00:04Stanford University hello and welcome
00:08back to e 1 45 technology
00:11entrepreneurship our guest speaker today
00:13is Fergus Hurley he's an Irish mobile
00:16entrepreneur located in San Francisco
00:18and he is the founding CEO of focal Labs
00:23which produced click stir and pick
00:25mounts and he's here to talk to us today
00:27about some of the lessons that he has
00:29learned as an entrepreneur and he
00:32recently celebrated an acquisition so
00:35I'm very happy that you could join us
00:37today and talk just a bit about your
00:39experience delight to be here great so
00:43now that you've gone through kind of the
00:45the whole cycle of the process of
00:47starting a company and then having it be
00:49acquired what would you say is the most
00:52important lesson that you've learned in
00:53this process I'd say the two big things
00:56that weren't and taught me at MIT are at
01:00the Stanford program that I did some
01:01summer institute front revision and
01:03there weren't stressed enough were
01:05number one you need to be amazing a
01:08product and you need to have the best
01:11product out there otherwise you're
01:13wasting your time and and you know a
01:16product in the mobile web space consists
01:19of sort of three different parts and the
01:22team and I one is design then the next
01:25part is development and the inspires
01:27distribution and those three parts
01:29without being amazing at those three
01:30parts you're not going to be able to
01:32execute on the opportunity and be able
01:35to capture the value of the opportunity
01:37so how do you say you become kind of top
01:41notch and in those three aspects I mean
01:43a lot of people around and say design is
01:45important and want to hire good
01:46designers young but how do you how do
01:49you go about that process yeah I think I
01:51think that one of the things that people
01:52think is that you have to start a
01:53company to start learning these things
01:55but I think this and there's the two
01:58main ways that I've seen people get
01:59really good at these things about
02:01starting a company and then that helps
02:03them start their own company more
02:04effectively is one and
02:06getting an internship so working at a
02:10very few of it development skills that
02:12are the marketer if you're a marketer
02:13and as a designer for your designer and
02:16then you'll be working alongside these
02:18people who are amazing at the
02:19development and distribution if you're
02:21the designer and you'll be able to learn
02:23from them and if you're the developer
02:24you'll learn from the designer and then
02:26it has anyway you start your own company
02:28you can ask that designer here in our
02:29friends with for introductions to their
02:31friends and they'll be able to help you
02:33find designers in other way to find
02:35designers is dribble calm and that's an
02:38amazing sight out there for where
02:40upload their work and and yeah that's
02:44the way we great great so so what about
02:48in your own case I know you were in the
02:50ph.d program at MIT and electrical
02:52engineering and computer science
02:54yeah and came out here in Silicon Valley
02:56and started your company right away yeah
02:58so you didn't get a chance to get that
03:00work experience to meet designers first
03:02yes is something you would have done
03:04differently I think if I were starting
03:07again from scratch I definitely would do
03:09internships throughout my program in the
03:12civic sector that I'm getting to but the
03:16other way to outside of internships to
03:19learn about all that stuff is just to do
03:21side projects so just start projects to
03:23be your friends and jam with other
03:25people in your school and see who joins
03:26you and then you get to test out all
03:28these people and find out if they're
03:30good there's no designers in your school
03:31go to the design school that is nearby
03:33there's design skills in every city in
03:35the world learning and partner up with
03:37them and see if you can get some of them
03:38had to work with yet and you only want
03:40to work with the people who are very
03:42excited about your field in your space
03:44and so that's really where I think they
03:46there are the two things that I would do
03:48if I were starting out again and I'm
03:51doing internships and I would I do love
03:53lots more as side projects which have
03:55friends and make new friends student
03:57side projects and there's all these now
03:59a hackathon weekends and startup
04:01weekends and Dan and those things are
04:04fantastic for people to network me more
04:07people and I start building some
04:09products in a low-low sort of pressure
04:14environment where you actually get to
04:16test it out but it's not life or death
04:18if it doesn't work out right
04:19right and so you you mentioned
04:22distribution is the other element that's
04:24important how do you think about
04:26distribution and what are some
04:28distribution is a sort of Vickie and
04:31defining and I think for a lot of
04:33products out there and and so
04:35distribution comes in many different
04:36ways and I know you you told me that in
04:38your course you have used this slide
04:40from Dave McCrory talks about all these
04:42different ways to be able to get people
04:44into your funnel and and so you know
04:47that's like search paid advertising blog
04:51posts written about you the mainstream
04:53media talking about on television and
04:54radio and jam and all that stuff
04:57combined and leads to distribution and
05:00there's no silver bullet and
05:01distribution we all wish there was but
05:04there isn't and but just getting out
05:06there and getting the word out there is
05:08you know the most important thing in the
05:10end and that's not defined that well
05:12that's what defines whether you're
05:14successful as other people know about
05:15you especially maybe zoomreader in space
05:17and and so is this is this an important
05:20enough aspect that you would want
05:21someone dedicated to this on the
05:23accounting team in the same way that you
05:25would look for a designer I needed you
05:28know you you need to have a designer
05:30developer on your founding team but I
05:32think this the the distribution party
05:35it's so specific to each business that
05:38really there's experts out there on each
05:41one of these verticals that can get you
05:42distribution and you need as one of the
05:44founders are all of your founders need
05:46to focus on being able to understand all
05:49the distribution mechanisms that are out
05:50there and being able to select the right
05:52ones and the right people in each one of
05:54those spaces that is the person that can
05:56run the best campaigns mm-hmm great
05:59great and so in terms of the other
06:01important aspect the developer how in
06:04your own case how did you find the
06:05developers for your startup and how did
06:07you recruit young so I am just like I
06:09said I actually would add to hackathons
06:11and I've had and some of them
06:14friends and contacts from MIT and other
06:17places and another way that I know that
06:20people have found great developers it's
06:22true at github and so developers who are
06:25committing a lot of and code to the
06:27open-source community in projects that
06:29are relevant to your space and just
06:30reaching out to them how did you
06:34convince them to work on your startup as
06:36opposed to I can't tell you the secret
06:38sauce but I know that in reality it's
06:44it's you know a lot about personal
06:46relationships and just you know
06:47convincing them that ideas is
06:50revolutionary and that you are gonna be
06:52able to achieve huge success together
06:54and together is definitely not easy
06:58great great so one one last question if
07:01you you know think back on your
07:02experience is there is there anything
07:05else that we didn't touch on that you
07:07would want to you know there's perhaps
07:10fifty five thousand online students and
07:12120 Stanford students who are listening
07:15and so they're wanting to do their own
07:17startups what one piece of advice would
07:19you want to leave them with yeah I think
07:21I think that the the one thing that I II
07:23was told at MIT and that I remember out
07:26of all the things I was told in my time
07:29there the one thing was by John doar
07:31yeah who is a very famous venture
07:32capitalist here in Silicon Valley and he
07:34came to visit MIT and he had a smaller
07:36group session with a few students and I
07:38was lucky enough to be there and and the
07:40one thing he said was to maximize your
07:42learning early in your career mm-hm and
07:44not focus on making money and you know
07:47being an entrepreneur happened to start
07:48be a founder and ala sister which is
07:50maximizing your learnings everything
07:52else all your rest your success will
07:54follow if you maximize your learnings
07:55that means learning in terms of
07:57knowledge about how to be a better
07:58developer how to be a better designer
07:59how to be a better part in this reader
08:02and then connections in terms of how to
08:05you know who are the people that matter
08:07in your space and really building solid
08:09relationships with them and where they
08:12trust you and you trust them and
08:13building a great relationship there yes
08:16great great you're learning all right
08:19well this is this has been really
08:20valuable lessons and
08:22and the original 90 they're coming yeah
08:25things aren't great fun Easter yep for
08:29more please visit us at stanford.edu
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