Episode 49

Nick Chen Β·  The Case for Taking Venture Capital

β€œThe challenges have, have shifted over time, you know, year one challenges, very different from year four year five challenges. I would say though, if there's a common theme, sometimes when things are really busy, it feels like you don't have much control over what you're doing and that's usually a sign that you need to make some changes. You need to hire more people or, or rethink your daily habits but nevertheless, you know, as you hire away core responsibilities, it kinda, you as the founder, you, as the CEO, you're taking care of all the leftover tasks, that span a whole range and so, and add to that, the fact that you never have the vacation, it's, it's a 24/7 job. So you're having to react to a multitude of things which may differ day to day, seven days a week. That's how I would put it. It can be fun when you're in the zone and you just feel like each thing that pops up, you're able to, it's like playing whack-a-mole, you're able to like smack it down right away and you can like have a high from doing that, you know for a couple of days.”

Nick Chen is a product designer and the co-founder and CEO of Pico, a business platform empowering experts to sell information and ideas online. Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30, Nick started the company with childhood friend and Stanford classmate Jason Bade, primarily out of a deep concern for the sustainability of the Fourth Estate, a core pillar of our democracy that is dependent on journalists like Nick’s sister, CNN national correspondent Natasha Chen. Outside of working on Pico, Nick sings in the NYC a cappella group The Workshop.

 

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