Jonah Phillips started Crossword Hobbyist in 2013 because someone told him not to start a website for teachers, and he doesn’t like being told what to do. He gave Crossword Hobbyist its sister site, My Word Search, in 2015. Jonah graduated from the University of Chicago in 2008. He currently lives in New York.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Patrick McKenzie of Kalzumeus
When business started difficulties overcame:
“…not gaining any traction. Was this the wrong choice? There was a lot of doubts there. The doubts were challenging because I thought this is my one-shot. If I don’t get this right I have a certain runway in terms of money I had saved up where I said I am going to draw this down until I can’t do it anymore. And this is my shot and if that’s not getting picked up I’m thinking gosh maybe I made the wrong call in terms of going for this.”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently Book by Gallup Press and Jim HarterFavourite Quote:
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” The Empire Strikes Back. Yoda
Recommended Online Resources:
- Breezy – Improve your entire hiring process with Breezy s recruiting software applicant tracking system. Breezy help you attract hire great employees with less effort
- Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“decide what makes you happy before going for it. And I don’t say that lightly . Some people say go for it regardless but the answer might not be go for it… If you are a person who wants to do a task that’s fun and make money doing it that’s good to know ahead of time. To say if I can’t make a good business doing this thing that I really enjoy I’m not going to do it at all and that’s actually maybe the right decision to not go for that business because you realise maybe that business to make it work is maybe not that fun thing you want to do. And just to know whether you would rather have a business or whether you would rather be doing that activity will help you set your priorities and determine should you start and should you quit”…[Listen for More]
More About Jonah Phillips:
Crossword Hobbyist and My Word Search
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Always deliver more than expected.” Larry Page co-founder of Google
Other Quotes From the Chat with Jonah Phillips:
- “I love that the business is all about creating something that wasn’t there before”
- “I am motivated because I hate to lose”
- “all of the lessons that I learned I had to learn for myself”
- “being very focused on being successful”
- “there is a lot of stuff that is just really important to people but not really fun from a work standpoint but it’s not about me having a good time it’s about the customers enjoy the product. And if I am motivated by the customer enjoying the product not I have a great time running my business then it is much more likely to be successful because I am motivated by the same thing that what I want to be motivated in the end is that the customers are happy which makes me happy”
- “I’ve started a business that focuses on all of my strengths and none of my weaknesses”
Leave a Reply