Showing posts with label insite fellows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insite fellows. Show all posts

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Broken Home Billionaires?



InSITE keeps pulling together ridiculously awesome events. Last night at Columbia Business School, I was lucky enough to attend a Fireside Chat with Steve Blank (who is by definition a winner in life). Steve was full of wonderful anecdotes about being lean when starting a company, understanding customer development and being able to recognize inflection points in a company's trajectory. 

However, one thing stood out to me the most. Mr. Blank noted that a considerable number of successful entrepreneurs came from dysfunctional families. And it looks like a number of publications, including Inc., have spoken to the matter. 

Surely, the definition of a dysfunctional family is one that could be debated at great length. However, this theory does provide an interesting take on why certain individuals are so well-equipped to take on the chaos associated with starting your own company. 

Thoughts?

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Chilling with Bonobos



Thanks to our awesome President over at InSITE, a crew of fellows + friends had an opportunity to hang out with Craig Elbert and discuss how things function at Bonobos. Craig, the VP of Marketing, walked us through some of the company's key challenges as they scale. He also shared some colorful history about the motivation behind the creation of the brand. 

It was also heartening for me to hear that the company was trying to think about ways to go upstream (age-wise) to target Old Guys. Because old guys have old guy money. 

After the Q&A session, we got to go hang out in the actual Guide Shop. I was lucky enough to work with Lauren Kozy, who encouraged me to be a bit more daring in my washed chino purchases. For anyone ever looking to get the 1:1 treatment, be sure to hit her up and schedule an appointment. email Lauren