Category Archives: Friends of Ben

Network: Ben Casnocha > Mike Patterson > Greg Lahann

Google: Greg Lahann

Greg is part of the same network that my first Friends of Ben profile, Carol Rutlen, is in. Greg Lahann is a partner at Novus Ventures, a VC firm in Cupertino with $150 M under management.

I didn’t really get to know Greg until this past summer. I had met him originally a few years ago but only stayed in touch via email. One day he responded to my general Comcate update with “Hey Ben – good to hear from you, glad all is going well, let me know if there is anything I can do to help.” I made a point to hook up with him come summer time.

We got sushi together at a place near his office and I immediately felt the warmth and kindness from him that i had heard about. As I gave him an update on things and as he filled me in on what he had been doing for the last year or so, I couldn’t help thinking “Why didn’t I stay in touch with Greg earlier on?” Greg probed, asked tough questions, and offered good feedback.

He also did something that I always listen for – speaking in the “we.” Even though we hadn’t talked for more than a year, he was asking things like “So how many clients do we have? Where do we need to go to get to the next stage?” When I work with advisors and partners – or even a new employee – an easy way to gauge how they feel about their affiliation with the company is whether they say “What you guys really need to think about…” versus “We should brainstorm about…”

After our lunch – a lunch in which I recall really opening up, cracking jokes about the NBA and his not eating breakfast – Greg introduced me to the CEO of Insevo a firm focused on GUI integrations btwn software systems. Not only did he introduce us, but he came to my lunch with the Insevo folks and helped facilitate and add his two cents.

I can’t wait to stay in touch with Greg, pick his brain, and find out how his warm people skills can emit such a friendly atmosphere.

Network: Ben Casnocha > Mike Patterson > Carol Rutlen

Google: Carol Rutlen

I met Carol several years ago when my closet mentor Mike Patterson organized a dinner of folks to help me think through the idea behind Comcate. Carol is founder and CEO of ExpatEdge, a software company helping human resource professionals support employees on domestic and international assignments. She started ExpatEdge after leaving PwC. Currently she is on the Advisory Board at Comcate.

Carol is a great person to have in the room when it comes to tackling big, strategic issues but she can get detail oriented quickly and that’s what I like. I am trying to hone my skills at being able to go from 50,000 to 500 feet of analysis when asked. I’ve been in too many meetings where we will be trying to figure out a roadmap for the next 3-5 years and someone asks about a tactical marketing issue. Or we’re trying to wordsmith a brochure and someone keeps focusing on the big message and not the individual sentences.

Carol can review a packet of information ahead of time and come in with questions. Being prepared for meetings and having thought about it ahead of time makes her participation in our advisory board so much more potent. There are few people who actually digest and reflect on stuff you send them before meetings – even if it’s only a 2 minute exercise, Carol does it and she does it well.

Finally, I like Carol because she has a social/philanthropic side to her. She sees a glass ceiling when it comes to women in business and that’s something that fires me up. Although we haven’t needed to rely on our advisory board much in the past few months, I know when we gather the group next time we all will look forward to capturing some of Carol’s insight and wit. All these reasons make Carol Rutlen the first in my Friends of Ben series.

I’m lucky to have a network of peers, supporters, mentors…In other words a well of ideas, introductions, and feedback that I can tap in to when need be. I’m not a prolific networker, but I do see the value in knowing people and I work hard to build and most important maintain strong relationships with people I find interesting. I have no problem meeting someone just to talk about things, share ideas, talk about each other’s endeavors. For nine months a year, I am mostly in “Operation Maintain” as in stay in touch with folks I already know. (This name comes from the term my family uses to maintain our wood stove fire during the winter. Someone needs to “maintain” the fire by adding a piece of wood every couple hours.)

Some people always need to have a very specific purpose or ideal outcome behind meeting someone. That’s too near-sighted, as far as I’m concerned. So…I thought I could use my blog as a way to profile someone who I know and respect, share a little bit about them and why I like them, and always extend the offer to introduce you (reader) to this person if it makes sense. The majority of my contacts do not have blogs, unfortunately. Obviously this concept would work better if the person had a blog so you could get a daily dose of them if you find my profile interesting. Anyway, I’ve created a new TypePad category “Friends of Ben” and will, every few weeks or so, profile someone new. We’ll see how long I can go before I exhaust my address book!