Summary
Welcome back to the podcast!
We are the Startup Junkies, and this is episode 269. Our hosts for this episode contain the usual Jeff Amerine, Caleb Talley, and Davis McEntire and are also joined by the prodigal son himself, Matthew Ward! We had the pleasure of talking to Phil Libin who is a serial entrepreneur and just a fun guy! We laughed, chatted, and got to dive into his latest ventures, Mmhmm and All Turtles.
Don’t miss this one, tune in!
Shownotes
(1:31) Introducing Phil Libin
(3:33) Why move to Bentonville, Arkansas?
(6:41) Genesis and future casting for Mmhmm
(12:24) All Turtles Philosophy
(18:15) Out of Office vs. In-Person Benefits
(21:08) Commentary of Evolving VC World
(30:37) Paradigm Shifts in Apple, AI, and Machine Learning.
(35:39) Advice to Younger Self
(38:13) Wrap Up
Links
Quotes
“Quality of life improves quality of work and quality of work improves quality of life.”
(8:16) – Phil Libin
“We’re never going back to anything, we’re going forward. We’re not going back to the way things were… We are going forward to the way things should be.”
(19:13) – Phil Libin
“I care about brilliant people having a chance to show their brilliance and make high impact products. And I don’t want them to waste their time making startups first.”
(25:25)
Taking Notes on the Changing Work Environment with Phil Libin
“Quality of life improves quality of work and quality of work improves quality of life.”
(8:16) – Phil Libin
Pil Libin arrived in the United States at age eight. He and his family were refugees from what was the Soviet Union at the time. Upon leaving what is now St. Petersburg, he has indeed become a pioneer of the startup world.
As a programmer with VC and five startups under his belt, we were excited to sit and talk with him. After growing businesses from coast to coast, he found himself fleeing San Francisco and ending up in Bentonville, Arkansas, with his latest two ventures: Mmhmm and All Turtles.
From Joke To Product
The genesis of Mmhmm began as a bit of a joke. During the plethora of video calls within the past two years, Phil started to play around with slides, fake backgrounds, and other special effects. The snowball effect was then named Mmhmm. When seen by outsiders, this product mainly used internally was encouraged to become an actual software.
Mmhmm is following the out-of-office movement. Though there are many opinions on the transition to remote working, Phil believes in the upside of it. The freedom that employees have when working from home can be cultivated and expressed in a better workflow. Working remotely allows people to be intentional about where they want to live, what kind of neighborhoods they want to live in, or even how they spend time with their family! If one has the tools to allow working remotely to improve their quality of life, that can enhance their quality of work. The point is, quality of life improves the quality of work and vice versa.
Out Of Office Movement
The vicious cycle of the office is what this software is up against. The concept of the office is one of the most significant factors in a low quality of life, Phil claims. Whether it be the commute, the hours of workflow, the inability to move or plane, or seek health and wellness with its demanding schedule, having a building can cause more problems than solutions.
The pandemic accelerated the inevitable out-of-office movement. For the first time, a few hundred million people could choose where to live and what is the best life for them independent of where their work is located. The effects have been profound on everything, even beyond workflow. Phil explains that this out-of-office movement can benefit and change everything from society, education, healthcare, recreation, and travel to mentorship, friendships, and family relationships.
“If you want to do anything else, if you want to have time for art or music or health, that all gets pushed out to the weekend or vacations.”
(9:36) – Phil Libin
Seeing this opportunity for growth, Phil wanted in on any project that could continue to exacerbate and improve the out-of-office movement. Even the language behind the campaign is essential to him. They do not consider themselves remote but distributed. The connotations of loneliness or isolation are now pushed towards, delegated, and intentionally placed elsewhere. Words give superpowers, he goes on to explain.
“The internet is distributed, it’s not remote. It’s distributed because being distributed gives a system so many fundamental advantages. It gives a company so many advantages, it gives a life so many advantages.”
(12:00) – Phil Libin
The Serial Entrepreneur Continues
“I’m a really simple person. I just want to make the things that I wish existed and I want to help other people make the things that they wish exist.”
(12:46)
Phil’s other creation, All Turtles, comes from the desire to make a product everyone wants but accelerating that process to jump past the complex hurdles. By helping that product creation find the shortest, easiest and fastest path, the things we want to make can get into the marketplace rather than get stuck in the early stages.
The philosophy for All Turtles came from Phil and his team believing that the Silicon Valley venture model is archaic and does not work. They want to create an alternative way to make their fantastic products with high impact but just a little faster.
Both Mmhmm and All Turtles seek to empower both remote work and early-stage product building, both of which have ramped up since the pandemic.
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