Making Something From Nothing: Jason Thompson On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Some people will not respond positively to your ideas or product. It doesn’t mean your baby is ugly. It is important to not take criticism about your product/service or a “no” personally.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason R. Thompson.

For over 25 years, Jason R. Thompson has built and managed national and international diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) programs for Western Governors University, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Techstars, and Integris Health.

Now an Author, DE&I Coach and Speaker, Jason released a new book, “Diversity and Inclusion Matters” in Dec. 2021. The book shares practical tips on how to implement DE&I practices and perspectives in the workplace and society.

Jason’s award-winning work has also been published in ColoradoBiz magazine, USA Today, Washington Post, CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

Inspired by his personal and professional experience, Jason created CAPE Inclusion, an innovative DE&I platform to collect, analyze, plan and execute business diversity goals. Jason continues to serve as co-founder and senior advisor at CAPE.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this piece. DE&I has become a business imperative and I’m excited to share my experience in creating and building successful corporate DE&I initiatives.

Born in Japan on a military base to an African American father and a Japanese mother, I am the youngest of four children. We moved to Hawaii not long after I was born, though after five years there, we were transferred to the U.S. Air Force base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I lived in Cheyenne until my late 20s.

Growing up in Wyoming was difficult because there were few people with brown skin. My family did not have much money, partly because my parents did not make a lot of money and partly because my dad always made bad decisions with the money we did have.

As someone with dyslexia, I struggled in school, yet went on to graduate from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in sociology. Probably even more unlikely, as a graduate student, I became the first person of color to be the student body president at the University of Wyoming.

The election process was full of tension and heavy with undertones of racism. For example, one of the two candidates I ran against wore a hat with the Confederate flag on it. On the first day I put up my campaign posters, I received a threatening phone call. In addition, it seemed as if the campaign posters were being ripped down within an hour of putting them up. Daily, fellow students would say to me, “You need to put posters up, or people are not going to know you are running for student body president.” What they did not know was I spent the first hour of every morning walking all over campus putting up posters only to have someone seemingly rip them down.

The University advisor to the student government allowed the fraternity brothers of the incumbent student body president to count votes for the primary election. The incumbent’s fraternity brothers decided it was necessary to throw out 10 votes, which meant that I came in 10 votes behind the incumbent. Nonetheless, I still made it to the general election runoff against the incumbent.

As the general election drew nearer, things became even more contentious. I experienced threats of violence, and my campaign posters that included his young son were defaced with insults. These vandalized posters were put on the door of the graduate student office I shared with other graduate students in the Sociology Department and on the door of the Multicultural Resource Center where I worked at the time. My wife, Elizabeth, also worked on campus at that time, and she, too, was threatened by students who supported the incumbent.

The student body presidential election became so charged with tension that the city of Laramie was asked to bring in their official election equipment, and city employees conducted the University voting process. This was the first and only time in the history of the University of Wyoming that a student election required the oversight of professional election staff and equipment.

In the end, I won by a landslide on a predominantly white campus with barely 100 Black students. My life story is one of crossing bridges and overcoming obstacles.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

It’s not a specific quote, but the poem, “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou is one of my favorites. Despite the many setbacks I have experienced in life, I remain resilient. It is the only gift I hope to give my children. I always tell my children they will not be measured by failure, but by how they respond to failure. There is something about the poem and the simple phrase, “Still I Rise,” that gives me strength. Resilience is also a skill every entrepreneur and trailblazer will need because there are many setbacks.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King has had the most impact on me. Because I am dyslexic, books can be very difficult for me to read. I read and reread this letter for strength and wisdom. Whenever I have had to deal with difficult issues, the letter helps me find a solution.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

Thinking about a business idea and not immediately acting on the idea can be a good thing. Take the time to really think about starting a business because after the excitement dies down, you must do some hard work.

When starting something new, like a workplace DE&I program or a new business, do not fear hard work and remain resilient.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

I always tell people there is Uber and Lyft…businesses have to compete. Entrepreneurs should do the research, but businesses don’t start simply because no one has done it before. The best businesses execute well. The question you should ask yourself is if you out-execute the competition. Having a novel idea will only last until you have to compete and execute.

The research you do about the industry is not just to be the only one, but to identify if there is an opportunity to do it better.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Be open to learning a lot along the way. Also, get feedback from your audience because you need data to find out what works and what does not.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

For over 25 years, I’ve built and managed national and international DE&I programs for corporations and nonprofit organizations. This work has been so impactful that it’s won awards, media attention, and gave way to the creation of a technology platform (CAPE Inclusion) as well as a new book, Diversity & Inclusion Matters. None of it was easy! My book provides expert guidance and step-by-step instruction for building a successful diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative from scratch.

In addition, I recommend trailblazers consider these five things when starting a something new:

Saving money vs. cheap…for example, some legal items can be done yourself, but if it takes you 20 hours to do something an attorney could do in an hour, you are not saving money.

Beta test. Deep discounts to get beta customers will pay for itself. It is the best way to get feedback on your ideas and product.

Some people will not respond positively to your ideas or product. It doesn’t mean your baby is ugly. It is important to not take criticism about your product/service or a “no” personally.

If you hire your friends, don’t let your friendship be the reason you keep them. Sometimes you have to let your friends go because they cannot do the job.

Family first and enjoy the journey. There is only one “first step” for your child, only one first day of school, and you can’t get that back.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The first step in deciding to move forward with an idea is to make sure you want to be in that type of business. If you don’t like the work, it doesn’t matter what the idea is as starting a business is a career choice.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I would also always seek out advice but at the end of the day, it is about execution. I have not personally used invention development consultants, but as an author and public speaker, I try to remain humble and seek advice.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

Women and people of color get about one percent of venture capital. For many, bootstrapping is the only option and budget resourcing is an ongoing process.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I try to be a good dad. Some would say I spoiled my kids and I hope they are right. I worked hard so they would have a good childhood, great memories and few worries. I spent a lot of time worrying when I grew up about if my family was going to be able to pay the rent. I have used my success to make change where I can, I try to do the right thing, give my kids a good home and be kind. It may not sound like much, but it adds up. If we are all kind, raise good kids and do the right things we will get there.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Let’s take care of our kids, invest in schools and childcare.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would like to sit down with President Barack Obama. He changed the world and will forever be remembered. It is a-once in a lifetime moment to be in his shadow and his presence.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.