Subscribe
Previous Post
Sometimes the best ideas really do come when you are doing the work you aren’t supposed to be doing. Lauren Leto is the perfect example of this and the perfect example of anyone who is thinking of taking the entrepreneur route over law school. While in law school Lauren started Texts from Last Night with friend Ben Bator. Like most great ideas, it started out as a revenge plot. Not really, but basically while Lauren was studying she and Bator (who also wasn’t out having fun), would get funny texts from their partying friends who weren’t studying in law school. They decided to shame their friends on put them up on a site (just using the area code to identify them.) They eventually opened up the submissions and within five days they had over 1 million hits. Today, the site attracts 4 million people a month, 5,000 to 15,000 submissions a day, and the 99-cent iPhone app has been downloaded a million times. And in case you have never been to the site, it is absolutely hilarious. The success of TFLN led to a number of book deals for Leto and there may be a TV show in the works. Not bad for a bootstrapped startup site that only took $20,000 in capital to get off the ground. Did we mention she is only 25?
When the site took off she left law school and moved to New York to join the burgeoning tech community here to work on new projects. One of those new projects is her latest startup, Banters , which is a way to capture text messages and publish them publicly. She co-founded Banters along with Patrick Moberg and is also the CEO. Banters, which has its own iPhone app is more about capturing interesting moments. It is basically a platform for scrap-booking conversation. She believes “brilliant banter should be saved, and shared between family, friends, and fans.” Leto compares it to a social photo app, except its textual. It will also work with Twitter conversations. “Anywhere you are having a conversation we want to capture it,” she says. Named one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media we were lucky enough to chat with the Brooklyn resident about running her own company at 25, her lack of a work/life balance and being afraid of cars.
Did you picture yourself in a career like this growing up?
Every day I’m surprised by my job. I wish someone had told me it was possible sooner, I never would bothered pursuing anything else.
What is the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur?
Running your own company is a constant test on the limits of one’s self-reliance. At the end of the day, no one is there to pick up your slack. You can have mentors and investors to turn to for advice, employees to help sort through the work, users to give feedback, but you own every decision. And the idea of being the “owner” of the company is larger than just equity and money – you own the ideas, the company culture, the product. If the company succeeds or fails, the public won’t be looking at your mentors, investors, employees or users as the reason – it’s all you. Constantly rising above the plagues of self-doubt in order to push forward and take risks is a hardship to one’s self-worth. Throwing a company into the public’s eye is the same as standing naked on a street corner. Everyone is going to glance at you, most are going to think you’re crazy. Until you succeed, you’re just another loon in NYC.
Can you tell us about things you have done you considered to be a failure in your career and how you learned from them?
Almost every day I’m failing at something. Chris Dixon [CEO and Co-founder of Hunch and an investor in Banters] always says something along the lines of, “if you’re not failing, you’re not trying”. I agree with that. Take risks and if they don’t pan out, look objectively at the situation, analyze how you could have prevented the misstep. Do better tomorrow.
What is your biggest fear about your career?
I’m fairly fearless. I’m afraid of cars, motorcycles, heights, centipedes. But with my career? I’ll go to any lengths, do anything. This goes hand-in-hand with my beliefs on failing. Push forward, worrying brings you nowhere.
Do you think having a mentor is important?
Nothing more important. Take advice from everyone you can and once you realize a person you’re talking to gets it, never let them go.
Do you find being a woman works against you or for you? I know we’ve talked about some specifics that female entrepreneurs face so I’d love you to go into that.
I had no problem fundraising for Banters as a woman but Texts from Last Night was behind me which helped get my foot into more doors than a first-time entrepreneur. There haven’t been any explicit situations where my gender has become an issue or an advantage but I know it has been a problem for others.
The Change the Ratio movement is a wonderful thing because it’s made the term “change the ratio” into a catchphrase. Now hardly a conference passes by that people don’t look at to count the number of men to women in the line-up. Rachel Sklar advocates visibility as a major cornerstone in accelerating equality in tech and I agree with that. Why is Facebook’s board all men? Why aren’t there as many women enrolling in Computer Sciences as a major? The answers to these questions are all interwoven.
What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?
I’m sick of hearing about ideas. I’m sick of people asking to meet me for lunch to talk about their ideas. Just start building. Your idea isn’t anything until executed.
How do you deal with the work life balance struggle?
A work-life balance? Forget about it. Your work is your life, it’s the stamp you’re trying to put onto the world. How can you walk out of the office to go to a dinner date or movies with friends when there’s unanswered emails – one of which may unlock an amazing partnership or help obtain an awesome new team member. It’s hard to set social plans in the future because I don’t know if I’m going to get out of the office before 8pm or I’m unsure if I’m going to be traveling for work that weekend. Thank god I don’t have a family. I have a hard enough time making it out of the office during the week to make sure I pick up my laundry.
What are some of your biggest challenges and how do you deal with them in your career?
Finding great new team members, especially developers, is hard for any startup. With my team at Banters, we talk extensively about prospective hires. They don’t want to work with sub-par developer or someone with an awful personality and I’d never make them. The flip-side of that is the scarcity of great developers nationwide; are we okay with letting someone pass us by when maybe they could’ve been groomed to be better, this might mean another two weeks before we find a new applicant. But with a startup, there’s no time or resources to waste on shit coders.
What is your favorite thing about your job?
Pretty much everything I named under the question about the hardest part of being an entrepreneur.
