Why INVANTI?
I had a really refreshing call today with a potential recruit for INVANTI Cohort 2. Amongst many great questions, she asked one in particular that I’ve thought about often—
“Why start INVANTI vs. starting your own venture in one of the themes that you’ve chosen (and are obviously passionate about) for a cohort?”
I’ve answered this in my head a hundred times (as well as to other people), and the honest answer is a combination of leveraging my strengths, being honest about my weaknesses, and thinking about what really motivates me.
Later tonight, I had the privilege of spending some quality time with some graduate students that Maria and I have worked closely with from the ESTEEM Program at Notre Dame for the last 10 months. We ran a version of INVANTI with them and have come to really enjoy their enthusiasm, talents, and passion for believing that it’s possible to build big, powerful companies that fix things that are important.
This group was kind enough to get us a card and write some heartfelt things about their experience spending time with us throughout their year-long degree. One of the lines struck me, mainly because I think it is much closer to the real answer to the question that was posed earlier in the day by the prospective INVANTI entrepreneur…
Thank you for supporting me in starting a venture that means so much to me!
This — in one simple, but powerful sentence — is the essence of INVANTI and the reason that I do what I do. People starting big, ambitious, seemingly impossible and unreasonable things is invigorating and inspiring, and if I can play any role, however small it might be, in supporting that, I have done something important.
Passionate, talented, driven people attacking big, complicated, intransigent problems is my definition of entrepreneurship. Having the privilege of being a small part of the founding stories of future influential entrepreneurs is a hell of a reason to get up in the morning.
Dustin Mix is a cofounder of INVANTI.
Don’t wait for an “A-HA!” moment to start building a company that matters — applications for Cohort 2 are open:https://www.invanti.co/apply/
