email #2 — A name for my new startup and a co-founder
As many new friends joined my newsletter and asked if they could access the previous emails online I will be posting each email update here. I will post them after having emailed them but not sure how long after, subscribe to make sure you get them if you like. I’m trying to send something new every week.
12/2/2015
Hi, I hope you are having a good week.
We have a name!
In my previous email, I was saying that I wanted to build something to solve my own problem:
- discovering extraordinary people doing amazing things -
I have been doing this for 11 years as I invited thousands of speakers to LeWeb.
Some amazing things happened. Jack Dorsey launched Square on stage at LeWeb and it’s now a public company. Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp decided to start Uber as they could not find a taxi in Paris.
The name became obvious to me. It should be “leaders”. Of course leaders dot com is registered and expensive. I don’t feel like I need a .com even though Paul Graham says I should have one.
so I got “Leade.rs” (nothing behind yet)
Cool? Not cool? I like it 😃 It’s short, easy to remember and “says” what we’re doing.
I have a co-founder
We don’t exactly know what we’re co-founding but it’s like if you play tennis, you need to be two to play. It’s much more fun to start building with someone you trust, a friend, that you can share on a daily basis with. Share your ideas and your fears. Building alone is tough, especially as you won’t have all the skills you need.
I always wanted to code but never learned. I guess I will keep it for my next life.
I needed someone who can make ideas become apps and websites, someone who can code… A very different skill-set than mine.
Almost twenty years ago (I know!), I was working on my first business, a web agency called B2L, we were a small team. I received a letter from someone who wanted to join my team and an intriguing CV, which was… empty.
Instead of a nice CV, Jean-Jacques Borie explained that he was reading a book every single day. He was up for learning anything.
I could not believe it and hired him immediately and he was amazing.
Starting autodidact, he had an incredible career. He managed large engineering teams on complex projects. He got engineering and business degrees from top universities and is learning non stop. I’m really happy we’re working together again. I trust him.
Some interesting things I saw or wrote
Do you want to shoot for the moon with your startup or build a good, honest business?
DHH is asking a great question in Reconsider you should really read it if you haven’t. There is alsothis guy operating 10 businesses while sailing around the World with his family.
I responded to DHH in a post Silicon Valley Unicorns vs the World? We’ve already seen that movie but he really got me think about raising funding, getting big fast or just growing a small but good business with Leade.rs
Interesting, too, Facebook Reveals The Secrets Behind “M”, Its Artificial Intelligence Bot lead by my friend David Marcus
Can you give me some feedback on this email?
Too long? Too short? Cool? Not interesting? What would you like for me to share? Should I keep telling you about the progress or more sharing learnings along the way?
Any suggestions on what I should talk about in my next email to you? Just hit reply and tell me.
Talk to you all again soon and thanks for reading me!
It’s a privilege to be able to email you.
Loic
