An Insightful Discussion

I listen to a lot of podcasts and it always strikes me as funny when a host will have a friend on the show and over the course of an hour end up learning a laundry list of new things about this person they’ve known for ages. When I called my friend Jason Ziolo to interview him about how he got into IT and his newest venture, recordnerd.com, I was genuinely surprised that he was just getting back from a sort of peer-mentoring / networking lunch.

Erin Pittman: Is that something you do often?

Jason Ziolo: Its our third or fourth time meeting. Its turned into a sort of advisory board, we can bounce ideas off each other, help solve problems and just give feedback- we’ve realized if you’re running a solo business, its hard to get feedback.

EP: When did you first get the IT bug?

JZ: My mom shipped me off to a programming summer camp in the 7th grade; mostly to get me out of her hair, I think. Ever since then, I’ve had an interest in it.

EP: So, is that what you went to college for?

JZ: I went to the University of Illinois and majored in Computer Science.

I graduated right in the dot com boom and I was getting wined and dined by some serious companies.

EP: Seriously?

JZ: No kidding! Every weekend I was taken out in limos to nice restaurants; At the time, U of I was the third best Computer Science school in the country. The industry was going through the roof, they were offering jobs on the spot, knowing I had a 3.5 average. It was a really cool time to be in IT.

EP: I can’t believe I didn’t know that about you! Was that your first job out of school then?

JZ: (laughs) Not exactly. The bubble burst right before I graduated. Most people I knew were getting calls saying you don’t have a job anymore. I was very lucky that I had a job at all.

I went from being a total rock star in the degree, getting wined and dined like I said. I had 12 offers on the table when I was deciding which to accept and 3 months into it, I called each of them and not a single place could take me. A small company, Infoage brought me on, dirt cheap because I didn’t know any better and was laid off after three months. I thought I was a stud and then here I am unemployed for 6 months.

EP: That’s rough. What did you end up doing?

JZ: Thankfully during that three-month period, I did really well, so the owner eventually called and offered me a contract job. When he left and started his own company, he brought me on as an equity shareholder.

EP: Wow. That’s pretty much what everyone hopes for, regardless of career path, to start out entry-level and make it to the top. What choices do you think you made that helped you get to that point?

JZ: Very early on, even though I was just a scrub really, a junior web developer, I built a relationship with the owner.

I made no secret that I wanted to learn the business side too and when we started growing they needed someone to step up into management, I got the offfer. I’m really lucky the CEO at the time wanted to mentor me, that prepared me to go out and start something on my own.

EP: What do you think differentiates entrepreneurs who are successful and the ones who aren’t, in a startup or even in a bigger company?

JZ: I think it all has to do with building websites and products without ever talking to a customer first. I keep preaching “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries. Essentially, the concept is about creating a minimally viable product. Do as little as possible to make sure it provides value and see if it’s something people want.

I’ve spent months and months working on a concept, only to only find out that no one wants it.

You have to build what your customers want, not what you want. And I have to admit, that concept goes against who I am as a person.

EP: How so?

JZ: I love music, I’ve been playing guitar and writing music for as long as I can remember. But, music is a business. Take American Idol, they built a system to find out what the audience wants, and then market the hell out of them.

As an independent musician, I write stuff that I like and hope that people love it- but that’s no way to start a business. That’s why there are millions of starving musicians, and millionaires making money off of one-hit wonders.

EP: Say you’re trying to get me to hire you to build a website. What are your differentiators?

JZ: 2 things- 1) I have soft skills that the more technical types of people are lacking in- extroverted, sales skills. I’m not a typical geek. Everyone should get involved in sales even if its not what you do, it will make you better.

2) I get stuff done. Too many times, I’ve watched a client’s marketing department that has a technical project they want done but there are so many politics: the vendors like to say no, internal IT guys like to say no- but a contractor (a good one) is a yes man. You can’t be afraid to say yes. If not, you offer no more value than the resources they already have at their disposal. To be successful, you have to know yourself well enough to know what you bring to the table. I get shit done, and that makes me different.

EP: So, I know you recently decided to start your own project. Tell me about recordnerd.com

JZ: I took a step back and said if I could have the ultimate tool online and if I could do something I’m passionate about, what would it be? Over the course of a month- I just made notes on my phone to flesh out what my dream business would look like. It ended up a laundry list of 20-30 things, about music, social networking capabilities, recurring revenue and self-sustainability.

Then I took all those ideas and brainstormed and realized I wanted something like goodreads for music lovers. I started writing the code here and there, an on the side, researched what else is out there? Was anyone already doing this?

In doing so, I came across someone reviewing music websites, and recordnerd.com was listed. I checked it out and noticed there was a big for sale sign posted- the pitch was, “We have 40,000 subscribers, we just want it to go to a good home.” I started crunching the numbers- how long would it take me to build it and attract 40,000 users? It was a no-brainer.

EP: You were starting with an existing site- what surprised you about what people did and didn’t want?

JZ: When I reached out to the community on recordnerd.com, I honestly expected to be building a ton of bells and whistles, but people were more concerned with it feeling too ‘busy’. I ended up saving myself a ton of time working on it and hoping people liked it, by having those conversations up front.

EP: What new thing would you add to recordnerd.com?

JZ: A way to monetize it. (laughs). Its free and they like it. The challenge is to flip make it worth their while. You don’t want to begrudgingly make them pay for it. I want to create something they’re happy to pay for.

You hear about all these music artists that have a “pay what you want for this record” system- you can have it for free, or $500, its up to you. And ultimately it evens out.

EP: How did you get to a place where you were confident enough to start something on your own?

JZ: Oh I was scared to death. I was very scared to do what I did. It took a lot of thinking. I was extremely fortunate to have my spouse support the family while I made this choice- it wouldn’t even be possible without it.

Not long after I quit my day job and started working on my own full time, I realized that it was exactly what I needed to do. Once you take that kind of leap- you’re forced to do it every day. A lot of opportunities have presented themselves by doing exactly that- by taking the leap and giving myself no options besides success.