Category: Give First
I love to experiment with new things. Some of the experiments work. Many don’t. When they work, I do more of them. When they don’t, I adjust my hypothesis and try a different experiment.
When I published The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, I ran an online community with it for a year (2020), which overlapped with COVID, so it was weird on multiple dimensions. The software I used was good, but it evolved into a “monetize your community” type of thing, which wasn’t my goal. I learned a lot from this experience (good and bad).
With the launch of Give First: The Power of Mentorship, I’ve decided to try something new that brings all the books, blog posts, startup advice, and conversations into one place. And, I’m trying two new experiments: 1) using AI in the community and 2) participating less while seeing if the community can evolve on its own, based on the AI, community members, and the content.
The new community has launched on Vinly and is called Brad Feld’s Online Book Club. It’s private and admission only. It’s for people who have read any of my books or my writing over the years and are interested in the ideas around them. It’s intended to be a safe community and will be moderated with a TOS. It’s not a “spend time with Brad” community. Instead, I want to see if AI is effective at engaging a community instead of just a person (e.g., me) since I don’t scale well across all the inputs coming at me anymore for a variety of reasons (nor do I want to as I approach 60).
My AI alter-ego is named Spike Feld. He knows all the content from my books and Feld.com. He’s available 24/7 to answer your questions and guide conversations. I’ll be popping in from time to time. Occasionally, I’ll jump into threads and reply to posts. Maybe I’ll host a video call. Who knows.
Kris and Peggy (the co-founders of Vinly), are new friends but long-time fans. They are helping me run the community. They’re here to keep the experience smooth, the conversations rich, and the connections meaningful. They built Vinly for niche communities around focused spaces like this one, where people can join thoughtful, low-noise conversations, discover others with shared interests, and build long-term relationships.
I’m excited about the idea of doing this around people who have read one or more of my nine books. This is a particularly interesting experiment for me as I’m playing around with some other ideas around books and writing these days.
To join, either click on the link for Brad Feld’s Online Book Club or use the following QR code.
We’ve got onboarding questions, smart pairings of people, warm intros, RSS feeds of my latest content, and more. It’s designed to feel like the community you’ve been wanting, not another distraction. And, of course, feedback is welcome as we try to evolve it quickly.
I recently had a 30-minute chat (the average length of the Give First podcast interviews that I do) with Bobby Franklin, the CEO of the National Venture Capital Association.
We’ve been supporters of the NVCA for many years. Two Foundry partners, Jaclyn Hester and Jason Mendelson, have served on the board at different periods. I was an early donor to Venture Forward, the NVCA’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
We unpack the disconnect between Washington, D.C., and the startup world. As part of this, we discuss why that gap poses a growing threat to innovation in the U.S.
Bobby tells some stories from the front lines of venture policy, illustrating how small regulatory changes can have significant consequences for emerging fund managers and founders. We cover the unintended impact of tax reform, upcoming anti-money laundering rules, and some hidden obstacles that could stall the next generation of startups.
We finish up with a discussion on mentorship, exploring how it can function within the venture community, both among VCs and startups.
I have enormous respect for Bobby and the work the NVCA does. Bobby, thank you for your leadership.
I’m on my way to Kansas City for the day to spend time with the Kauffman Foundation at the 1 Million Cups annual meeting, talking about Give First: The Power of Mentorship. My drive to the airport started off with an intimate conversation with a close friend who recently got a cancer diagnosis that compounds another serious health issue he’s been battling. Consequently, I’m in a pensive and reflective mode right now.
I’ve got a long history with the Kauffman Foundation, dating back to the early 1990s, along with many enduring friendships, including Jana Matthews and Lesa Mitchell, from my early time there. It’s an organization I have enormous respect for that has had an extraordinary impact on entrepreneurship throughtout the United States, so it’s always a pleasure to spend time there.
Ben McDougal facilated this event. When I was in Boulder in May, he came to town and we recorded a two and a half hour conversation at Coupe Studios for Episode 100 of his podcast You Don’t Need This Podcast. It was one of my first recorded podcasts around Give First: The Power of Mentorship and you can tell that I’m still working out how to talk about the book and some of the ideas in it. Ben is a great and patient interviewer, but neither of us expected it to go so long. We left an easter egg in the last half to see if anyone actually listens all the way through, so send it to me by email if you do…
The team at Coupe Studio was fantastic and the studio was beautiful. I subsequently recorded the foreword for Sue Heilbronner’s upcoming book Never Ask for the Sale there. I highly recommend them if you need to record anything.
Last night Amy and I had dinner with Ian Hathaway. We had a nice talk in the afternoon, including discussing how much fun he’s had working on his new Outsider Inc. podcast. He’s off to an amazing start with long-form interviews with Scott Dorsey (High Alpha – Indianapolis), Mike Praeger (AvidXchange – Charlotte), Wade Foster (Zapier – Missouri), Linda Rottenberg (Endeavor – NYC and Everywhere), Jason Seats (Techstars – Austin and Everywhere), me, and Dug Song (Duo – Ann Arbor). I love the idea that Ian is focused on fascinating people all over the world having massive impact on their local startup communities. Ian is quickly learning how to pull magical stories out of them.
For a taste of the depth of this, listen to Ian’s latest interview with Sean O’Sullivan (another long time friend) titled Founder, Filmmaker, Humanitarian, & VC: Reinvention through Purpose w/ Sean O’Sullivan, Co-Founder of MapInfo & Managing GP, SOSV. In the “super interesting and amazing people you should know but might not”, Sean is at the top of the list.
The final podcast to add to your queue is today’s release on the Give First Podcast titled The Near Death (and Rebirth) of Simple Energy with Justin Segall & Yoav Lurie. If you have read Give First: The Power of Mentorship, you’ll recognize them from the example of the first item in the Techstars Mentor Manifesto: “Be Socratic.” In this episode, we go deeper on what actually happened. I’m still knocking the dust off my podcast boots, so while it’s a little rough, it was fun to do.
While I’m enjoying elements of being out and about, which I decided to do it around the launch of the book because there are some ideas I want to try to get out in the world in this moment, I sent my relentenlessly positive assistant Colleen Clair a note yesterday that began with “UNCLE!” At midnight on Halloween, I’m definitely turning into a pumpkin and going back into hibernation.
I have no idea how long that hibernation will last, or if it will be permanent. While I reflect on the past three months of being out of hibernation, a lot of things I’ve been doing are in the “like” category, but none of them make the “love” category, which now is only four things (spending time with Amy and close friends, reading, writing (non-fiction, fiction, and code), and running/hiking). My goal is to continue to shift more of my time to the love category, fulfill my work commitments, while embracing the third third of life as I wander into my 60s. That won’t include lots of podcasts, travel, or public-facing activity, which is what is filling in all the available gap of time right now.
While I’m having fun, knowing that it is time bounded has been important for me, especially around my energy and mental health. Amy and I have flipped the cliché and are saying this is experience is “a sprint, not a marathon.”
I’m on my way to Chicago for the day to give several talks on Give First: The Power of Mentorship and spend time with my long-time friend, Troy Henikoff. I enjoy Chicago and its startup community, which has produced some great companies over the last 20 years.
I think my first investment in Chicago was during the late 1990s in StartSampling (which I inherited from a Mobius partner.) It lived for a long time based on the tireless work of Larry Burns and his team, but ultimately didn’t make it. My next experience was with FeedBurner, which resulted in a positive outcome and fostered lasting friendships with the founders (Dick Costolo, Matt Shobe, Eric Lunt, and Steve Olechowski), as well as several executives, including Don Loeb, Rick Klau, and Brent Hill.
Plus, the Cubs with my dad and lots of chocolate ice cream together.
I recently spent 30 minutes with Adam Grant on the Techstars Give First Podcast, discussing the intersection between Adam’s excellent book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.
I didn’t know Adam when I wrote the first edition of Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, which came out in October 2012. When Adam’s book came out about six months later in April 2013, I grabbed it and read it immediately. I had an aha moment that related back to one short section in Startup Communties titled “Give Before You Get.” We cover this, and a bunch of other things in the podcast.
I’ve since met and gotten to know Adam, including a long luxurious lunch together one day in Aspen. I have enormous respect for his research and writing and learn something from him every time we interact.
I hope you enjoy the podcast which is available the following links.
I’ve been enjoying doing podcasts again on the Techstars Give First Podcast. When I went into hibernation two years ago, David carried the weight of the podcast and kept it going. But, … I’m back (for what it’s worth), at least for a little while until I turn into a pumpkin.
I had a delightful conversation with Seth Godin. We’ve been friends for 30 years through an initial connection from Charley Lax as part of a diligence project that introduced me to Jerry Colonna and Fred Wilson around an investment that Jerry, Fred, and SoftBank subsequently made in Seth’s company, Yoyodyne (which was acquired a few years later by Yahoo!)
While we start with some history, we delve into deeper topics, which is the delicious part of being friends with Seth.
I picked up a new phrase from this discussion: “Immediate Yes.” Historically, I’ve used the concepts of “Default Yes” and “Default No” to define modalities I’m in. For example, today I’m in Default Yes; when I was in hibernation, I was Default No.
Seth introduced the concept of “Immediate Yes,” which overrides the Default Yes/No setting and applies to a small number of people within one’s relationship hierarchy. I’m one of those people for Seth (and he’s one for me). When I think of my list, it’s less than 20 people. But these are people I know will be careful when they ask me for something, so when they do, it’s an immediate yes. I’ve got more thinking to do on what that means and how I apply it, but it was a fun new idea to consider.
More fun stuff is coming – Adam Grant is up next on the Give First Podcast, which you can subscribe to at the following links:
I spent two days in Toronto (hosted by Matt Golden at Golden Ventures) and a day in Upstate New York (hosted by Martin Babinec) this week as part of the launch of Give First: The Power of Mentorship. Many others were involved in making this a fantastic trip that touched over a thousand people. Extra special thanks to Julia Baird and Olivia Goldstein for the awesome support.
Last Friday, I did a fun interview with Connie Loizos in TechCrunch titled Brad Feld on “Give First” and the art of mentorship (at any age) that just came out, along with five fireside chats this week.
I kept coming back to three concepts that are the foundation of the Give First philosophy.
Non-Transactional: Today, many aspects of our society are transactional, and, in some cases, excessively so. In Give First, interactions are based on genuine connection, interest, support, and affection, without expecting an immediate or reciprocal return. Now, as I define in Give First, it’s not altruism – you expect to get something back. But you don’t know when, from whom, in what form, or over what time frame. Of course, as a businessperson, I engage in numerous transactional interactions. Still, I try to bring a non-transactional perspective to all of my relationships (business and personal), especially when I’m getting to know a person or engaging with someone with whom I’ve developed a healthy relationship.
Positive-Sum: This is not fluffy “win-win” language, but rather the idea that both parties can gain from an interaction. While the gains don’t have to be equivalent, they aren’t absolute (e.g. one party is +10 and the other party is -10.) When I was young, my parents often referred to this as a compromise. However, in today’s zero-sum transactional world, the compromise is frequently described as the “least terrible or offensive outcome to both parties,” which I call a negative-sum interaction. My goal, even in failure, is to learn something, get better at something, or feel like aspects of the engagement had positive contributions, even though the result wasn’t successful.
Multi-Turn: While some transactions are single-turn (e.g., a one-time negotiation with a counterparty that you will never deal with again), I view my entire life as a multi-turn game. While I’m sure there are situations where I’ve only had one interaction with someone, and there are plenty of times where the other person decided they don’t ever want to deal with me again, I’m open, with limited exceptions, to viewing every interaction as part of a larger, long-term relationship. This is particularly true when things don’t work out, there’s disappointment, or failure. As long as both parties engage thoughtfully and respectfully and try to learn from their mistakes, I will continue to engage. Ultimately, there are some people I have no interest in engaging with; however, almost all of this stems from a fundamental rupture in the relationship or endless ad hominem attacks, rather than a view of experiences as a single turn.
The opposite of my philosophy is a one-time, transactional relationship where there is a winner and a loser. I love it when someone says, “But isn’t that how sports work?” in which I offer up two of the greatest competitors of all time in a sport I love. Consider the relationship between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Is it a one-time transaction interaction where there is a clear winner and loser? If your response is “Yes, each time they played was a single-turn transaction with a winner and loser.” Pause, and say that out loud while considering the 2008 Wimbledon final, or any of these amazing five matches. In each transaction, they challenged each other to play at a higher level. They built on their love and respect for each other as people, players, and champions. And they played many times, each time providing a positive-sum experience for everyone involved, including all the fans. I look back on their long, intertwined careers and see a non-transactional, positive-sum, multi-turn relationship.
Finally, I emphasized many times this week that Give First is a philosophy, not a religion. It’s not a set of rules to follow, commandments from me, or a way to behave that, if you do it rigorously, you will achieve salvation. And, it’s not an obligation. Instead, it’s a set of concepts to consider and incorporate, as you wish, into your approach to life and the way you interact with others.
Give First: The Power of Mentorship is now available in both physical and Kindle formats. BradTheBookSalesman says, “Don’t wait, buy it today!” And yes, someday it will be available as an audiobook.
As a bonus, my long-time friend Andy Sack’s book AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand is also launching today. BradTheBookSalesman says, “Buy Andy’s book also! Make it a two-fer.”
Ok – enough with the BradTheBookSalesman shit. In addition to my alter ego, BradTheBookSalesman, another alter ego, Spike Feld, will emerge in a few days with some more fun and games for everyone.
To clarify that Give First is a philosophy rather than a religion, let’s begin with its formal definition.
“Give First” means being willing to put energy into a relationship or a system without defining the transactional parameters. However, it’s not altruism. You can and should expect to get something back. But you don’t know when, from whom, in what form, or over what time frame.
If you know me, you’re aware that I’ve been living my life this way for a considerable time. While many of the things I do in life are transactional, and BradTheBookSalesman is amused by the irony of his role in this, many are also non-transactional.
Importantly, though, Give First is a philosophy, not a religion.
From my perspective as a Jewish atheist with Buddhist tendencies, a religion is something where, if you follow the rules, you will achieve salvation, spiritual fulfillment, or a closer relationship with the divine. Or, reincarnation and the opportunity to try it all over again. Or, lots of other things. I am not anti-religion, but I have my view about where religion fits in the pantheon of the human experience.
A philosophy is a set of perspectives that is a guide, not a set of rules. You build your worldview as a result of the philosophy you adopt. You incorporate it into your perspective, views, and values. You choose what is interesting to you and ignore the rest.
While this is not a rigorous definition of a philosophy, I think it’s sufficient for distinguishing between philosophy and religion. If you want Claude’s view, it’s a little more abstract and precise:
“Philosophy generally prioritizes intellectual exploration and accepts ambiguity, whereas religion offers comprehensive worldviews that integrate belief, practice, and community in ways that provide meaning and guidance for adherents’ entire lives.“
Rules have a place in our society. So does religion. So does philosophy. But they are different things.
Please don’t view Give First as a religion. A higher power will not judge you. You have no rules to follow. You are not trying to achieve salvation, enlightenment, or even success. Instead, Give First, along with my views on mentorship, is a set of ideas to consider. You get to decide what to incorporate, if any, into your worldview.
As with any philosophy, I learn more every day from my interaction with others. I run lots of experiments. I make lots of mistakes. I try to learn from these mistakes and run new experiments. When I figure out something that works, or feels right, or makes sense to me, I try to incorporate it and do more of it. When something goes wrong, I try to figure out what I did wrong and do it less often.
The philosophy of Give First has evolved for me over the past 25 years, since I first considered it in Len Fassler‘s kitchen in 1996. I didn’t have a definition or a phrase for it, only a feeling. Len and many people since have contributed to this philosophy, and I’ve learned an enormous amount about myself along the way.
Until the lights go out, I plan to never stop learning. And, when they do, I hope the philosophy of Give First endures long after I’m gone. For all that have contributed, and continue to contribute, to Give First, thank you.
The Kindle version of Give First: The Power of Mentorship launched today and is available for 50% of the regular Kindle price.
Brad the Book Salesman says, “Please still buy the regular version also, but if you want an early look, buy the Kindle version today to help my Amazon ranking. And to get an early read of the book.”
Amazon Reviews and Goodreads Reviews are now live. If you’ve read an early version and are willing, please share your thoughts with a review.
My morning started early with a 6:30 a.m. drive to Denver to give a talk about Give First: The Power of Mentorship, which Erik Mitisek had organized for a group of Denver-area founders.
In it, one of Erik’s questions caused me to go off on a riff about authenticity, which led me to one of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto items titled Be Authentic—Practice: What You Preach and a section in the book titled Nonsense Phrases Such as “I’m Value Added”. I gave the example in the section Being Full of Value‑Added Shit and explained that when I hear someone say “I’m an (adjective) (noun)” I insert (in my brain) the word “not” after the word “I’m.” From the book:
I’m amused when someone says, “I’m authentic,” “I’m transparent,” “I’m founder-friendly,” or “I’m a value-added investor.” Whenever I hear something like that, I automatically insert the word “not” between “I’m” and the rest of the phrase.
I’m suspicious whenever someone says, “I’m an (adjective) (noun).” Why did you need to say, “I’m a great tennis player,” “I’m a deep thinker,” or “I’m a generous person”? Instead, why not simply play tennis, regardless of how great you are? Or think as deeply as you want? Or be generous?
I’ve followed it up with two more Techstars-related talks, where I used this example again. In the last talk, I said, “I think I’ll make that today’s blog.” So – here’s the story.
“Hmm,” I thought to myself.
I had just watched a video interview with a famous VC. Although I didn’t know him, I was friendly with several founders who had worked with him and knew of at least one of the situations he had described.
The VC’s verbal fillers took up the first 30 minutes of the interview. There were plenty of “Honestly” and “To tell you the truth” woven in between “I’ll be transparent about what happened” and “The best
founders are authentic to their true selves.”
One of his stories, which I was familiar with, didn’t feel right. I knew the founder/CEO of the company he described and thought she’d had a particularly rough time with this VC. However, the VC’s preamble was, “In difficult situations, I’m always transparent about what will happen with the founder. That way, they have an opportunity to challenge or correct me.”
I emailed my founder-CEO friend to ask about the situation. I told her I’d just seen an interview with the VC in which he discussed her company. Had she seen the interview? Did she agree with what
the VC said?
“He’s full of shit,” said my friend. “That guy is a manipulative psychopath. Before we even talked about the situation, he’d gone around me to everyone on my management team and planted seeds of doubt with them. He told different things to each team member, lied about our situation, and attributed things to me that hadn’t happened at all.”
“So, he wasn’t transparent with you?”
“Are you kidding me? I have no idea why anyone takes this guy seriously.”
“Did you when you first met him?”
“Well, yes, of course. He was charismatic, had a lot of capital, talked a good game, and had a lot of people who said great things about him.”
“What do you think happened?”
“I think he’s a manipulative, misogynistic, ego-challenged person who is deeply deceitful. Well, maybe he’s not misogynistic, but all the people who liked him were men, and I’ve subsequently met a few other female founders who had similar experiences to mine.”
The VC was neither transparent nor authentic. As is often the case, his reputation eventually caught up with him.