The Startup Kids Page #7

the exactly the count was but I

think we had something like 30

people before we had our first

person above thirty and we had

to hire that person because we

needed an accountant and that

was the youngest accountant

we could find.

Vimeo started as a side project

by Zach and one of the

co-founders of College Humor

Jakob Lodwick. After hours they

built the site and began

experimenting with uploading

short videos for their friends.

Vimeo is definitely my proudest

work, it is certainly the thing

that I took the most time

designing. I actually haven't

had desire to design something

since Vimeo.

I remember having an office

and having a door and sort of

shutting my self off for six

months while I sort of iterated

on this constantly. We weren't

very sophisticated making

websites then. We didn't have

any best practices.

We didn't know how we should be

building the site collectively.

Jake and I still considered very

much a personal project

and so he gave me a lot of space

and time to make something

I was really proud of. I

remember writing letters to my

friends and family saying "I'm

sorry, you don't know me

anymore" and that sort of thing

because I just sort of let all

of my relationship go because

nothing was important as this.

I remember breaking, I broke up

with a girlfriend cause I had no

time or interested really, it

was really more of an interest

thing. Nothing was exciting to

me as this thing. Knowing that

there were tenths of thousands

of people using the service and

in love with it and waiting to

see what we could do next

In 2006 IAC, a big Internet

company, acquired both

College Humor and Vimeo. After

being a side project for a time

in 2007 Zach and Jakob got the

go-ahead from IAC. Vimeo became

a full-time, fully funded

start-up. The website user base

was growing steadily but in 2008

Zach decided to leave the

company. I think what it was

there was something,

the entrepreneurial spirit had

been sucked out of the company

because we were know own by such

a massive company that was

making a lot of decisions for us

and I felt myself being squeezed

into this role of just a

designer and I didn't really,

I learnt design because that was

just the easiest way to make

myself useful to the process of

building those companies but I

wanted to learn so much more

and I had money for the first

time in my life and I never

wanted to work on the Internet

just for the sake of working on

the Internet. There were a lot

of things that I wanted to do

so I left to do them.

So buying some wood and building

cabins with my friends here is

something I wanted to spend time

doing so that's what I left to do

Zach now spends most his time

living in the woods, without

electricity and unreachable

by phone.

I've lived in this cabin behind

me for a year, for about half

the year. I spend three or four

days of the week down in

New York, cause I'm still

involved with Internet, and then

another three or four days I'm

here and there is usually,

I don't know, 8 to 10 people

with me, just to sort of make

a little place, that we all can

spend time doing whatever we

want to do. I came to this

place, I think, primarily,

because I love the outdoors, I

have always wanted a place like

this but I keep coming back

because it is in this place I

feel the most creative recently.

My entire career have just been

spent online, pushing pixels

around and there is something

novel and thrilling for me to

build with wood and stone, with

my friends. To iterate with

these materials. To make

physical things we can use,

that we can be inside of and

other people look at them.

I can't recreate that sense of

pleasure working online. I can't

explain it, I don't think it is

permanent. It is just right now

this is where I'm most inspired.

The most interesting place to be

is the place that allows you to

become very singularly focused

and when you are that way you

are really at your peak and I

think it is when you are the

most comfortable with your self.

I think it when you are the most

attractive to other people that

you are bound to be interested

in and you sort of become

magnetized. You just find other

people who are also driven to

make or to think the same things

and it puts you in a really

creative place where there is no

fear. Where people are just

really happy about the things

that you are making together

and it is in this space that I

think you achieve the

greatest things creatively.

Success is what you make of it.

I mean I know some of the most

successful entrepreneurs can be

unhappy. So I think for me to be

a successful entrepreneur is

both having a work and life

balance. You know, I want to be

successful but at the same time

I want to live life.

Don't be indirect about how you

think. Don't take a job to go

somewhere else. If you want to

be in Silicon Valley and you

want to do a start-up, go to

Silicon Valley and do a

start-up and don't let anyone

stop you because when you get

out here it is a whole new world

of all kind of possibilities.

So many people have the wrong

idea that they have to follow

some kind of path. Do your MVP.

Build your initial prototype and

then pitch it and have a initial

customer. It doesn't matter.

Everybody start a company in a

different way. If you are to

follow another guy's path you

aren't being a true entrepreneur

The most comforting thing to me

again was just the fact that all

these people that are on

magazine covers, they started

out just like you, in their

twenties, with no experience

and they were able to figure

things out. That I think should

give comfort to anybody who is

excited about starting a company

You can't teach entrepreneurship

you either are an entrepreneur

or you're not. I think if you

are you're going to end up

doing it and that is just who

you are. You can't change that.

As long as you have passion for

something and some fundamental

core idea I think that you

should just hone in on that and

really do everything you can

to explore that.

Follow your heart. Follow the

things that really matters to

you. If you do that you will

become a big success.

There has never ever been a

better time to do it than today.

You know you're only young once.

Life is too short to give it up.

If you got the opportunity to

do something like this you owe

it to yourself, you owe it to

the world, owe it to your

children to take this as

far as you can.

Not say you are going to wait

until after college or prepare

yourself to become entrepreneur

or to take classes even about

entrepreneurship but just to it

while you are still taking

classes and to not give any

excuses for building a company

because no matter what you could

come up with excuses.

The hardest thing is just

to start.

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