The Fall 2018 DPELC-MSL Speaker Series launches next week with Nicholas Colvin, General Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Chicago City Treasurer. Before we dive into the next series of fascinating speakers, let’s revisit some of our impressive speakers from past talks! Read this post below from April 2017, when we heard from Frank Floessel, self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, investor, and cryptoapprentice. 

As you may have surmised from our posts, the DPELC-MSL Speakers Series brings in a great variety of entrepreneurs to speak to our students.  One of our recent speakers came from Zurich, and the world of FinTech:  Frank Floessel, managing partner at Ask the Circle (ATC), a global peer-to-peer network that provides family offices and foundations with an exclusive platform to help achieve investment and financial management goals.  Floessel earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich and attended the Entrepreneurial Master’s Program at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Even though most of the people in his family are engineers, he always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur; he was fascinated by the idea of creating something out of nothing.

Like many entrepreneurs, Floessel has undertaken lots of pivots throughout his career and within his ventures.  He had previously founded and headed up an employment services company, but, at some point, he recognized his head was not in the game; he knew he had to get out.  That is what led him to ATC – a company that is managing the assets of a network of families.  So far, ATC has been very successful and has delivered an impressive rate of return for their investors.

Floessel said that he doesn’t like to listen to advice from others but, rather, he always tries to ascertain the experience behind the advice and act based on that.  Because each company is unique, no one’s advice will be completely relevant.  If you keep the focus on the experience behind the advice, you can draw your own conclusions about how that experience translates in your company. That said, Floessel shared the following, based on his experiences as an entrepreneur:

Entrepreneur Pro Tips

• Nothing gets as easily distributed as shares, and nothing is as expensive to get back later. He feels he should have been more careful with distributing shares at the beginning, because it was very expensive to get them back later on.
• Floessel is single-minded and even almost obsessed about his business. Though this is time-consuming, it leads to insights that are hard to get otherwise.
• He tries not to be jealous of someone else’s success; rather, he focuses on his own company, what it has going for it, and where it is headed.
• He avoids suing others, because lawsuits are too distracting, never bring about happiness, and are always expensive.
• He values his peer groups, such as the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). These groups have regular meetings where members can share their experiences.  Being able to meet other people who are experiencing similar problems allows you to learn from their experiences.
• He tries to create smart metrics, and then he measures often and rigorously.
• As soon as his budget allowed for it, he got a strong number 2 person. He believes that having a good #2 makes everything, including the exit, much easier.
• He likes to meet daily with his key team members. These are generally quick meetings and they allow the main people to stay in touch with day-to-day details.  On a quarterly basis, the team meets to discuss and adjust company directions.  The blueprint for this strategy comes from Scaling Up by Verne Harnish.
• Floessel analogizes his business – and entrepreneurship in general – to the Tour de France. Successfully building a company is not a sprint, but it is also not a marathon; it is more like the Tour de France, with different terrain every day, some sprints in between, some easy peloton rides, and getting back on the bike each day.

Finding Your Values

• He feels that life is easier once you find and identify your values. He tries to stay true to his identified corporate values. He believes that lots of business decisions become simpler when they are grounded in values – including decisions such as hiring and firing people.  If you are strong in your values, the whole company will take these on and they will become embedded in your company culture.
• He tries to think outside of the box when recruiting employees, and feels that people can learn how to do whatever is needed, as long as they have the right values going in. He said, “I hire attitude and train skill.”
• Floessel likes the quote from Warren Buffet: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”  He said that in a growing market, mistakes are easily forgiven, but in a shrinking market, they can be devastating.
• Floessel tries to get as much information as he can get about his customers, because, in the end, the customer is always right.
• Floessel tries to face brutal facts and tries not to lie to himself. He said that you have to be willing to fire somebody or shut down a unit.
• He manages himself before he manages others. Such things as being on time, and keeping deadlines are important.  If he doesn’t show discipline, others won’t either.
• On exiting: At his previous company, he knew he was in trouble when going to his company caused him physical pain.  He was depressed, hated going to work, and felt trapped.  But as an entrepreneur, leaving your company is not always a simple thing.  He knew he didn’t want to be in that situation again, so when he started at his current company, he had already thought about the exit.  Having a picture of what the exit looked like made it easier to progress with the company.

Self-Care & Personal Growth

• Floessel sleeps as much as possible and tries to be relaxed. He takes long walks, and he doesn’t drink or smoke.
• Floessel has a professional coach who he sees regularly. The coach has no stake in his company, and this allows for a more objective perspective.
• Floessel tries to get smarter every day: he reads books, listens to podcasts, goes to conferences.  He is always trying new things.
• Floessel said that he does something for his brain first thing in the morning, such as meditation or exercise. This helps him focus throughout the day.
• He avoids email as much as possible and either uses Slack or the phone. He especially tries not to do emails (or Facebook) first thing in the morning.
• He tries to manage his habits, so they don’t manage him.
• Floessel said that to be successful entrepreneur, you have to be healthy. If the leader is stressed out, then everybody is stressed out, and this is reflected in the company.  He believes that if he takes care of his personal well-being (which he does), that is reflected in his company.

In the end, Floessel had a few pieces of advice for everyone:  Keep your ego in check.  Enjoy the ride.  And keep in mind that the magic often happens outside of the comfort zone.

 

Leslie Oster
Director of the MSL Program