P41: Leaving Big Companies to Bet On Himself | Daniel Scrivner
Video & Audio of Our Call:
Background:
Daniel Scrivner is an entrepreneur and investor focused on building enduring companies and breakthrough products. Through his work at Mighty, he's invested in more than 100 early-stage technology companies and advised some of the world's most successful venture capital funds. He began his career as a designer focused on marketing, branding, and product design. He's worked with many of the world's most prestigious brands including Apple, Square, Nike, Disney, and Target. He served as Square's Head of Design for over 5 years and scaled their design team from 4 to 40 while he led the team.
In early 2019, he took over as Flow‘s Chief Executive Officer to help turn around the 10-year old company. Over the past 2 years he's taken a company that was contracting 5%+ month-over-month and helped bring it back to growth and profitability.
In 2020, Daniel launched the free weekly podcast Outliers. He was also accepted as a fellow in the very last cohort of New Zealand's Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF). As part of EHF, Daniel plans to spend 2-3 months each year in New Zealand with his family to explore, invest in, and advise early-stage companies in New Zealand's ecosystem.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [2:16] Investing and business are two things that Daniel finds very fascinating.
- [3:50] Daniel talks more about his company called Flow. They create a business productivity tool that focuses on task and project management.
- [8:14] Flow has some similarities with Asana but it has a lot of features that are better than other productivity tools like Trello and Clickup.
- [12:26] Daniel is an award-winning designer that has worked in big companies such as Apple and Square.
- [18:35] During his younger years, his parents would bring them to the library on weekends and spend many hours reading books.
- [22:53] Even though his parents were well-educated, they were not good with money. This experience molded him to be better at managing money and becoming financially free.
- [27:51] The environment that his parents created for him when he was growing up gave him the confidence to learn anything that he was interested in.
- [29:23] His initial interest in entrepreneurship began because of his uncle who owns a business.
- [35:33] When Daniel was in high school, he was more interested in working. He never liked the environment of being in school.
- [36:12] Taking up and learning HTML during a summer class led Daniel into the world of designing.
- [39:35] Daniel had to choose between going to college or becoming a freelance designer.
- [46:03] Apple offered him a job to cover for someone who took maternity leave. After six months, he was offered a full-time position at Apple.
- [49:39] After 3 years working at Apple, Daniel felt stagnated and unchallenged, which made him decide to leave and join Square.
- [56:51] Daniel joined Square as a Product Designer. During his time with Square, they were focused on creating the world’s best payment app.
- [1:06:36] After Square, Daniel made successful investments with other early-stage companies.
- [1:14:29] Daniel shares his final advice to people who want to start a business.
Fabulous 4 Questions:
- 📖📚 Favorite Books? Principles by Ray Dalio, Inner Engineering by Sadhguru
- 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Home & Office Timer with Clock
- 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Webflow & SEMrush
- 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Nothing but more time to think, reflect, and iterate
Key Point from the Interview:
- “Listen to other people, but then take it with a grain of salt and do what you think is right.”
Resources Mentioned:
- Email: [email protected]
- LinkedIn: Daniel Scrivner
- Twitter: @DanielScrivner
- DanielScrivner.com
- Daniel Scrivner Podcast – Outliers
- Getflow.com
- Blackletter.com
Secret Resources:
