David Thomas Tao is an entrepreneur, editor, and voice actor based in New York City. David is the Co-Founder and Editor of Bar Bend, a media brand that provides multi-platform coverage of news, analysis, training, and opinion in strength training and sports. One of the largest and fastest-growing fitness sites on the web, BarBend is the Official Media Partner of USA Weightlifting and is also a partner broadcaster for the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games. David is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list maker for Media. A veteran of the health & fitness industry, he has nearly a decade of experience building and running editorial teams in the space.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“there wasn’t a blueprint for starting a strengths sport media company because they didn’t really exist. Or at least the ones that existed prior to bar Bend were giant e-commerce companies… We didn’t necessarily know to start off how we were going to be able to monetise bar bend and scale. It’s something actually we are very much still figuring out, I don’t think we’ve cracked the code, I don’t think we’ve figured out our ultimate evolution of all the ways the site can monetise. And figuring that out was the hard part”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World Book by Mark KurlanskyFavourite Quote:
“I do today what others won’t so I can do tomorrow what others can’t”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Stratechery by Ben Thompson – On the business, strategy, and impact of technology.
- Morning Brew – The daily email newsletter covering the latest news from Wall St to Silicon Valley Informative, witty, and everything you need to start your day
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“start it and don’t be afraid to fail… Just begin. If you don’t make it no one is going to buy it. You are not going to get it right the first time. You may not ever get it 100% right but few businesses do and they still become massive runaway successes. So just start something. Start something small, don’t be afraid to start it small. Don’t be afraid to have one customer and to have one customer for a year that’s still a customer and you can still learn a lot from them. The best time to start it was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. Get started on something because the best way to learn is by doing”…[Listen for More]
More About David Tao:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“It’s very easy to be different but very difficult to be better.” Jonathan Ive, Chief Design Officer, Apple
Other Quotes From the Chat with David Tao:
- “reach out to people in your industry to let them know what’s coming and what you are working on”
- “the more macro the decision is the less I try to rely on my gut just because I do have the luxury of a little bit more time and I can approach things a little more deductively inductively”
- “one of the secrets to success is… identifying and analysing your mistakes as early as possible”
- “embrace your mistakes as mistakes, critically analyse them and then try and place a value on how damaging they were”
- “you and your business can have an impact across industries just as businesses from completely separate industries you might not think about will have an impact on the way you conduct your business”
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