This is the second in a three-part series of postings about entrepreneurs I've met this year.

Alex White is 24 years old, a recent graduate of Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy (SESP).  I interviewed Alex and his two co-founders, Samir Rayani and David Hoffman,  from Next Big Sound as part of an event for the Northwestern Club of Colorado. Alex, Samir, and David were part of a Northwestern class on entrepreneurship that has since spawned other successful ventures. 

Next Big Sound was named to Billboard's Top 10 Digital Music Startups for 2010, has been endorsed by popular tech blogs, Mashable and TechCrunch and is a TechStars 2009 company.  The company is based in Boulder, CO, has 11 employees, not including Alex and his two co-founders and is backed by venture capital.

I particularly like this description of what Alex and his colleagues have created:

"Alex White and his coworkers at nextbigsound.com are the modern day Lewis and Clarks of the digital frontier, collecting data and tips about fan interactions on the web."

Entrepreneurship is a Rollercoaster

What struck me in hearing Alex and his co-founders talk were the ups and downs that many entrepreneurs experience before "making it", from living together in a house in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois over the summer for less than a $1/person/day to burning through the first $25,000 seed money sooner than expected to getting Sony as a client to all three co-founders moving in with Alex's aunt in Boulder.  Each day is a work day, the days and nights blurring over time. 

In the following video, Alex talks about the joys of being an entrepreneur, the sometimes heavy responsibilities that entrepreneurs feel, and the advantages of seizing the day. 

 

It's About the People, Stupid

During the event, Alex stressed the importance of the team. It's more important than a  hot product or cool idea. Given the dialogue with his co-founders, I could see that he walks the talk. 

The most compelling story that Alex told that evening had to do with the idea that entrepreneurship is first and foremost, about the people.  Good ideas mean nothing in the hands of the wrong people.

Alex recalls arriving in Boulder, having driven out from Chicago with Samir and David. On the way out, they concluded that their original idea that won them acceptance to the prestigious TechStars incubator wasn't going to work, for a number of reasons. Alex talked to the managing director of TechStars–that there was no idea that they readily had in hand to develop and implement during the summer program.  The reply he heard went something like this:

"You might not have an idea right now, but in 90 days, you will be getting in front of an auditorium of investors, pitching your company.  You are in this program because of who you are, not because of the idea that you submitted.  We are betting on you."

Those words are both sobering and motivating.

Curiosity And Passion

Alex goes on to talk about how the concept of Next Big Sound, which tracks social media activity for up and coming bands, came from their own curiosity about the music business.  He and his co-founders, all music lovers (Alex had his own underground rap show at Northwestern) wondered,

"How can you find the next big bands, before they become big? "

From there, that led to a company that touts the ability to provide "actionable intelligence for the music industry."

I love that the winning idea came from curiosity and passion first, followed by filling a need in the marketplace.

 

In the third and final posting in this series, we'll look at what every entrepreneur must learn to do if they want to be successful: adapt.  How do entrepreneurs adapt when things don't go as planned?