One big component to their success, however, is out of our control. We work hard to recruit talented founders that we believe in, but when they get to the accelerator, how they approach their time is up to them.

At Mix & Stir, we’ve identified five key elements that are critical for founders to make the most out of their time. While these are based on our own experience, the advice extends beyond our program. If you are a startup founder getting ready to kick off with any accelerator program, here are a few key pieces of advice to help make sure you get everything out of the program that you can.

Be Proactive

Incubators and accelerators have different approaches, but structured programs usually include some mix of mentorship, pitch skills and networking. It’s important to realize that, even in the most highly structured situation, making the most out of this opportunity is up to you. Incubators can provide amazing access to talent and connections, but it’s up to the founders to make that access matter. Use your time wisely.

Get clear on what skills and talents your startup needs and look for people who can help in those areas. Reach out to mentors and network as much as you can. Connect with the other teams in the program and get to know who they are and what they are working on. Step up when you can to help other teams. You’ll find the folks who will do the same for you.

Play it Long

Relationships are critically important. They take a long time to build but can be quickly damaged. This is as true with mentors and investors as it is in your personal life. Mentors need to know you are credible before investing significant time or resources. When you find an advisor that clicks with your team, build that relationship. These relationships can last far beyond the accelerator session, so approach them with that in mind.

Also, understand that mentors are looking for fit just as much as you are and they need to have confidence before investing significant time in your startup. A bad recommendation can negatively impact a mentor’s own reputation, so they need to have real trust in you before going to the next level or recommending you on to other potential connections. The process requires time and commitment, proceed accordingly.

Prove that you are good to work with and committed to building a successful business and you may be surprised at who steps up to help you move it forward – but if people have doubts on your ability to follow through, or if you have a lot of meetings but never integrate any of the input you get, it will be hard to get people on board and even harder to keep them there.

Listen Closely

You will get a lot of feedback – endless amounts actually. Some you’ll agree with and some you won’t. That’s fine. The key is to listen thoughtfully and engage. Your job is to identify the important themes coming through the questions and act on them without losing your focus.

If you continue to hear the same questions over and over though, pay attention. If people are constantly asking you exactly what your product does, don’t blame it on your audience, realize that you are not connecting. You may be missing important pieces of the story, you may be burying people with detail, or using too many insider terms. If no one gets your brand or people are constantly questioning your business model, think hard about it.

Also, realize that, when you are answering questions, potential investors or mentors in the room are listening to the way you respond and considering what it would be like to work with you in the future. A founder who pivots so much that he or she loses their own vision is just as much of a concern as a founder who doesn’t acknowledge valid questions. On the flipside, a founder who can confidently handle a challenging question, answering from a deep base of knowledge, can really make an impact.

Make Decisions

It’s your startup and your job is to move it forward. There are unlimited opportunities for more user insight and concept refinement. Don’t get so buried in the potential to do everything that you get stuck and spin your wheels.

Identify the big questions you need to address – and be willing to commit to a decision and move forward. Set milestones and hit them. Not all your decisions will be right but it’s better to make the hard decisions and learn from the outcome. Every team needs someone who pushes them forward when the direction is unclear.

Get from idea to value proposition to concept as fast as you can, so you can start user testing– and don’t get hung up on the fidelity of the early prototypes. Even getting rough prototypes or pencil sketches into users hands can provide valuable insights and help teams move their products more quickly to the next level.

Since there is no chance whatsoever that your v1 is going to be perfect, take the pressure off yourself and figure out what you need to do to make it real – and remember it’s better to solve one problem really well, then to partially solve a long list of problems.

Build Something You Believe In

Between the networking, team dynamics, feedback and pitching, you can look forward to being very busy. It will be fun, frustrating and tiring all at the same time. There’s one secret that can make all the difference.

If you truly believe in what you are doing, if you care about the problem you are addressing and you really want to solve it, the rest comes more easily. You’ll make decisions faster, your team will be more aligned, you will connect with mentors in more genuine ways. You will be far more credible.

It doesn’t mitigate the hard work, timing and focus needed, but it will give you an internal compass to guide you along the way. You will be better able to see what changes really improve your offering and what takes you off track. Once you connect with the soul of your product, your story will have more impact and so will you. Never underestimate how far you can go with an idea you really believe in.

Eric Persha is the CEO of Mosey, a new online and mobile destination for curating custom experiences – and a 2012 Mix & Stir alumni. Over the last year, Eric and the talented Mosey team have been working hard to build their vision. They just recently launched a major product update and opened up Mosey to the public. In between investor meetings and the craziness of their first public launch, we were able to catch up and hear what the last year has been like for this growing startup.

Congratulations on launching your new platform! We’re really excited to see where Mosey is headed. Can you give folks some background on what Mosey is all about?

Mosey is our way of answering the question, “Hey, I’m coming to your town. What should I do?” It’s a place for people to create, share and experience their own custom adventures – created by friends for friends. Check us out at www.mosey.com.

People can use Mosey several ways:

Mosey can be “The best 4 hours in ‘your city’” –  a timeline of places and fun activities curated by your friends, travel experts or even local celebrities or brands.

Mosey can also be a library of custom curated experiences where you can find Moseys that your friends have posted or completed, or explore the best activities in an area. Search by city and filter on your interests – then you can save the Moseys you’re most interested in.

Mosey is also a network of people connecting to share local knowledge and their worldwide experiences. It’s a place to follow friends, brands you love, people that inspire you and local trendsetters. We want you to come share your epic night out or a relaxing weekend afternoon with the Mosey community.

It’s a cool and surprisingly useful concept. Can you tell us a little bit about how Mosey got started?

Sure, Mosey came out of a grad school project at the California College of the Arts MBA in Design Strategy program and then, after graduation, we joined up with the Mix & Stir Accelerator. We were very excited to find an incubator that understands and encourages the role design plays in the product creation process.

By the end of the MBA in Design Strategy program the Mosey team had an MVP that barely worked, but was an excellent talking point for our vision of what we wanted to create. We took that prototype to a much more functional level in the first month at Mix and Stir. The prototype allowed us to validate the behavior that was at the core of the product, but it didn’t allow us to do much else. We went from 0 to 1000 users pretty quickly and used the initial user base to help create the product you see today at www.mosey.com.

Mosey was part of Mix & Stir’s first summer program last summer – can you speak a little about what that experience was like for you and your team? 

We came into the Mix & Stir program weeks after completing the CCA MBA in Design Strategy program, and it was the perfect gel to keep the team together and working toward our vision of Mosey in the future. Without the organized Mix & Stir schedule and their timelines/deadlines, it would have been complicated to keep moving the process forward.

Mix & Stir also created critical relationships with Mosey advisors, legal resources and investors that would have been pain staking without the program’s leadership. Mix and Stir was our forcing function to get Mosey through the summer and the delicate steps of launching a prototype and listening intently to our customers.

You and the team have been working super hard this past year, what has surprised you most about what it’s taken to get Mosey to the point you are today? 

The most important element of our success now and in the near future are the relationships we have built. We have great relationships with organizations like SF Travel, The Bold Italic and The America’s Cup, all of which have lead to each other in some form. It is very important to realize that you must create a product that is not just beautiful and fun to use, but one that also generates significant value for the people and partners that use it. Because of the value that Mosey creates for our early partners, it is easy for us to build a long lasting relationship and easier for them to recommend and share Mosey with their friends, contacts, etc.

Looking back at all that’s happened this past year, what are the things you are most proud of?

Our First 500 users. Because of our team’s attention to design, detail and user experience, it was hard for our team to launch something that we were not incredibly proud of to start. We did anyway and we learned so much from the experience. It made us stronger, more intelligent and more aware of what we could do.

I’m also proud of how the team has morphed and changed over the course of the last year. We are now a full-time team of seven, but when we started Mix and Stir there was only one full-time member and the remaining 6 were still working other fulltime jobs. We all worked incredibly hard and took the leap of faith into doing Mosey full-time at the correct time for our role at Mosey, and to support the rest of the team.

It’s fantastic to see Mosey grow like this. Any advice for next class of founders? 

Learn to listen. If people are not responding to your message, it is not because they don’t get it. If people can’t tell the story of your product to someone else better than you can tell it to them, you need to change something. Also, know the difference between a friend nodding their head and someone that is truly excited about what you are doing, they are incredibly hard to decipher.

If you have something good, it will continue to gain momentum. Sometimes you need to take a step back and recognize how much momentum you’ve harnessed in such a short period of time, and celebrate the small wins.

Where is Mosey going from here? And what can people do to help? 

Get creative with how you use Mosey. We see the product as a platform for human creativity and story-telling and we are always amazed at how creative people can be with it. Also, sign-up for Mosey. Share Mosey with your friends. Oh, and make some Moseys!

Also, just reach out if you want to chat. It is important to take the time to talk with people because behind all of this technology it is still about people, and the best way to connect with people is by sitting down and chatting. We are always willing to take the time to do that, so don’t hesitate to reach out. You can follow us on Facebook, or find me at [email protected].

 

Vipul’s most recent initiative speaks to the scale of his vision. He co-founded Topsy Labs, which currently operates the world’s largest searchable index and analytics platform for Twitter and other social data. It’s an incredibly powerful platform, giving people and companies instant social insight on a global scale. Vipul likes to think big.

We recently got to catch up about life as a founder and where he sees opportunity in the future of big data.

You’ve had an amazing career so far. Prior to Topsy, you co-founded Cloudmark, now a leading technology provider to the world’s largest mobile and telecom companies, so you’ve had the chance to start and grow several successful companies. What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned in your experience as an entrepreneur?

Well, one of the most important lessons is teambuilding. When you start out, you can get from an idea to an early product by yourself – but getting from that early version to a business requires a team. That means finding talented people in areas that you know very little about. You get a great team and great things start happening automatically. That was a very important and surprising lesson for me.

My background was open source software and I worked independently a lot. When I started my first company, Cloudmark, we were able to turn it into a large business. It was the kind of people we brought in along the way that defined the shape of the business and what we could achieve.

The lesson learned for me was finding and recruiting people outside of my expertise. It’s simpler for me to recruit engineers because I am an engineer – but I had to recruit people for business development, sales and marketing. Those are very important roles when you’re building a business.

What particular qualities do you look for when you’re hiring for one of your companies now?

One of the most important things I look for is attitude. With startups, you’re running into problems on a daily basis and those problems can basically end your company. Finding people who have both the attitude and the motivation to overcome problems and find solutions is really important.

Another key item is competence. You want to find people who are very competent and love what they do. If they have a combination of those things: a great attitude and competence, that’s usually a good hire.

Sometimes it’s hard because you meet people who are very competent but don’t have the right attitude, or are have a great attitude but they don’t have the right competence and you have to pass on them. It’s something that took me a while to understand and conceptualize but I follow it religiously now.

Any other lessons you’ve learned along the way that new founders should be thinking about?

Yes, founders often neglect how their products will be distributed. It is arguably the most important aspect of business for a startup – even a sensationally useful product won’t distribute itself.  Sometimes it’s necessary to change the product to something that will distribute with less friction, for instance: to build in viral mechanics, or to command a price that justifies the advertising and marketing costs needed to acquire customers.

Distribution deserves a lot more of founders’ creative cycles compared to new product features in the early phase of the company, but new founders don’t often spend as much time there. If you nail distribution, a lot of other stuff will fall into place.  If you don’t, you’ll likely have to spend expensive dollars on it later or pivot your business.

Lastly – founders need to be obsessed. Obsession is critical.

Startups are fragile. They can fail in so many ways when they are young and it takes focus that borders on obsession to keep them going.  As a founder you’ll end up having very little life outside the startup in early days, so make sure this works for you. In my experience, obsessive founders tend to convert ideas into successful ventures.  There is a set of life philosophy that encourages life/work balance, I think this can be a trap. Just accept that you have to work a lot to get a new venture of the ground. You have the freedom to create what you want; create something you love where you can channel your obsessive energies.

Things are changing so fast in the field of real time data. Where do you see the big opportunities opening up right now?

There’s a massive opportunity in real time data and social data. Products can now enable hundreds of millions of consumers to create new data sets. If you look at Twitter, our index has 250 billion tweets in it, which were created by a community of 200 million people around the world. If you look at what it is, a mobile app has enabled this massive dataset to be created. Foursquare is another recent example, all this check in data was just indexes before. An app and a platform enabled the creation of this dataset.

I think there is a great opportunity for startups enabling communities of people to create large amounts of real time data for each other’s consumption. I think we’ll see creative ideas for solving problems and for enabling communications between people who generate large data sets.

Another area opportunity where Topsy plays is doing analytics on data sets and extracting insights. During the last five years, it has become possible to look at data in a massive scale. Storage is becoming cheaper, computing has become cheaper and there’s a lot more data available. You can look at data at a scale that is orders of magnitude larger than what was possible before. I see a class of entrepreneurs that can analyze this data, come up with new insights and build products on top of that.

There’s a lot of interesting work going on in an area called data integration – where you take multiple different data sources and connect them together to find new insights. As more different data sources become available, we’re going to see more and more payback there. For example, hedge funds are using the data from financial markets and combining it with data from social sources to get a new level of insight into what’s happening in this industry. Data integration is another big opportunity.

You mentioned financial markets as one industry with big opportunity. Are there other industries where you see big potential on the horizon?

There is a lot going on in enterprise marketing, especially sales and customer support. This is an area I am particularly close to. Across industries, big data has become an important concept in industries ranging from financial and economic sciences to medicine.

At Mix & Stir, we are always looking for companies that are bringing a design driven approach to technology.  Where do you see the integration of design and big data having the biggest impact?

From what I am seeing, combining data and design is really very new. We are starting to see early systems that are doing that – a lot of it is still in research and development. There should be some exciting products coming out in the next few years that take this R&D into new products. 

One good example is a company called ESRI that’s doing a lot of visualization with geographical data. They are doing some great work, in particular with geo-visualization. They have their own datasets and we’ve been working with them on social datasets. One of the things you can do with the combination of design and datasets is to take complex information and present it in a way that insights are easily accessible. The work they are doing is really very cool.

If you were a young entrepreneur starting your career now, how would you shape it?

Collaborative phenomenon, system networks collaboration, data analysis, artificial intelligence – I’d be very interested in focusing on those areas.

Mobile is definitely a place where I think there’s big opportunity. Five years from now, we will have amazing mobile apps. A lot of stuff that we do today on our computers, we will be doing on mobile – doing things differently and better. If I were to start a company today, there’s a very high chance it would be mobile.

I think mobile is a real democratization of computing platforms because more people have the devices. There are number of cool apps but there is such a huge opportunity. There is a huge opportunity in enterprise systems that are mobile friendly or designed with mobile in mind.

Thanks so much Vipul, this has been a great conversation! Any last words you want to send out to people considering their own startup right now?

Just do it – that’s my advice. It’s a great time for it. Mobile and social are great opportunities. There’s so much innovation happening, it feels like the early days of web. It feels like mobile is at the same place.

So many more people will have access to the products founders are building today. There are billions of devices. So many more people are connected compared to 10 years ago. It’s a really very exciting time to start a company.

Denise is captivating. She moves her hips effortlessly to the music, holding her upper body erect and confident. Her feet seem to manage themselves and even her skirt plays along, flirting with the edges of her frame. She exudes calm, adult sensuality that her dance partner accepts and amplifies. Denise is a designer who’s learned how to tango.

I could write a book on Denise’s journey toward the tango. How she managed corporate brands and marketing budgets for most of her career. How she decided this life didn’t belong to her. How she moved from place to place in search of the best tango teachers. But a book takes time and Denise has a more immediate and practical message for us.

As I review Denise’s updated portfolio I can see her transformation goes beyond dance. Her layouts are more sure. Her compositions more cohesive and clear. Her style is evident but not overpowering. Her work no longer seems forced or a result of “for hire” status; instead, it seems to be a natural expression of her life, a partner rather than a project. I ask her if learning to tango made her a better designer and entrepreneur. She considers the suggestion then admits that yes, dance influenced the way she works and how she approaches opportunities but what it really did was reveal her weaknesses. The habits and fears that initially hobbled her on the dance floor were the same tendencies that restrained her as a designer and entrepreneur. The lessons that helped overcome her fears on the dance floor are the same that improved her design practice:

1. Befriend your fear. In learning to dance, Denise explains, our fear is based on how we see our self. We imagine we are too clumsy, too fat, too stiff to share the floor with more elegant forms. Befriending our fear acknowledges that while our perceptions are probably correct, they don’t need to define our limits. We can believe we will become talented entrepreneurs even though we fear failure. Rather than trying to ignore or over-power fear, we can regard it as our somewhat overly-critical friend who pushes us beyond mediocre.

2. Join a community as a distinct individual. Tango requires adherence to a traditional structure. Everyone agrees on basic steps, named movements and a prescribed way of moving. They expect appropriateness, but not rote execution. In fact, the most noted dancer is he or she who best improvises within the given structure. The dancer with a subtle spark, a nuanced detail that telegraphs his or her unique interpretation of the traditional and adds a flourish of beauty is the one who earns the audience’s approval. Business communities are no different. Collaboration is chaotic without scope, process and other structures. However, we can learn the “shared language” without becoming a stripped-down version of ourselves.

3. Choose your leaders. With each new partner, Denise exposes herself to an unknown, personally intimate situation which could become transcendent or bumbling. Because of this potential, Denise carefully studies potential partners and consciously chooses her leads. As designers and entrepreneurs, we don’t always have this option but it’s worth seeking. Denise notes that a good leader never forces a follower. They invite and make suggestions. They allow the follower to express herself and add her own style. They understand the context and avoid putting a follower in harm’s way. A good leader never forgets the importance of the follower.

4. Collaborate from your center. The tango can’t be danced alone. Its art lies in the dancer’s connection with a partner, the music, the other dancers. The better the connection is, the more profound and beautiful the resulting performance. To create this connection, Denise needs to be herself, without artifice. She needs to be open and sensitive to a partner’s cues, understanding and accepting his interpretation of the music and its audience and recognizing how and where to blend her own distinctions. The relationship to business collaboration is clear: connect authentically and seek to blend, not bend.

5. “Dance” with your competition. Tango is a social dance. Dancers move counterclockwise around the dance floor and the resulting performance is part self, part partner, part collective. This co-creation dissolves if a couple tries to stand out too much or focuses intensely on besting their neighbors. Since the dance is a collaborative and spontaneous act of creativity, other dancers are a continual source of inspiration. To view competitors only as adversaries is to ignore much of what they have to offer.

I don’t know if or when I will learn to tango, but I have already applied Denise’s guidelines to my work. Whether or not this makes me more successful is almost ancillary. Following this counsel makes my work more enjoyable. I see each day as a chance to learn more steps, find great partners, explore new moves and join communities in co-creating a shared performance. I may even be a better dancer.

German, your skills seem to cross several disciplines: architecture, interaction and urban design. What do you see as the commonalities these disciplines share and what attracts you to them?

All three of these disciplines deal with the built environment and the people that inhabit them, be it at the product, building or urban scale. I would say that at the core of each discipline lies design, technology and user experience. In architecture, an architect designs the spatial experience of its occupants. In interaction design, an interactive designer, designs the user experience of a product or software and in urban design an urban designer designs how a city inhabitant experiences their city. It is through the design of these experiences that we are able to create better places to live, work and play.

What attracts me most to these disciplines is their ability to change the way that people behave, understand and inhabit our physical spaces. I am most passionate about exploring emerging technologies that allow us to drive these changes and make better, more informed decisions that affect our built environment.

As a relatively young techie with exposure to some of the hottest topics around, what emerging trends or developments seem most promising to you?

Top of my list is big data and infinite computing. Today, data is being captured at growing rates. Sensors are being embedded in many places: in cars, appliances, cameras, roads, pipelines, medicine and even livestock. We are now generating zetabytes – or a billion trillion bytes of information – every year and that number is only growing. These large datasets offer the opportunity for an analyst to begin to spot business trends, combat crime and even prevent diseases.

Simultaneously, computing is becoming more powerful, accessible and cheaper; it is the cheapest assets you can apply to any problem. Computing, unlike humans, can be scaled and can be considered to be an infinite resource. Additionally, computing is becoming ubiquitous allowing us to leverage the amount of computing power everywhere we go through smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Together big data and infinite computing offers great potential for planners, architects, designers, city officials, city inhabitants and businesses to make better more informed decisions related to our built environment and business processes.

I know you have a personal passion for envisioning future cities. If you had the power to instantly transform SF to its future self, what would you make happen?

I would transform San Francisco into a city driven by real-time digital data, systems and networks. The city would sit on a platform in which new ideas could be tested, refined and implemented. This platform would allow for citizen input through social media and serve as a test bed for future cities worldwide. Ideas related to zero net energy and negative energy for reducing carbon emissions and dependency on fossil fuels would be integrated. Each building would have a roof garden that could produce enough food to feed its inhabitants. High-speed rail and mobility on demand would be the norm. The city of San Francisco would be interconnected, sustainable and continuously innovative.

Brenda, you’re a Silicon Valley design pioneer with more perspective than most. What industry changes have most surprised you?

What’s most surprised me was the web. I’m sure that many folks take it for granted that it was “natural evolution” for the web to appear. But when I first started working in Silicon Valley, it was the days of “standards committees” who were in charge of plotting the development of various key protocols and technical developments. Tech companies sent representatives to standard committees where they would debate – slowly and deliberately – how a thing should be constructed, standardized, used. These were cumbersome entities – often with subsurface competitive agendas – that were unlikely to permit anything as free-flowing as the web.

What allowed the web to happen is the tremendous ability of technology to support emergence. If standards committees had tried to design the web, they would still be working on it. Instead, it emerged naturally and quickly, fueled by human ingenuity both from users and entrepreneurs. For example, the development of search engines was a key entrepreneurial ingredient, and later, the rise of social networks owed a lot to users and developers who paid attention to them. For example, “Habitat” was a game that came out of Lucasfilm in the late-80s. Habitat was embodied characters with speech bubbles. Sort of a mix of social network and multiplayer game. You can draw a line from the emergence of Habitat and other early social networks all the way to FaceBook.

If you were a 20-something entrepreneur with a passion for change, where would you apply your energies? What partnerships would you seek out?

To me, the health of the planet trumps all, but there are many ways to participate: the sustainability movement, social entrepreneurship, information literacy, improved agricultural methods, creation of sensor networks – all are important and can work.

I’m particularly interested in Sean White’s work in distributed sensor networks and Deborah Estrin’s work in participatory sensing – using the eyes, ears and consciousness of people to collect data about the planet and share it through the internet. This approach has great promise to make the large view visible to us. It also can serve one day as a unifying platform, bringing together organizations like NOAA, Surfriders Foundation, National Geographic and other so that the movement strengthen models and create impacts. I see it as similar to citizen journalism or distributed computing power that is being applied to problems to big to solve by any other means (protein folding, SETI, epidemiology). Once this catches on, our awareness is bound to change and our behavior will follow suit.

I know you have a personal passion for the resonance and relevance of natural interfaces. Can you explain why you think this is important for the technology industry to understand?

It’s kind of philosophical. Look back to Copernicus or Galileo – their inventions are now celebrated and seen as extensions of human capability. But something happened in last 50 years of computing to change that. Now our response to invention is often more fear-based. We worry “what if computer’s take over?” I think of this as the “other-ing” of technology – we’ve tried to divorce ourselves from it.

But our tools are us. They are extrusions of our minds and our bodies. Generally, they do what we design them to do. If you say you’re afraid technology will allow children to see the wrong things on web, well, it’s not technology’s fault there are “wrong” things on the web that are accessible to children, its our fault. If you call it a “tech problem,” its hard to solve because you can blame something that has no agency.

I think a lot of invention – as well as ethical responsibility – is being stifled by this kind of fear and “othering.” To the extent that we can design applications and interfaces that allow us to collaborate with tech as an extension of ourselves it lets us do bold things and it allows us to look at the consequences of what we do. Again, like the sensor networks, this perspective can create a change of consciousness.

Strangely, we are as “othered” from nature as we are from technology these days. The more we can find ways to engage people in nature, to connect them with it, the more we’ll be motivated to improve the health of the planet and enhance engagement in science. There’s a few notable examples popping up like Star Walk that lets you explore the universe through your iPhone or iPad. Another good example is Smart Gardener, a web application that looks deeply at plants and the environment, then uses that information to help people create better food gardens. As we make urban gardening normative we change culture. I’m all in favor of ideas and methods that make fast, effective changes in the way we view and care for ourselves, our communities and our planet.

Tom LaForge, our newest Mix & Stir mentor, brings a unique and seasoned perspective on cultural and consumer trends. He shares his insights on what’s really shaping the world of 2020:

Tom, your job as Global Director of Human & Cultural Insights for Coca-Cola seems like a daunting role. The world is a big place and change is happening at break-neck speed. How do you decide where to focus and what to track?

There’s a team of us working on this, but you’re right, it’s still a daunting task so we focus on insights we believe are most relevant to predicting the world of 2020. It goes something like this: we start with macroforces – large long-term global changes that are easy to predict because they are already happening and there is no stopping them. For example, we can confidentially predict that the world is becoming more interconnected; its population is becoming wealthier; physical tasks will continue to be offloaded to machines and transactional processing to computers; and civil society will increase in power relative to governments and corporations. We know, with a very high degree of certainty that these macroforces will continue to shape the future environment.

This matters because when environments change, people change their behaviors, attitudes and even their values. This is where it gets interesting. When large groups of people change in the same way we call these “people trends.” A few notable “people trends” we currently see happening are the rising value of design, the increasing influence of women, calls for social and environmental justice and an increasing focus on happiness and wellbeing. “People trends” are powerful. They drive business trends, NGO trends, and consumer trends. When we see a product, an idea or a new usage pattern that is the result of people changing their behaviors, attitudes or values due to an immutable macroforce, then we have a high degree of confidence that it’s not simply a “fad” – it’s very likely to be a part of the world of 2020.

If you were a twenty-something entrepreneur with a thirst for being at the leading edge of cultural change, where would you travel and what would you seek?

We can start by asking “Are some cultures more influential than others?” and “Since all cultures are exposed to all others, doesn’t it make sense that they would share similarities we could call a global culture?” A good place to find the answers to these questions is with Richard Florida’s work. He’s ranked cities based on their global cultural influence. The strongest ones are easy to intuit: New York, London, Tokyo, etc. But to develop a deeper list, Florida deduced the qualities that make for a culturally influential city – things like a multiplicity of ethnicities, lifestyles and income levels. Places with this type of diversity thrive, particularly when accompanied by an attitude of openness to new ideas and, importantly, a city structure that causes people with different talents, worldviews, and ideas to randomly come across each other. The Bay Area is a great example with its sea port, three international airports, multiple world class universities, a thriving gay or otherwise bohemian/alternative community, and several different ethnicities. All this brings educated, talented, open-minded people from around the world crashing together in unexpected ways.

Ironically, despite the heightened importance of a global sensibility, we don’t need to travel far to study its leading edge. For the first time in history we have a sizable cultural subgroup dispersed across the entire planet. We do not really have a good name for this subgroup yet but we can easily describe them. Think of the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ad campaign. The Mac Guy is a perfect archetype for this global subgroup. These people tend to be educated, to be highly digital, and to exhibit the qualities Dan Pink mentioned in his book A Whole New Mind – things like design savvy, playfulness, storytelling ability, empathy, a penchant for meaningfulness, and the ability to comfortably see the patterns in complex sets of disparate data. No travel is needed to study this subgroup because they are very likely in your own backyard. And if you are indeed a twenty-something entrepreneur with a thirst for being at the leading edge of cultural change then you are very likely one of these people.

You grew up in Palo Alto when Silicon Valley was in its infancy. What’s surprised you the most about the development of consumer technology?

Consider how amazing it is that today we so unthinkingly and naturally link these two worlds together – “consumer” and “technology.” Technology used to be what astronauts, scientists and business people had. Even once it started to cross over, for a long time, consumer technology was just reapplied, stripped down, professional stuff. Your “home” computer was essentially an underpowered version of your work computer.

What surprised me most about the development of true consumer technology is that we first thought it was all about devices. But with every version of DOS, every version of ZORK and other videogames, every “Remain in Light” cassette or other song, it quickly became apparent that the media was where the action was. Devices understandably distracted us. After all, they were sexy, new-to-the-world objects of desire at a time when status symbols were highly coveted, but media provided a rich, multiplicity of immersive consumer experiences and we began to realize that Mark Weiser was right – devices serve best as quiet, invisible servants. In the end, experiences are all that matter.

Footnote: my dad was attending Stanford in the early 1960s seeking a degree in architecture. A company called International Business Machines needed people to help create some new stuff called “source code” for something called a “computer.” They tested a lot of Stanford students for logical thinking and advanced numeracy. My dad scored well enough to be recruited pre-degree into one of the earliest cohorts of computer programmers. Although my job title might not suggest it, I am very proud to be a second-generation nerd.

Clement Mok, an award winning designer, digital pioneer, software publisher, app developer, author, and design patent holder, is one of Mix & Stir Studio’s highly experienced mentors. We treasure his perspective on digital design –  see why:

Clement, you’ve been at the forefront of design innovation in Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area since the early 80′s. Given your perspective, what changes or developments do you think are most significant now?

Every aspect of how we learn, play and communicate has been reinvented during the 30 years of my Silicon Valley career. The transformation of each of these domains started in small personal ways, with tools and devices that empowered individuals. Initially – in the ‘80s -  digital design was D.I.Y. Anyone who was ready and willing could use the new technologies to put words, pictures, sound and moving images together. I’m not so sure the result was really design. The emphasis was on the new tools and practitioners used them to get cheaper and faster.

Next came the Internet and it created and enabled individuals, communities and businesses to connect to markets and conduct commerce. During this period – the mid 90’s – there was a distinct shift in Silicon Valley and an understanding that design was not simply about how something looked but also how it worked. Design made digital storefronts or websites more “brand” relevant and differentiated. Design helped to engage and retain visitors. In short, digital design became the means of crafting an experience and as such, design became a more integrated partner of technology.

The changes now are grounded in social and cultural values or bias. Social and cultural issues are mashing with technology not only to create new experiences, products and services but also to spead viewpoints and calls to action at lightning speed, effecting change on a major level. Digital media is entering its maturing stage… or adulthood if we want to stretch the analogy. We have a generation of people raised in a digital world. We have the Infrastructure and most importantly we have a market that can support and sustain growth and build an economy. At this point, design truly has a seat at the table. There are no technical constraints. Constraints are only the imaginary kind and human capital.

If you were a 20-something designer/entrepreneur looking to make a name for yourself over the next 5 years or so, what market needs or concepts would you be exploring?

I would definitely explore publishing. The economic model for publishing is collapsing. Media ownership and consumption patterns, as well as readership and subscription models are turned upside down with the advent of the Kindle and the iPad. The publishing houses are scrambling to reinvent their business models by reworking their assets on these new platforms when they should be reinventing the experience. What should the experience be when someone wants to study the works of Charles Dickens or understand how Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species came into being. How does social fit into this? How do you share that experience? What is being shared? Should it be a game? Or why shouldn’t it be a game?

I would also explore data-mining services. Say what? I know, odd coming from a designer, but in a world where terabytes of information are created every second, sense-making of data is a multi-billion dollar business — currently controlled and visualized primarily by data jocks. Data visualization for the rest of us can be an interesting area to play. Repackaging data and applying it to industries or issues could present interesting possibilities: food source mapping, bio-metrics, nutrition monitoring…the list is endless.

Distance learning is another area I would explore. Technology is now making it possible to access information any place and any time. Look at the success, the Kahn academy is having and rise of crowd-sourced material. Can you build platforms for different niches beyond what YouTube provides?

Startups throughout Silicon Valley and SF are hiring designers to be co-founders – not simply to create the interface but to help direct the strategy. Why do you think designers have become the new “hot” hire?

Designers by training are taught to see things that are not there – the space between things. Social and cultural change requires social science not rocket science. So why not bring on sociologist instead of designers to be co-founders? They are and they have. But it requires a designer to translate and give form to the insight provided by the sociologist.

As we’ve moved into the socially and culturally driven phase of technology development, it’s now difficult for an engineer to write code without the soft-science of design and branding. It’s no longer exclusively about clever algorithms or new technical capabilities: It’s about expressing behavioral and psychological insights and designers are typically the most equipped to do this.

You have many designer/entrepreneurs seeking your advice on their startups. What do you find is the most common mistake they make in the early stages of development?

It’s their analysis of the market and window of opportunity. Sure the product is designed or engineered better, but they fail to see how difficult it will be to market the product and services. Market conditions change in 30-day cycles. It’s critical to move fast, smart and flexibly. It’s easier to give this advice and see this issue when you are an observer. It’s harder when you are knee deep in it. I am not immune to this blind spot myself when I’m a founder.

Nathan Shedroff, Chair, CCA Design MBA Program

Nathan Shedroff, Chair of California College of the Arts DMBA program, is one of Mix & Stir Studio’s highly experienced mentors. We interrupted his crazy schedule with a few questions:

Nathan, you started the MBA program in Design Strategy (DMBA) with a vision that integrated design and systems thinking, design-driven innovation, a real connection with the customer and a commitment to sustainability.

You argued – quite accurately it turns out – that a company could no longer be successful without this integration, and you’ve made it a guiding principle of the DBMA’s curriculum and teaching. My guess is you are still seeing ahead of the curve. What do you see emerging as the next contribution of design to a successful business?

The integration we originally identified as key continues to evolve. I wouldn’t say there’s a quantum change coming – rather we are accelerating at a faster pace than I originally thought possible. Focusing on where I see the greatest impact, I’d point to three areas:

1) Our organizations now must grow and change continually just to keep up. As a consequence, we all need to learn and adapt continually. Designers learn best in the context of doing or connecting. To put it succinctly, for designers and anyone emulating their process, make is the new think. For example, design research doesn’t just study and think about users. It integrates designers and users in a process of prototyping, testing, communicating and iterating. We make the connection to users; we make prototypes and encourage their feedback; we make iterations and revisions and seek more information and connection.

2) It’s no longer enough to merely be profitable (though that’s certainly necessary). We’ve come to realize that most students, employees, communities, and other stakeholders aren’t fulfilled by money alone. In fact – not to go “Tea Party” on you – but when our Founding Fathers created the country, they specifically required businesses to serve a social mission. That’s why corporations are required to be chartered from the government. The rapidly growing interest in social entrepreneurship is really a return to the role of business our Founders envisioned. It’s also turns out to be a better way to live and work – and one that is uniquely American. Again, in short social good is successful.

3) Finally, integration underscores that leadership isn’t just authority. Great leaders clearly communicate a vision that others can understand and want to follow. They unite people of different mindsets and skills to work together for a common goal with shared attribution. The design world hasn’t completely acknowledged this – we still have self-important gurus running around dictating to others and taking the lion’s share of credit for a team’s success. But, I have to say, this is changing very quickly, particularly among young designers. To push it even further, we need to develop better collaboration tools. We also need to convert or replace the people in leadership positions who persist with an industrial age perspective that has already lost its relevance. When you start seeing designers regularly added to large corporate boards, you’ll know the transition is complete.

Mix & Stir has enjoyed working with the SF mayor’s office of innovation on several recent “unhackathons” hosted at CCA. They’ve spoken highly of their experience with the college’s design students. Why do you think government agencies are finding the design process beneficial?

The design process emphasizes uncovering customer needs (instead of solutions), reframing the challenge in the face of these needs, and prototyping or iterating until everyone is satisfied with the results. The design process isn’t afraid of modest failures in service of incredibly better results. If you have a tighter budget and less time – like most government agencies – this process can deliver real, relevant and valued innovation.

Government agencies – particularly cities – are aware that they must integrate technology into their processes and connections to citizens. Technology is a great enabler yet over 90% of startups fail. They fail not because of poor technology but because of poor a user experience. Design is a highly effective mediator between technological possibilities, business realities and what actually fits into people’s lives. Governments around the world are discovering that design can help introduce new technology-based services to a populace that might be suspicious, resistant or highly diverse. Design can help governments look like heroes instead of bozos.

Startups throughout Silicon Valley and SF are hiring designers to be co-founders – not simply to create the interface but to help direct the strategy. You’ve worked in this environment for a long time – why do you think designers have become the new “hot” hire?

Designers have a high tolerance for ambiguity – almost as much as poets and artists. Most engineers and business people don’t. In addition, designers are model-makers and “divergers,” whereas most others in an organization are model-followers and “convergers.” Designers aren’t a panacea but we represent skills, perspectives and processes that can get at important issues not uncovered in other ways. Design thinking isn’t a process to, necessarily, use when the way forward is obvious and clear. It excels, however, when all you have is a blank piece of paper, you don’t even know what the question is yet, or all of the data self-cancels and it seems like nothing will work. That’s a reasonably good definition of most startups.

Thanks, Nathan. Provocative, insightful and fun as always!

We love ideation sessions. The more post-its the better. We just insist all the ideas relate to real people, real pain points or real desires. Here’s a few we think are begging to be addressed:

We have devices that can capture our every location, photo, text and mood state but that data remains hard to aggregate, review or act on. We may desperately want to know how much we’re working, how many calories we eat, how many miles we’re gone, or how many people we’ve met, but pulling all that data together is mind-numbingly difficult. Yet some are doing just that. We think they’re living in the future. To meet them, attend any meetup of the rapidly growing and globally distributed Quantified Self community.

Students are paying for high priced college degrees in greater numbers, yet have only anecdotal information on how that degree will benefit them in the future. Usually when a purchase price is in the thousands, evaluative tools and databases abound. There’s nearly 18 million US post secondary students hoping to benefit tomorrow from their choices today. But so far no  Trulia or Trip Advisor for career paths.

If we want tickets to the next giant global tour, a few clicks will secure our seat, but if we want to know what local event is happening around the block, the local print news is often the only choice (Pew). A large market awaits the app that provides a cheap, easy and highly local answer to the perennial question: “What should we do today?”

Despite their desire to be forever young, Baby Boomers are going to die. All 70 million of them. Most within the next 20 years. They aren’t going to think about this until the last possible minute, but their needs for remembrance, continued online presence (or not) and a novel send off could fuel a fleet of new companies. Eventually someone will figure out how to make this inevitable conclusion seem more like a great movie ending than a large hole in the ground.

We’ll end on that sobering note but we’ll be back soon with some potent ingredients a startup might want to consider.