Category Archives: Friends of Ben

I’ve been remiss in not updating the Friends of Ben series (where I profile interesting friends of mine) as often as I should but after a deeply thought provoking conversation with today’s feature I resolved to update it.

Network: Ben Casnocha > Cole Valley Neighborhood/Blogging > Steve Silberman

Google: Steve Silberman

Steve is a contributing editor at Wired magazine where he’s been for 10 years. I first met Steve more than a year ago when he emailed me saying he was a fellow Cole Valley resident in SF. Since from time to time I do interviews with press people I was expecting another of the same. It turned out that Steve was unlike any other journalist I had met with – he wasn’t interested in business as much as the people behind them. He wasn’t interested in Comcate as much as me, the person; a living breathing person with experiences and feelings and complexities.

Talking with Steve reminds me that life is about people, corporations are about people. I’ve always had appreciation for anyone who has studied human behavior, cognitive science, or psychology. No matter how many layers of suits one hides behind, no matter how staunchly one projects a certain identity to achieve a certain goal, at our core there is something very primal and authentic and common about the way humans act. Few people in this world are able to penetrate the barriers we put up around ourselves that only are disarmed when we are sitting in bed in darkness, unable to sleep, engulfed in our own conscious. We are the only ones who know what is rattling around in our inner-selves. It is a great struggle (and an innate urge) for humans to communicate these inner thoughts to people close to you. Most of us fail, and the sane people of the world can manage this failure of communication by living in the company of their own thoughts and feelings that others do not understand.

What’s remarkable about Steve is his ability to get as close to those inner thoughts as anyone has, for me at least. Through razor blunt but gently kind questions we grappled with some of the issues I’ve written about on this blog – narcissisism, college, relationships with peers, and so forth.

The most heartening take away for me from our chat was that many of these life developmental issues require two sets of skills – a skill to develop a framework for thinking about it (being able to have conversations with others or yourself about them), and then the skills themselves – like empathy, love, etc. – which we all have the genetic capacity for, but only some of us develop to the fullest extent possible.

Network: Ben Casnocha > Blogging/Email > Seth Godin

Google: Seth Godin

In between visiting NYU and Sarah Lawrence (more on my college trip soon) I raced up to visit Seth Godin in Irvington, NY. It was my first time meeting Seth but I’ve been inside his brain for a few years now through consuming his books and blog. When I knew I was going to be near his town I dropped him an email explaining my background and mutual interests. He agreed for a quick cup of tea and I was thrilled.

Interacting with him in-person on business/marketing issues and life/college issues was incredibly illuminating. He has an appealing style of offering blunt advice and feedback in a constructive, level-headed way.

On the college process, Seth (who was once a professor at NYU and PACE) threw out this scenario: what if I was to take all the money my parents would spend on a formal college education (at a private college, this would be in the hundreds of thousands) and spend a year in Banglore, a year in China, and two years rolling up my sleeves in a company. What kind of education would that provide and would it be superior to the conventional college ed?

I hope to get to know Seth better in the coming months and years. In the meantime, thanks Seth, for a stimulating conversation.

Network: Ben Casnocha > University High School > Max Shapiro > Keiretsu Forum > Jonathan Miller

Google: Jonathan Miller + Truereq

I’ve been slacking off on my Friends of Ben series where I profile interesting people I know (so far I’ve profiled two VCs, a CEO of a software company, and a young entrepreneur). So after having coffee with Jonathan Miller this morning I resolved to update this portion of my blog.

Jonathan is an accomplished entrepreneur, technology executive, and angel investor. He was a member of the founding team at Flycast Communications, COO of the Fortunecity Network, Chief Community Officer and VP Product Dev at Peoplelink, and founder and board member of Truereq, a company delivering hosted product lifecycle management software. He also is a partner at LLM Partners where he does angel investments and consulting.

For me, life is like a candy store – I am easily interested in lots of different things. I get the same vibe from Jonathan. Be it product management, online communities, computer science, finance, or the World Series of Poker and Belgium chocolates, all of these pique Jonathan’s interest. He also considers himself a “Jew-Bu” (Jewish Buddhist).

Next week he’ll be moving to Shanghai three-quarters time. Why? With zillions of consumers and a growing dependence from American firms on Asian manufacturing/programming outfits, that’s where the opportunity is, of course. So hell – learn Mandarin and pick up and move to Shanghai! That’s what I call entrepreneurial zeal.

Because of the move, he’s looking to get rid of clothes and books so I made off like a bandit, with 7-8 books and a couple sweet jackets. Here’s a pic of me sporting my new five-finger-discounted jacket. Thanks Jonathan!

Network: Ben Casnocha > Mike Patterson > Greg Prow

Google: “Greg Prow”

Greg Prow was up until recently a managing director and COO at Mobius Venture Capital and was one of the first people in the business world I met 3 or 4 years ago. He is now moving on to new endeavors, but I thought of him recently after an email I got from someone very successful who told me to abandon my involvement in business and focus exclusively on school.

Back in the day, I wrote up a 10 page business plan on an idea I had for a company based on my first dot-com that resolved citizen complaints about local governments. When my close mentor Mike Patterson – who at the time was just a neighbor down the street, I’m sure he didn’t expect to be this deep into it! – took a look he offered to introduce me to a friend of his (Greg) for add’l feedback. I had no idea what to expect – after all, I had never met any adult in any sort of business setting. I think I was 12.

When I arrived at the offices of what-was-then-called Softbank, I recall my palms being sweaty and very nervous. The bubble was just bursting and from what I had read about VC firms everyone was in the dumps. To my surprise, I walked in and was instantly printed a name tag and led to the back where there were tons of drinks and food. It seemed the bubble hadn’t burst yet for this firm.

I met Greg and I was surprised again – he actually read the business plan in detail. He had detailed feedback, he went to the whiteboard and drew up numbers. He said, “Ben, I want you to go out and find three beta testers for this product. Second, I want you to find quality tech support folks who can stabilize the product and answer the phone 9-5. I’ll help you find these people. Third, this is most important: as you embark on this journey, most people are going to tell you to give up, to just be normal, to quit being a dreamer. I want you to never listen to any of them and keep pounding away at your vision. Good things come from the desire to make them happen.”

Those were his parting words, applicable to any entrepreneur, and they echo in my mind every time someone tells me to quit. Thanks Greg, for inspiring me to start on this incredible journey.

Network: Ben Casnocha > It’s, like, Ben’s Blog > Michael Simmons

Google: Michael Simmons + Entrepreneur

So far I’ve profiled two friends – an accomplished software company CEO and a VC from Cupertino. Today, I am profiling someone much younger. In fact, Michael Simmons (blog) is just finishing up NYU. But he is a name you don’t want to forget.

I first met Michael this past summer when I was in New York City. He found out about me through my blog. Michael had just finished giving a speech to some youth on entrepreneurship when he came outside and we met and chatted in a park near NYU. Within the first 5 minutes I realized I really liked Michael and what he was doing – he was kind, determined, and not the least bit self-centered despite all the speaking and writing he has done. (He published a book, available on Amazon, called The Student Success Manifesto.)

Michael has started Extreme Entrepreneurship: An Education Corporation as the follow up to his book. They’re all about empowering young people to start companies, come up with ideas, obtain support and mentoring from older people, and the like. His focus is about nuturing the entrepreneurial lifestyle. That’s really cool and something I’ll blog about later. Their three guiding principles are:

“Be the change you want to see…” – Gandhi Empowerment is a young adult’s ability to make the best decisions to available in each moment regardless of background, environment, or other external factors.

“All education is self-education.” – Isaac Asimov
Parents, mentors, friends, administrators are all crucial to development, but most important and core is each young adult’s ability to empower him or herself.

We are all naturally visionary and productive. For us to not to be, something must have gone wrong. The best way for young adults to rediscover their innate curiosity and passion is by empowering themselves to LEAP.

If you peruse Michael’s blog you’ll find it rich in deep insights that touch on not just entrepreneurship but the total life picture with stuff on philosophy, religion, spirituality, fear, and the like. His post 3 Life Transforming Vuja Daze Strategies is good, and I also reccomend Our Deepest Fear.

Michael is a leader of today and will be a leader of tomorrow because he so well versed in various disciplines of social thought. I believe that succesful entrepreneurs and people are those who are interesting. And you’re only interesting if you know at least a little about a lot of different things. Michael is a good example of someone anchored in entrepreneurship but a deep thinker in other areas.