Brian Scordato is an entrepreneur from NYC. After attending business school at UNC Chapel Hill, he built a Facebook-powered application called 3Degrees that enables users to search their friends’ friends and request introductions, creating meaningful relationships that previously occurred only through serendipity. Whether professional, romantic, or friendly, 3Degrees allows users to create trusted connections with people who share interests and friends.
2. Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success?
Definitely. I recently got my MBA from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, something that was integral to my development as an entrepreneur. I took a ton of e-ship and Venture Capital classes, so I’m pretty familiar with both sides of the table. Also, the network I built at UNC has put me in contact with a few early investors.
The debate of MBA vs. advanced technical degree for entrepreneurs is a good one. Technical people can start a company, and prove a concept, without much (or any) funding. This skill beats any skill you learn at business school by a mile. However, when you need to market, expand, raise money, create a business model, etc., that’s where b-school comes in handy.
Overall, I bet on people over education. If someone is smart and motivated, they’ll figure out a way to get something done regardless of their background.
3. What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea?
I had a good friend who had recently gotten out of a long-term relationship. She went on a few dating sites and had a terrible experience, with people misrepresenting who they were and what they wanted. I thought there had to be a way to bring trust to the equation – Most relationships that I saw starting outside of school or the office were initiated by an introduction from a mutual friend. However, this relied on a lot of serendipity. I wanted to leverage our years of social network usage to allow users to access the periphery of their social networks. The key was finding interesting people that you could meet through a trusted friend.
My biggest problem was that I didn’t really want to make a dating site. As I looked closer, I realized I didn’t have to. Almost all introductions start through a mutual friend – I got my first job through a recommendation from a friend, was introduced to friends of friends in Chapel Hill when I moved down south, etc. No one knows you better than your friends, and no one is more equipped to make a meaningful introduction than a friend who knows both parties.
4. As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?
Early on, I followed the crowd instead of what I was truly interested in. I’ve known deep down that I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I can remember, but I still went through the motions of getting a traditional finance background. I rationalized to myself that this was the “safe” move and that I could always start something later.
I’ve learned that the “safe” move is often wrong. I didn’t want to be in finance, and it showed. I performed poorly and essentially wasted 3 years of my life where I could have been working on 3Degrees or a different project.
5. What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?
I’m proud of our current product, and I’m proud of how we got here. I know that’s not a great answer, but if you had told me 8 months ago we would have the product we have now with only a small seed round funding it, I’d be thrilled. I guess specifically, I’m proud of the team I’ve assembled to build this thing.
I outsourced my project because, as I mentioned, I have no tech experience. I figured this would be a detached experience, where I gave someone a list of work, they delivered it to me a month later, and we went from there. However I’ve been lucky and got my developers, Highgroove and The Phuse, engaged and invested in the project. They’re often as passionate about it as I am, and it makes all the difference.
6. What is your overall career goal? What do you want to accomplish that you haven’t already?
I want to build a company that has a positive impact on peoples lives. There are a lot of ways to make money, and I certainly want to do that. However, I’d like it to be through a company that is thought of in a positive light.
Also, I want to write a book about the experience. I write a blog, and my favorite entry so far was on how I survived my first 6 months of being an entrepreneur. It’s a fun topic to write about, and can be very therapeutic.
7. Describe your typical day
I try and wake up early and get a solid amount of work in each morning. I’ve been told that at this phase I should focus 90% of energy on the product, and I try to do that. However, since I’m a solo founder, I’m kind of the judge, jury and executioner. I’ll go through the product, map out new functionality, go back and forth with my dev team, and look at user feedback and analytics each morning. I answer emails when I hit a wall. I’ll usually play some hoops or squash or something in the early evening, have some dinner, then do some creative work at night. My creative juices flow early in the morning and late at night, usually when there are no distractions.
8. What advice can you offer to your readers regarding career and small business?
I’ll pass along 4 pieces of advice that I’ve found to be extremely helpful throughout my life.
First – be honest with yourself. You’re probably good at most things, bad at a few, and spectacular at a few. Understand your strengths and weaknesses, exploit your strengths, and shy away from relying on the things you do about as well as everyone else. I know that sounds obvious, but adding a spectacular skill you’ve got to whatever you’re working on will make it unique, and make you irreplaceable. If you’re a terrific writer, and your producing a commodity, ingrain your writing into your commodity through a blog, or copy, or whatever. It’s no longer a commodity.
Second – maximize your productivity. If you work best in the mornings and evenings, like I do, then working a 9-5 schedule doesn’t really make sense. Going for a run or hitting golf balls is often more productive than sitting in front of the computer from 3-5. Changes in scenery often spur new ideas.
Third – this is straight from my Dad – 99% of everything is just showing up. If you’re an entrepreneur, this means pitching your product to anyone who will listen, going to conferences, meeting with people in the industry, etc. Show up, and the rest will often take care of itself.
Fourth – if you’re an entrepreneur, someone else has thought of your product. Whoever has the most energy will be able to execute and will win the space. Unless you’re Apple, there’s no need to go into “stealth mode” for 3 years then come out with a “perfect” product. I’m more a follower of the Lean Startup methodology. Get a min viable product on the market, get feedback, adapt.
9. What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?
I’m a sports nut. I played basketball in college and still play as often as I can. It’s a great way to blow off steam.
I get inspiration from funny places. I’m not smart enough to make anything that doesn’t already exist, so I need to tweak and adapt existing products. I focus on everyday problems, so I watch a ton of comedy. Comedy is based on people complaining about their everyday lives, so what better place to look for problems you can solve? Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I watch my 9th straight episode of Arrested Development.
10. What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?
I run RescueTime to keep track of how I spend my time online, it’s an absolute life saver. I get competitive with my friends and developers, who also use it. I love my Jambox as well, it’s great in golf carts. I use all the usual suspects, DropBox, Skype, Rdio, Adium, turntable.fm, and can’t get through the day without Flow, my task master. I’m always thinking of new products and ideas, and I can send them to my Flow account through my iPhone.
My developers and I use Pivotal Tracker as project management software- it’s great once you get the hang of it. Finally, the Netflix app allows me to watch season after season of Psych and Arrested Development – it’s the kryptonite to my RescueTime score.
11. Who would you like to see featured here and why?
Justin Kan, founder of Justin.TV – I really enjoyed his article in TechCrunch, and would like to hear more from him. Additionally, I love hearing Seth Godin’s opinion on entrepreneurship from a marketing standpoint. Some others – the Fitbit guys, Bonobos founder Andy Dunn, someone from Jawbone. I think it’d be interesting to hear from people at startups who make a physical product and compete against entrenched, iconic companies – and win.
12. Ways to Connect with Brian:
Company: www.3degreesnation.com
3Degrees Twitter: @3degreesnation
Brian Scordato Twitter: @Dato22
3Degrees Facebook: http://on.fb.me/zm72Tl
Email: Brian@3degreesnation.com
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Interview by Cesar Romero. Follow his personal blog here or via Twitter @romero866
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From: http://www.moomkin.com/3degress-brian-scordato/
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