By edith on 08-27-2010

Lisa Gansky is a serial entrepreneur, author of her latest book – The Mesh, environmentalist, and angel investor whose projects include Dos Margaritas, and Michelle Kaufmann Designs. She is also the co-founder of Ofoto which reached over 45M customers in 2005. Lisa was also the Co-founder and CEO of GNN, the first commercial website, acquired by AOL in 1995.

Lisa has been an investor and board member of more than twenty internet and mobile services companies.  She is also one of the attending presenters at BizTechDay 2010 New York along with Seth Godin and Clay Shirky. Lisa will also launch her new book ‘The Mesh’ at BizTechDay this year.  All attendees of BizTechDay New York will receive a copy of her new book ‘The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing”.

In the following short interview, we talked about the growing trend, Lisa’s story, experience and strategies on winning through sharing and building strategic partnership with the right people.

Edith: What is your story? Why do you believe in the business of sharing and partnership so much?

Lisa: A few things here – I came to The Mesh as part of a personal exploration — imagining that I and we could design and build businesses that would support less stress on ourselves and the planet. I was feeling, as an entrepreneur, that often the businesses we invent drive people to buy more things.

My experience working and ‘living’ with the internet and mobile web led me to consider that people and things (goods and services) were more ‘in hand’ and perhaps we didn’t need to own them we could rather access them as we access – reach out to one another.

When I dove into the exploration which led me to The Mesh. I discovered that sharing is natural — it’s been a huge part of how people have lived and fundamental to how communities and civilizations have evolved and grown. Technology has made connections possible across physical distances that weren’t there before and this has enabled more sharing of ideas, friends and other types of support – it’s helped fuel a culture of generosity – a culture of sharing. But, businesses have been creating partnerships for centuries. Many of the largest categories or industries of the last century began by creating ecosystems to build their products and/or bring them to market. Think about energy, automotives, appliances, entertainment – they all began as companies who build partnerships or ecosystems and then, over time, they acquired other companies or they themselves made the parts of the value chain they once outsourced. (vertical integration).

Edith: Who did you partner with what was your most successful partnership?

Lisa: Personally, as an entrepreneur, I have surrounded myself with people who have a very different core competence and perspective than me. At Ofoto, we called this, ‘forming a molecule’ – aligning yourself with
someone who when you act as one, it creates a powerful capacity to see and act. I was fortunate in my career to have partnered with Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty, Kamran Mohsenin and Seth Godin – to
name a few. These partnerships have been feisty, inspiring, highly interactive and creative ‘jazz’.

Edith: What made the partnership successful?

Lisa: Openness, candor, clarity of purpose, self-awareness, tenacity and humor – and occasionally, wine.

Edith: What would you think about first in initiating a successful partnership?

Lisa: See above.  And, I would add, it is important that both parties either want the same outcome in or around the same time OR that the respective goals, if they are not the same, are complementary.

In the case of two companies forming a partnership, it is often the case for a startup that we partner with bigger, more powerful companies – so, what is promised on both sides needs to be VERY clear – it is typically that the larger company has more money and power but the startup has youthful sexiness on its side. Big companies often partner as a way to put a toe in the icy waters of newness. The partnership helps them imagine a world other than the one which consumes them and the bigger brand brings street cred and often exposure to the startup. This differential of power is very present in these partnerships – I have found it’s best to talk about it. be clear and mutually state and agree on expectations.

Edith: What is the best way to connect with the right partners?  Especially for startup entrepreneurs with no connections and no budget?

Lisa: Reach out to people who know you, your company, your vision == who also see making the introduction as a way for them to be valuable and insightful to their colleague or friend. Some people are ‘power brokers’ – they naturally make introductions and see the power of connecting you to someone you don’t yet know – commerce yentas rock!

If you don’t know someone like that – going to conferences (one or two very selectively), meetups and schmoozing events will give you more opportunity to tell your story to someone and make a connection – my pov is that it’s p2p here.

Edith: What was the biggest partnership failure?  What would you do differentially?

Lisa: My biggest have come from being more consumed with the glory of the press release than really embracing the longer term reality of the working partnership. Now I just ask straight ahead – up front – is this a partnership disguised as a press release or something that we’re really going to build and deliver to people who will love it?

Neither answer is inherently bad. But, you both better have the same response or … Great partnerships, are increasingly open – the world is moving that way. IMHO and certainly The Mesh thrives in a world of open
partnerships – after all, we’re moving to a culture and economy based on access rather than ownership – for that sharing and partnerships are essential.

About edith

Edith Yeung is the Founder of BizTechDay and SFentrepreneur. She is also a lecturer at UC Berkeley International Program and committee member of the San Francisco Small Business Week. She has previously worked with AT&T Wireless, Oracle, Siebel, Autodesk, Cisco Systems, Symantec, American Management Systems (AMS), Telstra Australia, Matav Hungary Telecom and Taiwan Semi-Conductor.

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