NJ Tech Meetup 46 - Joe Meyer, CEO HopStop, Lessons Learned Deck by Joe Meyer See www.njtechmeetup.com for all future events and speakers.

1. The Ups & Downs of Leading a Startup
(through the Finish Line)
Joe Meyer
joejmeyer@gmail.com

2. “Choose a job that you like, and you will never
have to work a day in your life.”
- Confucius -

3. “Success is walking from failure to failure
with no loss of enthusiasm.”
- Winston Churchill -

4. Entrepreneurship isn’t a “career path”
• Post-MBA
– PwC: Emerging Co. Services (needed to payoff loans; learn ropes)
– eRide: 1st entrepreneurial “failure” (or great learning experience?)
– eBay: Best career decision (no longer a ‘failed .com’ entrepreneur)
– Onset Ventures: EIR (“failure” or a stepping stone?)
– Quigo (acquired by AOL): 1st start-up “win”
– HopStop (acquired by Apple): 2nd start-up “win”
– What’s next? - likely another start-up (it’s a disease )

5. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
- Vince Lombardi -

6. “When you cease to dream you cease to live.”
- Malcolm Forbes -

7. Other start-up accomplishments
• 2012: Crain’s “Entrepreneur of the Year”
• 2014: #9 on Business Insider's 2013 "Silicon Alley 100”
• Board Roles
– Adtuitive (acquired by Etsy)
– Kalexo (acquired by Autodesk)
– Belief Networks (acquired by Benefit Focus)
– Spongecell, Verdict is Still Out
– Snooth: Verdict is Still Out

8. My
Greatest
Successes

9. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five
minutes to ruin it. If you think about
that, you’ll do things differently.”
- Warren Buffett -

10. “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your
life like most people won’t so you can spend
the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
- Warren G. Tracy’s student -
The Common Misconception

11. The nature of being an entrepreneur means that you fully embrace
ambiguity and are comfortable with being challenged regularly.
Choosing this career path is completely irrational because the odds
of succeeding are dismal, but most succeed because of their
persistence, unwavering belief, and laser focus on delivering.
Starting a company is a riveting roller coaster of emotions with
tremendous highs, and at times, difficult lows
- Forbes (5/2/13) -
The (Entrepreneurial) Reality

12. “Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do.”
- Mark Twain -
Top Quotes Every Entrepreneur Should Live By

13. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living
someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma –
which is living with the results of other people’s
thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most
important, have the courage to follow your heart
and intuition. Everything else is secondary.”
- Steve Jobs -

14. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to
failure is trying to please everybody.”
- Bill Cosby -

15. “Whatever the mind can conceive and
believe, the mind can achieve.”
- Napoleon Hill -

16. “Keep away from people who try to belittle
your ambitions. Small people always do
that, but the really great make you feel that
you, too, can become great.”
- Mark Twain -

17. “I think if you do something and it turns out pretty
good, then you should go do something else
wonderful, not dwell on it for too long.
Just figure out what’s next.”
- Steve Jobs -

18. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more
important to heed the lessons of failure.”
- Bill Gates -

19. Building a company is like writing a novel
“I tell them you learn to write the same way
you learn to play golf. You do it, and keep
doing it until you get it right. A lot of people
think something mystical happens to you, that
maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But
writing isn’t divinely inspired - it’s hard work.”
- Tom Clancy -

20. “Genius is 1% inspiration,
and 99% perspiration.”
- Thomas Edison -

21. “The price of success is hard work, dedication
to the job at hand, and the determination that
whether we win or lose, we have applied the
best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
- Vince Lombardi -

22. “Your most unhappy customers are your
greatest source of learning.”
- Bill Gates -

23. Success vs. Happiness
“Success is the fame; happiness is the rise”
“Success is the race; happiness is the finish line”
“Success is pursuing your dreams;
happiness is living your dreams”
“Success is all the money in the world;
happiness is needing none of it”

24. “Success is not the key to happiness.
Happiness is the key to success. If you love
what you are doing, you will be successful.”
- Albert Schweitzer -

25. “Luck is the residue of hard work”
- Anonymous (claimed by Joe Meyer :)-