Upcoming Mixergy Interview: Me! Lisa Asked To Interview Me. What Should She Ask?
on May 28, 2009 - 12:51 PM PSTWhen: Friday 5/29/09 @ 11 AM Pacific
Where: Here on Mixergy.com. You can watch from your desk.
About this interview
Mixergy fan, Lisa Bruckner emailed me to say, “Where’s YOUR interview Andrew?” She wanted to know how I bootstrapped that $30+ MM/year business and a few other things about me. Fair request. If I’m going to ask entrepreneurs about their businesses, I have to be willing to talk about mine. So I suggested that she do the interview.
She agreed, and you’re invited to watch us live and suggest questions for Lisa to ask.
We’ll run it live on Mixergy, and I’ll record it for her so she could run it on her web site.
About Lisa Bruckner
Lisa Bruckner is a men’s style consultant for the Trunk Club. She also guest writes for BIG Blog and the Trunk Club Blog, in addition to writing for her own blog Wasabi Nights.
Is there anything you want Lisa to ask?
If there’s a question you think she should ask, add it in the comments.
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May 28th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
What band or artist best describes your attitude of entrepreneurship? What's the #1 thing that drives you?
May 29th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Do you believe that there is a trait common to those who become successful entrepreneurs over and above the obvious ones of drive and ambition? Is there a dominant personality type that tends to succeed more often? If you could have done 1 thing differently when starting up your company, what would it have been? Where did you learn most for entrepreneurialism; school or life outside school?
May 29th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Great questions so far! Keep them coming!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
What should entrepreneurs do when they have TOO MANY projects that they are passionate about and believe in? Should you tend to all the pots on the stove, or focus all your energy on ONE big project? Can't wait Andrew!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Andrew:
Thanks for having such a great site. You are doing amazing work here. It would be great to see how your interview shape up. Here are my questions for you:
- What is the single best advice you have received so far? How did it help you?
- If you had to work 4 hrs/week, what would you do and how you prioritize/schedule your daily routine?
- How you balance your work schedule and personal life? Do you use any specific tools/apps?
- Where do you see yourself in 2 yrs? Would you like to do what you've been doing or start something new?
Cheers,
Pritesh
http://twitter.com/mehta1p
May 29th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
DITTO on the What should entrepreneurs do when they have TOO MANY projects that they are passionate about and believe in.
Also, how many people does it take to run Mixergy.com. What kind of revenue do you get from the site. Will you ever have forums on Mixergy ?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
You often talk about your ambition to build something that will last longer than you. Do you think that it is achievable in today's economy?
Do you think it's possible (and reasonable) to take minimal outside funding when starting a business, or are you then bound to fall in a vicious circle of heavy expenses?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
How often do you panic. Why? and How do you get over it?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Who are the 5 people in the world you would most like to interview on Mixergy?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Please don't ask the “what drives” you or “what are your passions”. Everybody always answers with the same thing about family and making the world a better place. ;)
I said that because it sort of defines my first question.
I see a lot of the same advice regarding bootstrapping, user feedback, and “startupping” in general. My first question would be: Do you worry that there is a sort of group think going on in the startup world? Are we not being skeptical enough because of all the excitement in technology and Web 2/3.0?
A good example is Gary Vanerchuck saying “don't read books/look I'm writing a book” or the most recent “be passionate about your business/don't use emotions in your business decisions”. It seems that our webolutionaries in the start up world aren't being held accountable for inconsistent advice or advice based off of purely personal experience and not a more rigorously tested ideas.
Also in the same vein it seems that a lot of the interviewee's are “bucking” the system and trying out a lot of new ideas and business practices. Do you think the advice given on Mixergy is ignoring some of the “old way”? If somebody embraces a lot of new business practices like the social networking, open user feedback and criticism, and launching early could we be leaving a lot of our potential customers behind who haven't yet embraced or feel comfortable with these new paradigms?
Now I love Mixergy and regret not being around for the live interview but I'm just trying to get some clarity over a nagging feeling that there is a lot of confirmation bias going on in the start up world. Please don't think I'm “hating” or anything, just being inquisitive and skeptical, good things right?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
How come Andrew is so awesome? ;)
May 29th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
How did the dynamics of the business partnership with your brother play out? Did disagreements about strategy, tactics or ambitions pop up and if so, how were they solved?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
How specifically did you build your audience and attract the traffic you did that lead to being able to monetize it?
What were your spending habits in the beginning? Frugal on everything? Frugal on everything except on things others saw? Didn't actively think about the spending?
How much did you listen to others advice? Was the fact that you listened/didn't-listen good or bad?
Did you have a vision for where it would go or you just made things as you went?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Are interviewees mostly direct connections, introductions through connections or cold calls? If you cold call what is your approach?
May 31st, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Good question. I wish we'd gotten to this one.
I panic/worry a lot. I've never had another entrepreneur cop to feeling that
way, but I bet it's common.
The worst I ever had it was after I launched Bradford & Reed and realized
that I also took on mortgage and bought an Audi for $15k. I was so scared
that my heart wouldn't slow down and I couldn't fall asleep.
I called Michael (my brother and co-founder) and told him what I felt.
Talking to him about it openly helped. Another thing that helped was that we
finally wrote out a business plan. Having a road map was very reassuring.
But ultimately what helped me get through it was that I had no other choice.
I too committed to my business to do anything else, so I kept at it.
Funny, I thought having money would get rid of the worries. It didn't. I
still worry today. I still wake up in the middle of the night and say to
myself, “What the f*ck am I doing? I'm going to fail big and everyone will
know and it'll hurt badly.”
May 31st, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Sorry we didn't get to this question.
I think I'll do a post about this. I'll show you the email I write to get
all those great guests to come to Mixergy.
Andrew Warner
Founder, Mixergy.com
June 1st, 2009 at 12:14 am
He's the messiah, I think…
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I'm interested in this too. I keep hearing that you hired your brother. Was it a straight pay or stock in the company? What was considered a fair share? I'm in a similar situation and would like to know what's fair when doing business with a sibling while holding most of the cards.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
We partnered up.
At first I had a bigger share because I put up the money, but we quickly
made it 50/50 because he did so much work.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
How close were you to buying a Jet?
Aside from buying million dollar furniture, what mistakes did you make?
June 8th, 2009 at 12:16 am
hi, I'd like to ask three questions:
1. How did you get to your first million users, e.g. advertising, seo, word of mouth, forum…?
2. How much money or effort did it take to get your first million users?
3. What was the most important factor that made your company stand above competitors and take their market share?
Thanks.
June 8th, 2009 at 7:16 am
hi, I'd like to ask three questions:
1. How did you get to your first million users, e.g. advertising, seo, word of mouth, forum…?
2. How much money or effort did it take to get your first million users?
3. What was the most important factor that made your company stand above competitors and take their market share?
Thanks.