Mitch Grasso is the founder and CEO of Beautiful.AI, presentation software that will revolutionize how people create visually stunning presentations. He has more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience building and leading design-orientated tech companies from early stage ideation to market leadership. He previously founded and served as CEO of SlideRocket.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Mitch’s Father
When business started difficulties overcame:
“…There is always the fear of is this a path I want to take and do I want to go on. When you live in in San Francisco and there is so much opportunity here risk is something that can be pretty mitigated by knowing that there’s always jobs to go”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses Book by Eric RiesFavourite Quote:
” Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs”
Recommended Online Resources:
- TechCrunch is an American online publisher of technology industry news founded in 2005 by Archimedes Ventures whose partners were Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. It reports on the business of tech, tech news, analysis of emerging trends in tech, and profiling of new tech businesses and products.
- Techmeme – The essential tech news of the moment. Technology’s news site of record Not for dummies
- VentureBeat is the leading source for latest technology news, VentureBeat gives context to help execs, entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts make smart decisions
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“ruthlessly questioning yourself making sure that you really know why you are doing what you are doing and not just doing it because people are saying that’s what you should be doing. You have got to be honest to yourself, you have got to be self-aware to know what you are good at and what you are not good at, where you need help. Just whether or not what you are doing makes sense… Being able to communicate that value properly, make sure that you are building something that people are going to be interested in and you have got a path to get there. And figuring that out is really the first step to building a business”…[Listen for More]
More About Mitch Grasso:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” Norman Schwarzkopf
Other Quotes From the Chat with Mitch Grasso:
- “the best thing that I think I’ve done that sort of ultimately makes the company more successful is being really ruthless about figuring out what it is that I am doing and spending the time to iterate on that”
- “spending the time to get the answers and the vision together is definitely worthwhile before you start really down the path of raising money or hiring a team”
- “for me the secret to success constantly questioning myself, constantly trying to figure out my doing this the best way, the right way. I tend to disregard conventional wisdom. If people tell me that this is the way we do things or this is the way that things are done because this is the way that things are done I don’t necessarily say we won’t do that but I tend to question if that’s the right way and I like to learn these things on my own for good or for bad… The best model I think I have come up with is just that constant questioning, that constant iteration on making things better”
- “what I have generally found is that there is no one size, there is no easy solution, that everybody’s sort of path and everybody solution to a problem is different. And I like learning those things organically”
- “it’s not just about making pretty pictures, is not just about telling a pretty story with the presentation it’s about being an effective communicator and that is what design ultimately needs to do”
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