Founder Stories

Erick Schonfeld from TechCrunch asked me a few months ago if I’d be on a TechCrunch video show where we interviewed startup founders. I love startups. While other people watch sports on Sunday, I prefer to sit around with friends and chat about what new startups have launched, how they are doing, what product and marketing strategies are working, etc.

Erick originally called the show “Startup Sherpa.” The word “sherpa” implied that I was giving people advice. The people we invited to the show were either my peers or people who knew far more than me, so I felt very uncomfortable with that title. I really like to hear “war stories” (a term used in venture capital) but calling it that would have been disrespectful to military people who fight actual wars versus the inconsequential battles we have amongst startups and investors. So we chose “Founder Stories” instead.

I don’t get paid by TechCrunch and they don’t have a fancy editing budget so what you see is effectively live. I probably make an ass out of myself a lot. I actually haven’t brought myself to watch most of the episodes because I can’t stand all my verbal tics like saying “etc” and “you know.” The saving grace of the show is the incredible people we get to come on to share their stories. I think they participate mostly because it’s TechCrunch – the premier tech blog – and also because they know I love startups. I want to try to learn from the founders’ early experiences rather than ask questions about “hot topics” or “gotchas.” I like to think of “Founder Stories” as a show that I would have wanted to watch when I was a first-time entrepreneur. That’s how I explain the show to potential guests and also how I think about it when Erick and I come up with questions.

The show is available as a free podcast on iTunes here. It’s also on TechCrunch here.

I’ve never talked to Mike Arrington about this but I’d like to thank him for making long form and respectful content available to entrepreneurs and investors. Erick has also been great, along with Josh Zelman who is the AOL/TechCrunch video producer.

I’d love to hear feedback and suggestions for how to improve the show.

http://twitter.com/JiffyLu Jeffrey Lu

I love the show. I eat this ish up. Mixergy is also a great place to find interviews of founders.

Eric Paley does a live version in Boston.

My only complaint is that it’s hard to find these interviews all in one place on TechCrunch. The same could be said for some of Techcrunch’s other interviews. I had trouble finding the entire Sarah Lacey / Mike Maples interview last week.

http://www.cdixon.org chris dixon

yeah eric is doing great stuff.

Anonymous

Just continue being genuine — your interest and the founders’ stories themselves are what make it work. Leave any hype, self-promotion and founder-worship to other venues.
Anonymous

Chris, I really enjoy these pieces you do. Many thanks to you, your guests, and Techcrunch. There is def. room for long(er), thoughtful, dialog on the web; especially in this domain where first time entrepreneurs are knowledge and wisdom hungry. I equate these web vids to a kind of case method for entrepreneurs.

Keep up the good work.
http://twitter.com/mordyk Mordy Kaplinsky

Chris.

Thanks for another great service to the community.

These shows are really interesting and contain some cool nuggets of information, while their informality makes them more real so kudos to low budget programming.

The fact that you keep them short and simple allows me to catch a quick episode in the middle of some action packed days.
http://www.invoicefox.com Janko Metelko

I wanted to watch this the last time I heard about it, but I only found few shows on TC.tv while I saw a whole list of shows on iTunes (which I don’t intend to install). Could somebody make a simple browsable sorted list of shows (or make tc.tv a little more usable/discoverable – less simple) ?

http://www.cdixon.org chris dixon

yeah, good idea. i’ll see if TC has an idea about that or maybe I should just try to do something on my blog.

http://satishmummareddy.squarespace.com Satish Mummareddy

i really like your contents page on your blog. I always go back to it to find your old posts. Adding a videos page or just appending it to the contents page on your blog would serve the purpose.

Pingback: Founder Stories — Clearing and Settlement
http://merricklozano.com/ Merrick

I continue to be impressed by your modesty, yeah that was me on formspring.

How about going to the startups offices, that adds another dimension to their stories. Another topic to explore with founders is relationships, and how they play a role in the startups success.

http://www.cdixon.org chris dixon

i’d like that, but it seems it’s hard to get decent sound quality outside of the studio and also I think that would require budget that we don’t have.
http://www.cdixon.org chris dixon

also it’s kind of nice in the studio for me selfishly because i can basically do it for 1 hour a month or so and get 2 interviews in.

http://merricklozano.com/ Merrick

That makes sense. I value the stories more than the location.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=206442 Josh Schwarzapel

Hey Chris, I listen to the Founder Stories in my car regularly. This is probably just me because I’m a product guy, but would love to hear more about how these entrepreneurs think about and build product. Particularly a) their philosophies (e.g. Zuck == we need everyone to share more) and b) their process (e.g. Jack writes user stories).
http://twitter.com/smonev Stoicho Monev

Here is the TechCrunch link http://techcrunch.com/tag/founder-stories/

http://www.cdixon.org chris dixon

thanks! updated the post.

http://hrishimittal.com/ Hrishi Mittal

Please can you list all the interviews on a simple page on your blog?
http://daleallyn.com Dale Allyn

Chris, I, too, enjoy the segments you’re doing.

Interesting about how you like to “spend Sundays”. I wish I had friends who enjoyed doing the same on the weekends. On more than one occasion I’ve mentioned to friends (and biz partners) that I’d enjoy hanging out and talking with you about such things. I enjoy your perspective. We’re building a large project and I’ve been known to say “I’d like to chat with Chris Dixon about this. I think he’d add to the conversation” (part of our team is in NY).

Thanks for doing the Founder Stories shows. I like the casual, informal format. Wish they were a bit longer sometimes.

http://www.lifestylentrepreneurs.com Jeff Sepp

Agreed. Skiing fun too on Sundays – nature is a Great inspiration.

http://daleallyn.com Dale Allyn

Yep. Or rock climbing or photography. But these days weekends are mostly about more developing, coding and a little catching up on my RSS feed. Still, hanging with good folks and talking about what’s happening in startup-land and the tech world is a good use of Sundays too.

http://twitter.com/bradenhamm Braden Hamm

I like how engadget has a podcast page, and I can just stream the audio and listen to it in the background while I work. Not that you and the founders are unattractive or anything, there’s just not much to see. Not having to download it would be nice.
http://www.facebook.com/TheZachSteele Zach Steele

though it’s not nearly as professional and has less audiovisual quality, doing skype interviews or something you wouldn’t be limited by NYC’s startup crowd (i think you do the interviews in NYC, am I wrong?) and tap into the dense population of entrepreneurs elsewhere, especially in the bay area.
Anonymous

I just appreciate Chris’ attitude about the whole thing; even down to the name of the show you can tell that he is a very respectful and thoughtful person.

Also, its a really good show for budding entrepreneurs. Keep up the work
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=551666141 Sammy Jarquin

I have to say the show has helped me see that these start-ups we usually perceive as “overnight success stories” usually have founders who have been at an idea for many many years. I realized this when you did the interview with Dennis Crowley. After 9 years of me trying with a lot of different projects and not necessarily winning, this interview was received very well by me.

If I could maybe request something I would like to see is:

1. How does one overcome the distance from the tech “Hot Spots” NY and CA? For example, I’m in Toronto, Canada, but at all cost I’m trying not to have to move down south. Then again, the constant worry that if heard/seen in those areas, anyone can put something together a lot faster with with a ridiculous budget and take someone outside of these hot areas out overnight.

2. I know there isn’t anything cool about ads, but having that in mind, most of the online start-ups I see start ad free. Do VC’s or anyone interested in funding you see a “Google Ad” on the site as a negative thing? And how does one scale hardware/bandwidth on a shoe string budget and no ads?

3. Should someone anywhere outside of the U.S hot spots be on stealth mode, or make as much noise as possible when starting?

I know it’s a lot, but definitely would like to hear about others who have gone through this if possible. Having answers to these questions would definitely help me as we near our go-live.

Warmest Regards,
Sammy J
http://analytikainc.com/blog/ John R. Sedivy

Hi Chris – I appreciate your sharing of the level of thought that went into the naming of the series. I am sure that the guests on the series as well as military personnel and veterans appreciate your humble consideration.
http://www.facebook.com/daniel.miesner Daniel Miesner

Founders Stories has quickly become one of my favorite parts of TC, so thank you for that Chris. As a 24-yr old trying to figure out where I can fit into this industry, I really appreciate hearing the stories of others who have done it themselves. It’s incredibly encouraging and insightful. I’d like to hear more about the individual founder’s experience (what part of the product did they build, what they had to learn to get it done, etc.) That may be getting too deep into details for the short show, but it’s something I’d personally like to see more of.

Keep up the great work, man.
http://twitter.com/ngavronsky Nick Gavronsky

I really enjoy your interviews, its really exciting to hear stories from successful startups!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HDVE4M5DZW6B2IPCR2O2MGX37I Mogens

Chris, Great job on the Founders Stories, I really enjoy them. I do have a question though that is not directly related. On April 12th you sat down with Erick Schonfeld to discuss Paul Ceglia’s claim against Facebook. In that segment you mentioned that there were 5 top Law firms specializing in startups. As I am in the process of starting a tech company myself I would be very interested in getting the names of those Law Firms.

http://www.cdixon.org chris dixon

sure, the “standard” startup law firms I typically see startups use are
Gunderson Dettmer (who I use), Wilson Sonsini, Fenwick West, and Cooley.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HDVE4M5DZW6B2IPCR2O2MGX37I Mogens

Thank you Chris! I’ll make sure to put an open slot in my calendar to come on your show some day lol