Daniel Brusilovsky: Teens in Tech Networks

HK: Today I’m going to talk with Daniel Brusilovsky, who is the founder and chairman of Teens in Tech Networks. Why did you become an entrepreneur?

DB; I had a personal problem. I mean, I’ve been podcasting and blogging for over four years now, and so I wanted a place to talk to people that were my age instead of 40 year olds, so that was the original goal of Teensintech.com. But now, actually just a few days ago, we relaunched as a blog; that’s all written content, in house, we have a team of writers, we have a managing director who leads all editorial stuff, and we’re trying to put out content in the sector of technology news as well as covering start ups that are started by teen entrepreneurs. I think it’s very important to cover these companies because blogs like Mashable, Venturebeat, and Tech Crunch probably will not cover them. So I think it’s important to have a place for these teen entrepreneurs to go to, to have a place for them to talk about their ideas and help them get their community around them. That was the idea for Teens in Tech and it all started from, more or less, a personal frustration.

HK; You’ve been an entrepreneur for two or three years right?

DB; Yes.

HK; In these years, what was the biggest lesson as an entrepreneur?

DB; For the first couple of months, I always doubted myself, I always doubted why I was doing this and I live in Silicone Valley, so I’m always surrounded by entrepreneurs who have sold their companies to Google, Microsoft, Intel, you name it; they’ve done it, and I always felt, probably, intimidated by them because they’ve been so successful. So, I think the first thing that I learned was being proud of who you are and what your company is. Once we realised that it’s not always about making money in the end; it’s about experience. Companies grow when they started really focusing about the product and not the business development deals. As an entrepreneur, it’s always about your journey, rather than the exit.

HK; what is the key element to be successful as an entrepreneur?

DB; I don’t think there’s one key element. There’s lots of key elements. But I think if I had to name three it’d have to be passion, determination and drive.

HK: So it’s all emotional things?

DB; Yes, it all has to do with what’s inside you. A lot of entrepreneurs, they start companies to sell their companies and to make money, which, in my opinion – of course if that’s what they want to do, they can do that – but in my opinion, I want to start a company for the experience. It has to do with inside and it’s nothing tangible like money; it has to do with do you really want this and how bad do you want it?

HK; Then what is the greatest motivation for you to start business and to make the company bigger?

DB; For me personally?

HK; Yes, you personally.

DB; I think for the longest time I was helping others with the same issue that I had, but now that we’ve launched this new blog, Teensintech.com, and we’re really trying to help teen entrepreneurs and I think that’s what really inspires me. Because I used to be in those same shoes two years ago and I want to be able to help those same people that I used to be. And in Silicone Valley I feel like a lot of people just get and don’t give back. For me, it feels really nice when, let’s say, we will write about a start up and they get 300,000 page views, I’m just saying. It’s really nice to know that we helped them. I think that’s what really drives us right now, is knowing that we’re going to be helping tons of young entrepreneurs, because we were in those same shoes years ago.

HK; Can you tell me your sense on the difference between teenagers and older people?

DB; I think, to be honest, there’s really only two things that separate teenagers from adults, and that’s, one, the numerical age; that number, and two is just the way they look. If you think about it, and there’s been tons of studies made, if you look at online studies and behaviours of people over 21 and under 21, they’re extremely similar. I think it all has to do with the mentality of, he’s younger than me, she’s older than me, and things like that. It all has to do with inside, but in the end we’re buying the same products, we ‘re living in the same world. There’s not really more anything but a number.

HK; What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of young entrepreneurs?

DB; Young entrepreneurs have a lot of energy. For example, yesterday I got home at around three in the morning and I woke up at nine.

HK: [Laugh]

DB; I can do that because, one, I’m still young so I still have the energy, but two, because I have a very loud alarm.

HK: [Laugh]

DB; So, yes, I think young entrepreneurs, they have a ton of energy and they’re able to push themselves longer than, maybe, people in their 40s can, if that means pulling an all nighter or staying up for 36 hours, or things like that. The disadvantages; a lot of young entrepreneurs, they’re sometimes immature, they don’t know when they’ve crossed the line in terms of what’s okay and what’s not okay, unlike older entrepreneurs. So, I’m thinking if you can combine a young entrepreneur – their energy and their drive -, plus an old entrepreneur’s wisdom and their actions, I think you can make the ultimate entrepreneur.

HK; Sounds interesting. What is your definition of success?

DB; For me it’s being able to have an impact on someone or someone’s actions. I think success, for a lot of people, means money and, for me, it’s about what have I done to make this person’s life easier, better, more successful for them? I think it all has to do with personal reward and personal action.

HK; Today, having the rise of social media, do you think it’s quite easy to impact on how others or it’s still difficult to do so?

DB; I think it’s EASIER. I don’t think it’s EASY; I think it’s easier, that it’s getting easier to a point where Facebook has turned into my calendar where I see all my friends’ birthdays and stuff like that, and I don’t miss any of them because I check Facebook every day. I think it’s getting easier but it’s not at a point where it’s easy enough.

HK; You didn’t mention about money with success. Don’t you, or Teens in Tech, focus on making money?

DB; No. Well, we do make money. I should say that, we do make money but is it our focus? Not really. I think money is a nice to have thing when you’re a start up, but in the first couple of years, or whatever, I think you should really be focusing on the product and the vision for the company. So, we have a successful conference business and that’s the path we really want to keep on going under. For us, that’s where we want to go. And, sure, the conference makes us money, but, at the same time, is it millions of dollars? No. For us, money isn’t as important as it is to other companies, let’s say.

HK; As a final question, please tell what would be your advice to achieve success in general sense?

DB; Just help as many people as you can. It’s really the small things that make a difference. If you see someone who needs help in the middle of the street, go and help them. It’s karma; it’ll come around and it’ll help you.