Everything I need to know about startups, I learned from a crime boss
The door opened and into the room walked the most dangerous person I’ve ever met. He reached towards his belt and slowly pulled out his .45 caliber handgun, raised it and paused to evaluate my expression. “No disrespect, but it’s been pressing into my hip all day.” He placed the gun on the coffee table, relaxed into the leather sofa and let his guard down for the first time in a very long while.
This person, let’s call him Kobayashi (I’m a Usual Suspects fan), is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. He was a well-educated entrepreneur who ran a profitable business that employed dozens of people. He lived in a swanky downtown Los Angeles penthouse. His kids went to private school. He kept his fridge well stocked with imported beer and wine for guests even though he didn’t drink. He was, by all measures, a gentleman.
But Kobayashi ran an unusual business. He was in the business of organized crime. He started this venture quite young, expanded his operations, diversified revenue streams, and created very profitable independent business units. “I have two lawyers,” he once told me. “I keep them both because they hate each other. Neither one of them can get out of line because the other one is watching him. That keeps me safe.” Kobayashi was brilliant, witty, and dangerous. He was a friend and mentor to me during an interesting period of time in my early 20s.
Everything I need to know about startups, I learned from Kobayashi. While I can’t get too deep into specifics (would you?), I can share a few the things he taught me.
Don’t sell rocks when you can sell mountains
Kobayashi didn’t work with small packages. His business transactions involved risk at every stage – product acquisition, transport, and distribution. But the marginal risk on each decreased with the size of the transaction. Working in large volume reduced his overall risk and rewarded him with a shrink-wrapped palette of cash rather than a suitcase of cash.
As founders and early stage employees, we go to great lengths to mitigate risk. So why do we overlook the total marginal risk?
Building a profitable small-market company is difficult and carries a high risk of failure. Building a profitable large-market company is also difficult and carries a high risk of failure. But the marginal risk in building a company decreases as the addressable market increases. While a larger company may require more total work, the relative effort is less. Make no mistake: small-market companies still come with 18 hour days, flaky vendors, upset customers, and exasperated spouses.
Thinking small increases our risk. So let’s think big.
[Notes: “Large vs. small” is a different debate than “bootstrapped vs venture-backed”, though the two are often conflated. It’s also worth noting that serving a small segment and progressively expanding outwards to serve the larger market is a totally legitimate large-market strategy.]
Cut out the middleman
As Kobayashi’s businesses grew, he was in a position to start bypassing middlemen. Instead of dealing with distributors, he went straight to producers. Instead of hiring contractors, he purchased required equipment and moved people onto payroll. Everywhere he saw a third party making money, he figured out a way to replace that person or bring them in-house. He reduced costs at every step. He constantly encouraged me to do the same.
Interesting things happen when we cut out the middleman. In addition to reducing cost, we often end up creating an internal byproduct that can be productized and sold to a completely new customer. (Amazon Web Services is an example of this.) Sometimes the middleman’s market is so huge, that a freaking enormous business can be built simply by providing their customers a lower cost and more efficient option. Two-sided marketplace businesses are a textbook example of this type of disruption.
Don’t shit where you eat
“When someone’s doing something for the money, people can sense it, like a desperate lover. It’s a turnoff.” – Derek Sivers, Anything You Want
During this period of my life, I was running a couple businesses that overlapped around the edges. One business had loyal and enthusiastic customers. This business was glamorous, but hemorrhaging money. The other business was transactional and lacked any customer loyalty or love. This business was “anti-glamorous” and a bit closer to Kobayashi’s world than I care to admit.
As time passed, I felt increasing pressure to monetize customers from the first group. I began to overlap these businesses more and more. While they included the same customer segments, there were two completely different products. This pollution of something beautiful with something cheap was my act of shitting in the proverbial kitchen. I watched as revenues increased and looked away from the damage I was causing to the customers I really cared about.
Thankfully, Kobayashi pulled me aside and straightened me out.
The lesson for us is simple. Don’t screw with your users. They are your golden-egg-laying goose. Protect them from rapacious cofounders and investors. Don’t spam them. Don’t abuse them. Don’t be a douchebag.
If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense
“A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby.” – Jason Fried, Rework
We can build an awesome product and then give it away for free. We can bolt advertising to it. We can turn it into a lead-gen property. We can even sell some virtual goods.
Kobayashi wouldn’t.
He would have built Birchbox rather than Pinterest and Airbnb rather than TripAdvisor. He would have found product market fit and a viable business model before spending money on development resources. Kobayashi stayed close to the money, close to a transaction.
Kobayashi was around for the late 90’s tech bubble. He knew many of the players and saw the writing on the wall long before they did. He talked about the first tech wave as if it was a fad that had simply passed, saying things like “when dot-com went out…”
“If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense” may sound like a gross oversimplification. But Kobayashi outlasted those late 90’s startup founders. And he’ll probably outlast most of us.
Closed mouths don’t get fed
I’ve written before about the importance of networking and moving from wallflower to evangelist. Kobayashi was adamant about the importance of this. “Closed mouths don’t get fed,” he would say. “If you want something, you have to either ask for it or walk up and take it.”
We can’t expect good fortune to fall into our lap. It’s our responsibility to create the circumstances for it and then capture that good fortune. The meek may inherit the earth, but they’ll be getting it from Kobayashi.
Be a badass
“There’s only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that’s being so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you.” – Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
My friend Chris DeVore makes a comparison I love: pirate ships as organizational models. Pirate ships combine an “us against the world” mentality with a hunt for treasure. This crucible of chaos and ambition somehow allows unstructured groups of mercenaries to complete complex tasks without killing one another (very often). A pirate ship is a meritocracy where he/she who is most badass, leads.
I’ve met several “badasses” over the years, though Kobayashi is the most memorable. Each one of these people had a gravitational pull for talent and resources. The world reorganized itself around them as they passed through it. They were larger than life, energizing everyone in their periphery.
The one thing these badasses shared was the source of their power: influence rather than authority. This lesson is the most important and also the most difficult to implement. There’s no pill, book, or retreat that will turn us into badasses. But if we want to captain a pirate ship, we must become the most badass version of ourselves. Kobayashi taught that we lead only with the influence we earn.
Donald DeSantis is a developer and UX designer at TechStars company Giant Thinkwell. In his free time, he travels to faraway cities and helps make Startup Weekend events successful. You can find him on Twitter at @donalddesantis.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Abhisek Sarda.
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Dont understand the lesson about commerce vs media businesses you’re trying to make. Trip advisory made way more money than airbnb ever did over similar time periods
Gread read
Kobayashi is one hell of a badass!!! :)
This was pretty darn good. Brief, simple, yet offering a few gems to take away. Hat tip, sir.
You should be ashamed of yourself… In this day and age of focusing on ethics and good business principles you want entrepreneurs to act and work like crime bosses and mafia?
It’s these stupid oversimplifications that let executives believe that it’s ok to bend the rules a little bit. Articles like these (whether intended or not) loosen the moral fiber of young entrepreneurs. I know you’re trying to sensationalize your pithy advice by using the mafia analogy, but its just a bad one to make.
+1
And who would want to work for a firm with this attitude — either as an customer or an employee. This is the worst kind of CEO.
Crass, with little substance.
Oh, come on. How many people do you know are going to turn down a good job because they have moralistic angst over the firm’s “attitude?” There is absolutely nothing in the article to indicate that the firm does or wouild mistreat its workers. You know as well as I do that the 3 most important things in the world when it comes to worker satisfaction and loyalty are (in no particular order): 1-the firm doesn’t lie to you 2-the money is good 3-the checks don’t bounce. 99.999% of all workers won’t care about any “attitude” problems at the top.
Must be a women, or one panzzy ass teacher
Open your mind and maybe you’ll understand that the writer was not advocating crime as a business model; he was simply giving a point of view most have never contemplated. If you can’t handle real-world business, go back to your books and try to theorize a working business strategy that doesn’t include some form of shadiness. The rest of us will see you over a counter somewhere….with you serving us, because we have all the money. Good morals don’t make for anything but dead today (dead used as a metaphor in this case, but then again maybe not so much).
You remind me of the tragic and disastrous mentality described in ‘Atlas shrugged’.
Kobayashi is an entrepreneur which has built a successful business in a huge marketplace. Yes, his product is completely illegal (for now), but should it really be this way? After drugs are decriminalized Kobayashi will be seen as a pioneer. :)
While he mentioned the business in question was a crime organization, what advice in any way told people to “bend the rules” or be unethical? I didn’t see any unethical (let alone criminal or law-ambivalent) advice above. And I didn’t see a single statement encouraging anyone into a life of crime.
SNA ~ lighten up. Get laid.
Great post, Donald. Good insights, wonderful examples and phrases that I shall use. The pirate example reminds me of another quote I use often that came from the early Texas Rangers – “One riot, one Ranger”. Keep up the “badassitude”. Thank you for reminding me how much it matters.
Reminds me of a book I really enjoyed reading: “Gang Leader for a Day”
this article screams “fake”.
wow so stupid
Donald is a badass.
You never know who you can learn something from.
It reminds me of the truism that the only narcissist greater than a criminal is a CEO.
I’m glad you took time to write this article. I’ve always held the belief that in order to build a successful company you must treat it like the dope game. I was fortunate to grow up on the wrong side of the tracks and learn business from an outsiders perspective. I was taught to destroy the competition, be smart, and always stay one step ahead. Contrary to popular belief business school isn’t the end all be all.
A very enjoyable read.
Thank you.
Great article
Well written, informative and entertaining.
That’s “Mr. Kobayahi” and I love the analogy! One of my favorite movies.
“Mr. Kobayashi”
When you say, “Influence rather than authority,” what do you mean? May you please give an example or two demonstrating the difference between influence and authority.
Hi, Nathan. That’s a good question. Basically, it means you don’t have to be the boss in order to get things done. If you have authority without influence, then you’re powerless. But if you have influence, then you have more of a say in what gets done and how.
Well done I have founded a startup and this resonates
Crime isnt hard as there is always a market for drugs,illegal firearms or stolen goods so this isnt anything new. How many successful crime bosses or drims live a long life or dont have to look over there shoulder. Try doing it legally then tell me a story. Been there done that. A life of crime sounds fun but its all bullshit.
another way toget cash out of the idiots pockets.start ups?what are you talking about in this age?as fr the social model that is suggested ,you can live alone in your shit.capitalism at its worst..not that there s a good aspect in it but hey ,you are total barbarian.i wish you die p[ainfull death by your friend kubayashi..and then he shoots himself and we live on to not remember stypid asses like you
My eyes hurt so badly after reading this. Do yourself a favour and use spell check.
Charming. Try being a decent human being. It’ll leave a better taste in your mouth.
This was a relaxing start to a Sunday afternoon full of work priorities. Re-instates some basics that we (at times) don’t pay attention to. Thanks Donald!
I like Kobayashi’s saying “Closed mouths don’t get fed” Very many people have not really understood just how dynamic networking marketing and how it is shaping global business.
true idea of nice lady
I always tought that Al Capone was one of the first marketing persons in the world due to his activities during the prohibition era.
Tufan Karaca
http://www.blog.tkaraca.com
Sounds like someone watched a bit too much ‘goodfellas’ and thought it would make an interesting blog
wonderful
This is a nice post.
I like the concept “badass”. Being a baddass developer really helps mostly in a saturated market.
We developers have to improve our skills mostly by doing daring projects :)
Thanks Donald
love the one liners :) ,makes lot o sense.
best idea in world
Interesting and thought provoking
As Kobayashi will know if you literally kill your competition and literally put a gun to your customers head it is very easy to be wise and all knowing. Admiring a criminal is pathetic. You talk about him as if he has honour, he is an arsehole who you think is a cool badass. your points are valid bt not sure you need to gloriy a criminal to do it.
such a wonderful article !! really enjoyed reading it, especially the quote by Jason Fried – “A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby.”
Great article, i liked it. Thanks.
Everything was good except for the part where you want to remove all the middle men and bring them on roll. This way you will have an army of employees, one need to stay focussed on core competency and leave rest to other professionals to get the job done. Cheers
Wow I love this article.
really a informative material
that’s all great, but anyone who knows of your association and friendship/mentor with him. You know have given them an idea that this influential person in your life is a criminal. I hope he did not use any money from his crimes to start his legitimate business, he may lose it all, thanks to your need for attention. You are a joker.
this is everything i believe in to the extent of what is good and what is bad.. yes… this reeks basic desire.
Sure, there are parallels. There are always parallels. Romanticizing with these sorts of crime, well I get it but I don’t like it. The difference between badasses like Fried and the person you’re talking about is the street of dead bodies between them and their customers.
I do disagree with the point about TripAdvisor vs. AirBnB, but that’s just me. I can understand the overall message though. Either way, I wish I could meet your mentor! Great read, thanks for the article.
Empty and false
A very enjoyable read. I too have known some Kobayashi personalities and had no trouble relating to your delightful yarn. Would be keen to hear of Kobayashi (Part 2) in another ‘parable’ if the writer was so inclined.
“There was a lawyer.”
Personally, I think the concept of being a bad ass is contrary to much of the other “wisdom” in the article. Being a leader in a meritocracy isn’t about being a badass, it’s about being recognized as the most able and having the ability to pull others along with you into performing better than they would on their own.
I really do agree with the concept of vertical integration and cutting out the middlemen. There are far too many sub-contract manager types around these days who add nothing to the value of a product or business beyond lining their own pockets. And the idea that a product should have a basic value is all too often lost. I like the proposition that creating something, giving it away for free, and then bolting advertising to it to generate revenue is fundamentally a losing proposition. As I’ve said before, there are value add activities, and there is necessary overhead to support the business. But when the overhead is all that there is, you have a house of cards destined to fall. Like the current social media as a data collection for targeted marketing finagle. If you don’t have a customer base of working class folks ready to spend the money they made building washing machines or sewing clothes on your products, then all the computerized marketing in the world won’t make a difference.
Considering the definition of badass was being “great at what you do,” I don’t think it meant “be a bully who throws your weight around,” at least that’s how I took it. Of course, that’s the problem with using colorful colloquialisms, they lack clear definition; “badass” wasn’t really the most useful term.
It is a sign of the times – and of the power of film and television – that Donald, GigaOm’s editors and many readers are star-struck by a man who makes his living via crimes that are far from victimless but are very much ‘victimful’ – make no mistake, the big money in organized crime creates many victims. It is almost a given that this man has committed serious acts of violence towards innocent and often vulnerable people. Donald’s naïveté is tragic. The editors of GigaOm are chasing our eyeballs. Shame upon us all.
I thought the same thing. The Hollywood romanticism of the “lovable rogue”. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to learn from a crook. Just take a good look at the lives and legacies of the most “successful” ones…
Why not learn from a crook or anyone? We’ve learned a lot from certainly dreadful people such as Hitler or Stalin, or from the more morally ambivalent such as Machiavelli. We learn not to do certain things, we learn how things work. We learn from bad examples. There’s a chasm between learning and admiring. And learning does not imply reckless use of what is learned – in fact part of learning is also learning the ethics and sense of responsibility in how to employ what we learn.
I don’t see this article as “star-struck” or as someone else put it “glorifying” crime. We don’t know anything – at all – about how this crime boss lives, what kind of person he is, and have no basis to admire him. The article only tells us lessons for success that are applicable in mainstream business (and, with no offense intended to the author, are much the same you’ll read in many other articles, even if simply phrased differently). I can’t see how anyone would reasonably walk away from this and say “wow, I wanna be a gangster!” This article gives no incentive towards that – in fact it doesn’t discuss any aspects of criminal organizations aside from business lessons learned whatsoever.
This article was a “good read”, and while I squirmed a little at the idea of a law-breaker being the example-setter (societal conditioning – when you think about it in the societal world, even Christ was a lawbreaker). There is no way to take a side and make the lessons black and white — as many “legit” leaders would teach you these same lessons — and even the lessons, while good, won’t hold true 100% of the time, nothing in the material world does. What we honor is that lessons came through somewhere, through someone and we were listening enough to learn something. If you examine everything – every thought – every aspect – everything that is ‘influenced by’ – every influence – ever detail – every side-effect…of whatever practice, business practice… point of view, etc… well… it becomes very difficult to “hold” an opinion. I have discovered that “For every thought, there is an equally valid counter-thought.” and you can quote me, but use my code name, “Star”. Think however inspires you. Enjoy life and spread that joy to others! (And that’s my opinion, LOL!) As the cook in the John Wayne movie, “The Cowboys” said, when asked if what he said was true, “Well if it ain’t, it aughta be!”
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, N. That’s definitely the spirit in which we intended this piece.
With friends like that; time will come that you be dinner.
Amazes me that some of these commentors fail to understand the dynamics of success in the business world and criminal world are essentially the same –
1) Know and Respect your customers – those to target and keep ( with services/products that are or have the potential to profitable), those to forget (those products/services and customers who will never yield a return on the effort)
2) Lobby and Cultivate relationships with competitors and civil servants / regulators
3) Successful organizations require a mix of personas which can cause friction (amongst themselves) and require leadership which guides the combination / organization through influence ( rather than command and control coercion).
The ‘walk through the willies’ and ‘tummy rubbing warm and fuzzy’ feeling commenters who miss these points are either never going to succedd in running a business, fail and blame others or never try to begin with….
Regarding “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense,” I can’t figure out, given the speculative bubbles that have burst time and again essentially since the start of even primitive capitalism, how we keep straying from that one. The occasional Twitters notwithstanding, it’s never made sense to me how people create non-profitable models with no clear, immediate path to sustainable profitability.
great read. I also love the Usual Suspects.
@SNA: Ethical and higher-ambition leadership is a raging trend whose basis has a surprisingly long history, long enough to end soon. Very good points on all sides, we live in a paradox. As soon as you commit to any particular course you become vulnerable. This article reminds me to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.