Translator: Bob Prottas Reviewer: Leonardo Silva
"People under 35 are the one's that create change.
People over 45 are actually dead to creating change."
(Audience disaproves)
This was actually said, by a prominent investor, at a huge conference recently,
and another investor said -- he told the New York Times:
"In the investor's mind the cutoff age is 32."
Thank you. Yes.
Now I know this from personal experience.
Because I've sat across the table, I've talked to them,
I've seen their face when they looked at me, and they thought:
"Yeah, he's not for us."
And I know this because I'm not 20, I'm 42. Right?
I didn't just start shaving my face. I just starting shaving my ears.
(Laughter)
#RealThing. You young people wait for it.
(Laughter) I'm serious.
I don't wear a baseball hat to look cool.
I wear it so my bald head doesn't get destroyed by the sun. Right?
I am nothing that they were looking for,
and so I figured we needed a new model.
So this is where we came up with the cul-de-sac startup. It's very simple.
You keep your day job,
and you use 3 principles that I learned in the cul-de-sac
to create something, and you do it in the cracks of your life.
And I believe that if we unleash this army of entrepreneurs,
the next Silicone Valley could actually be suburbia.
There are so many people who don't believe that they can do this,
and I actually -- I was shocked.
The stats actually tell the opposite story.
Harvard did a huge study of startups that have generated over a million in revenue,
and what they found was that the average age of the CEO was 39,
and there were twice as many that were over 50, than were under 25.
It's a paradigm shift, and I was moved
when I heard a quote from Les Brown, and he said:
"The richest place on the planet is the grave.
Because it's full of songs that were never sung,
books that were never written, and inventions that were never made."
And I think we have to destroy that. I'm tired for myself.
I don't want to write my checks to the grave.
I don't want that to be my legacy, and so I created this new model.
Let me tell you about where I came from,
because that's going to help explain where I've gotten.
So I grew up in rural Washington state, in a very small town, called Rainier.
Raised by a single mom,
that milked cows, and made $2.35 an hour.
I grew up in a single-wide mobile home,
and I remember the first day I walked out to kindergarden.
I walked out of that mobile home, and when I graduated high school,
I walked back into that same mobile home.
I had many family members that had never graduated high school.
I didn't believe that a startup was even possible for someone like me.
I didn't think it was possible.
But let me share with you a few things that I've been blessed and able to do,
as a cul-de-sac entrepeneur. I brokered a $10 million NASCAR deal.
The first NASCAR race I ever went to,
I sat with the crew chief for Robby Gordon Motorsports, in Texas Motor Speedway.
It was surreal; I started --
helped start one of the largest Bronco fan's sites, called Bronco Planet.
We grew to over 10,000 members in 90 days.
I got to meet, and interview amazing athletes,
imported a product from Europe,
and even had a chance to pitch it on Home Shopping Network.
And most recently, I started an app called "Digital Fridge", and it's a 5-star app.
It's been downloaded in 70 countries.
We won Denver's hottest showcase in Startup.
It's been surreal, but I had to have a new model.
A cul-de-sac model. Let's get to the 3 principles.
Number 1, get exhausted.
I need everyone here to raise your right hand as high as you possibly can.
Quickly.
Now raise it up a little higher. You all failed. Thank you.
(Laughter)
I literally asked you: "Raise it as high as you possibly could",
and 5 seconds later, you raised it a little higher.
(Laughter)
I mean serious.
(Laughter)
We all keep some capacity back.
A lot of us fear failure, fear being hurt, lots of reasons.
We keep capacity back, but I found 1 thing in life
that you can not keep anything back.
This is a picture of my daughter.
(Laughter)
Yeah. You can not get more asleep than she is.
I wish you could -- (Laughter)
Seriously. I wish you could see it.
There's slobber on her face, I mean she's done, she's wrecked.
And guess where she just came back from?
A play date.
There is one thing in life where you can not keep that capacity back,
and it's play.
You want to get exhausted, find something that to you feels like play.
When we started Digital Fridge, we were --
I always say we're one of the most fertile startups in the world.
We all have -- I think our average is like four and a half kids. I mean it's crazy.
But we're passionate about capturing memories,
and we created this photo app, because to us it felt like play.
People used to always ask me:
"Pete, how do you work all and then go home and work some more?"
I said: "I don't, I go home and play."
Right, we did QA at soccer games, and birthday parties,
lacrosse matches, we play. Find something that feels like play.
Next, get sticks. I remember it was a Saturday morning,
I walked down the cul-de-sac and there's about 12 kids playing kickball.
And I wanted to be part of it so bad. But I pulled my hamstring, really easy.
(Laughter)
I yelled out to my son and I said:
"Cole, I'm going to run to Target, and I'm going to buy some bases."
And he said: "Dad, we don't need bases, we've got sticks."
And they had gathered sticks and made bases.
I tell you, if you want to see execution, go the the cul-de-sac.
They make up rules, and play, and then argue.
But play is key, they start playing.
And so, it wasn't but 2 weeks later,
I had a young entrepreneur say that he wanted me to review his business plan.
So we met a Starbucks on a Saturday, and I looked at the business plan,
he was looking for $110,000, and in my head I kept hearing:
"Sticks, Sticks."
And so I said: "You know what, let's go for a drive."
So we drove to Best Buy. He had a technical product that he needed.
We spent some time, we found something that would do for the time, we spent $78.
And he was trying to sell into restaurants.
We started driving and went to 8 restaurants.
The 9th restaurant, we got a customer.
An hour and a half, $78, and we turned that $110,00 business plan
into a $78 business plan, and he had a customer, and a product.
In life, you've got to find sticks.
Next, you've got to get to know your neighbors.
This is one thing in the cul-de-sac that kids do amazing.
They get to know their neighbors, and it's a little selfish why they do it.
Because guess what, if they run out of bubbles,
and they need bubbles, guess who has bubbles? The neighbors.
If they want to do some chalk art, and they used all their chalk art,
and they don't have any, guess who does? The neighbors.
If they want to play baseball, or football, or on a trampoline
and they don't have one of those. Guess who does? The neighbors.
Thank you very much. You've go to build community.
I am so blessed that I have a great partner in Rob,
and that I have great friends that help me,
and that I have a community around me.
And there's actually science behind why you do this.
The New England Journal of Medicine studied the top 4 diets
in one of the largest studies ever done.
Over 10 years, thousands of people, and what they found
is they all produce the exact same result, and it was very small,
with one exception, if the ingredient of community was there,
the result was 225% higher.
If you don't have community, you've got to find community for this model to work,
and there are some beautiful benefits if you use this model.
Number 1. It makes you better at your day job.
This is the biggest paradigm, in the world, that I want to crush.
The most common question I get is: "How does your company let you do that?"
Well, let's flip it just a little bit.
Somebody who trains for a triathlon;
does that make them better or worse at their job?
It makes them better. How about somebody that volunteers on the weekends?
Does that make them better or worse? It makes them better.
If you learn these philosophies, and you find something that feels like play,
and you bring the philosophy of get sticks you will be better at your job.
Secondly, it creates longevity.
What I mean by this, is we've had some meetings with venture capitalists
and they've said: "What's your monthly cost?"
I'm like: "That's about 45 a month." and they're like: "Damn, 45 thousand."
And I'm like: "No, 45 dollars." (Laughter)
Now, granted once a year, we have to pay --
renew our URL, that's like $100. So add that to it.
It creates longevity.
I've seen apps come into the space that are far better than ours,
and they're gone after 18 months, because they have no longevity.
This model, that you build --
Someone was talking to him about being an overnight success,
and he had this quote, and he said:
"Timing, perserverance, and 10 years of trying,
and you too can be an overnight success."
(Laughter)
Overnight success, it's a misnomer.
But this is my favorite piece, the reason. This is really why I do it.
And I first saw this when I coached my son's soccer team,
and I remember he --
it was my first season coaching, his first season playing.
Our first game, he takes the ball and goes all the way down the field,
he scores the first goal of his first season of my first season
for the other team.
(Laughter)
The parent's behind me: "Whose kid is that?"
I'm like: "The coach." (Laughter)
"Sorry." (Laughter)
The brilliant thing was, all of a sudden, they started jumping up and down.
They had no idea what was going on.
They're partying, I mean literally, there was a kid coming down the sideline
like an airplane, screaming: "Goooooooooal."
(Laughter)
And then I looked at this little group,
and I'm like: "There's a kid in there celebrating for the other team."
(Laughter)
They don't even know what team they're on.
(Laughter)
Fascinating.
So the coach and I are like: "High Five? I don't know."
(Laughter)
"Whatever."
But this model will redefine what success actually is.
One thing you learn from kids is just enjoy, enjoy the moment, enjoy it,
and I had a beautiful illustration of this, from my Mom.
So my Mom, who's my hero, who I mentioned earlier, 10 years ago, she was 52.
I'm driving home from work, and I get a call, and she says:
"You'll never believe what just happened."
She's so excited, and I said: "What?" and she said: "I learned how to swim."
She's 52, never knew how to swim; I learned how to swim, and I'm thinking:
"She must have a coach, she's at the YMCA, whatever."
I said: "Where'd you go?" she said: "Ganel's pool".
Well Ganel is my sister, I know Ganel's pool.
(Laughter)
It's about 10 feet across, and like 4 feet deep.
I don't even know if you can't swim across it.
(Laughter)
But her definition of success was redefined, and I call it:
"1 is greater than 1,000."
But if you try to always focus on the thousands,
you'll miss all these great ones, and the cul-de-sac startup, what it does,
is it allows you to find the joy in all these ones.
One, after one, after one, eventually it goes up to a thousand,
and so if you follow this model, I believe it's a new way to think,
and I think we can unleash this model.
But one final rule of the cul-de-sac, it's very simple,
"Get there early, stay late and enjoy the ride."
Thank you.
(Applause)