The Accidental Founder

This talk was given at beyond tellerrand 2012 in Düsseldorf.

Description:
What happens when a passion evolves into a business? And unexpectedly, you're required to figure out how to manage staff, pay the bills, and compete with others — all while trying to keep the passion alive?

Throughout his 13-year career, Cameron has been passionate about many things: user experience design, HTML/CSS, typography, app design, writing, advertising, team collaboration, remote working, charitable giving, and so forth. Eventually, this passion led to an unexpected yet profitable business (more than one, actually).

Cameron will share the mistakes and successes he's encountered as a passionate creator, unexpected business owner, and accidental founder.

More info about beyond tellerrand:
http://beyondtellerrand.com
http://twitter.com/btconf

Transcript

1. HI.
3. placeki en.com
4. THE ACCIDENTAL FOUNDER @CAMERONMOLL
5. youtube.com/watch?v=q-RLqLx1iYI
11. Credit: joshuabudich.com
12. I don’t think this music thing is going to work out for you, Cameron. PERCUSSION TEACHER, CANDIDLY
14. THINGS I’VE DONE WRONG. THINGS I’VE DONE RIGHT.
16. MISTAKE #1 ASSUMPTIVELY DEFINING THE USER
19. MISTAKE #2 OVERASSESSING THE VALUE OF TECHNICAL SKILLS
20. TECHNICAL SKILLS SOFT SKILLS CREATIVE THINKING TEAM FIT
22. Skills can be taught, but working with a jerk is no fun for anyone. NOAH STOKES C0-founder, Bold
23. MISTAKE #3 FAILING TO DEFINE THE PROBLEM
24. Anton Fokker 1890-1939
25. Once the problem was stated, its solution came to me in a flash. ANTON FOKKER
26. Design is as much a matter of finding problems as it is solving them. BRYAN LAWSON How Designers Think
28. TRIUMPH #1 PUSHING MYSELF TO DO THINGS I’M TOTALLY NOT QUALIFIED FOR
30. c =∑ n h=1 {hg ׃ } (s,o)
31. Credit: @hellogeri
32. TYPE CITY veer.com/ideas/typecity
39. TRIUMPH #2 AN OBSESSION WITH QUALITY, AUTHENTICITY, AND DETAILS
41. LIBRO DI M. GIOVAMBATTISTA PALATINO archive.org/stream/librodimgiovamba00pala
51. The details are not details, they make the product. CHARLES EAMES
57. MISTAKE #4 AN OBSESSION WITH QUALITY, AUTHENTICITY, AND DETAILS
60. The imagination of the good artist or thinker produces continuously good, mediocre, or bad things, but his judgment, trained and sharpened to a fine point, rejects, selects, connects. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
63. TRIUMPH #3 PASSIONATELY PASSIONATE ABOUT PASSION
64. WRITE
65. WRITE + PASSION.
66. TRIUMPH #4 COMMITMENT TO GIVING BACK & MAKING A DIFFERENCE
72. PHOTO: MARK AVINO