Brad Feld - Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

Contents

Copyright 2011 by David Cohen and Brad Feld. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Cohen, David G.
Do more faster : techStars lessons to accelerate your startup /
David Cohen and Brad Feld.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-92983-4 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-470-94877-4 (ebk);
ISBN 978-0-470-94878-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-94879-8 (ebk)
1. New business enterprisesManagement. 2. Entrepreneurship.
I. Feld, Brad. II. Title.
HD62.5.C635 2011
658.11dc22
2010033309

To our wivesAmy Batchelor and Jil Cohenwith happy amazement that they love us.

Foreword

While entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes, they all share the drive to do things that have never been done before, the belief that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to, and the need to get everything done as fast as they can. For a first time entrepreneur, this can be daunting, but TechStars is like a turbo rocket booster for the beginning of the journey.

Zynga is my fourth company. When I started it, there were only a few venture capitalists who I wanted to work with, and Brad Feld was one of them. The last few years have been a wild ride. We talk about doing things at Zynga Speed so when Brad asked me to write a foreword for a book titled Do More Faster , I was humbled and eager to have the opportunity to share some thoughts, as this is a concept that is close to my heart.

If you arent familiar with Zynga, we are the makers of popular social games such as FarmVille, FrontierVille, and Mafia Wars. When Brads firm Foundry Group invested in Zynga in the fall of 2007, we were a team of 10 people. Today, three years later, we are a family of more than 1,200 people. To get there, we certainly had to do more faster.

Before starting my first company in the mid-1990s, I worked at several well-regarded companies. However, I was somewhat of a misfit. I challenged the status quo and didnt necessarily follow protocol. I was a bit nave and rogue in my desire to deliver the smartest and most strategic results without being concerned with procedures. That wasnt necessarily the best way to ensure a career in corporate America, so I decided I was better suited to be an entrepreneur where I could do things my way.

At the dawn of the commercial Internet, I co-founded Freeloader with Sunil Paul. As first-time entrepreneurs, we learned as we went along and made plenty of mistakes along the way. What we lacked in experience, we made up for in drive, and before we knew it, we were at the helm of a hot new Internet company funded by Flatiron Partners and SOFTBANK. Four months after our first round of financing, Freeloader was acquired by Individual, Inc. for $ 38 million. While this was viewed as a success, the acquisition happened well before the moment of truth for our business.

When I founded my second company, SupportSoft, I had a bit more experience and made building a great startup team a priority. We accomplished exciting things together and built the company into a leading provider for service and support automation software. As the company began to achieve customer and revenue traction and acceleration, I agreed to move into the position of chairman as the board wanted to bring in a more seasoned CEO. SupportSoft was successful, went public, and everyone was happy, but I still didnt feel like Id had a chance to build a great company.

My third company was Tribe Networks. The idea of social networks was starting to emerge and Tribe was one of the very first. I like to say that Tribe was a great idea, just ahead of its time. We had early success, raised money from venture capitalists, but over time we stumbled. I was once again promoted to chairman and this time the new leadership failed to execute. Near the end, I stepped back in as CEO and repositioned the company around white label hosting of social media. We sold the company for a modest amount to Cisco, but we missed a huge opportunity to create a next-generation Internet company.

So, in 2007 when I started thinking about social gaming, I decided that my goal with Zynga was to create a company that consumers would know and love. I wanted to create an Internet treasure. Unlike at my previous companies, I focused my early recruiting efforts on attracting investors who would act as peers, respect what I wanted to accomplish, and help coach me through the ups and downs of the business. In addition to Brad, I was fortunate to attract Fred Wilson, Bing Gordon, and Reid Hoffman as investors and board members to Zynga early on. Weve accomplished a lot in the past three years and I believe we are well on our way to creating a company that will stand the test of time and have a lasting impact on consumers and the Internet as a whole.

When I reflect on my entrepreneurial experiences over the past 15 years, I recognize the critical importance of learning from mistakes. Every company had roadblocks and challenges, and at each step and with each setback, I became smarter. It took a long time and a lot of ups and downs to get to the point where I was ready to embark on the creation of Zynga. I wish Id had more of that knowledge and insight when I started FreeLoader, or had access to the wisdom and experiences like those shared in this book.

The entrepreneurial journey is an amazing one that I encourage anyone who has the inclination to embark on. There are few things as rewarding as starting a business from nothing, creating jobs, and building something that matters. There is something unique that ties all entrepreneurs together, and we have a strong desire to see one another succeed and a belief in the importance of entrepreneurship. I am encouraged to see the support and tools that first-time entrepreneurs today have such as TechStars, books like Do More Faster , and the support of many great experienced entrepreneurs including those in this book. I am honored to be one of those mentors and am excited to see what the next wave of entrepreneurs create. They will learn, just as I did, that they can always Do More Faster!