Nerv with Ryan Williams

Brad Feld is an author, blogger and he invests in early stage technology companies. In fact he has invested in over 1,000 companies between his Techstars accelerator, his Foundry Ground investment firm, and his own deals. He is our guest on The Influencer Economy podcast this week.

Imagine a world where the only media channels were TV, radio, print magazines, and newspapers. And if you were a start-up entrepreneur, you had to do P.R. in order to get someone's attention for an article or any media coverage. When Brad started his first company Feld Technologies in 1987, while an undergrad student at MIT in Cambridge, that was the world for Brad to gain any media coverage for his company.

This is one of the reasons why Brad was an early adopter for blogging back in 2004. In this episode Brad details his early motivations for blogging and writing on the web. In addition to his how and why he wrote his first book: Venture Deals.

We talk about how often people think too much about their goals and sometimes it's worth starting something to figure out if it's a good idea or bad idea. When he started Techstars with his 3 other co-founders he had no idea if it would work, but figured it was worth a shot. And at the very least he would make some new friends. We chat about how people need to experiment as start-up founders, bloggers, podcasters and sometimes when you don't reach your goals, another less obvious goal emerges which can lead you down the right path.

Brad and I both believe in the "Give Before You Get" model and helping people is all about giving in the system. And that oftentimes we meet people who are takers and over time you realize you spend less time with people who take. Often when Brad meets startup founders, he develops relationships with the founders in advance of investing. And he gives to founders before realizing if he'll invest in their ideas or not.

Brad also pursues 20% of his life where he allocates his days to random things. He'll do a fake VC Day or a fake CEO day where he does stuff that allows his universe to be open to different connections.

Brad's Blog Feld Thoughts: http://www.feld.com/
TechStars:  http://www.techstars.com/
Sqord:  https://www.sqord.com/
SXSW: http://www.sxsw.com/
Jeff Ullrich and Earwolf:  http://www.earwolf.com/person/jeff-ullrich/

Direct download: Brad_Feld_Techstars.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:44pm PDT