I'm very proud to announce that my book, "The Entrepreneur's Essentials", is now available on Amazon, including Prime. All proceeds from my book will be donated to support and strengthen the next generation of courageous, creative female leaders.
Through an investment in The University of Texas at Austin's Kendra Scott Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, proceeds will support the curricular and co-curricular programs that empower and equip thousands of female students annually. I hope this makes a big impact in the lives and entrepreneurial careers of women & people of color.
This has been a true labor of love. I've really put my heart and soul into this, and collaborating alongside of David Judson for over 13 months and weekends, with the amazing editing skills of Clarissa Fuselier (formerly of my prior startup, Bazaarvoice), made it all possible.
Four big learnings on health (Part Four: Exercise and X3)
Note: I originally wrote this on Medium on Jan. 17, 2021. I then forgot to mirror it here! This is still my daily workout but one thing has changed since then: in the original below I’m talking about doing a long elbow plank, but I switched to a long straight arm plank to make it more challenging. I put a lot of additional padding underneath my yoga mat by folding a thinner yoga mat into four. I’ve built up to a 14-minute, 30-second straight arm plank each time I do this workout now (five to six days per week). That is the only thing that has changed below. Oh, and even with the pandemic subsiding in the US and gyms being deemed safe again for the fully vaccinated, I still have no reason to return with this terrific, very effective, home workout. Now, back to the original post:
I was debating whether to title this post “The Ultimate Pandemic Workout”, “Maximum Efficiency with Maximum Results”, or something else, but stuck with the thematic of my four-part series on health.
In the first three Parts, I covered:
1. Nutrition (and my vegan power breakfast smoothie recipe)
2. The Cooper Clinic
3. OsteoStrong
Two and a half years ago I had a really traumatic injury the day before the TED 2018 conference in Vancouver. I wrote about it on Facebook:
An open letter to tech CEOs and leaders on the importance of diversity
Dear fellow tech CEOs and leaders,
I’m writing to you on this chilly Sunday in Austin because 2020 has truly been an eye-opening year for me as a long-time tech entrepreneur and CEO. I’ve been founding tech companies and movements since I was 24-years old, and I’ve never thought more about the power of diverse teams than I have this year. 2020 is truly one for the history books on so many levels, including my own personal growth as a leader.
Let me be upfront. My goal in this letter is to help you see what I’ve concluded, and I apologize that it took until 2020 to work so hard for this:
I believe that the more success you earn, both by grit and luck, and the more educated you become on the very real history of racial inequities in our country, the greater moral imperative you have to strive for a much more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce in tech.
This has been building for a long time within me, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had the learning experiences I’ve had. My realization about the importance of diversity in tech is the result of many friends and institutions investing in me, and then me taking the time to invest in myself. In this open letter, I’m going to do my best to share the resources that have most helped me and I believe will help you. I’ll also go beyond theory and give you a prescriptive call to action. I’ve put so much time into this because I believe it is critical to do so for those that are fortunate enough to be in a position of leading (and that is a much bigger tent than you may think).
Five phases of leadership during the pandemic
Last week was a very busy one for me for writing and reflecting. To write is to learn.
I finished my five-part series on leadership during the pandemic in Austin’s definitive cultural magazine, Urbānitūs. I owe a debt of gratitude to the Editor and Co-founder, David Judson, who really brought out the best in me and helped make the series much better. I was also able to work in the historic and tragic events of the week — a week I’ll never forget.
Here are the five, published Urbānitūs articles:
1. Fear
2. Euphoria
3. Depression
4. Acceptance (not surrender)
5. Imagining what lies beyond
Good or bad parenting?
Our son has spent 1.8% of his life hours to date playing Terraria (probably 15% of his life overall on gaming and programming). How do I know 1.8%? Because he calculated it and told me. The 15% overall is a pretty educated guess by me.
And he also just got hired to be a programming tutor and is loving doing that — he’s 11 and is tutoring a 9-year old (who is learning very quickly). That happened as a result of him releasing his first public game and a fellow Austinite taking notice. I asked our son what he wanted to charge for his first tutoring job and he said $5/hr — they insisted on paying him $10/hr. Pretty good money at age 11!
An old classic to consider before you pass judgment:
A note of gratitude for Tony Hsieh
I woke up early this morning and the first news I read was of Tony Hsieh’s passing last night. It hit me hard - he was only 46-years old. Tony was the long-time CEO of Zappos, only recently retiring in August.
Although I cannot say Tony was a close friend, he was an acquaintance that I had some good history with, most of it indirect. Zappos was one of the original pioneers of customer reviews, which Brant Barton and I decided to bring to the majority of the retail industry when we founded Bazaarvoice (literally named “the voice of the marketplace”) in 2005. Zappos was one of our early influences, with Amazon of course being our biggest (Amazon initially launched customer reviews in 1997, three years after their founding). I believe eBags had reviews even prior to Zappos (they were definitely an influence too), and Circuit City (kind of like a Best Buy that went out of business in 2009) had just launched them, paving the way for Brant and I to see that traditional, store-based retailers had a big need for us to fill.
In 2009, I was named Entrepreneur of the Year in Austin by E&Y. Tony had received the same Award for the Northern California region in 2007. My wife, Debra, and I were invited to the National Awards in Palm Springs. It was there that I connected with Tony, and we immediately connected on innovative company culture. We shared a lot of tips with each other, and it was clear that he was just as eager to learn as share.
Three big reasons you should have faith in a Biden and Harris Administration
You may be wondering why I haven’t been writing as much on Lucky7 this year. Well, I’ve been very busy with data.world but also in campaigning for what would hopefully be a Biden+Harris win over Trump+Pence. I made a New Year’s Resolution to do so, understanding that it is hard to step out there as such a public CEO. But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to look our children in the eye if I didn’t do so and Trump won again - I had to do everything I personally could to protect our democracy. I kept my personal activities campaigning separate from my work activities as the CEO of data.world to the best of my ability, but I got really active to say the least. This took a lot of time and I’m very happy to be even a small part of this historic win for our country. As of this writing, Biden+Harris are projected to receive 306 Electoral College votes and also win by over 5.5m votes in the popular vote count.
I should point out that I’m a centrist and a proud Independent voter, having voted for as many Republicans as I have Democrats. I vote my conscience and base my vote on policies and what I think our country most needs. As an entrepreneur, I really value the ability to think independently. Thinking this way requires you to use your intellect to see the world differently and not fall into following the herd. There are good reasons for herd thinking given our evolutionary history, but it is not always conducive to the best decision making. Independent thinking helps me come up with business ideas as well as evaluate new investments and entrepreneurs (note: we are now in 93 startups and 29 VC funds, although data.world certainly takes the majority of my time as CEO and has been my primary career passion for five years and running now).
Netflix vs. Blockbuster and bad profits (reflections from my Bazaarvoice days)
In honor of Netflix’s big beat today in the very unfortunate age of COVID-19, I decided to revisit my four-part Bazaarblog series while I was CEO of Bazaarvoice (from our inception in 2005 to our IPO in 2012). The name of the last part? “Netflix vs. Blockbuster: Round Four (Lights Out?)”
First, just to provide a foundation here, Bazaarvoice was named after Chapter 4 of “The Cluetrain Manifesto” (available for free online), “Markets Are Conversations”. I still think it is the best chapter of any book on marketing that I’ve ever read. Bazaarvoice, literally translated, means “the voice of the marketplace”. I told the story about how Brant Barton, my Bazaarvoice co-founder, and I picked the name in Chapter 7 of my book “The Entrepreneur’s Essentials” (also available for free online). Do yourself a favor and read “Markets Are Conversations” if you never have - it was amazingly prescient.
The wisdom of Vedanta (now available online)
One of the practices that has really helped me as a leader has been the study of Vedanta. It is not a religion (I'm Jewish) but rather a philosophy on how to live a life of happiness. It is all about gaining control over your mind - that your mind is where the secret to happiness really lives. If you would like to dive in, here is a five-minute video on why you may feel so tired “because of your job” to entice you. The great news is that, in these times of COVID-19, their classes are now available online for free. In 2013, Debra and I went all the way to just outside of Pune, India to study this in person at The Vedanta Academy with the then 85-year old founder, Swamiji Parthasarathy (who wrote my favorite book on business and relationships simply titled "Governing Business and Relationships" - the chapter on Leadership is just incredible).
TED Connect rises in the era of COVID-19, and Ray Dalio offers much wisdom
In the spirit of living an Always Be Learning life (read Chapter 4 in “The Entrepreneurs Essentials”, which is available for free online at Medium), TED Connect has been a terrific series during this very challenging global crisis due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. On Wednesday, TED interviewed Ray Dalio and it didn’t disappoint. I went to school on this like I would if my best professor in finance was presenting while I was at The Wharton School. What follows are my notes from his talk.