In Chapter 16 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "How Do You Build Trusting Relationships?" Rubin discusses why the first several seconds are critical when meeting someone and how he presents himself to create a lasting good impression. Direct eye contact and an honest approach help Rubin lay a strong foundation whereupon he may build trust with someone over time.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How do you build trusting relationships?
Slava Rubin: Well, the interesting thing is that they say that trust is established within the first seven seconds of interacting with somebody and then it takes at least thirty days to be able to change what that person perceived with the first seven seconds. Which is like an amazing thing. I try to do a lot of eye contact. A lot of directness. A lot of honesty. After that, it`s really hard to control what that person is going to think, but a lot of lead by example and try not to fake things or lie about stuff.
In Chapter 15 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, Music for Myeloma cancer charity founder Slava Rubin answers "How Has Your Experience With Indiegogo Strengthened Your Philanthropic Efforts Building Your Charity Music Against Myeloma?" Rubin shares how lessons learned as an entrepreneur starting IndieGoGo have helped overcome challenge building his non-profit. Specifically, his entrepreneurial experience allows him to deal with teammates, partners, and crisis management.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How has your experience with Indiegogo strengthened your philanthropic efforts, building your charity Music Against Myeloma?
Slava Rubin: When I first started Music Again Myeloma, which goes back probably four or five years, I had no idea what I was doing. I definitely not an entrepreneur, I was working in the Fortune 500 world as a strategy consultant. It definitely was a big initiative to start Music Against Myeloma, it took a lot of risk, but I really didn't have an idea about how to turn nothing into something and having the experience with Music Against Myeloma helped me start Indiegogo but now all my experience with Indiegogo really gives me an understanding of how to deal with major issues, how to deal with teammates and partners and really what`s an important crisis versus what`s a small crisis. We actually had a huge crisis last year. We use to go to The Cutting Room, which was a really cool venue in the Flatiron district in Manhattan and literally one month before the show they were like, ``Oh, by the way we`re closing down.`` So we had to totally find a new venue. So that’s a big crisis. It ended up working out okay and we had a really great event last year, but that`s a fairly big crisis. If I didn't have some of the experience from Indiegogo from previous years, I might have folded up shop and said it wasn't going to happen. But we worked through it, and I say we because I had a good team working with me, and it worked out okay.
In Chapter 14 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur and IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "What Were the Milestones in the Seven Years You Worked at Diamond Consulting and What Led You to Pursue Other Opportunities?" Rubin reflects on the milestones achieved through his seven years working with Diamond Management and Technology Consultants. Rubin segments his progress into incremental steps, from doing analyst work to leading work to leading a team and then selling the work. Rubin discusses approaches to managing stress and overcoming challenge as well as building transferable skills useful in entrepreneurial pursuits.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What were the milestones in the seven years you worked at Diamond Consulting and what lead you to pursue other opportunities?
Slava Rubin: So, there`s really those various steps of consulting, if you want to generalize. There`s being able to do the work, being able to lead the work, lead the team, sell the work. It took me a couple of years to graduate from each one of those steps and it really was an amazing transition. As if I was at a new company or I had a new job. To be able to crank out models or presentations use to be really, really stressful, and they were hard.
Erik Michielsen: How did you manage that stress?
Slava Rubin: Again, it goes back to my childhood, understanding what`s a big deal and what`s a small deal. If you can make it through those other things what`s the big deal with a client yelling a little bit, your partner yelling at you a little bit? You have to be able to manage them. If you show them this is your plan, this is how you`re going to execute it, they have to believe in you and you have to execute. But, as soon as I knew how to do those, I wanted to do the new step, and the new step was able to lead that work by myself or a section. After I did that it was about leading a team and interacting with a client. There is nothing more valuable than getting the growth of leading a team, interaction with the client, having to manage that situation, knowing what is big fire, what is a small fire. This is when we`re getting into real entrepreneurial work, being able to manage those situations, so there definitely a lot of learning that happens.
In Chapter 13 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo co-founder and UPenn Wharton grad Slava Rubin answers "What Made You Choose Management and Technology Consulting as Your First Job Out of College?" Rubin shares how, upon graduating The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, he took a management consulting job with Diamond Management and Technology Consultants. Rubin highlights the influences shaping his decision to pursue consulting, how the work then contributed to his overall education, and finally why it was an essential development step before becoming an entrepreneur and co-founding IndieGoGo.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What made you choose management and technology consulting as your first job out of college?
Slava Rubin: I really see there being an extensive amount of education that one needs just to ready for their roles in life, whatever that role is. My role is that I really wanted to be an entrepreneur but I thought that my layers of education would be, one I would go college for my academic education. I studied abroad for my kind of global and international education and I still didn`t feel like I had a corporate education. So, I felt like consulting was the best opportunity for a corporate education to understand how Fortune 500 companies operate, their inner workings, how you can maneuver within them and how decisions are made. And realistically in a consulting job you get to dip and dive between different companies, so you really get a varied exposure, which is exactly why I became a consultant. So, really it`s extension of my education to be an entrepreneur.
In Chapter 11 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, University of Pennsylvania graduate Slava Rubin answers "What Were Your Career Ambitions Entering the University of Pennsylvania and How Did They Change By the Time You Graduated?" Rubin highlights how his career goals changed while attending the undergraduate Wharton School business program. While studying abroad in Belgium, Rubin rethinks his values and finds he is less interested in Wall Street banking work. Leaving behind his high school ambition to be the next "Wall Street" Gordon Gekko Michael Douglas character, Rubin instead secures a management consulting job and begins his career.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What were your career ambitions entering The University of Pennsylvania and how did that change by the time you graduated?
Slava Rubin: When I was applying to colleges I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to be pretty rich, pretty powerful. I wanted to be a banker and I kind of wanted to be in that Wall Street role, you know ``Wall Street`` the movie with Michael Douglas. And as I went to Penn I was surround, I think, by a lot of those characters. I actually went to Wharton Undergrad, which is a lot of cutthroat individuals and I actually figured out that I wasn't as cutthroat and desiring the money and the power as the people around me, which was kind of surprising. That, along with my Belgium experience just taught me maybe I don’t want to be doing exactly what all these other people want to be doing. Which, don`t get me wrong I didn't turn into a quote in quote a liberal arts fluffy job person, I became a strategy consultant, which is not so far away from being a banker. It was pretty important to figure out what my values were and I think college, I learned a lot about that.
In Chapter 8 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Slava Rubin answers "What Keeps You So Positive and Optimistic in Your Entrepreneurial Pursuits?" Rubin shares how childhood struggles and formative experiences have taught him to keep a balance and positive attitude. Rubin shares how positive energy and attitude - from the lowest level to highest level of the team - lower stress levels and raise team performance.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What keeps you so positive and optimistic in your entrepreneurial pursuits?
Slava Rubin: I think in any of my entrepreneurial pursuits or really any other part of my life, I think that I've been through a few struggles when I was younger, but I see no reason to add additional negativity or additional stress to a situation. I don't see the positive value in that and I think that often people react to the way people are around them and I try to maintain a balance and a positive attitude so they can feel comforted maybe or okay with the situations around them.
I mean I sometimes see crisis right in front of me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go off the deep end. It`s not going to help anybody. A lot of the situations I'm in I try to, sometime on purpose sometimes I`m forced into it, I act as the leader or act as the motivator and I think a positive attitude really helps. Even if you're not the leader, even if you`re the lowest level person on the team, a positive attitude can really help the stress level of the group and trying to really deliver on that really important thing.
In Chapter 7 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur and IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "What Has Been Most Surprising About the Peer Support You Have Received Since Making the Transition to Become an Entrepreneur?" Rubin highlights the different ways both entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs have supported him in his transition from corporate management consultant to Internet startup IndieGoGo co-founder. Rubin finds non-entrepreneurs, including those working corporate jobs, can provide encouragement while not necessarily sharing the same desire to start a company and assume the risk associated with starting a business.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What has been most surprising about the peer support you`ve received since making the transition to become an entrepreneur?
Slava Rubin: There is definitely a respect between entrepreneurs and there is definitely something about people who are not entrepreneurs who respect entrepreneurial spirit. That doesn`t mean that they too want to be entrepreneurs, but they respect it. It takes a lot of guts and it takes a lot of risk to go away from the norm. People know the white picket fence, the corporate job, the insurance salesman, all that good stuff and having all of the perfect amenities. But to be able risk some of those things and to try to create something on your own or with a team, of course, is challenging and I would say respect is a pretty consistent word.
In Chapter 4 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, Slava Rubin answers "Based on Your Experiences as an Entrepreneur, as Someone Involved in Film and Someone Involved in Philanthropy, What are the Most Important Elements When Making a Good Pitch for Financing?" Rubin shares fundraising pitch lessons learned from his work financing films, starting a charitable foundation, and securing startup investors. Rubin's recipe begins by being honest and passionate and continues with being clear and concise, taking no more than 3-5 minutes to communicate the idea. Regardless of whether it is a movie, a business venture, or a philanthropy, Rubin advises need to present a team with an ability to execute and plan to apply financing to specific milestones and accomplishments.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcription:
Erik Michielsen: So based on your experience in the film world, the entrepreneurial field, and the philanthropic world, raising money, what is your advice to others on the most important elements to include when making a pitch?
Slava Rubin: I think the most important thing is to really be honest about what your pitch is and you can`t really fake a good pitch. You have to be passionate about what you`re trying to offer and you have to also make it real. Just because you can say real quickly three sentences doesn't make it a good pitch. The idea has to be clear and you have to be able to say it within five minutes, hopefully within three minutes, but definitely within five. As soon as you start stumbling explaining away what your idea is, it`s because you don`t understand the idea yourself. So it`s really important to make the idea feel real, be passionate about the idea, because someone who wants to invest in an idea, whether it`s philanthropy, a movie or a venture, they`re investing for the long term. You can`t fake passion, you can fake a pitch, but people can read through people faking passion, so you have to be realistic. Plus, the ability to execute has to be there, on your team, in your partners, in your [pause] whoever it is you`re lining up with, it has to be known that the money will go toward accomplishing something as opposed to pie in the sky visions.
In Chapter 3 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, media platform IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "How Are Film Distribution Changes, Including Internet Streaming, Impacting What Defines Profitability in Filmmaking?" Rubin shares how film distribution model innovations, including online streaming, are building more direct audience connections and finding economic efficiency cutting out middlemen. Rubin references this relevance across iTunes, Hulu, Netflix and the assorted models from free, pay-per-view, video-on-demand, and subscription connecting content to audience.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How are film distribution changes, including internet streaming, impacting what defines profitability in filmmaking?
Slava Rubin: I think the way the film, video, TV, media world on the internet would evolve is still yet to be known. I think that Netflix is doing some amazing things, iTunes is doing some amazing things, Hulu, we`re getting TV everywhere. But I think it’` going to expand and evolve similarly to the way TV today is, there are different flavors. There is free TV, there’s commercial TV, there’s PPV TV, there are pay channels. I think all of those opportunities will find themselves also on the internet. When the internet and TV converge that will happen more and more, but I think profitability is tricky. I think one of the key factors [pause] that slowly all those middle men are getting torn away.
So, it`s all able creating your own brand, creating your own following and perpetuating by profiting as much as possible by not giving away all your margin to all those middle men and all those aggregators. You asked me specifically about streaming but I think this can be true for any of the various forms of distribution, where really it`s evolving and it`s more of a direct connection with your audience.
In Chapter 2 of 16 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, IndieGoGo co-founder Slava Rubin answers "How is Your Company Indiegogo Helping Filmmakers Complete Film Festival Caliber Projects, such as the Sundance Grand Jury Prize Documentary Feature "We Live in Public", Presented in 2009"? Rubin shares how Sundance award-winning films "Dig!" and "We Live in Public" are two of many efforts utilizing IndieGoGo to connect content to audience. Rubin shares the democratic vision behind building the fundraising and promotion tools for media makers to complete projects and why Robert Redford showed up to speak at the company's one-year anniversary celebration at Sundance 2009.
Slava Rubin is CEO and co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Indiegogo empowers anyone, anywhere, anytime to raise funds for any idea—creative, cause-related or entrepreneurial. Prior to Indiegogo, Rubin worked as a management consultant. He earned his BSE degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How has your company, Indiegogo, helping filmmakers complete film festival caliber projects, such as the Sundance Grand Jury Prize documentary feature ``We Live in Public``, presented in 2009?
Slava Rubin: We were pretty excited to have ``We Live in Public`` we also had ``Dig`` in 2009 we also had other award winners at SXSW the previous year as well. They won the awards after they were associated with Indiegogo. Some of them use it for raising money, some of them have been using for just promotion. It`s greats to have these blue chip projects associated with Indiegogo, but really it`s about having anybody using Indiegogo, whether you’re a Hollywood studio or whether you`re one of the top independent producers, like we have some of them here in New York, or whether you`re a high school trying to make your first film. It`s a democratic process and it should be because if you can cultivate your audience, you deserve to get it made. The idea is that never before in life have you been able to be so connected to your audience. It use to be that there were all these middle men, and the middle men really they took away part of the profit, but they also took away control and they also separated you from your audience, and at the end of the day the most powerful thing is content connecting with audience. On indiegogo, that`s exactly what you can do and you can mobilize that fan base, that audience, that collective for different action. That action could be to do something, to demand something or to contribute money and Indiegogo allows you to do any of those things.
Erik Michielsen: So, last year at the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford can to one of your events and spoke specifically about on what you were doing. What have your learned from that experience and how has that propelled your vision?
Slava Rubin: Well, it was definitely a big surprise, I can`t say it was all planned to have the founder of Sundance, Robert Redford, to show up, but you know we just started Indiegogo actually just less than two years ago and on our one year anniversary he was able to come by. I think it was just a testament to us having good projects associated with our party, us having a pretty innovative spirit, and trying to advance the film and media community forward using some digital tools.
Since 2009, Capture Your Flag has interviewed a cohort of rising leaders who share lessons from their journeys to help others plan, pursue and achieve life and career aspirations. The resulting 3000+ Near Peer Video Library can be licensed for commercial use.
