Our Founders in Boston

Lessons We’ve Learned

By Elizabeth Swartz

Originally Published November 13 2017

We love to bring our community together, so last month we invited many of our Boston area portfolio companies and friends to join us for another founder event.

To start things off, Cliff Sirlin, LaunchCapital’s Managing Director, shared his lesson learned: be creative — and shape your plan based on the resources you have available vs wishful thinking for what is outside of your control.

Cliff then asked a few of our seasoned entrepreneurs to share some of their ‘lessons learned’.

Runkeeper founder Jason Jacobs stressed the importance of building something you love and remaining committed to your vision. He spoke about the route he and the Runkeeper team took to learn that lesson. So his ask of the other founders in the room: are you waking up every day knowing you are true to, and passionate about, your north star?

Jason Jacob’s ‘lessons learned’ discussion struck a chord with founders and investors. Below are Patrick McDonald from Oshen, and Jeremiah Gall and Nate Oaks of Breezeway listening to his talk.

Addie Swartz, who founded ReacHire, then presented. Addie’s lesson learned: be willing to iterate and adapt. That is, to adapt your business to match your customers’ constantly-changing needs.

Then MoMelan and SevenOaks Biosystems founder Sameer Sabir shared some of what he’s learned through two successful companies and exits. For Sameer, his lessons were about people. Specifically, to find the smartest, hardest working people you can to join your team early on.

It’s easy for a lesson learned to sound trite, but the truth within each of these lessons are substantial.

Following the broader talks, many founders spent time in smaller group conversations to share their personal stories. Pictured below is Freight Farms’ founder Brad McNamara speaking with Emily Malina and Ricky Ashenfelter of Spoiler Alert.

Many of these conversations offered founders a chance to exchange their own ‘lessons learned.’ Here Suelin Chen, founder of LaunchCapital’s most recent investment Cake, talking with Philip Aldridge of Sea Machines.

Also, here are Magnus Textile‘s Edward Coady and Rupesh Nawalakhe deep in conversation with Cliff Sirlin.

Of course, the night offered opportunities for friendly competition, too. Here is Jason Gray trying hard to avoid elimination in an intense round of knockout (he won this contest).

Many thanks to the team at Localytics for hosting us!

Originally published at launchcapital.com.