[Music]
everybody there are no more new ideas
thank you good night so every time a
baby is born in Amsterdam a new tech
startup is created that’s a hundred and
forty eight thousand times per month
around the world a new technology
startup is created right just this
summer we had a dozen companies created
to rent scooters we have hundreds of
companies replicating the success of
uber we certainly have seen a thousand
young startups that are happy to send
but if there’s all of these ideas out
there right what are we supposed to do
it’s kind of like Shakespeare said 400
years ago right thus conscience does
make cowards of us all when a hundred
and forty seven thousand nine hundred
and ninety-nine other people are working
on a problem at exactly the same time
trying to solve this what are you
supposed to do right I mean you you
might as well pull that blanket up a
little bit tighter and go back to bed if
all the good ideas are taken how exactly
are we supposed to level up so I think
maybe the bard has something to teach us
about this right now somewhere in the
world act 2 of Hamlet has just begun in
fact if you look around the world there
are 50 productions of Hamlet happening
at exactly this moment and I mean
they’re all the same right the words are
the same
the story ends exactly the same I’d
technically speaking those two are
already dead and yet every one of those
productions
is different and new and brings some
kind of innovation to the story right
the words are all the same but there’s
always something new or strange or maybe
outside the conventional thinking and
there’s the rub so I’ve been lucky in my
career to start a bunch of different
companies I’ve sold a few I’ve shut some
down I think I started my first one when
I was 22 years old outside of the
lemonade stand stuff that we all do but
at 22 I started my first company and
then most of my companies since then
have been in the world of email and
messaging it was 1971 that Ron Tomlinson
sent the very first email the year I was
born
thank you very much he sent the very
first email and so that’s some pretty
old technology right but by internet
years
it’s practically prehistoric but it’s
not really where the story begins
Thanks
you see my first career I was actually
an actor I went to drama school as a
young man I got to act and teach and
direct all over the world and I did a
ton of Shakespeare and when you’ve got
the chance to speak the greatest words
ever written in the English language you
tend to lose sleep because every Hamlet
is compared to every Hamlet that’s come
before so how do all these guys do it
how do you invent something new when the
script is 400 years old the best
versions have already been done and
frankly there is nothing new to say
about the topic oh and 50 other people
are trying to do exactly the same thing
at exactly the same time there is only
not really
maybe so here’s the thing in the world
of the theater that God figured out man
right they figured out that there are
three simple things that you can do to
find a way to level up that story even
when everyone of us knows how it’s going
to end it’s this little secret trick
that I’ve used as an entrepreneur over
the last 25 years to find interesting
ideas to go play around him as an actor
turned entrepreneur I’ve been able to
use these three simple little things at
the origin of every great role and every
great idea and if you can embrace these
three little things you can become an
number one default to yes all right
we’ve probably heard that before
yes gives us a new opportunity yes opens
the door right no stops the action it
forces a restart yes is how we embrace
happenstance it’s this beautiful small
tiny little magical word that gives us
access to a new potential future as a
start-up founder everything I’ve ever
started began with a simple sometimes
brave yes next well we’re all defaulting
to yes there are all these people who
are telling you know right beating you
down saying that’s ridiculous this
happens all the time
no is easy right and so as we are
plugging away with our default to yes go
ahead and be fearless lean into it right
no are the guardrails on your path to
success when I was an actor I figured I
had to audition 40 times for every
single role that I ever got think about
that that’s
39 times somebody told me I sucked
before one person said and give that kid
a chance as a entrepreneur
you may go try to raise money from a
venture capitalist and you may tell your
story a hundred times to investors
before you actually figure out what your
business is or you find that one true
believer was that Steve Jobs quote about
this the people who are crazy enough to
change the world are the ones who will
maybe lastly there’s a way to make a
connection between your story and the
problem you’re trying to solve what do
you know that nobody else does what’s
that strange little piece of your
background that can influence the
problem that you’re trying to solve
maybe you grew up as a lobster farmer in
Maine how does that help the problem
that you’re trying to solve right now
where’s the one plus one equals nine
right how do you smash this stuff
together it’s the it’s the fusion
fission flibbertigibbet of innovation
right how do you get that together every
great idea it’s really two things
smashed together chocolate and peanut
butter awesome mobile phone GPS and
black cabs I met a guy who had a
business it was checker boards and
crackers awesome right think about that
checker boards crackers his his tagline
was beat them then eat them it’s pretty
good beat him the needle it’s funny
right yeah
all right so to place the thing this has
really been the key for me that’s Super
Mario mushroom that’s helped me level up
as an entrepreneur and I’ll share a
quick little story about how it all
plays out back in 2010 I’m sitting in my
office just hanging out and I get a
phone call from this guy he says he’s a
domain er
and he wants to go talk about startups
I’m thinking domain her what the heck is
a domain er some kind of creepy Internet
domain squatter stalker mafia guy right
I said yeah sure why not so we go meet
at a Starbucks I’m sitting in the window
and I’m waiting for this guy to show up
I’m in beautiful Boulder Colorado and
this guy pulls up in a Maserati in 2010
right crazy and he starts telling me
about his business this guy owns 50000
domain names and it’s all this stuff
like world’s best toaster comm top-ten
tooth and he makes all of his money
people go out searching for a toothbrush
they end up on his side it’s full of ads
they click something he makes a buck
clearly he was making a lot of bucks
this was working out well for him
now remember I’m an email guy a
messaging guy right so after about 30
minutes I’m like huh what happens when
somebody sends an email to one of these
50,000 Park domains of yours I swear
this is true the guy he leans across the
table looks me dead in the eye and he
says no that will never happen all right
I just bet you dude right so huh it kind
of stuck with me I get home later that
afternoon and I called a friend of mine
who’s a brand manager for a big consumer
product company and I said hey man how
many how many domains do you own so
three maybe 4,000 I asked him this
question so what happens when somebody
sends an email to one of these three or
four thousand domains that you have what
do you think you says Scott you’re crazy
nobody would ever do that it’s insane
so I roll it around a little bit I wrote
a little bit of software I called these
guys back two weeks later I said hey
take six domains each point the email at
this little application I wrote and just
humor me let’s see what happens right I
turn it on and that day we start getting
200,000 email bounces every single day
200,000 from 12 domains and that s when
I start putting the pieces together
email is 47 years old but you know when
you send an email to somebody and
there’s nobody there right you mistyped
it mailbox is full you get that crazy
bounce message back they are awful
horrible for normal human beings but we
all open it up everybody reads that
right Oh message bounced what do I do
and so we had two big questions what
would happen if we put a small
advertisement in that bounce and what
could we do with all that data by the
time I exited the company ten percent of
all Internet domains that have been
registered pointed their email at this
little piece of software we wrote and we
were able to turn 16 billion email
bounces every single month into newfound
money all happenstance the actor the
entrepreneur the business owner the
leader the innovator the student we’re
all struggling with exactly the same
problem
and while the medium is different the
act of creation is actually the same the
lock is opened with the same set of keys
now I’m not the first to come up with
this right there’s a lot this has been
happening for a long time if we think
about it
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were invented by
Hedy Lamarr 70 some years ago this very
week Hedy Lamarr
cardiac pulse monitoring was invented by
Zeppo Marx even Marlon Brando invented
some crazy way to tune a bongo drum and
so my story to you today is that there
is more opportunity out there if you
just kind of tweak the way you look at
the world because it’s absolutely true
there are no more new ideas except for
the key to leveling up as an
entrepreneur as a business owner as a
leader as a student the way to become
that unstoppable innovation machine is
really simple default to yes embrace the
happenstance be fearless don’t worry
about the nose the nose are the
guardrails on your path to success and
make a connection between your story and
this problem you’re trying to solve find
that place to smash things together
right the the fusion fission
flibbertigibbet of innovation my ask of
you today is that the next time you’re
struggling to find that next great idea
you feel constrained at the office in
the the problem space where you’re
locked in and don’t know where to go the
next time you feel pursued by the bear
stop say yes maybe ask him out for
coffee thank you
[Applause] [Music]
everybody there are no more new ideas
thank you good night so every time a
baby is born in Amsterdam a new tech
startup is created that’s a hundred and
forty eight thousand times per month
around the world a new technology
startup is created right just this
summer we had a dozen companies created
to rent scooters we have hundreds of
companies replicating the success of
uber we certainly have seen a thousand
young startups that are happy to send
but if there’s all of these ideas out
there right what are we supposed to do
it’s kind of like Shakespeare said 400
years ago right thus conscience does
make cowards of us all when a hundred
and forty seven thousand nine hundred
and ninety-nine other people are working
on a problem at exactly the same time
trying to solve this what are you
supposed to do right I mean you you
might as well pull that blanket up a
little bit tighter and go back to bed if
all the good ideas are taken how exactly
are we supposed to level up so I think
maybe the bard has something to teach us
about this right now somewhere in the
world act 2 of Hamlet has just begun in
fact if you look around the world there
are 50 productions of Hamlet happening
at exactly this moment and I mean
they’re all the same right the words are
the same
the story ends exactly the same I’d
technically speaking those two are
already dead and yet every one of those
productions
is different and new and brings some
kind of innovation to the story right
the words are all the same but there’s
always something new or strange or maybe
outside the conventional thinking and
there’s the rub so I’ve been lucky in my
career to start a bunch of different
companies I’ve sold a few I’ve shut some
down I think I started my first one when
I was 22 years old outside of the
lemonade stand stuff that we all do but
at 22 I started my first company and
then most of my companies since then
have been in the world of email and
messaging it was 1971 that Ron Tomlinson
sent the very first email the year I was
born
thank you very much he sent the very
first email and so that’s some pretty
old technology right but by internet
years
it’s practically prehistoric but it’s
not really where the story begins
Thanks
you see my first career I was actually
an actor I went to drama school as a
young man I got to act and teach and
direct all over the world and I did a
ton of Shakespeare and when you’ve got
the chance to speak the greatest words
ever written in the English language you
tend to lose sleep because every Hamlet
is compared to every Hamlet that’s come
before so how do all these guys do it
how do you invent something new when the
script is 400 years old the best
versions have already been done and
frankly there is nothing new to say
about the topic oh and 50 other people
are trying to do exactly the same thing
at exactly the same time there is only
not really
maybe so here’s the thing in the world
of the theater that God figured out man
right they figured out that there are
three simple things that you can do to
find a way to level up that story even
when everyone of us knows how it’s going
to end it’s this little secret trick
that I’ve used as an entrepreneur over
the last 25 years to find interesting
ideas to go play around him as an actor
turned entrepreneur I’ve been able to
use these three simple little things at
the origin of every great role and every
great idea and if you can embrace these
three little things you can become an
number one default to yes all right
we’ve probably heard that before
yes gives us a new opportunity yes opens
the door right no stops the action it
forces a restart yes is how we embrace
happenstance it’s this beautiful small
tiny little magical word that gives us
access to a new potential future as a
start-up founder everything I’ve ever
started began with a simple sometimes
brave yes next well we’re all defaulting
to yes there are all these people who
are telling you know right beating you
down saying that’s ridiculous this
happens all the time
no is easy right and so as we are
plugging away with our default to yes go
ahead and be fearless lean into it right
no are the guardrails on your path to
success when I was an actor I figured I
had to audition 40 times for every
single role that I ever got think about
that that’s
39 times somebody told me I sucked
before one person said and give that kid
a chance as a entrepreneur
you may go try to raise money from a
venture capitalist and you may tell your
story a hundred times to investors
before you actually figure out what your
business is or you find that one true
believer was that Steve Jobs quote about
this the people who are crazy enough to
change the world are the ones who will
maybe lastly there’s a way to make a
connection between your story and the
problem you’re trying to solve what do
you know that nobody else does what’s
that strange little piece of your
background that can influence the
problem that you’re trying to solve
maybe you grew up as a lobster farmer in
Maine how does that help the problem
that you’re trying to solve right now
where’s the one plus one equals nine
right how do you smash this stuff
together it’s the it’s the fusion
fission flibbertigibbet of innovation
right how do you get that together every
great idea it’s really two things
smashed together chocolate and peanut
butter awesome mobile phone GPS and
black cabs I met a guy who had a
business it was checker boards and
crackers awesome right think about that
checker boards crackers his his tagline
was beat them then eat them it’s pretty
good beat him the needle it’s funny
right yeah
all right so to place the thing this has
really been the key for me that’s Super
Mario mushroom that’s helped me level up
as an entrepreneur and I’ll share a
quick little story about how it all
plays out back in 2010 I’m sitting in my
office just hanging out and I get a
phone call from this guy he says he’s a
domain er
and he wants to go talk about startups
I’m thinking domain her what the heck is
a domain er some kind of creepy Internet
domain squatter stalker mafia guy right
I said yeah sure why not so we go meet
at a Starbucks I’m sitting in the window
and I’m waiting for this guy to show up
I’m in beautiful Boulder Colorado and
this guy pulls up in a Maserati in 2010
right crazy and he starts telling me
about his business this guy owns 50000
domain names and it’s all this stuff
like world’s best toaster comm top-ten
tooth and he makes all of his money
people go out searching for a toothbrush
they end up on his side it’s full of ads
they click something he makes a buck
clearly he was making a lot of bucks
this was working out well for him
now remember I’m an email guy a
messaging guy right so after about 30
minutes I’m like huh what happens when
somebody sends an email to one of these
50,000 Park domains of yours I swear
this is true the guy he leans across the
table looks me dead in the eye and he
says no that will never happen all right
I just bet you dude right so huh it kind
of stuck with me I get home later that
afternoon and I called a friend of mine
who’s a brand manager for a big consumer
product company and I said hey man how
many how many domains do you own so
three maybe 4,000 I asked him this
question so what happens when somebody
sends an email to one of these three or
four thousand domains that you have what
do you think you says Scott you’re crazy
nobody would ever do that it’s insane
so I roll it around a little bit I wrote
a little bit of software I called these
guys back two weeks later I said hey
take six domains each point the email at
this little application I wrote and just
humor me let’s see what happens right I
turn it on and that day we start getting
200,000 email bounces every single day
200,000 from 12 domains and that s when
I start putting the pieces together
email is 47 years old but you know when
you send an email to somebody and
there’s nobody there right you mistyped
it mailbox is full you get that crazy
bounce message back they are awful
horrible for normal human beings but we
all open it up everybody reads that
right Oh message bounced what do I do
and so we had two big questions what
would happen if we put a small
advertisement in that bounce and what
could we do with all that data by the
time I exited the company ten percent of
all Internet domains that have been
registered pointed their email at this
little piece of software we wrote and we
were able to turn 16 billion email
bounces every single month into newfound
money all happenstance the actor the
entrepreneur the business owner the
leader the innovator the student we’re
all struggling with exactly the same
problem
and while the medium is different the
act of creation is actually the same the
lock is opened with the same set of keys
now I’m not the first to come up with
this right there’s a lot this has been
happening for a long time if we think
about it
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were invented by
Hedy Lamarr 70 some years ago this very
week Hedy Lamarr
cardiac pulse monitoring was invented by
Zeppo Marx even Marlon Brando invented
some crazy way to tune a bongo drum and
so my story to you today is that there
is more opportunity out there if you
just kind of tweak the way you look at
the world because it’s absolutely true
there are no more new ideas except for
the key to leveling up as an
entrepreneur as a business owner as a
leader as a student the way to become
that unstoppable innovation machine is
really simple default to yes embrace the
happenstance be fearless don’t worry
about the nose the nose are the
guardrails on your path to success and
make a connection between your story and
this problem you’re trying to solve find
that place to smash things together
right the the fusion fission
flibbertigibbet of innovation my ask of
you today is that the next time you’re
struggling to find that next great idea
you feel constrained at the office in
the the problem space where you’re
locked in and don’t know where to go the
next time you feel pursued by the bear
stop say yes maybe ask him out for
coffee thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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