Devon Tivona on “Finding Your Authentic Why”

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Devon Tivona. Devon is that dude who can absolutely crush it in a presentation in front of 500 people, own-the-room in the networking event following the presentation, and then make his way back to his office to write 1,000 lines of code. Trust me — I’ve seen it happen.

Devon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pana, a virtual travel agent and mobile app powered by an AI bot named Crosby. The company is growing at an incredible rate, and their product is used by hundreds of companies and business travelers all over the world. Oh, and before I forget to mention, he’s 25 years old.

Devon was kind enough to invite us to his quintessential-startup office in Downtown Denver on a beautiful Sunday morning. He jumped in the hot-seat and shared a moving story from a few years ago when he and his co-founder opened up with each other on a deeper level than ever before.

Shortly after graduating from Techstars and recovering from the “Techstars hangover”, Devon and Lianne locked themselves in a conference room, and over the next 8 hours, uncovered the realization that the business they had both dedicated their lives to was built around an inauthentic why. At this point, they had to start from square one, and completely rebuild a company around a foundation that was truly authentic to both of them.

Watch Devon’s video to hear the 7-minute story, and subscribe for more weekly videos from successful entrepreneurs, CEO’s and VC’s at Eyesight Collective’s Video Blog.

Written by Founder and CEO, Jake Hurwitz.

Video Filmed and Edited by Co-Founder and CCO, Nathan Moses.