To the best laid plans of mice and men.
That’s the startup mantra for any company as it scrambles to balance goals for sales, marketing, and profit. But, as a business expert told us this week, the unique dynamics of the startup community are already producing their own special brand of unsolicited advice. Case in point: New Kids on the Block’s Donnie Wahlberg, who began funding his new jewelry company, Four’N Twenty, with the proceeds from his theatrical run of Broadway show, ‘Anastasia.’
“Without fail, guys that have started a company run right to the C.E.O.,” he says. “I really encourage them not to speak to me. I try to make it personal, it’s been the same for any one of them, we have the same idea, and they’ll get together and say, ‘hey, what should we do?’ and that just becomes a really great conversation.”
Wahlberg is helping to shape the message for Four’N Twenty, and also offers a friendly sounding board with some startup advice: “I look at myself as the bag guy,” he says. “I’m the best friend that is always showing the C.E.O. where he’s in an [elevator] bank, and we’re always talking about all the little things.”
Eli Zohar, CEO and co-founder of e-commerce provider Houzz, sees the entrepreneur mentorship as an entirely different skill than a more typical business pitch, as he shared in this week’s podcast interview.
“Because you don’t have an organization behind you, there’s a lot more of an honest conversation that needs to be had. And I think that if you believe in yourself then you can make it. I don’t think about the startup jadedness, I think about how much I love what I do and how much I believe in myself,” he says.
To hear more from Wahlberg and Zohar, press play above.
