45:21.969 --> 00:45:27.050 with Julie. It's a healthcare company and we help people manage their chronic diseases 597 00:45:27.210 --> 00:45:31.809 by bringing all of their healthcare data into one place. They're electronic health record, 598 00:45:32.010 --> 00:45:37.559 things that they get from their wearables, their phones, environmental data like 599 00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:40.679 weather, air pollution. We all bring that into one APP and show people 600 00:45:40.960 --> 00:45:46.039 the correlations between these different factors and how they're doing with their disease and help 601 00:45:46.159 --> 00:45:50.710 give them tips on how to improve it. So I am applying a lot 602 00:45:50.829 --> 00:45:57.030 of lessons that I have learned across my fairy career and entrepreneurship, and one 603 00:45:57.070 --> 00:46:00.909 of them is that I never wanted to do a company again as the soul 604 00:46:00.030 --> 00:46:05.780 founder. That was just too hard for me. I did not like that 605 00:46:06.260 --> 00:46:10.059 experience at Pisability, even though I hired great people, but I was always 606 00:46:10.219 --> 00:46:15.980 the only founder. So I now have three Co founders and maybe we'll add 607 00:46:15.980 --> 00:46:20.690 another one to our team. So that is one thing I'm doing. The 608 00:46:20.849 --> 00:46:25.050 next thing is one of my principles that you have to have when you are 609 00:46:25.329 --> 00:46:30.250 founding a company is naive Tay. That's really important, and so I am 610 00:46:30.369 --> 00:46:35.280 going into a totally different field. So I did text to speech software, 611 00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:40.280 video marketing and video advertising, and now I'm doing healthcare. Completely different it, 612 00:46:40.599 --> 00:46:45.280 but that's I love a challenge. I love learning new things and, 613 00:46:45.559 --> 00:46:50.789 you know, just like you went into renewable energies after doing insurance software, 614 00:46:50.949 --> 00:46:55.590 I'm just going up this learning curve and I'm thoroughly enjoying it learning that new 615 00:46:55.710 --> 00:47:00.949 things. And Yeah, yeah, and I'm also using, you know, 616 00:47:00.110 --> 00:47:07.260 all of the kind of management things that I've learned along the way to hopefully, 617 00:47:07.900 --> 00:47:13.579 you know, get to high growth, profitable company sooner, but jury 618 00:47:13.659 --> 00:47:15.769 still out on that. I'm super excited about it. It's so much fun. 619 00:47:15.809 --> 00:47:21.570 I really feel alive again after two years sort of kind of doing other 620 00:47:21.730 --> 00:47:27.090 things, board stuff, doing my TV show on the Swiss Shark tank and 621 00:47:27.409 --> 00:47:30.239 doing other stuff, but just being sort of in this driver's seat again. 622 00:47:30.360 --> 00:47:36.320 Building a team, building a company, building technology is awesome and yeah, 623 00:47:36.360 --> 00:47:38.360 I'm having the best time. Fantastic. Well, good luck with it. 624 00:47:38.400 --> 00:47:42.679 It's so nice to spend some time with you. I hope we'll see each 625 00:47:42.679 --> 00:47:45.070 other in person soon. I had promised to come and visit you over there 626 00:47:45.110 --> 00:47:50.230 until the pandemic kid, but the promise still stands. Hopefully that gets behind 627 00:47:50.269 --> 00:47:53.190 us soon and good luck with new business. Thank you so much and yes, 628 00:47:53.429 --> 00:47:58.429 definitely come visit me in Switzerland. I really want to see you here 629 00:47:58.579 --> 00:48:02.380 once. Once there's a vaccine, will we can go crazy again with visiting 630 00:48:02.539 --> 00:48:08.019 each other. Exactly. Awesome. Thanks for listening to this episod so to 631 00:48:08.099 --> 00:48:12.420 the CEO series on the BB growth show. Again. I'm John Bellas here 632 00:48:12.500 --> 00:48:15.690 from the CEO playbook. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I 633 00:48:15.730 --> 00:48:20.130 did. I love how betina lives by the principle of naivete put another way, 634 00:48:20.449 --> 00:48:23.210 lifelong learning, which is key to being a great leader and CEO. 635 00:48:23.730 --> 00:48:29.360 Please connect with me on Linkedin, on the CEO playbook page and twitter. 636 00:48:29.880 --> 00:48:32.519 I'm at John Belaz are CEO. I'd love to hear from you. Send 637 00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:37.360 questions my way or recommendations. If you like this episode, please leave a 638 00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:40.159 review and share it with a friend and if you have a question, join 639 00:48:40.280 --> 00:48:45.750 the conversation on instagram. We're at CEO playbook DOTCO. We have a great 640 00:48:45.789 --> 00:48:50.309 following there. We post inspiration updates, new articles and more, and of 641 00:48:50.389 --> 00:48:53.469 course, visit our website. We're CEO playbook DOTCO, and don't forget to 642 00:48:53.630 --> 00:48:59.420 sign up for our popular weekly newsletter called Mental Candy. Until next time, 643 00:48:59.619 --> 00:49:06.460 keep pushing and stay healthy out there. Are you currently making the transition from 644 00:49:06.460 --> 00:49:08.739 founder to CEEO? Are you a first time CEO in the middle of a 645 00:49:08.820 --> 00:49:13.690 huge challenge, or you just curious about what it takes and you need to 646 00:49:13.730 --> 00:49:17.809 read CEO Playbook. It's an online publication full of stories from real CEOS and 647 00:49:19.010 --> 00:49:22.809 practical sage advice for leaders of high growth companies. Go to CEEO PLAYBOOK DOT 648 00:49:22.849 --> 00:49:27.880 COM to start reading some amazing content for free. You'll find out why over 649 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:30.679 four hundred CEOS go here to learn what it's really like being CEO.