Joe and Jenna discuss how Joymode is making it easier than ever to have meaningful experiences and highlight critical stages and lessons learned throughout his journey as a founder.
Insights from Joe
On Redefining Ownership with Joymode:
- “Experiences are what really make you happy. It’s not the garage full of things. It’s the moments and memories.”
- “We are ambitious and proud of what we are building. Sometimes not expanding feels like torture. The lesson learned over the last two years is that when local experiences expand too quickly the quality degrades. We are trying to help you create special moments with your friends and family. We can’t let your experiences fail. We have to get it right and have a rule that no issue should happen twice. We want to expand from a position of strength and confidence as opposed to just expanding to expand. We want Joymode to be around for decades. On that timeline, it doesn’t feel like we are moving slowly at all. We are fundamentally challenging the notion of ownership. It’s going to take time for that to come together.“
- “How is the talent in LA? Amazing. There are a lot of reasons we could fail as a company but it won’t be for lack of talent.”
On Life as a Founder:
- “Klout’s success was shaped by the fact that we never thought our goals were big. They sounded cool so we pursued them. I had never met an investor or anyone who worked at Google before we started. The company launched in my bedroom. The team and I were all young, raw, and really inspired by the idea. We didn’t realize how big it was.”
- “As a second time founder, it’s easy to overthink things and talk yourself out of them. Knowledge can quickly become paralyzing.”
- “No one really knows how things are going to work out for your company. They may have seen things from other companies but every situation has its own context and their past doesn’t matter for you. Take everything in. Synthesize advice, reactions, and thoughts. And then, as the CEO and founder, you have to make the decision. It is difficult, but it’s your job.”
- “You have to learn to not get too high and not get too low. The pendulum literally swings hour by hour. It goes from being the best idea ever to wondering what you were thinking. It’s really easy to fall into the mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. Be okay with the uncertainty and the ups and downs and know that your emotions are normal. As an entrepreneur, this is what you signed up for. If you are high fiving everyone at everything that goes right it is going to crush you when the first thing goes wrong. If you get crushed when things go wrong, you are never going to enjoy the moments when they go well. Find the right balance where you can live without going too high or too low.”
- “Even when things are spinning, you can still push forward. It’s never as bad as you think. All things pass and it will be okay.”
On Building Real Relationships:
- “I don’t ever think of myself as a networker. I don’t go to a lot of tech socials. I don’t feel like I’m an insider in Silicon Valley. I didn’t go to Stanford or work at Google. I went to high school in Las Vegas and never worked anywhere that anyone has ever heard of. Being an outsider and staying true to that – continuing to be myself – and being okay that I don’t need to be everyone’s friend or be Mr.Networker; People respond well to that. You can make a lot of really great friends by not trying to be everyone’s friend. Just be yourself.”
- “We couldn’t be more proud to work with so many special people. I would be 100% happy to hang out with all of the people that are involved in Joymode. I would be friends with them if we were all doing something totally different.”