YouSaid · the spoken record

Bart Lorang

lines on the record: 23
first: 2017-06-23
most recent: 2017-06-23
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, I mean, I've been thinking deeply about this because I actually have written that you need to actually check in every five years with yourself and your wife if you're game for another five years. And, you know, the last time I did that was about two years ago. So, you know, if I think about an ad arc, I think in five years, right, full contact will either be a public company or ready to be public. I think that I continually try to fire myself from different roles in the business. So my goal is to be the lazy CEO that actually just shows up every day, maybe reads, maybe meditates, maybe answers an email or two, but actually doesn't have to do much. That's the goal. That's the ambition. And I think we're, to use a Basel's term, just day one at full contact in terms of what we're tapping into. And so in five years, I view us as a global business with offices around the world and emotionally connected, vulnerable team that loves each other.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I've changed my mind on the notion that there is such thing as control. I actually think the universe is incredibly messy. I think that control is a word that we should probably eliminate. It's a falsehood that we control basically nothing. And I've given up a lot of control in my company in terms of my management style is very, very hands-off, or I like to think so. I realize people get things done differently and you just can't control things. Let's see how the ball bounces, basically. And I've dramatically changed my viewpoint on that.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The thing that I would like to see most is emotional vulnerability and empathy being more at the forefront of these things. I'm obviously blessed to have guys like Bradfeld and Jerry involved in my company and full contact. We really go deep on the emotional aspects of entrepreneurship. I don't think we talk about it enough that it's not just business, it's actually pretty personal too. And this notion that we can try to separate those things is kind of false. So let's actually acknowledge the emotional dynamics that are going on inside these companies and inside the investors and their relationships with their LPs and so on and so forth. Let's actually talk about that more. My favorite newsletter is actually the abundance 360 Insider by Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize, about exponential growth in technologies.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My favorite book is actually Jonathan Livingston Siegel. And I give the book away often to individuals that I could tell have made the leap. And it's a really a great story. It's a short read. If you haven't read it, I would encourage reading it. It's really a journey about just the evolution of crucible moments personally and professionally and how there's always another level of ascension you can get to.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I just think being the first person to walk on a different planet or different orbiting body, I suppose the moon, right, is just unbelievably successful in moving, helping move mankind forward”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those mental health improve. People realize that you don't actually have to work 70 hours. You can actually knock it out in 35 hours, maybe, and just actually focus and simplify and declutter.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, when you go on a paid vacation, it takes about three days to digitally detox where you're not reaching for your phone or you're just like, oh my gosh, I'm missing like a limb. So I noticed that people actually wake up to the world around them after about three days. And everybody I talk to about this starts seeing things and noticing things, noticing nature, noticing their loved ones, going back and activating parts of their brain that are dormant and anxiety and stress levels dramatically reduce. And so when they come back, they realize, A, they should do that more often. B, they were unnecessarily in a stress, anxiety, feedback loop created by the digital devices of today's era. And three, they actually realized that the world didn't end without them. The company didn't end. And, oh, that's actually a good thing, right? They don't need to be the hero all the time. And so we actually noticed processes improve because people know they're going to be gone.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, paid paid vacation is a thing that we came up with about five years ago at full contact. And we pay every employee $7,500 once a year to take a vacation. And that's on top of their existing paid vacation salary. So they get a $7,500 stipend to go take a vacation. There's only three rules. One is they have to take a vacation to get the money. Two is they cannot work while they're on vacation. And three is they actually have to completely disconnect and go off grid. We've noticed that employees love this perk. They really appreciate this perk. Yeah, they love it. I wasn't expecting that one. Yeah, everybody takes it. Nobody, you know, everybody takes it. Everybody follows the rules. It's actually changed a lot of people's lives, which I'm the most proud of.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, if people are really, this goes back to the negotiation piece. If you can tell that they're maximizing for the monetary value on day one and they're not thinking longer term, that turns me off. That's fair transactional. That's a very clear sign. So a lot of times sales reps do this where there's clearly a bigger opportunity, but they're optimizing for their commission this quarter. And they're actually leaving a big pile of money on the table because they're optimizing for their commission this quarter. You know, how they actually thoughtfully take the time to get to know and understand your problems versus trying to close something too quickly when it's not yet fully baked.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I try to run my life around long term relationships. I think that transactional things don't interest me very much. So in general, we have very limited time on this planet. So why would we waste it in a bunch of short-term transactions versus, hey, let's actually work with partners we want to work with that we love working with that share our values, that we can actually build something with together. I just think it's a waste of time to spend too much time on transactions.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know if I agree with that. I think that it should be over 50% if you had to peg me into a number. I think you could always leave things on the table. But that goes to relationship dynamics. Like if you feel like people are optimizing for a short-term transaction rather than long-term partnership, that's where you get into trouble”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When he uses the word monetization, I have a specific reaction, which is, yeah, I think there's a lot of value you can actually just provide goodwill as part of the negotiation and you don't have to monetize it. So developing the relationship or other ways you can help a partner out, it's really important to identify those things and not always be transactional and monetary based.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Deal or 100x deal back for the seed investing thing. I mean, it's the successive negotiation hinges on if the IRR is 12% or 14% and it's that close, like it's probably not a good deal. It's got to be no-brainer stuff that is just like, oh, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it's a zero. Great, but let's have a portfolio of things we're doing in parallel.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. Maybe it's just impossible syndrome at the core, but I actually think I'm just a great dealmaker in terms of just finding a win-win scenario for both parties to me is the best rather than trying to create a scenario that is adverse in competition. You try to align each other's interests. I try to put myself in the other party's shoes and think, where would a win for me be? So I try to understand their strategic objectives, what they are optimizing for, what they're thinking about, and then think creatively about how can I fulfill that request while meeting my own needs. And so I think creativity has a lot to do with it. But, you know, back and forth negotiation, I mean, I actually don't have the patience for it. I optimize for time often on deals. And then this is back to the portfolio allocation standpoint. I mean, some people obsess about these little things in a deal that ultimately are not going to actually matter in the long run. Like if you think about it, is it going to be a 10x?”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I actually am part of two CEO peer groups that meet every month and we meet for four hours each month and we actually talk about issues and we go deep on what's going on in our businesses and get advice and share experiences. And so that's incredibly helpful for me. The other thing that I do religiously is meditation and I make sure I have time to meditate at 15 minutes every day. I tried to do yoga, but I just couldn't get in the rhythm. And then I actually make sure that I carve out plenty of like base on the calendar. I've gotten better at that over the years. If you don't carve out think time and space for you to just be and think and read or just hang out by yourself, you end up doing that on the weekend when you're supposed to be with your family and then you're zoned out thinking about things. So you got to actually do that during the week and carve out significant time. So my rule of thumb is only schedule 50% of your calendar. Don't schedule 40 hours a week.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would encourage every CEO to try it out. I think it's really important to have mentorship and coaching and environment where you can actually talk about what's going on. So I've used the framework that Brad suggests, which is if you're not spending 10% of your salary every year in your company on your own personal growth and development, like you're literally suboptimizing the company. And the argument I make is like, look, if it's 10 or $20,000 a year or whatever it is, do you think that that's a good investment? It could make your company 1% better or 1% more valuable? Probably. Look at what the impact could be on your business and your investors should be supportive of this type of thing. So I actually absolutely recommend it.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's actually pretty interesting. There was a thread going around about CEO coaching that Brad had started on a foundry CEO email distro. And I'd read a little bit about Jerry and then I saw one thing he did in Boulder at Naropa University. And it was this actual event where I got in a fight with my wife. And it was about snow shoveling. It was like 6.30 in the morning and in Boulder, Colorado, we get snow pretty frequently. And I had”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With that particular day. And that's very helpful to get that perspective and have a sort of community of CEOs and founders that you're genuinely talking with about your problems with.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so as a CEO, as you kind of grows in scales, your job becomes more about capital allocation and where you're placing your bets, right? And inside your different departments or on different markets or on different products or whatever, and you're sort of zooming out and saying, okay, we're going to allocate a few million here and a few million here. And let's see how this works and what's the return. And at a micro level, when you're making a seed stage investment, that's what you're doing, right? You're essentially constructing your portfolio. And so I've learned a lot about portfolio thinking, both in venture world as well as in the company and thinking, okay, what is my series of bets I'm making as a company? And so, you know, I find it very useful. More importantly, the most important thing, I think, though, is the emotional element. My role at V1VC is actually diving in with the entrepreneurs about the emotional gut-wrenching difficulties of entrepreneurship. And I try to serve as a coach and a sounding board for whatever terrible thing they're dealing with.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Entrepreneurs that want to change the world. And I've been an angel investor for many, many years and been doing angel investing with Brett Jackson as well as actually Benny Joseph as well as the other managing director. And we just decided to create a fund. So to me, it's actually very helpful to be, quote, simultaneously on both sides of the table because you can actually often I'm actually evaluating a business or looking at a company or helping one of our portfolio entrepreneurs view one vc into something I might be screwing up at full contact. And so the act of like coaching somebody else through a problem sometimes reveals things in your own company that are screwed up and we all have things that are screwed up. It also helps me understand markets and understand capital allocation.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Site for like three days straight on the front page totally crashed our systems we were up for three days straight trying to keep up with the load but there was very clear demand and so at that point you know six months in we decided to say hey let's actually go to an accelerated like tech stars and raise capital and there's something here you know it's all things to my wife basically she now she's my wife and she takes all the credit what are we without the women in our life but I do want to dive in quickly on the world of VC slightly here because you've got a very interesting perspective being both a founder with full contact and then also your role as an LP and an MD with V1 and Brett Jackson. So I'm really intrigued. How does this role on the other side of the table affect how you first view and analyze startups? Let's start with that. Yeah, I mean, my role at V1VC, you know, just sort of a natural evolution. We have a $5 million seed fund focused on helping create.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With the data, and every business I'd started managing contact information and getting an understanding of who your business actually knows is just really, really annoying, you know, transferring contact between systems. I mean, it's just a gnarly nasty problem. And so I thought about it. I said, well, all this data really is actually out there. I actually have access to it. It's on the web. It's in social networks. It's in my email. It's in my calendars and so forth. Let's actually try to unify this and try to think about the identity resolution problem that really attracted me because I'm a math nerd and a data nerd as well. And I was just super attracted to the problem. And I was just like, man, so many companies have tried to solve this contact problem, but nobody's really done it well and taken sort of an identity resolution approach. So basically decided to start a company based upon that premise of solving my own problem as an entrepreneur and built an initial prototype called Rainmaker actually and launched it and Life Hacker noticed then put it on the life hacker.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, sure. So, you know, I'm a lifelong entrepreneur, so I've been doing the software game for 28 years. And, you know, really started full contact about seven years ago. I was in between ventures and I actually started dating my wife, Sarah. We were in grad school. And one night I got a peek at her outlook context. Don't ask me why I was looking at her Outlook contacts. I don't recall. I just was. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. The astonishing thing was her contacts were absolutely perfect and immaculate. So you can imagine the pristine outlook contact record and photo and kids names and kids' birthdays and spouse name and work number and home number and address and note. I mean, just imagine just perfection. And I looked at those contacts and I said, I wish my contacts look like that. And she only had a few hundred, but I had several thousand. And, you know, contacts has always been a pain managing your network.”
2017-06-23 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Every CEO's Goal Should Be To Be The Laziest CEO, The Benefits of Being Both Founder and Investor At The Same Time & Why Every CEO Should Try A CEO Coach with Bart Lorang, Founder & CEO @ Full Contact · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source