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KP Unpacked
Join serial entrepreneur KP Reddy for conversations and discussions around innovation, technology trends, and AI for startup founders, innovation catalysts & investors focused on the built environment (and beyond!)
KP Unpacked
Startup Dreams & Family Life
In today's episode, we're reminded that the entrepreneurial path is not just about ambition and achievement, but the delicate balance with family life. KP pulls back the curtain on the emotional toll of chasing a dream, offering a lifeline of advice from his book "Everything You Know About Startups Is Wrong" to fellow founders and their partners sailing the choppy seas of startup culture.
This week, we're also taking a page out of KP's own storybook of success, from personal journals to published author, charting a course that's both inspiring and instructive. His upcoming release "Creating the Intangible Enterprise: How to Thrive in an AI-Driven Future" positions him as the vanguard of our technologically-transforming world, bringing a human touch to the conversation on AI and robotics. KP challenges the trope of entrepreneurship being solely for the family's sake, sparking an introspective debate on the inner motivations that fuel a founder's fire. Join us for this journey, as we explore the art of weaving together the threads of personal ambition, family ties, and the relentless pace of innovation.
Want more discussions like this? You can connect with KP Reddy at https://kpreddy.co/ and follow him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kpreddy/!
You are listening to KP Unpacked with KP Ready, a weekly dose of insights for innovators and startups from the built environment and beyond. Want more discussions like this? You can connect with KP Ready today at kpreadyco that's K-P-R-E-D-D-Y dot co. And additionally follow him on LinkedIn at wwwlinkedincom. Slash I-N slash KP Ready. Again, that's spelled K-P-R-E-D-D-Y.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome back to KP Ready Unpacked. This is my opportunity to sit down with KP Ready, the CEO and founder of Shadow Ventures and Shadow Partners, to ask him hey, KP, when you posted that on LinkedIn, what were you thinking? What inspired that? What was going through your head? What was the reason behind that story that you just told, maybe on LinkedIn, If we've never met before. My name is Jeff Eccles, I'm a senior advisor, head of marketing at Shadow Partners and, as always, I'm joined by KP Reddy. Hi, KP, hey.
Speaker 3:Jeff, how's it going?
Speaker 2:It is going well. I am looking forward to unpacking this post today, as we're recording this. You posted this a couple of days ago, so probably about April 8th, and one of the things that intrigues me about this you talk about Sunday Scaries and I'll read the whole post here in a second. But you talk about Sunday Scaries. We've covered Sunday Scaries before that's become a new series for you. But what's also interesting about this post is that it connects with one of your your earlier books. You've got a new book coming out. Uh, april 30th I believe it's going to hit, you know, whatever book's hitting out bookshelves, bookshelves, check it out in your public library there are these things called books.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of paper bound together. Yeah, so April 30th it'll be bound together and it'll land on bookshelves everywhere. But the book that this post that we're going to talk about really speaks to is one of your earlier books. Everything you Know About Startups Is Wrong, so I find that intriguing. It's got a lot of ties to with everything that goes on in our community, in our ecosystem, so let me start by reading it and then we can unpack it. So it starts out this week's Sunday Scaries, I decided to let my 23-month-old son sleep on me for his nap instead of putting him in his bed while I write this.
Speaker 2:It's very easy to forget our why as entrepreneurs. The narrative of doing things for our family as an entrepreneur has been widely overstated. The reality is that to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be pretty selfish. It's your vision and your dream. Your family is along for the ride, and the best case is that you stay connected enough that they are able to hold on. The work-life balance principles do not apply.
Speaker 2:I have found myself giving away more copies of my book what you Know About Startups Is Wrong to spouses and significant others of founders than actually two founders. Why? Because I think that founders are rooted in optimism and that is the fuel for their growth. A life partner or family can sign up for that optimism and be supportive quite blindly. My book helps them understand the downsides. So on this, gary Sunday, as we prepare to be Warriors of the Week, I'll be in New York City teaching at Columbia and NYU, while having 13 meetings and hosting a happy hour. You know a light week. Hug your kids and your significant others. They will never truly understand your condition as a founder. It's not their job to do so. They can't hold on alone. That's your job. Have a great week. So that's a very personal post, a very heartfelt post, and it's rooted in a lot of years of experience and earned wisdom. So how do we unpack this particular post? So how do we unpack this particular post?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think you know one of the things I keep a copy of my book with me, not because of ego, because of any of that. I think you write things at a point in time, at a point of clarity, and for me, a lot of my writings are like my compass, my North Star of how I want I want to live my life, so to speak, and my book is definitely one of those. Um, there's no tips and tricks and how to do a pitch deck, like it's none of that, it's it's a very personal um book and I think I carry it around to remind myself, like about my compass and north star, because, um, there's things I do that my wife will even catch like, hey, that's funny, because that's the exact opposite of what you told people in your book. And I'm like, oh man, like you're right, you got me, you know. So I think I was sitting there with my son going. You know I can put him down and go do work, go crank out a LinkedIn post, go do whatever it is I do on a Sunday. Or I can just sit here with him and quote unquote spoil him which you can never spoil a 23 month old baby, really and just kind of, you know. So I was just kind of thinking and I was. I was kind of thinking about, like you know, and I was always kind of thinking about, like you know, hey, I'm going to hang on to this kid for his entire nap which is two to three hours and not really, you know and get some quality time with him at least in this way, you know, and just really realizing, like God, like you know, I need to go read parts of my book again, you know, like I forgot right, and, and you know, and everybody, I am on the road constantly, which means I'm away from my family constantly.
Speaker 3:And I think the part to take for granted is as a founder. It's like, well, you know, they signed up for this, like we talked about it, here's what we were going to do, and it was gonna be a bit of a rough go at the beginning and, and I think this idea that like, well, you know, your spouse knows what they signed up for, that is 100% true. If you've been honest and authentic, they, you know, and if they read my book, they know exactly what they're getting into, right. However, that doesn't mean you don't have a part to making it easier for them. You know, and I think that's the whole point, I think the image I posted was from the movie Cliffhanger from Sylvester Stallone, where he's like holding on to a line, you know, with his legs, and he's holding on to a person that's falling line, you know, with his legs, and he's holding on to a person that's falling Right.
Speaker 3:So it's like, while we're hanging on to our business, using most of our body strength to hold up our business and do the things that we need to do, it's not just for the other person to hold on to us. And we we got it. We got to hold on to them. And even though everybody, you know, hopefully people have been honest with their significant others and family and everybody's gone into this journey eyes wide open, it doesn't mean that you don't have a role to continue to support your family and and and hold them. Hold on to them while you're moving along. And I think, um, it's, it's a really tough thing for founders, um, because literally, sometimes you get in this mindset which, oh, if I don't respond to this email this afternoon, I mean the world will come to an end.
Speaker 3:And, honestly, I've been in a situation where that has been the case. If I didn't get some back to somebody, a contract wasn't going to get done and they were going on vacation and you know, whatever, it was a purchasing cycle, so they had to get the PO to me. Going on vacation and you know, whatever it was a purchasing cycle, so they had to get the po to me by a certain time, otherwise it was going to the next quarter. You know, I mean there are significant issues that, um, that two or three emails that afternoon could make or break the company, uh, and there are situations like that, and so it doesn't mean that, um, you know you can't procrastinate some of that stuff and you have to do it. It just means you need to acknowledge like, hey, I need to go handle this right now and I still do it. Right, I'm still kind of in the grind, right, you get Slack messages from me Saturday, sunday, two in the morning, whatever, you know, that's just what it is, but I just felt like it was a good time. Whatever, you know, that's just what it is, but I just felt like it was a good time.
Speaker 3:You know, as much as one writes for others to share information. Quote unquote wisdom I guess I can call it wisdom because I have a gray beard, but it's as much for you. You know, it's as much for me for me. For me, it's just as much writing these LinkedIn posts. Sometimes it's as much for me, for me. For me, it's just as much writing these LinkedIn posts. Sometimes it's cathartic for me to get stuff out of my brain and onto a piece of paper and then my piece of paper happens to be LinkedIn and I like to think that I'm transparent enough and then, hopefully, you know, it's one of these things where if one person gets value out of it, it's worth it, right?
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Speaker 2:Visit wwwjetbuild and get started today. Yeah, that's the important thing. When I used to speak from stage a lot that was always my mantra. There's one person in this room that needs to hear what I'm, what I have to say, and that's enough.
Speaker 2:Um, I think you know, as you're talking about that, you know we we've got a lot of things going on. Obviously. We've got the startup incubator. We just had a virtual pitch for the last cohort a couple of weeks ago. We're taking applications now for the next cohort, which is going to kick off this evergreen situation where we're always running.
Speaker 2:So we see lots and lots of founders and you interview, you talk to lots and lots of founders and you interview you. You talk to lots and lots of founders. You hear pitches every week. Um, you host the thing called the founder circle in the network as well, in the catalyst network, which is which is kind of funny, because I think when we kick that off, I think there is maybe this perception it's like oh, kp is going to talk about you know how to start or how to pitch, or how to you know whatever, right, some of these logistical or technical how to things.
Speaker 2:But you've really approached that and, I think, in a very similar way to what you're talking about here is this is the life of the founder. Let's talk about what it's like to be a founder, not, you know, your pitch deck, etc. And one of the things I know, from my own experience too, is that, um, as much as we go into things eyes wide open, we have no idea. Right, there's, you know, the what's the mike tyson quote everybody has a plan to get punched in the face, yeah, yeah, and so you go into it. Why eyes wide open? You go into it open and authentic, and all that and communicating with your family, your significant other, whoever it is. But but things change and so that has to continue. So, for all of those reasons and all the things that we have going on, I love this, I love this approach, and I also wonder how many people know that KP has this other book called what you know about startups is wrong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know it's funny, I give away so many copies of you know it's funny. People like friends, mom, like hey, like you know you got a new book coming out. I guess you're gonna be making a lot of money. I'm like, if only, like if only you make money off of books. You don't make money off of books information. It's a great way for me to synthesize my thoughts and thinking. In fact, my book what you Know About Startups is Wrong actually was a journal that I was keeping for my kids.
Speaker 3:My dad died when I was 15. So I've been literally kind of on my own making my way since I was 15 years old, you know, including for a while I had to do a stint where I lived out of my car, like it's just. It was a tough time. But I realized, as my kids were getting older you know no, when you, when your dad dies young, you kind of perceive you're like I'm going to be lucky if I make it as old as he was, right, kind of thing. And so I started taking lots of notes of all the wisdom I wish my dad was around to share with me, and so that's how it started off, and then I showed it to a friend of mine and, um, she, I was like, hey, just like read this, like my, this is like the words of a madman, just like read it. And then I meet up with her. She's like dude, I cried all night like this is like this, you killed me with this. And so I was like I was like cool, you know, like okay, she's like you have to turn this into a book. And I was like you want me to put my stuff out there in front of her? She's like I wouldn't take your journal and turn it into a book, but there's a lot of good stuff in here that everyone needs to hear. And you, you know, at that point there was that, you know, you know rise and grind type culture, you know everybody's grinding kind of thing. And so she thought it was super relevant with what was going on, you know, at the time, and so that's why I turned it into a book.
Speaker 3:It was really like something very personal that I put together to share with people, and I've had CEOs of very large firms tell me like I don't know why you call it like what you know about startups is wrong. It kind of applies to everybody, you know, whether I'm the CEO of a $2 billion company or I'm a founder. You know one person founder, and so I thought that was always interesting. I think I just had.
Speaker 3:You know, my binary thinking is startup founders grind. Ceos of $2 billion companies play golf, like you know. It's that kind of thing, and so I had a lot of feedback by executives saying like I don't know why you said it's startups, this applies to everyone. So so, yeah, so it's. It's always fun, you know when, especially coming off finishing, you know, the last year writing my new book. It's nice to kind of almost be nostalgic around my old book, but know that it's still working for me right, know that I'm still going back to it and I'm still using it as that North Star for me. I'd like to think people can glean points in it to create their own north star, but it's been really helpful for me so I think that.
Speaker 2:I think that's really interesting juxtaposition. So your new book um again out april 30th. What's the title of the new book?
Speaker 3:um creating the intel and the intangible organization. Intangible enterprise how to thrive in an AI-driven future.
Speaker 2:So business, talk, right, business, the speed of change, emerging technology, the explosion of AI, et cetera. And what I think is interesting about that juxtaposition is I know that there are people out there they're so focused on oh my gosh, ai, generative AI, whatever, whatever the emerging technologies are that they want to focus on. We talked quite a while yesterday in one of the mastermind groups about robotics in AEC, and there are plenty of people out there that are so focused on that change that they're going to say, well, yeah, you wrote that book, the other book you wrote. What you know about startups is wrong. You wrote that in a time before AI, right?
Speaker 2:So are you going to update the book post AI, which I think is't to me and I'm not to be clear, I've not heard anybody actually ask this question. I think it's an interesting idea, but I also think that you're that what you're going to say is that, yes, everything is changing, but not much is changing related to you know what we where we started out talking about this post. Yeah, it's funny you say that I've had several people you know what we where we started out talking about this post.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's funny you say that I've had several people. You know, um, my last book is now five years old and my book before that is 11 years old, 12 years old. And so I've been asked like, hey, are you going to do an update, especially with the startups book? You know I have a whole chock full of new stories to add to it. So they're like, hey, you should do a update, especially with the startups book. You know I have a whole chock full of new stories to add to it. So like, hey, you should do a second edition and add, you know, because my, you know, I keep, I keep living and I keep experiencing.
Speaker 3:So there's, there's new things, right, trials and tribulations, um, but you know that my my latest book. You know, like, stylistically, I just share a lot of stories, it's a lot of storytelling, because I found that the more I can personalize you know, I'm an open book in most ways, not in all ways, but in most ways and I've just found that if I can put everything through my lens of my life and my story and my experiences, people kind of get it.
Speaker 3:You know, they get they may disagree with it, but nobody can disagree with your own life experience, like that's what I experience. You may disagree with my experience because you didn't experience it, and so what I've really tried to do in the new book is really weave my life stories Having been working in AI for almost 13 years, like it's not. It's not a new thing. There's definitely like things are accelerated, obviously, but there's a lot of patterns and experiences I've had around the feelings that people are having with AI. You know I'm not an expert. You know, don't ask me to write code type of thing. Someone else will have to rewrite whatever code I write, right, so it's not about that.
Speaker 3:I think the visceral feelings that people are experiencing in this age of AI, I have felt before. I feel them. I felt them, I know what those are no-transcript and here's how those outcomes worked out and here's how people I've talked to have experienced those feelings. So, as much as like you know, it's so funny. When I wrote my startups book, people were like hey, like it was not what I. I mean I loved it. It's not what I expected. I thought it was going to be pitch decks and how to pitch a VC and tips and tricks and it was like none of that. And I think if people think my AI book is going to be about AI like they don't get me it's not going to be. It's about AI, but it's much more about how do we process these visceral feelings we're having into tangible actions to thrive.
Speaker 2:So that's the sound bite you get sound bite if you click your heels together three times and say ai it's wild.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've been at, like you know, these students in NYU the day before yesterday. That's all we're talking about. Like you know, ai. I mean, look, there's a reason why people are talking about it. I think I had another post. I was like the reason people are talking. Like if you're tired of hearing about AI, you're tired of hearing about ai. You were probably tired of hearing hearing about taylor swift yeah, yeah but you can't take anything away from either of them, right?
Speaker 3:it's because you're tired of hearing about taylor swift does not make her mega. You know, ai is no different. If you're tired of hearing, it doesn't mean that it's not mega.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, that's your thing, it's still there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it not to go too off, too far off on the AI tangent, but I, you know, I mentioned our mastermind groups earlier and, yeah, I know that it would. For some folks if they were a fly on the wall in these mastermind groups it would just be blown away. I spent yesterday facilitating both those groups, so three plus hours with these innovation leaders and pretty much two topics AI and robotics Revolving around and tangents on those and how they're used and how they affect. But two things that come up all the time and did yesterday communication and people, which kind of comes back to this post as well. It's for all of the innovation leaders that are focused on vetting AI tools and building AI tools and wondering how robotics are going to affect their business model in the next three years and all of these things. The conversation will eventually always come back to people in communication. Those things. They're constant there and it's different, obviously, than this post I keep pointing over here. For those of you watching the videos, the post is on that screen over there, but this story related to your book, what you Know About Startups is Wrong, I think, is spot on, and for those of us who are on any journey. I think we need to take notes here. Let me read it again before we wrap this up Again.
Speaker 2:Kp and I do this every week. We sit down and we unpack one of his posts on linkedin. If you're not following kp on linkedin, so kp ready r-e-d-d-y. If you're not following on linkedin I. I've got questions. Right, you need to be. He posts a couple times, maybe three times, maybe one time every day. All All these posts are inspired by conversations, by travel, by startups that he's vetting, work that he does on the advisory side, et cetera. And this one goes like this this week's Sunday Scaries. I decided to let my 23-month-old son sleep on me for his nap instead of putting him in bed while I write this.
Speaker 2:It's very easy to forget our why as entrepreneurs. The narrative of doing things for our family as an entrepreneur has been widely overstated. The reality is that to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be pretty selfish. It's your vision and your dream. Your family is along for the ride and the best case is that you can stay connected enough that they are able to hold on. The work-life balance principles do not apply.
Speaker 2:I have found myself giving away more copies of my book. What you Know About Startups Is Wrong to the spouses and significant others of founders than actually to the founders why? Because I think founders are rooted in optimism and that is the fuel for their growth. A life partner or family member can sign up for that optimism and be supportive quite blindly. My book helps them understand the downsides.
Speaker 2:So on this scary Sunday, as we prepare to be warriors of the week, I'll be in New York City, teaching at Columbia and NYU, while having 13 meetings and hosting a happy hour. You know it's just a light week. Hug your kids and your significant others. They will never truly understand your condition as a founder. It's not their job to do that. They can't hold on alone. Founder, it's not their job to do that. They can't hold on alone. That's your job. Have a great week, kp. Thanks for this post, thanks for unpacking it with us. Um, this is, this is a good one and, uh, I hope everybody takes a little bit of something from this and takes it to heart all right, good talk to you, jeff all right, we'll it there.
Speaker 2:Let me just check and see if there's anything in the chat. Stephen Cameron Hi, stephen. He says preach Kids especially, and spouses to some degree care way less about what we do for them than just being with them. That's a great perspective, stephen 100%.
Speaker 2:Yep, all right, we're going to wrap this up Again. We do this every week, usually at 11 am Eastern, but KP's traveling, so we're just adjusting a little bit for his schedule. You're going to be at Columbia today, is that right? Thursday, thursday Okay, so Wednesdays at 11. You can see when we adjust this, but we do this live every week. We do this recording for the podcast. You can catch the podcast recording over in the Shadow Network, anywhere that you listen to podcasts. So thanks for listening, thanks for joining us and we'll see you again next week.
Speaker 1:Thanks, KP. Want more discussions like this. You can connect with KP Ready today at kpreadyco that's K-P-R-E-D-D-Yco and additionally follow him on LinkedIn at wwwlinkedincom. Slash IN slash. Kp Ready, you next time.