The lessons entrepreneurs can learn from white water rafting

Have you ever looked at someone’s website or online profile and wished you knew more about them? Not more in terms of their background or accomplishments, but their personality? Shahar Solomianik and his co-founder Udi Oz had that same thought when they were working on their first startup, Triond. They wanted to know what their users were like in reality, and wished that instead of profile pictures users had profile videos. They built VanityVid to make this a reality – people can now use a VanityVid on their blog, social networks or wherever their image appears online (learn more about the company’s co-founders by watching their VanityVids). The Tel Aviv-based entrepreneur spoke with us about how building a second business felt like a sudden downgrade, and the lessons entrepreneurs can take from white water rafting.

Sprouter: Where did your journey as an entrepreneur begin?

Shahar Solomianik: Although I was trading computer games at age fourteen, and was CTO at a web startup in the first bubble ten years later (1999-2001), I believe the entrepreneur spirit really hit me while I was backpacking in Australia in 2002. At some point I ran out of money, and I had to decide whether to fly back home or try to get a “tourist job”. I did neither. Instead, I used my last pennies to buy some materials and started crafting juggling items — devil sticks, pois and whatnot. I then started selling them from a “mobile booth” (essentially a laundry rack) on the Melbourne Esplanade and in festivals around town. I will never forget my first sale and how shaky my hands were when I took the notes from my first customer ever. For the first time in my life I was actually making my own living, and people were actually enjoying and using stuff that I made. That changed my perspective about what I wanted to do with my life.

S: Tell us about how you got the idea for Vanityvid and how you started it.

SS: Before Vanityvid, our founding team had (still has) Triond, which started five years ago, raised VC money et al, and is now a profitable company. We were browsing through some of Triond’s user profiles one day, when Udi noted that we can look at users’ pics and read what they write but we can’t actually get to know what they’re like in reality. He said he wished that in place of profile pics, there would be profile videos. That’s how it all started.The first instinct was to make it as a feature for Triond, but then we realized we had a much broader vision for it. Vanityvid is relevant to the entire web.

S: What were your biggest challenges starting Vanityvid?

SS: This may sound weird but, as I said, we’re second-time entrepreneurs. After working with Triond’s 200K users and 20M monthly page views, our biggest challenge turned out to be adjusting back to working small-scale. No users, no traffic, no investors, no clear business model, not even a clear product and let alone possible implementations. In comparison to what what we had gotten used to, it was like a sudden downgrade, We always have to remind ourselves that we’re an early-stage startup again.

S: What are the top 3 tips you’d give to early-stage entrepreneurs?

SS: Keep your eyes on the current and don’t look at the rocks. That’s taken from white water rafting. Have you ever done that? If you have, you’ve been probably been told by your instructor that along the river you’ll notice a lot of rocks. Smashing into these rocks is very risky and painful. Yet, the trick is not to look at the rocks. Since the raft will go in the same direction as your line of sight, you need to keep focused on the current. That’s very relevant to startup life as well.

Help other entrepreneurs whenever you can. I’m not suggesting that you should spend a lot of time helping every person who reaches out, or start volunteering at other startups. Still, try to do what you can. Use other people’s services and provide feedback, install widgets on your blog or website, whatever. You achieve two things by doing so: you open your mind to other ideas and markets and you can never tell how that’s going to end up. Also, you never know when other entrepreneurs might end up helping you out. It’s karmic.

Have a solid answer to the question, “Why?”. See, you’re often dealing with what you’re currently doing, how you’re doing it, and where you’re taking things from here. However, the most important question is why you’re doing it. Having a solid answer to the why question will keep you strong in tough times.

S: What do you think can be a game-changer for an early-stage startup?

SS: Making your first sale. Even if what you’ve just sold is not what you’re going to be selling in the future, your company has just changed status – from looking for business, to validating a business.

S: What’s coming up at Vanityvid?

SS: Though Vanityvid runs on top of Facebook and Twitter with a browser add-on, and on top of WordPress with a plugin, we’ve made it very easy to integrate Vanityvid into any online service that has a user base. And we’re now starting at the search for our first early adopters partners. So that’s where we’re headed next. Having said that, if you’re an entrepreneur that runs an online service with a user base, and you wish to enhance your service’s social features and online identities, contact me – I think I have the right thing for you.

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Connect with Shahar now on Sprouter at @shaharsol.