Monthly Archives: February 2017

DBAGS---NEW1
Nik Ingersoll

The No Douchebags Rule: How To Prevent Start Up Sabotage

THE NO DOUCHEBAGS RULE

PREVENT START-UP SABOTAGE

BY NIK INGERSOLL FEB 19, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

NO DOUCHEBAGS, FOR REAL?

A REAL LESSON
When starting Barnana in 2012, myself and my two business partners created 5 core values to guide our vision and decision making as the organization grew. One of those five core values: No Douchebags. In Startuplandia, plenty of things can go wrong. So it should be no surprise to anybody that the vast majority of start ups fail hard. One of the things that does not need to go wrong is allowing less-than-optimal primates into your business.

 

When you start thinking about what your company’s core values are, I implore you to consider one that is slightly more unconventional than most: No Douchebags. At this point, you’re thinking this is a silly article full of hyperbole, but let me stop you right there. I’ll spell it all our for you in real terms with what I’ve experienced first hand growing start-ups into legit businesses and seeing friends suffer in Startuplandia.
[tweetshare tweet=”Trust me when I say that the No Douchebags Rule is one of the most important entrepreneurial lessons you will ever learn.” username=”ingersollnik”]
HAS DOUCHEBAGGERY GROWN?
For some context, there was a precipitous rise in the power of Apple when I was coming into my own as a young entrepreneur. This was accompanied by the demagoguery of Steve Jobs. It was easy for people to think that it was somehow cool to be a complete and total douchebag from his example. I think Donald Trump follows a similar style of business practice.
I argue that they are the exception, outliers, not the rule you should live by. I am here to tell you that it’s not only bad for you to treat people you work with like that, but that there are lots of these d-bags out there waiting on the wings of your business. They are hungry to climb inside and tear it up from the inside out.

 

You might be wondering who the man is depicted in the photo above. That is our good ole pal and as of 2017, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Regardless of your political persuasion, he is the epitome of douche. Give him a view: Here

 

WHEN YOU NEED TO GET RID OF “ADVISORS”

A GOOD PIECE OF ADVICE
Find amazing advisors. Become friends with them, gather advice from them and get them involved to help you raise capital. It also gives your startup some street cred. This doesn’t just benefit you, it benefits the advisor as well. You have a start-up and need an advisor? Hit me up, please have your s*** together.

 

A BETTER PIECE OF ADVICE
Be extremely careful with who you select as an advisor and get rid of them quick if there’s a red flag.

 

In the early days of Barnana, 2011-2012, before we ever officially launched product, we built up a team of advisors that were BAMFs in the natural food space. One such advisor turned out to be a conniver of the upmost extreme.

 

A man who as much as I would like to name him here, will remain nameless, for now at least. This particular fellow looked great on paper. He started some industry related businesses, was capital connected and had been in the industry for a long time.

 

THE BIG REVEAL

What none of us could have known was that he would secretly go behind my back and the backs of my other two business partners in an attempt to create disarray in the ranks. His targets: myself, my business partners, interns and others on the advisory team. Soon his motive became clear, to divide and conquer. To take something that we had worked on for almost two years to get to market so he could suck it into his negative vortex of disgust and take power.

 

One day, after our very first quarterly meeting he said to me: “Do you think that (our CEO) is the right guy for the job? You should think about trying to replace him.” All I could do is stare in disbelief with my eyes likely turning red with anger. On another occasion he said to me “I think (our COO) is too green, too impulsive – I know a great guy that can do that job.” My loyalty to people that I care about is so extreme that I am surprised I didn’t punch him straight in the face. I exercised restraint, put on my political face and said “hm… interesting…I disagree” and walked off. This is when I was 22.

 

THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE

My dad passed away in a car accident in June of 2013. He was my best friend and was literally the best human being that I have ever known. I was left with only my brother to bury him alone in Nebraska. There has never been and will never be worse moment of despair in my entire existence. When I went back to bury him that summer, about 6 months into the business, I found out that this advisor said something about me at our board meeting after I had hung up on the conference line.

After I hung up that day, in front of my partners, interns and other advisors he did to me what he had already done to my business partners. He said to the group “I don’t think Nik is qualified to be CMO, he didn’t even fly back for the meeting.” He went on to say all sorts of other things in that same vein. My business partners told me after I flew back to San Diego.

 

As you can imagine, this guy is almost an incomprehensible douchebag. I mean EPIC amounts of douche pulsing through every vein in his body. Like if you cut his veins, instead of blood coming out it would just be little Kanye Wests and Donald Trumps jumping running aimlessly into their own narcissism.

 

So, the question is: what do you do at that point? I was so emotionally distraught over the loss of my father that I couldn’t even process some guy trying to undermine my entire livelihood simultaneously. Once things calmed down a bit,my dad was buried and I flew back to California – I sent this advisor an email. It read:

 

MY FOLLOW UP EMAIL
Hey (Advisor’s Name)

 

So happy to have you at our most recent board meeting.

 

Again, so sorry I couldn’t attend due to the abrupt and unexpected passing of my father.

 

However, I am even happier to hear that you were talking shit about me in front of all my partners, advisors and interns after I hung up.

 

If you ever have anything to say about me in the future, be a man and say it to my face. No one respects cowards. Looking forward to connecting with you directly in person.

 

You are no longer invited to attend or participate in any of our board meetings from now going forward. 

 

Wishing you a healthy life

 

Cheers!
Nik

SO, WHAT HAPPENED?

I NEVER RECEIVED A RESPONSE
That was the first implementation of the No Douchebags policy at Barnana. When I brought up the issue with other advisors and my business partners they were luke warm about the idea of getting rid of him. This was mostly due to his paper acumen. I didn’t give a f***. However, having this core value that you must stick to, the decision was already made for all of us. This guy had violated one of our core tenants and he had to go.

 

 

TENACITY---NEW1
Nik Ingersoll

Bite Down On Your Mouthpiece: Entrepreneurial Tenacity

entrepreneurial tenacity by nik ingersoll photo of connor mcgregor

BITE DOWN ON YOUR MOUTHPIECE

ENTREPRENEURIAL TENACITY

BY NIK INGERSOLL FEB 12, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

FIGHT OVER FLIGHT

What’s the one quality that I think matters the most when you are creating a company? Tenacity. The bite down on your mouthpiece type of drive. That kind of feeling that back in the day you could only achieve by running away from saber tooth tigers in the forest. That fight over flight attitude that you will hustle and execute to get to where you want to go as a matter of survival. Without the entrepreneurial tenacity for your idea to move forward, you might as well go work for Goldman Sachs.

 

Having tenacity doesn’t mean your idea is going to set the world on fire. However, if you don’t have tenacity, your idea most likely won’t. Tenacity, like many things, is heavily determined by the DNA that was sequenced during your journey from a zygote to a complete human. However, I think nurture over indexes on it’s influence over tenacity.

 

There is no doubt that growing up in a hard, working class environment aided the development of my entrepreneurial tenacity as a survival mechanism. I felt that no one believed in me and if I didn’t believe in myself, then wouldn’t go anywhere. I don’t know and I don’t think anyone really knows how to tell you how to be tenacious but I can tell you that you need it.

 

I know that I can control my discipline and work ethic. Therefore, I focus on that the most. I vowed to myself a long time ago that I would never allow myself to live my life at poverty line again. That idea really pervades much of how I think about things. 

 

THE ENEMY

The enemy of entrepreneurial tenacity: vacillation. But vacillations are are just that, thoughts. They are in fact not who you are at all. They are random neurochemical brain impulses that often result in electrophysiological signals in your body. You get to choose which thoughts you want to pay attention to and which negative thoughts that you can let fly on by. Fear is both real and rational, but flight is not what makes great companies, fight is. I must say that it is important not to confuse tenacity with arrogance, not to confuse confidence with boisterous bravado. But if you are too scared to start or too cocky to learn, then entrepreneurship may not be for you.

 

confidence vinn diagram nik ingersoll

Tenacity also means having the optimism and confidence that you will succeed. Confidence can win a room. In college, I was working full-time,simultaneously founding a couple of start-ups with my sights set on raising millions of dollars and eventually exiting for many more. I had no social life to say the least. Back then, confidence and optimism were two of the most important assets that I had besides creativity and smarts. I stood in front of 100’s of tech VC’s in Silicon Valley at Demo Launchpad, former entrepreneurs turned investors and the like, all before my 23rd birthday. I can tell you that when you don’t have a crazy resume, when you’re young, if you came from nothing like I; the confidence that you can generate about the skills that you DO have goes a long way.

 

 

The major caveat: no one likes unsubstantiated bravado.

 

On the inverse, I have felt my confidence waiver a couple of times in a high stakes pitches in my early 20s. When it happened, I could detect a profound change in the room. You always get back what you put out. When you are young with no real accomplishments – know what you do have. Work ethic, hustle, passion, smarts, skills, creativity, whatever that mix is for you – know it. Couple that with the tenacity to see it through. Know it and let everyone you work with know it too. Coming from the isolated, poor, rural farmland in Western Nebraska – I didn’t have money for college, no money from my parents for rent, books, tuition or any of that. So, I worked with what I had and what I could learn, but most importantly the tenacity to see it through.

 

I’m often asked for my advice for first time founders. First: are you sure you are cut out for this, do you have the tenacity to do it for real? If so, get help early. Start thinking about who could be a great Co-Founder or a first, second or third employee. Are they tenacious enough? Get your advisory board in order so you can have some people that you can ask questions. Were they a tenacious founder before? You should try to find one of those.
[tweetshare tweet=”Flight is not what makes a great company, fight is.” username=”ingersollnik”]
Always be aware of the enemy, vacillation. It is often truly and completely rational. Just because thoughts are rational however does not mean that they are good for you. I had to block out the rational part of my brain that was screaming things at me like: “what makes you qualified to steward millions of other peoples’ dollars and be responsible for others peoples’ families well-being? You’re still in college…” or “you’re just a poor kid from Nebraska with facial piercings, who is going to take you seriously?”.  The reason that’s important is because many people struggle with those rational, self-defeating thoughts entering their heads. Let them pass as the the wind passes through tall grass and have the tenacity to keep your vision focused on the prize of progress.

 

TO CARE OR NOT TO CARE

One important part of entrepreneurial tenacity is not caring about the opinions of others but also being self aware enough to listen to them. It’s a bit of a catch twenty-two. Don’t care about what people think about you but understand what they think and why they think that way. Being aware does not mean you must care, react or agree with their perceptions. It doesn’t mean that you have to care about their opinions at all actually. It’s for this reason, the most applicable philosophical perspectives to study in the entrepreneurial realm are the stoic teachings of Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and others. That’s because it does not allow for outside forces affecting your perception of who you are.

 

For whatever reason, I have never cared much about others perceptions of me. Perhaps it’s because I used to play in a death metal band with a face full of piercings and long dyed black hair, an easy target for ridicule. In not caring, I always thought that the attitude that I had was considered fringe or wrong according to others. But, Stoic philosophers have been writing about the benefits of not allowing others’ perceptions to affect your own cognition for a very long time. So, if I could jump into a time machine and give myself one piece of advice, it would be this quote from Epictetus:

[tweetshare tweet=”What upsets people is not things themselves, but their judgements about these things. – Epictetus” username=”ingersollnik”]

 

blaze---feature-2
Nik Ingersoll

My Live Radio Interview On The Morning Blaze #BUILDINGAMERICA

THE #BUILDINGAMERICA SEGMENT

ON THE MORNING BLAZE WITH DOC THOMPSON

BY NIK INGERSOLL FEB 14, 2017

? @ingersollnik

 

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I sat down for a live radio interview with Doc Thompson on The Blaze Radio Network. This is part of their #BuildingAmerica segment, highlighting entrepreneurs and their businesses. Regardless of your political view, the message of entrepreneurship is great for everyone on the right, left and everywhere in between. In this 12 minute interview, we cover Barnana, Nebraska, and the entrepreneurial mindset. Take a listen below by pressing play.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

There were a couple key takeaways on this show that I think are worth mentioning. One of which is that one of the most important differences between people who are successful versus those who are not: Tenacity. It’s the will to keep going and not stop no matter what the reason. There isn’t one wildly successful person that I know that got there without hard work. Life is hard, get over it. Things get in the way, you were born poor or disadvantaged in some other way. Whatever your excuse is, capitalism does not care. If you are truly excellent at what you do then it doesn’t matter because you will then be undeniable. Focus in on yourself, not the way others perceive you because it will only hold you down. Here’s to growth!