Brant Cooper is the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Lean Entrepreneur” and CEO of Moves the Needle. With over two decades of expertise helping companies bring innovative products to market, he blends design thinking and lean methodology to ignite entrepreneurial action within large organizations. He has experienced monumental milestones such as IPO, acquisition, rapid growth, and crushing failure. He serves as a keynote speaker, advisor to entrepreneurs, accelerators, and corporate leaders, and in his current venture, Moves The Needle, empowers organizations to be closer to customers, move faster, and act bolder.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Scott Case Founding CTO Priceline
- Seth Godin
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I don’t know how to start a business. What about the forms I have to fill out?… The Internet was young so not everything was available on the Internet. But on the other hand, what’s funny about the tax system here in the US is you can start a business without filing any forms. You just become a sole proprietor. But there was always just sort of this mystery around it, this blackbox and I think that’s one of the things over the last 20, 30 years that has gotten way better is teaching new entrepreneurs just the very basics on how to start a business”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy Book by Matt Stoller
- The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy Book by Stephanie Kelton
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts Book by Brené Brown
Favourite Quote:
” All models are wrong, but some are useful”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Slack is where work flows It’s where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done
- Mural is a digital workspace for visual collaboration. Their platform and professional services enable innovative teams to think and collaborate visually to solve important problems. Simply put what’s on your mind on sticky notes. Then organize in lists, flowcharts, diagrams, frameworks, methods and drawings to activate and align your team
- Product Hunt – is a curation of the best new products, every day. Discover the latest mobile apps, websites, and technology products that everyone’s talking about
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“you have got to get out of the building, you have got to go and talk to your customers. Don’t go and pitch them your solution. The first time you meet with a customer don’t even talk about your idea, talk about them. I use a technique of flipping the conversation, it’s actually an old sales technique. So I briefly introduce myself then I will post some assumptions and then asked them if that’s what they face . I might say hi I’m Brant Cooper the CEO of Moves the Needle we bring an entrepreneurial spirit to large enterprises. When I talked to CEOs like yourself, I often hear that your company is moving too slowly and even though you say you are customer centric you really don’t understand your customers. And you are not able to change your plans based upon changes in the economy. Do you face any of those problems? So very quickly I’m trying to expose what I believe to be true among this market segment and then I asked them if it’s true”…[Listen for More]
More About Brant Cooper:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.” Arnold Schwarzenegger
Other Quotes From the Chat with Brant Cooper:
- “I think the founder documents that I was talking about before would have benefited me”
- “I did not do a good job of putting together a board of advisers and I think that I would have benefited from that”
- “I think that entrepreneurs can find mentors all over the place now. And there is a lot of meat up and organisations that actually try to help you find the right mentor. I really do encourage people to find mentors to help them overcome some of the difficulties of being an entrepreneur that goes beyond dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s of running your business”
- “I actually think that the more successful entrepreneurs are the ones that just hustle, they just do”
- “you should be passionate about what you are doing because in order to successfully run a business you have to do a bunch of things that you don’t want to do but you have to do them and you should put yourself into them 100 percent. So, you have to be passionate about all the things that you don’t want to do. And if that means going and talking to your customers, going and developing the empathy, getting out from behind your computer, stop writing code, go and learn then that’s what you’ve got to go and do. And I just think that is more successful entrepreneurs are the people that have learned that lesson or they do it naturally and they are just beating down the path to the market, it’s not the market beating down a path to their door. They are out doing the work, they are hustling”
- “the entrepreneur’s job is to be concentrating on the unknown side and you hire people to do the known side. So maybe you are passionate about being in that chaotic unknown side of it”
- “you can learn the craft of entrepreneurialism… Learn the craft then make it your own and then that’s how you’ll be successful with learning and using these things that you’ve learned”
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