Slava Rubin on Why Lawyers are Fundamental to Running a Business

In Chapter 11 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Has Working With Lawyers Taught You About Business?" Starting a company opens Rubin's eyes to how fundamental lawyers are to starting and growing a business. He sees lawyers as another example of subject matter experts that help executive management teams make decisions on running the business. From dealing with intellectual property to fraud to fighting lawsuits, Rubin gets an accelerated education on ways lawyers protect and serve business owner interests. 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: What has working with lawyers taught you about business?

Slava Rubin: I had no idea how much lawyers are actually just part of the business process. I always thought lawyers need to be like the worst case scenario, that something has gone really bad. But what’s interesting is that maybe it’s the type of platform we have, so we have really equal opportunity, and we get ourselves into really interesting situations to the platform where people create their campaigns on our platform. Lawyers are just another subject matter expert that helps to navigate a decision, and knowing more facts and knowing more information helps to navigate the decision, so it’s really interesting.

Erik Michielsen: How do you interface with lawyers in your work? Slava Rubin: We have to talk to lawyers in all kinds of different areas, whether it’s setting up international entities, whether it’s dealing with fraud cases, where you have to deal with,customer issues, whether it’s IP or other digital media concerns. We actually dealt with a lawsuit where we were sued once and we were able to win, and, yeah, it was really interesting.

Slava Rubin on Recruiting Smarter to Hire and Retain Top Talent

In Chapter 12 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Problems Are You Trying to Solve to Grow Your Business?" Rubin notes how product market fit is no longer a problem - the market has been established and the product has been validated. As his company has grown from 15 to 60 employees, Rubin faces new challenges with talent acquisition and employee retention. From honing strategic hiring practices to improving the Indiegogo talent development cycle, Rubin and his team work to put the processes in place to hire, motivate and retain top talent. 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.

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Erik Michielsen: What problems are you trying to solve to grow your business?

Slava Rubin: I think that earlier, when we’ve met, probably one of the first times that we met, one of the first things to solve was product market fit, so creating the product, identifying the market, and figuring out how those two things connected. And because we’ve had a lot of usage of Indiegogo, we’re now distributing millions of dollars every week, I think it’s fair to say that that has been solved. That doesn’t mean we can’t improve, it’s just it’s something that has been replicatable, and scalable, and something that’s there. I think that probably the biggest challenge these days, especially as we’re trying to grow a large company that makes an impact on the world where we allow anybody to fund what matters to them, that’s totally global, is really about people. So the biggest challenge is on acquisition and retention of people. Like I’ve mentioned we went from 15 to 60 people in the last year. Some of those hires were perfect. Some of those hires may have not been perfect. It’s really around what are the programs you could put in place to retain these people. How do you learn from them? How do you give them the right performance reviews? How do you give them the right metrics, the right mentorship? In acquiring, how do you set up the right brand? How do you filter? How do you make decisions? How do you do the interview process? If you hire the right people, you don’t have to manage as much or worry as much because they will figure it out, so it’s really around finding the right people.

Erik Michielsen: Now you’ve worked in management consulting before starting an internet startup, Indiegogo. How is that talent development cycle different in where you’re now, you know, and how is that talent development cycle different in your work now than what you did before?

Slava Rubin: I’ve actually learned a lot from when I was a consultant, especially on recruiting strategies, how you identify that people are smart, how to identify if they are the team players, so I think I learned a lot from being a consultant. In terms of the retention programs and performance reviews, I also learned a lot there that I look to apply in my company, which is what kind of questions to work towards in terms of performance reviews, how often to do it, or what it would mean. It was more structured back in the days ‘cause those companies were more established, our company is very young and nimble, and we’re trying to literally just put those processes in place, so we only strive to have the same sort of people programs, but I definitely learned a lot.

Erik Michielsen: Is there a generational element that comes into play when you think about managing talent in what you do?

Slava Rubin: From my viewpoint, there is no difference based on age. I mean people just wanna work at a great company. They wanna have an impact. They wanna feel like they’re empowered to have decisions. They wanna know what their role is. So that hasn’t been different. So I haven’t really noticed any specific generational difference.

Slava Rubin on How Core Values Help Create Company Culture

In Chapter 13 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Steps Are You Taking to Maintain a Strong Company Culture in a Growing Business?" Rubin shares why culture is important from the moment you start a company and how establishing core company values helped him and his co-founders craft a culture at Indiegogo. Referencing his 2013 SXSW talk "10 Myths of Entrepreneurship", Rubin notes how many entrepreneurs overlook culture when starting a business and why this is not a good idea. 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 steps are you taking to maintain a strong company culture in a growing business?

Slava Rubin: Culture is really important. As a matter of fact, I just gave a talk at South by Southwest where I gave the 10 myths of entrepreneurship, and one of them was that it’s okay to start thinking about culture later in the process, don’t think about culture to start. And I think we got very lucky or we were very smart that the two co-founders and I, Danae, Eric, and myself, thought about culture from the very beginning. Maybe not on day one, but when we were doing recruiting and making decisions we started arguing with our opinions. I’m like, “No, no, no. That’s not how we’re deciding. We’re deciding like this.” And we really need to ground where was the decision coming from. So what we did was we stepped back and we thought, “What are the values—?” Well, we’re sitting on top of which will help make these decisions, whether it’s recruiting, how we treat our customer, who we partner with, and how we move forward with initiatives. And we’ve come with a “face”, which is fearlessness, authenticity, collaboration, and empowerment. So building on top of these four values, we’re able to permeate all these other things. And it’s not something where you can just say once in training, on day one, and then they will just embody “face”. We have our quarterly all hands meeting where we pull together everybody and do a 2-day investment, every quarter, into our own company, and, you know, aligning ourselves around the vision, collaborating, and celebrating our own successes. We also make sure to have weekly meetings to talk about things and other ways to just permeate it throughout the company on a regular consistent basis, so I think culture is huge.

Slava Rubin on How to Build Startup Teams That Perform Under Pressure

In Chapter 14 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "What Does It Mean to Perform Under Pressure in the Work That You Do?" As a CEO of a venture capital-backed startup that has raised over $17 million dollars in financing, Rubin notes that the work environment is intense and the investor expectations are high. As a result, Rubin looks to hire employees who thrive under pressure and meet the company's "FACE" values formula, fearlessness, authenticity, collaboration, and empowerment. 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 does it mean to perform under pressure in the work that you do?

Slava Rubin: Pressure definitely is part of the job. We’re a VC-funded company, with some people like to say that’s like getting on the treadmill and never being allowed to get off. We don’t have the luxury of saying tomorrow, I think maybe I wanna take a break and slow down and maybe not try to build a bigger company ‘cause we already have some significant investors. We took 17 million dollars of VC money. So I think people thrive in the pressure, that’s who we’re looking to hire. We have our values as part of our recruiting process, and one of those values is fearless “face”- fearlessness, authenticity, collaboration, and empowerment. First one, fearless. So we need you to be fearless and do things that you never thought you’d be able to do and know that we need to accomplish things that are just challenges and no one else has done, so pressure is just part of the process.

Slava Rubin on How Specialist Job Roles Help Young Companies Grow

In Chapter 15 of 15 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin answers "How Are Your Recruiting Priorities Changing as Your Company Grows?" Rubin shares how growing from 15 to 60 employees has shifted hiring needs away from generalist or "athlete" skills sets and toward specialist skill sets. As structure is added to manage organizational growth, job roles and responsibilities also get more structured and specific. Rubin shares why it is important to constantly evaluate these shifts to maintain company culture. 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: How are your recruiting priorities changing as your business grows?

Slava Rubin: We’re constantly meeting to re-org the company as it evolves in terms of the size, and as part of that, when you’re smaller, you want more of an athlete, which is you’re not exactly sure what they’re good at, but they can just be a valuable asset to the company, they can be versatile, and you start getting bigger, you don’t want people who are just athletes, you wanna have them start specializing. So you can almost think of it in basketball terms. Sometimes you just have five great athletes, or sometimes you have like the 7-foot-3 guy as the center and he’s exactly the center, and this other guy is a 3-point shooter and he can’t do anything else, but it’s actually nice to have those really locked down pieces if that’s where you need to focus on, if you have those other athletes. So as you have more specific roles, it’s important to get those specific recruits, but it’s a balancing act as we’re evolving from more athlete-driven to finding some specific focus.

Erik Michielsen: And how do you maintain that culture as you’re shifting from focusing on athletes to more specialists?

Slava Rubin: I think that’s a great question. You need to constantly evaluate on the specific role. Is this somewhere where you can still go with an athlete or is it somebody that’s so precise where their experience needs to be so clear, and their knowledge base subject matter expertise is so unknown that they need to be a specialist? And every position has a different evaluation

One of the specialist positions that we just hired for was actually our head of international. So that was one of those things where it’s hard to be an athlete to just say, “Oh, I think you’re or she is really smart, and I think they can figure it out.” It’s really nice when that person has done international for years and they have gone to those examples and those experiences and be like, “Oh, that’s a problem. That’s gonna be problem. You’re gonna deal with this. I know this is gonna happen.” That’s where being a specialist helps.

Clara Soh on Ways Korean Parents Help You Live the American Dream

In Chapter 1 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Childhood Experiences Have Been Most Fundamental in Shaping Who You Are Today?" Soh shares how her Korean parents immigrated to the US to attend graduate school, met while studying and then married and started a family. Born in the US, Soh learns how the American education system offers more freedom of choice than what her parents had in Korea and takes full advantage of the opportunity in studies and career. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Getting Your Parents to Support Your Career Choices

In Chapter 2 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "Where Has Your Family Been Most Supportive in Your Career Development?" Soh shares how her Korean parents have often had a hard time understanding her career decisions, from joining the Peace Corps to working in non-profit and public policy jobs. Over time, Soh shows her parents that not going to medical school is okay and her parents learn to accept her choices and give her emotional support. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 3 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?" Personally she finds moving to new places creates challenges keeping in touch with far away friends. She uses new technologies such as Google Hangout video chats to make it easier to manage the distance. Professionally, Soh embraces digital research capabilities in her work but finds progressive challenge managing information overload. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Learning by Reflecting as a Peace Corps Volunteer

In Chapter 4 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Your Personal Growth?" Soh shares what she learned about herself as a Peace Corps volunteer working in West Africa. Living in a Muslim country learning the language and slowly breaking into the community, Soh learns to embrace time alone and use the downtime for reflection on her life. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Creating Social Impact in a Health Economist Career

In Chapter 5 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?" As a health economist working on health care policy issues, Soh finds meaning working to solve problems caused by an aging baby boomer population and rising lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Her work focuses on finding innovative ways to pay for health care advances and also ways to change consumer behaviors to live healthier. Her work with Medicare healthcare financing becomes all the more relevant as her parents become members. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Why to Work in Health Care Finance Reform

In Chapter 6 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing As Your Experience Grows?" After years working as a research biochemist and clinical research analyst, Soh shifts her aspirations from patient to population level. She leaves a meaningful job in Portland, Oregon and relocates to Washington DC to work on key policy and research issues influencing health care finance reform. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Building Job Skills to Work in American Government

In Chapter 7 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Skills Are You Working on Right Now to Become Better at Your Job?" Soh shares how aspects of work have changed as she has left the academic and nonprofit sector to work in American government health care policy. Whereas information sharing was free and open in her previous research lab work, Soh finds information sharing in DC to be a bit more constricted. She finds it challenging and fun to learn this new aspect of how American government works as she acclimates to her new role. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Making Affordable Health Care Access a Career Goal

In Chapter 8 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?" At a high level, Soh defines success in her work as making sure people have affordable access to health care. This includes matching patients with the right procedures and making sure the best public policies are put in place to ensure that patient access. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on What Rock Climbing Teaches About Relationship Trust

In Chapter 9 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?" An avid rock climber, Soh shares the importance of finding a climbing partner you can trust and how she goes about building trusting climbing partner relationships. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Cultivating a Rock Climbing Passion

In Chapter 10 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Steps Have You Taken to Cultivate Your Passion for Rock Climbing?" Soh shares how rock climbing has challenged her across physical fitness, emotional focus, relationship building and adventure traveling. She finds value exploring new locations and new routes, seeking out trusted climbing partners, and advancing her climbing skills through training and practice and learning from failure. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Communication Keys to Project Collaboration Success

In Chapter 11 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Have You Found to Be the Keys to Creating Successful Project Collaborations?" In her policy research work, Soh takes an open communication approach to set expectations around project goals and potential outcomes at the start of a project. This gives the team direction and a more clarified sense of purpose and understanding of objectives. Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Why Confidence Matters in Health Care Research

In Chapter 12 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "What Role Does Confidence Play in the Work That You Do?" Soh shares how she uses economic analysis and statistical modeling to understand future budget planning issues around health care policy such as Social Security and Medicare. She notes the challenge of using different statistical models and methodology to analyze economic impact of health care research and budget estimates. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

Clara Soh on Ways to Educate Policy Makers on Health Care Issues

In Chapter 13 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, health economist Clara Soh answers "How Are You Learning to Better Educate Policy Makers on Complex Public Health Issues?" Soh finds the translating complex policy analysis across stakeholders one of the biggest challenges she faces. This includes taking econometric research and its mathematical and differential calculus inputs and accurately translating it so policy makers who are not trained in math and statistics can understand it. Clara Soh is a health economist and Senior Director of Policy and Research at a pharmaceutical trade organization in Washington, DC. Previously, Soh held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (KPCHR) and Health Policy Research Northwest (HPRN). Soh earned her Masters of Public Administration (MPA) in Policy Analysis and Healthcare Public Finance from the NYU Wagner School and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.