25 May 2009, Posted by Matthew Reinbold in Events,New Work Ways,PowWow, 1 Comments

Small and Special Conference, Philosophy of Small Business: Vox Pop Pow Wow 2009-05-18

Working in small, distributed teams can be an exercise in loneliness. The solitary existence can mean missing out on a shared revelation or not getting feedback on a forming assumption. The Vox Pop Pow Wows are a chance for a group of peers to get together over Skype, talk about the news of the day, and provide that professional support that we otherwise might go without. Here’s the transcript from a recent talk [edited for readability].

A. – Matthew Reinbold, Founder and Creative Principal, Vox Pop Design
B. – Matthew Orstad, Founder and Chief Engineer, Rocket Midwest

Small and Special Conference, Business Philosophy

A. I just finished registering for the Small and Special Conference, in Seatte-

B. I didn’t know that was the actual name.

A. Yes! Small and Special: it’s not a subject line of a spam e-mail. It’s an actual conference! I went ahead and registered. I’m all set to go. I’ve contacted Nate who as you know works at Microsoft in Seattle. We’re going to hang out that evening after the conference.

I’m really excited. The whole idea of the Small and Special conference is about people making small companies that excel at what they do. In the past these have somewhat undeservingly been called lifestyle businesses, kind of like, “Oh, that’s cute”. But it’s trying to get away from that derogitory perception and talk about creating businesses that are too small to fail (especially contrasted with the recent AIG bailouts where companies were too big to fail). This is creating companies that are run by passionate people, they’re fulfilling, they do cool stuff, they create neat things and they’re never meant to go IPO, they’re never meant to be these huge hierarchal organizations.

They’re supposed to be small and really special companies. The more that I work at Vox Pop and study organizational models the more I like this idea. The ideas of personal empowerment, job satisfaction, and work/life balance: I think all of those things can be associated with this.

I’ve also started a new delicious list. I’ve started compiling all of the thoughts and resources toward the kind of business that I want to create. Much of that has to do with keeping it small and creating excellent products and services and doing it with a passion. And it’s an excuse to go to Seattle and see Nate, too.

(laughter)

B. Now the truth comes out.

A. Right, Right, Ok any thoughts on that?

B. I never thought of “lifestyle business” as a derogatory term. It seems to resonate with the whole idea of “decide what you want your life to be like first”, rather than “decide what you want your business to be”.

A. There is a fundamental difference in the two types of entrepreneurs. Many seem dead set on going big, fast – having that cash out event, where they are bought out or they go IPO. The IPO thing has really disappeared over the past however many years. Equally true for the idea that they’re going to run the next Microsoft or they’re gonna create the next Apple.

There is so much worthwhile stuff to be done, by small people. If you just kind of sideline that goal of getting rich fast I think there’s a lot of really fulfilling work that people can do, businesses that can be created, lifestyles that can be maintained, for those entrepreneurs. 37 signals recently had a post called the “lifestyle business bullshit”. If you think what I’m saying about the term lifestyle business harsh these guys really go into it. They essentially see that the lifestyle business commentator, approach him, and then rip his head off. It’s a very interesting post.