Concentrating on the Right Things | Tommaso Di Bartolo

So takeaway here is 2 things. First of all, again, don't just start out. It's not just about I have my first startup. Before you start up, after moving out of this comfort zone, choose wisely where you start out, okay? And if you have challenges like to move here, okay, I actually was born in Sicily. Who knows where Sicily is? Sicily. Yeah, so in Europe, you don't have really many options, right? Either you go to a— I must be careful what I'm saying. Either you go to an organization which is also well organized but criminal-wise, right? Or you move out of Sicily, right? So that's what I have chosen, right? And you can actually make your steps, fight your ways, and move into your next step. So hashtag Silicon Valley, hashtag what it takes. Now, in 4 Startups, while I was preparing, I thought, okay, if I would be— what's your name? Einstein. Amazing name, man. You are the brain Einstein. So while I was preparing, I thought, okay, if I would be Einstein— no, no, if I would sit here right next to Einstein, What would I have, you know, what would have motivated me, what would have shaped Tommaso 15 years ago? What would I have loved to hear, right, about eventually what to focus on? Because, you know, let's face it, startup, right, you have to do tons of things and tons of things in parallel. So the question is always where the fuck do I focus on, right? Who has already had, you know, first— who has actually a first startup already? Okay, who has a second startup? Cool, man. Your first, what happened to the first one? On the side. On the side? Yeah. Okay, cool. So second experience. So, you know, I mean, you guys, you know, we have to do tons of things. So where do we have to concentrate on, right? And that's exactly what I call easy as is, the 6 things we have to concentrate on, right? So let's start out with point number 1, what we have to concentrate on. We have to concentrate, and everybody read it, the team, but I'm not talking about you need a team because what does it mean actually I need a team? What's your name? Adam. Adam. So what does it mean? I mean, how do you recruit a team or what? What is important for you in a team? Really the willpower to keep a project going. Awesome. Willpower. Somebody else? What's important for a team? Alignment of purpose. Awesome. Alignment of purpose, right? Somebody else? Motivation. Motivation. Exactly. So it's all these points. We always read, you need a team. Team, what does it mean, right? And to me, all the points you have mentioned are right. I put the title in there, it's the mindset, right? It's the startup mindset. Because startup is really a fight up to the moment that you'll make it, right? So, and it's, you know, a lot of ups and downs and are more downs than ups, right? And this is where you want to actually go hand in hand with your team. And the mindset is something that you better qualify before you decide who is your core team member, before you decide— who joins you on these trips. Now, who has had challenges already with team frictions, with team members? Okay, actually, you know, yeah, cool. That's the majority, right? So one thing that I advise here, and it happens all the time even nowadays, is really expectation settings, you know, aligning the expectations. That's something that I really can advise you guys and share with you. How do you do that? Highly. This is the most important thing is when you build a team, ask them, what are your expectations within the next 3, 6, and 9 months? And what happens if in 3, 6, 9 months it's not going to happen? The reason why at the beginning every person counts a lot, right? You have just one backend engineer, one designer, one mobile guy, right? Right? Does it sound familiar? Yes. Say yes if it sounds familiar. Yes. Hey guys, you have to wake up a bit. It's just Monday, 11 o'clock, right? So does it sound familiar? Yes. Okay, that's what I want to hear. So, and, and, and the, the, the expectation that you align with, with the people, you must align them before something happens. I give you another example, right? What often happens, often the time happens, you know, a founder comes into a team meeting and say, I have finally an investor meeting. Or I have a pitch, right? And you prepare for that in a meeting. Well, but what does it mean? What's your name? Tom. Tom? What do you expect if I say I have an investor meeting, Tom, and we are in a team? Probably that maybe your pitch will get better from it, but you probably won't get it. Okay, you're already very, very ripe, right? Because you take it step by step, but many people are not, right? If you go to an investor meeting, many people think, Maybe, you know, you are more the hustler and you talk with hacker, or you are the hacker, you talk with the hipster. You have different expectations and they say, hey, we're going to raise funds, for instance, right? But does it happen in a first meeting? It doesn't, right? So, go in and say, hey, you know, Tom, I'm going to an investor meeting. What is your expectation? And then you align the expectation, right? Does it make sense what I'm saying? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, cool. You get some big yelling. Okay, cool. Mindset. So startup mindset goes over education. Okay, that's, that's key for step number 1. What it takes, hashtag 1. So that's the time now for hashtagging it, right? So step number 2, innovation. Okay, innovation. So let me flip the— and reverse, reverse pitch what, what the innovation— why do I put up innovation? I mean, it's a It's like, yeah, Tommaso, it's obvious innovation. We read it again everywhere. I'm part of 2 accelerators where we have 250 startups coming from all over the world, right? And many business cases that we see, or many startups that we see, are very business case focused. So they focus more on the business case side, especially non-Silicon Valley company, right? If you do not innovate, the probability of you failing or not making it is very high, especially in this environment here, okay? So what's innovation? I put up a formula and I'm following myself always a formula, you know, even at Swag and I'm going to tell you then later on what Swag is. Even at Swag, it says, okay, the start of the innovation is always the curiosity. within a human being. Because curiosity is actually the thing, the engine that makes you move in one direction. Say, hey, while you are laying there, you know, wouldn't it be cool if we have televisions up there that, I don't know, push you 3D animation, right? So curiosity in terms of, you know, bringing you and taking you into the next level of thinking, right? Then out of the curiosity, what is the result of curiosity? Out of the curiosity, you get into a path of Creativity. So out of the curiosity, you create something mental, right? And that's where you start basically thinking out of the box and packaging something and say, what if I could do this and that? What if I could make it faster, smarter, easier, but create a better user experience, right? So this is like the first milestone of the innovation path. Then you take this creation that you have and you put it under lean processes, okay? Lean processes does not just mean Build something lean. But lean processes means also bring your product in a lean way to your customer. Bring your product in a lean way to your customer. And I will emphasize it later on because failing number 1 is actually people are awesome about bringing a cool product on the market or at least live and then they forget to bring it to the market or they're intimidated by the huge market that they're being confronted, right? So innovation, you know, create something, the lean process, and then what? Concentrate on a customer value that has a 10x or a multiple x. So concentrate on saying, okay, how can I make this experience for the customer awesome, right? And that's a hint of— I'm sorry.