Chris Schultz is a seasoned expert in high growth startups and expansion. He’s an active angel investor, and has spent 15+ years bringing together the “doers” of the world — startups that have raised hundreds of millions in capital and created 5,000+ jobs. He founded Launch Pad, a startup workspace and community for entrepreneurs, creatives and professionals in New Orleans in 2009, and over the past year he has guided the expansion to new markets in Newark, Memphis, and Nashville. Anne Driscoll, Co-founder, President & COO of Launch Pad. Anne Driscoll is a long-time Silicon Valley Exec and former Googler turned passionate startup advocate. Post Google, Anne took her expertise to the Valley’s high-growth startup scene focussing on championing emerging ecosystems and creating platforms to support small businesses like Ning, Dwolla and GoDaddy. In 2017 Anne took on the role of President and COO of Launch Pad to support the expansion and increase programming and services for Launch Pad members.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Patrick Comer
- Chris’s father
- People who are willing to take early risks
When business started difficulties overcame:
“it’s interesting how much you are not aware of when you start the entrepreneurial journey and before you start your first company. And I think the biggest difficulty that I faced and many face is a little bit of a product crisis of confidence. It’s this impostor syndrome… Where you have an idea you talk to people as if it is an idea… And the notion of just getting started, hanging out your shingle, printing a business card, trying to acquire the first customer those were some of the biggest challenges for me. There was a lot of planning and prepping and researching and reading and less of the getting out there and doing”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Books by Ben Horowitz
- The Alchemist Book by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Quote:
“constraint breeds creativity” Anne Driscoll
Recommended Online Resources:
- Y Combinator – created a new model for funding early stage startups Twice a year they invest in a large number of startups
- Y Combinator Startup school – Learn how to start a startup with YC’s free 10-week online course
- Foresight – Financial model templates for forecasting and fundraising – Standards based, rock solid financial model templates used by 21,700 entrepreneurs and investors for forecasting and fundraising for any type of business SaaS, ecommerce, marketplaces, hardware, apps, and more
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“as entrepreneurs I think it’s really important for you to be honest with yourself and identify what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. And it’s okay to know that you aren’t going to be great at everything, that’s just not a possibility. So it’s really important I think for you to be successful, to know what areas of expertise you need to draw from other places. You need to be confident in the decisions that you make but you can find partners or mentors or resources or employees to help you fill in those blind spots that you may have in your business or in your own skill set”…[Listen for More]
More About Anne Driscoll & Chris Schultz:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless
Other Quotes From the Chat with Anne Driscoll & Chris Schultz:
- “We made mistakes, we stubbed our toes, we had a lot of slipups, there was a tremendous amount of learning from trying to do that. And you learn a lot more from actually attempting to be in business than you do from planning and preparation and thinking about it. So the impetus to grow I wish we would have gone after that earlier on”
- “a core secret to success is perseverance”
- “every day you set the goal line little further and you are trying to achieve a new level of success. You never truly feel like you’ve achieved success but that perseverance day in day out whether you are celebrating the wins or whether you are picking yourself back up after being punched in the face. That perseverance and willing to get up the next day and do it is the key to success”
- “the other key to success is really surrounding yourself and building a community. And I think having partnerships, having other people’s success come from your own success is a great way to kind of build an army of evangelists around you, your brand and the work that you are doing”
- “throughout my career I have had really big budgets really little budgets and the most interesting things we have been able to do is actually on the smaller budgets. When we have had constraints with faced challenges and we have really had to think beyond just the obvious answers”
- “what can we do that can be special, that can be inspiring, can be exciting and is that without having to spend millions and millions of dollars to do it or any dollars for that matter”
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