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  • [Music]

  • So the first question why did he become an entrepreneur and

  • this anybody can you know go first?

  • Well I started by entrepreneur journey you know

  • unconventionally, I actually dropped at high school on 16 so

  • actually it would cause me to become an entrepreneur was a

  • little bit different. My family was going through little

  • hardships I was trying to go ahead and help out and you know

  • basically try it out. My first job and only job was trying

  • out for McDonalds and they rejected me so. I realized that

  • hey there is something called the internet and looked at

  • what was going on I mean the full year of it and fell in

  • love with the whole online advertising space and you know

  • the beauty of the internet is you don't need the stigma

  • that's attached to kind of business as it was probably 50

  • years ago. I mean you can be a 16-year-old in a bedroom and

  • start a business that two years later you can sell for $40

  • million. And you know that probably wasn't possible 50 years

  • ago so you know part of the survival helped me become an

  • entrepreneur but on top of that I love building stuff out of

  • nothing so encashment about it as long as you are having a

  • DNA be successful.

  • So I became an entrepreneur pretty much out of necessity. I

  • had been working at a public accounting firm then passed

  • over for partnership two times and I can see that the third

  • was coming up. And the only reason was because I was woman

  • and at this point there were 0 women in the partnership

  • across the world. And that just wasn't okay with me but I

  • had butted my head up against the glass ceiling enough times

  • and at this point had enough visibility across the whole

  • firm to know that I wasn't personally going to be able to

  • change this organization from the inside. So I left and

  • turned around and offered them my services for basically the

  • exact same thing that they would have had if I had been

  • partner within their structure and asked them to pay me

  • three times as much. They agreed, which was the amazing

  • part, provided me an office and let me keep my

  • administrative assistant for their first six months and I

  • was totally billable from the very, very first day. And that

  • grew into an organization that had employees across the

  • world and then you know kind of once you get the bug it just

  • kind of starts taking over and so I was like well you know

  • there is a problem here, I can solve it by doing this. There

  • is a problem there and I can go solve that by doing this and

  • I love it.

  • Yeah, so I guess the best answer that I can give is that I

  • didn't decide to become an entrepreneur, and I mean that in

  • two ways. One, I am actually not quite an entrepreneur. I

  • don't really deserve to be called an entrepreneur unlike all

  • the other people up here. I have always sort of helped

  • entrepreneurs. I joined the LinkedIn and Facebook before we

  • raised venture funding, before the companies were built and

  • so on so very, very, very early in those companies. But I

  • always sort of liked helping entrepreneurs. They used to

  • call that thing a venture capitals but that means something

  • else today I guess. So the second way in which I mean that

  • and just really amplifying what Carol just spoke to is I

  • think of lot of the time people who end up being

  • entrepreneurs don't really exactly decide to become

  • entrepreneurs. It's not like being an accountant where you

  • say you know I am going to go out and you know take a test

  • and get a license and go become an accountant. You know I am

  • going to go to an entrepreneur school and become an

  • entrepreneur. It's a little bit more organic than that, a

  • lot of the time in my experience. And it's just something

  • that almost happens to you or that you get the bug for like

  • you said usually because something is broken that you want

  • to fix or because something doesn't exist that you think

  • should exist. And you just decide you know I am going to do

  • it. And that can take lots of different forms but I think

  • it's a more organic process than a lot of other so-called

  • career paths.

  • I actually never aspired to become an entrepreneur and I was

  • working as a research scientist and I thoroughly enjoyed

  • that. And as I know I inspire to become an entrepreneur

  • working as a manager or working in business in the first

  • place. But the thing that made an impact on me was that I

  • was actually reading the specification for Netscape 2.0,

  • some years ago some of them may remember the browser

  • Netscape. But I was reading the whole night and I was really

  • taken by this, and it had an enormous impact on me. So the

  • next day I actually quit my job and started my first

  • company. And I had no idea what kind of business idea I was

  • going to pursue and I really didn't have so much of a plan

  • but it was more this incredible passion I felt for internet.

  • I could just sense that internet was going to be a really,

  • really big and I felt it was too big of a thing to walk away

  • from. So that's actually why I started.

  • So in a life of an entrepreneur, now you are all living a

  • life of an entrepreneur what is it you like about the life

  • of an entrepreneur and what is it that you don't like about

  • the path that you have chosen? Anybody, you can just go to

  • anywhere you like?

  • I guess what I love about is you know it probably goes both

  • ways. I love creating something out of nothing and seeing

  • that impact it's almost like you can see it nurture and you

  • can see the positive result as quick as you can kind of make

  • it happen. The downside of it being an entrepreneur is that

  • it's not as you know passion stable as a typical company

  • where you have enough stings in place but you don't have to

  • worry about the revenue, you don't have to worry about

  • profitability, you don't have to worry about the individual

  • things so you end up losing a few hairs almost everyday. So

  • part of being in the startup is you know is you have your

  • good days and you have your bad days but you know you fall

  • down and you get up and you keep going.

  • So in the corporate world I used to be called a workaholic

  • and I am a pretty passionate person and when I am on a

  • project or working on trying to get something done I pretty

  • much stay focused on that and that used to be considered a

  • bad thing. And when I became an entrepreneur everybody just

  • started saying oh she is an entrepreneur it's okay. And so I

  • suddenly became socially acceptable about the fact that my

  • work life and my personal life had a very, very blurry line.

  • Blurry line if you are lucky. Yeah, you know, the best thing

  • about it is that it's amazing and all consuming and

  • exhausting and crazy and the worst thing about is that it's

  • amazing in all consuming, exhausting and crazy. It will

  • become your life if you are lucky and you are doing it well.

  • And there are straight offs in that but you know I feel like

  • the last ten or so years of my life or more or less this

  • vortex of non-stop startupness which is great I wouldn't

  • trade it for anything. But I think it almost becomes an

  • either-or decision at some point if you are lucky enough to

  • be facing that problem.

  • I think for me the biggest thing is the dream you know that

  • you can allow yourself to dream, you can allow yourself to

  • you know you are going to credit company, you are going to

  • have an impact over the world you know and it's at the end

  • of the day it's really all up to you. So I think that's a

  • fantastic luxury that there is really no limitation. It's

  • all about your capability, your creativity and your hard

  • work that at the end of the day hopefully, you will be able

  • to accomplish what you are set out to do.

  • You know the things that all of us are talking about is that

  • we are doing it because we have some passion about what we

  • are doing and with whom we are doing it. And you know one of

  • the things that you will hear people give you advice about

  • over and over again is stay focused on your passion and the

  • reason is if you hate what you are doing you won't be

  • successful as an entrepreneur because it requires too much

  • extra effort. And you have to really love it to make the

  • sacrifices that are necessary to be successful.

  • You also are a little bit crazy to enjoy the ups and downs

  • of it because there is a lot of ups and lot of downs along

  • the way but I think the other key thing is like if you look

  • at just how the business world works you know big companies

  • get to run it but in a startup you get to change it. And you

  • know if you look at you know company like Facebook, Twitter

  • and just social media in general that's really transpired

  • the way we communicate, big companies are now falling onto

  • that. So I think that's the highlight of being entrepreneurs

  • when you can make that big of an impact and if you are part

  • of that genre you can really go ahead and see why you are

  • passionate about it you are making a change and it's a lot

  • of fun.

  • [Informal Talk]

  • Don't you have the phenomenal when you are entrepreneur and

  • that is to pick the people you actually are going to work

  • with and I think that really makes a big difference, you

  • know one thing is to have this, objective, dream, desire but

  • you can actually work with people that are phenomenally

  • inspiring, people that are fun to hang out with, people that

  • you really care about. And regardless of where you want to

  • go with the company, regardless what you want to accomplish,

  • just a luxury that everyday you will go to work, you are

  • working with people that fundamentally are people that you

  • like and you want to hang