One of my favorite movies is The Return of the King. I've probably watched it dozens of times. I have a first edition of the book. It's a whole thing. My favorite character has always been Aragorn, and if you asked me up until this point, I probably couldn't have clearly articulated why. (Apart from the fact that rangers are awesome) But recently something dawned on me. It's not the battles that keep me...
So you read my last post and thought "I want one of those." Good. But before you go full Tony Stark, let me save you from some of the mistakes I made. Because I made a lot of them.Setting up Clawdbot isn't hard. Fixing things after clawbot has broken them? That's the hard part.What You Actually NeedLet's keep this simple.- A computer. I use a MacBook Air. Nothing fancy. No server farm required.- Node.js...
For those new here, I'm Ross McGarvey. I'm Scottish. I moved to America in 2009 with 4 bags, 6 boxes, and the kind of blind confidence that only comes from not knowing what you're getting into.Since then I've built and run multiple companies. Been named on Utah Business Magazine's 40 Under 40. Been featured in Forbes. Started a full-service agency called Avant8 that I grew from a basement to a multimillion dollar operation.And about...
Not the cheerleading headline you were hoping for? Let me explain. Being an entrepreneur is hard, probably one of the hardest professional paths you can take. You can’t just want to be an entrepreneur and play at it; you have to go all in. It has to be in your DNA. Here’s a more direct statement: you either have what it takes and get to work, or you don’t. The hustling entrepreneur has been over-glamorized...
Question: What do you love about being an entrepreneur? Answer: I get to lie in every day…yeah right. I’ve been an entrepreneur so long I almost don’t remember jobs before that. I don’t remember another way to work. When I was younger I worked at call centers, I worked at McDonald’s, and I worked at other odds and ends jobs. But it’s been about 15 years since I’ve been employed at any jobs like that. My early jumps...
Question: How do you balance everything? Answer: I don’t think it’s like balancing everything, I treat it more like spinning plates. When I hear the word balance, it makes me think of the word ‘harmony’ and that’s not what my life is like. I think of it like spinning plates because I go to what needs the most attention first. Everything is going to need attention at some point, so I have to move back...
Question: How do you get over a creative slump? Or your remedy for a creative slump? Answer: Caffeine. Lots of caffeine. Just ask my sister and coworker, Blair to vouch. If there is some kind of mental block, I will drink a can of personality. Then I’ll 260-grams-of-caffeine my way through everything. But I also draw inspiration from the greats. Kings of Creativity. To me, the perfect example of adaptive creativity is the dynamic duo, Daft...
Question: What’s the biggest challenge with starting a business, or a startup’s worst enemy? Answer: The biggest challenge is who you are working with. Are they encouraging you? Are they not encouraging you? It’s probably taken you a lot of time, effort, and consideration to get to the point where you could tell your friends about your business idea. I don’t think peers recognize how damaging it can be to tear down a fledgling idea. I...
Question: I think that my product could be used by everyone, but I have been told that it’s important to have a very focused target market. What can I do to narrow my target demographic? Or should I? Answer: Revolutions all start with one idea, one person, one identity. Figuring out who this person is and how to get them on your new business’ side is what leads to success. People are what make the difference...
Question: How do I figure out whether my target market is the best one for the product I am trying to sell without losing all my money through trial and error? Answer: It’s a contradiction in itself. You have to spend the money to run the test. Results won’t come if you don’t try. You’re going to have to take a leap and be willing to spend what it takes to find your target market. You...