How Did I Start Interviewing People? And Other Frequently Asked Questions About Mixergy.

I got a few interesting questions about my work at Mixergy from Kareem Mayan (the digital nomad) and Kurt Daradics (co-founder of Freedom Speaks). Thought you might want to see the answers, so I’m posting them publicly.

Why did you start interviewing people?

I wanted the world to meet and learn from the people I was getting to know.

When I organized events for internet startups, I kept meeting interesting people who were working on innovative projects. I couldn’t help thinking that others would want to learn from them. So I finally started interviewing them and posting the interviews on the site.

How did you start interviewing?

Very simply. If you listen to this early early interview with William Quigley, an investor at Clearstone, you can see that the audio is okay, but not great. That’s because I took a tape recorder to his office and simply put it on his coffee table as I asked him how decided which startups to invest in.

I also used Skype to record interviews by phone, but the idea was to just keep it simple and focused on how the people I met did their jobs.

Why did you stick with it to make it what it is today?

After I recorded an interview with Rosalind Resnick, I called Olivia (my fiance) and said, “this is what I was meant to do.” The story of how Rosalind bootstrapped her company and took it public on NASDAQ was inspiring.

Ever since I was a kid, I read biographies of successful people and businesses. They gave me ideas and fired me up with a sense of possibilities. I wanted to expose others to those feelings. Recording stories like Rosalind gave me a chance to do that.

What kind of tribe are you trying to create?

I want the guy who tried selling candy in elementary school because he loved the idea of starting a business. I want the girl who read about Warren Buffett while her friends couldn’t get enough Britney Spears. I want the people who are trying to leave a legacy, not just pay the rent. I want the ones who are willing to put in the time. I want the ones who think business is heroic.

I want the ones who can’t sit on the sidelines. When they watch a baseball game, in the back of their heads they dream of being called on the field. When they have an idea for a business, they don’t spend years planning — they find a way to launch. When they see that something is missing in my work on mixergy, they jump in and tell me.

What kind of technology do you use to record your interviews?

I keep looking for faster ways to do it, but right now, it’s all about ScreenFlow and Skype for me. You can watch me edit in this video. Or, if you want to see a more detailed description, here’s one that I created for an outsourcing company that I hope will soon take over my editing work.

What benefit do you want people to get from Mixergy?

I want them to get a real understanding of what it takes to build a business so they could build their own companies.

I want them to say things like: “I didn’t get my company caught up in stealth mode because of something I heard on Mixergy.” Or, “I got a huge realization about how to improve my product because of something I heard on Mixergy.” Or, “I learned how to test my business idea because of something I heard on Mixergy.” Or, “I learned to tough out the hard times because of something I heard on Mixergy.”

Where do you want to end up?

I want to create a place where ambitious upstarts can learn from experienced businesspeople.

One of my favorite professors at NYU spent most of his time working on his company, and taught only two hours a week. What he taught us was much more meaningful and useful than the other professors because it was grounded in his real-world experiences — not based on a textbook. I want Mixergy to be a place where that happens more often.

When people talk about Mixergy what do you want them to say?

“Mixergy wouldn’t be what it is without me.”

Your turn

Got any questions about Mixergy? Post them in the comments or send me an email.