3 Unorthodox Things Tony Fadell Taught me About Entrepreneurship

My key takeaways from Tony's book "Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making"

“Selling stuff was okay. Making it was better.” – Tony Fadell 

In 2018, I co-founded a startup. It was called Paul. We wanted to build a Google for Politics – but without all the SEO optimized junk. Only high-quality publications and background information. So it’s easier to learn about the things that matter.

We bootstrapped our way until it hurt. And then failed to raise any money. So, it was a failure. But a failure that tasted sweeter than any other job I ever had. And my hunger for building was awakened.

But since I bled money for a year, I decided to join a fast-growing Tech startup from Berlin. This time not as a founder, but as an Engineer. And it was during that time I came across Tony Fadell’s book “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making”. 

Since I like unorthodox things, I thought: I might as well give it a shot.

Who is Tony Fadell? 

Before we get started, who is this guy if you haven’t heard of him? Tony Fadell was leading two small teams at Apple creating two products you might have heard of. Afterwards he founded his own company (Nest) which was sold for 3.2 billion to Google. 

Tony Fadell (Source: Wikipedia)

Or to put it (humbly) in his own words.

“This book isn’t about me. Because I didn’t make anything. I was just one of the people on the teams that made the iPod, iPhone, the Nest Learning Thermostat, and Nest Protect”

What follows are my three main takeaways from his book. To me, they apply to founding a company, as well as navigating a career. Let’s jump in.

#1 Optimize For Curiosity (not Money)

When I first started my new job, the people were beaming, the atmosphere was crackling. There was a smell of purpose and possibility. But over time the passionate job turned into something more mechanical. Dragging.

Our company grew from 20 people to over 2,000 in three years. And it showed. What initially was a bunch of crazy heads on a mission, started to attract vultures who appeared to crave status more than building an amazing product. 

The environment we work in pulls on us. It shapes us. And soon my initial excitement got washed out and, without realizing it, the whole company had changed. And I found myself thinking about positions and titles. More salary. Maybe I needed an MBA, too? How can I get more influence?

If we don’t pay attention, we can easily get stuck in a job we don’t like. Playing silly games of politics with people we don’t like.

In this time of despair, Tony Fadell's writing really hit home for me.

“But don’t get stuck between the elephant’s toes so you can never see the whole beast. It’s easy to mistake navigating processes, red tape, job leveling, and politics for real personal growth.”

Wow. Wasn’t I exactly doing that?

And then he wrote something more. Something no one else around me was talking about anymore: Always optimize for curiosity. Money is just the reward for following it.

He wrote:

Start with “What do I want to learn?” 

Not “How much money do I want to make?” 

Not “What title do I want to have?” 

Not “What company has enough name recognition that my mom can brutally crush the other moms when they boast about their kids?” 

The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work. Follow your curiosity rather than a business school playbook about how to make money.”

I thought about this for a week. Then I quit.

2. Have a Vision (and stick to it)

When we worked on Paul, we had this grand vision: You search and you only get amazing results. Adapted to what you already know about the world, so learning is easier.

But the problem is that in an early-stage startup you are pushed outside of your comfort zone. You wear many hats that you never tried on before. It is often said that starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling a plane on the way down. That’s exactly how I felt.

At Paul, we lost our vision. Between sales meetings, scratching money together, and building the product, I didn’t pay attention to where we wanted to go. I thought we all had the same vision. But did we? Or were we starting to go in different directions? Were our survival instincts kicking in with the money running out?

We got advice to focus more on professional clients. Journalists, politicians, public policy teams in large corporations. There was no consumer need for this kind of product, they said.

I didn’t have Fadell’s book at the time, but if I had, I would have made sure of one thing: that we believe and strive for the same vision. Every feedback we got, from users and potential clients, had to be filtered through that vision. You can’t allow for outside noise to pollute what you care about. At least I can’t.

“You have to follow your gut and your vision for what you want to do, without the benefit of sufficient data to guide you or back you up. These decisions are always hard and always questioned—after all, everyone has an opinion.”

There are many books on building a lean startup. It was all the hype eight years ago. The version of it I have seen in practice is this: You build a first product and then A/B test yourself through hypotheses to product-market fit. But I think there is something to be wary of. In Tony’s words:

“If you’re testing the core of your product, if the basic functionality can flex and change depending on the whims of an A/B test, then there is no core. There’s a hole where your product vision should be and you’re just shoveling data into the void.”

An A/B test can’t replace vision. You as a founder need to have that vision. You can test different features, sure. But the core of what you want to do needs to stay true to what you want to do.

And then there is another myth: Talk to your customers and they tell you what to build. Sure, talk to them. But don’t mistake their input for your product vision:

“We were right to define our target customer clearly, to talk to them and find out what problems they had. But then it was our job to figure out the best way to fix those problems. We were right to ask their opinions and get feedback about our designs. But then it was our job to use those insights to move forward in a direction we believed in.”

3. Be on a Mission (and don’t feel bad for it)

I have high standards. For myself, but also for others. It becomes problematic when the culture of the company where you work does not operate according to the same standards. At Paul, I didn’t really have an issue living up to this. But being employed, I had.

While we were building our product, I saw people cutting corners, compromising on quality. Evaluating experiments without paying attention to statistical significance. I saw Product Managers become parrots to our stakeholders rather than the voice of our customers. At the beginning, I raised my concerns. But then I kept my mouth shut.

Had I only read what Tony had written at that time: 

“I expect the best—from myself, from everyone else. I care deeply about our mission, our team, our customers. I can’t stop myself from caring.”

Tony says it’s okay to have high standards. It’s okay wanting to push yourself and others, for the sake of building something amazing.

This doesn’t mean we can treat others like we want. But it means we have a right to have high standards. Just as well as others have a right to have lower ones. 

So whether you are in the right environment in the long run: only you will know that.