Andrew Angus recently sat down with the wonderful entrepreneur website IdeaMensch to chat about business plans and current projects. Seems pretty standard right? However, the interview also goes on to reveal what’s on his playlist, what companies and products he loves, as well as the worst job he has ever had. Check out an excerpt from the interview below :
How do you bring ideas to life?
Ideas spend a long time as ideas. I play with them myself and think about them at the computer, when I’m hiking, at yoga (which I know I’m not supposed to do), and sleeping. I roll them around and look at them from different angles. When I’m happy with how things look, I start to get input from others and move quickly from idea to action. People around me think I move very quickly from idea to implementation because once I talk about the idea with them, it becomes real quickly, but the idea has been building in my head for a long time.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Collaborative consumption, or the ability to not own anything, excites me.
In 2012, 30% of my company’s revenue came from outbound sales in San Francisco; moving to San Francisco was a rush decision. I went for the first time in October and moved there for six months just a month later. I could only do this because I don’t own a home and could easily get a home in another location using Airbnb. People are focused on home ownership, but it can tie you down. Richard Florida’s research shows unemployment is higher in areas with high home ownership because people can’t move when the economy changes. I love not owning things so I can act on opportunities. If I hadn’t moved so fast and increased revenue by 30%, my company might not exist today.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
I worked for a manufacturing company that hired the same type of people with very similar backgrounds. The place was a mess because of it. You can’t build a great team with identical people who share the same outlook.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Dig deep into the metrics and find out how you make money; do fewer of the things that don’t help your bottom line. This helps you maintain focus on the things that matter to the success of the business. When you have that down, you can then hope to focus on things that are not the business.
To read the rest of the interview, click here.
