{"id":3863,"date":"2011-04-17T21:21:51","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T04:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/?p=3863"},"modified":"2011-04-17T21:21:51","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T04:21:51","slug":"8-startup-lessons-you-could-learn-from-gotham-gal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/17\/8-startup-lessons-you-could-learn-from-gotham-gal\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Startup Lessons You Could Learn from Gotham Gal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Written by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bothsidesofthetable.com\/2011\/04\/16\/heres-what-gotham-gal-has-to-say-about-sales-entrepreneurship-and-women\/\" target=\"_blank\">MARK SUSTER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to think that the wife of a well-known &amp; successful VC (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.avc.com\/\">Fred Wilson<\/a>) would have had an easy and storied life of wealth and privilege. I had previously had the opportunity to spend time with <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/thegothamgal\">Joanne Wilson<\/a>, Fred\u2019s wife, and knew otherwise.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"600\" height=\"368\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1RvSMD-B9Xs?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why I was so interested in having \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gothamgal.com\/\">The Gotham Gal<\/a>\u201d come on This Week in VC (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1RvSMD-B9Xs\">video link on YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/this-week-in-venture-capital\/id364736777\">download iTunes, episode 15)<\/a>) and dispel those myths. In fact, as she tells it, in their early career when Fred was young in VC, Joanne was earning 3x more money. Well into their 30?s \u201cthey were living paycheck-to-paycheck\u201d as Joanne had taken time off of work to raise three children.<\/p>\n<p>After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy\u2019s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. After 4 years of retail she went to \u201cthe other side of the business\u201d working for a clothing brand where she sold apparel to department stores and other companies. This is where she first developed sales skills.<\/p>\n<p>She doubled her salary by going into sales. Then after a year she got into the business side and learned how to manufacture, what the margins of the business were, etc.&#160; She left there to join a man running a clothing brand. She came in and took over the business. In 18 months from $1.5m to $12m in sales. She did this because she had great rapport with buyers. She knew their business needs because she had been on both sides of the business.<\/p>\n<p>Below is a nice summary of our interview with some great quotes from Joanne. I think this video should serve as an inspiration to any young aspiring female entrepreneur (and male!) and is worth watching when you have a few moments.<\/p>\n<p>But for everybody else, where are 6 things you could learn from Joanne Wilson:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sales: until about minute 20<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Get out of your comfort zone \u2013 don\u2019t just work on the things you know how to do or like doing<\/strong>\u201cPeople tend to gravitate toward areas that they know. Totally get outside your comfort zone. Put yourself in a position to learn things you don\u2019t know\u201d We talked about this in the context of management (in retail her motto was, \u201cget away from the cosmetics department. You already know that\u201d), in sales and more broadly as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. To be effective at sales you need to really understand the business of the person who will buy your product. <\/strong>\u201c[I was effective at sales because] I understood their business. Most people who worked in the business didn\u2019t know how to make a profit &amp; loss. I provided information for my customers to make their lives easier.\u201d Really understanding the business of your customer matters. It\u2019s the key to growing a successful business and is a theme the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.steveblank.com\/\">Steve Blank <\/a>plays up a lot. I agree whole heartedly. The other money quote she gave that I loved was, \u201c\u201dTotally get out of your office.\u201d Sounds kind of obvious. Not enough entrepreneurs dedicate enough of their day to this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. In sales you also need to establish rapport, ask insightful questions &amp; then shut your mouth! <\/strong>\u201cA lot of sales is innate. A really good sales person can get people excited and get people to tell you information they won\u2019t tell other people. Build rapport in whatever way you can. Who knows, it could be fishing or whatever.&#160; Say very little. The less you say, the more the person on the other side gives you back. As a sales person, just ask the right questions and you\u2019ll get the answers you need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Be a mensch \u2013 the world is small than you think and bad karma will catch up to you <\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019re in a very small community. Life is too short to be a dick.\u201d There\u2019s no reason to be nasty to your competitors or mud sling. There\u2019s no need to bad-mouth other people. It\u2019s surprising how small the tech community is and the older you get the more you realize how much people from earlier in your life have a way of coming back into it. Be a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mensch\">mensch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On being a woman, becoming a mom &amp; forming a sense of identity <\/strong>[20-45 ]<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. For women &#8211; \u201dDon\u2019t get off the train completely when you have children. You need to keep your skills.<\/strong> You need to keep your database in terms of connections and the people you know. You need to keep your relationships up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I stopped working it was quite a shock to our system. Even if you continue working, you\u2019re still responsible for [your kids well being]. I didn\u2019t think about who was going to put food in the refrigerator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Internet saved my life. I needed something to find my own identity.\u201d She went to work running sales for Jason Calacanis at Silicon Alley Reporter (mid 90?s). The Internet really re-connected Joanne with her former working self.<\/p>\n<p>Invested in \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/catchafire.org\/\">Catch a Fire<\/a>,\u201d which is a business that helps people (mostly women) connect with pro bono opportunities where they can put their skills to use. Take a little break but keep your skills fresh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are so many places you can go on the Net where you can find your community. I would tell women to find them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. The current generation of college students want to be entrepreneurs more than rock stars <\/strong>&#8211; \u201dThis next generation is going to be very interesting. After seeing \u201cThe Social Network\u201d there is an increased attitude amongst this generation (of women) that \u2026 why not go into startups? They all want to be entrepreneurs \u2013 they don\u2019t want to be rock stars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. To run an effective business it\u2019s really important to hire women in your company &amp; as advisors <\/strong>&#8211; \u201cMen tend to pump up their chests more (than women). I think it\u2019s really important (to hire women). Women take a look at things differently. They understand things differently. Make sure they\u2019re on your board, your board of advisors, whatever. Make sure 50% of the people you hire are women. The women are out there.<\/p>\n<p>Certainly if you look at eCommerce &amp; social media \u2013 women are the ones using these products. What better to have on your team than someone who understands this at a fundamental level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Women need to start becoming entrepreneurs at a younger age \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cDon\u2019t go to work for big companies, don\u2019t get an MBA, go to work for a startup and start on this path. Start early. In the next generation everybody (including women (are going to write code).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority of businesses that I\u2019ve been investing in lately are \u2018women businesses.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>You can watch it all on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1RvSMD-B9Xs\">YouTube<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/this-week-in-venture-capital\/id364736777\">download from iTunes<\/a> for free.<\/p>\n<h3>Bonus: That&#8217;s it, I quit torrenting<\/h3>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"600\" height=\"368\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KPNL82EY1dY?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by MARK SUSTER It\u2019s easy to think that the wife of a well-known &amp; successful VC (Fred Wilson) would have had an easy and storied life of wealth and privilege. I had previously had the opportunity to spend time with Joanne Wilson, Fred\u2019s wife, and knew otherwise. That\u2019s why I was so interested in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3864,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3863\/revisions\/3864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}