Jeff Haynie
- Pintpoint | Build Software Better
- Twitter – @jhaynie | 7000 followers
- Medium Page | Personal Blog
- Doesn’t talk to Siri 😉
LISTEN ON: iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox, Deezer, Podcast Addict
Having known Jeff Haynie for years now, first as an angel investor in Pinpoint (first money in!) and having him as an investor in my SaaS product, it was great to have him on the show and tell us some stories.
I asked Jeff if he wanted to start off the conversation about what he’s doing now at Pinpoint or how he got into VC. I’m glad he chose to give us his side of the story as to how he learned about VC back in the 90’s from a Founders perspective. I found it fascinating that he learned about venture capital while being a founder and knowing nothing about venture during the time!
It quickly reminded me of how powerful the resourcing we have now with guides, tutorials, self-help, and even entire video series dedicated to understanding the venture capital game. What I haven’t seen yet… and is one-of-many goals we have here at VC Hunting, is to get the deeper stories behind the founders. Get the deeper stories behind the money. Having people on like Jeff are great because they are great story tellers. I need to have more like Jeff on the show!
“I believe that there is something super magical when you get lots of diverse people behind a passionate idea thats bigger than yourself.”
Jeff Haynie – VC Hunting S1E6
I really loved Jeff’s answer to how he can filter people when deciding who to work with in a project or startup. It starts with values. Those values come from the leader. The founder!
“Values are not things that you write on a wall, it’s the belief system of the founders. It’s ultimately a reflection of what the founders believe and what they live every day. Those behaviors are your values. You will attract or detract people based on those alone.”
Jeff Haynie – VC Hunting S1E6
In many ways, this is how a founder should evaluate people to bring on to their team. Do they live the values they say they do? Obviously, it’s impossible to fully know before you onboard, but during the first months, it’s incumbent on the founders to feel out their new employees to see if they are still in cultural alignment to the founders values! This is so clutch!
I loved seeing the passion from Jeff as he talked about how his company is living out their values every day. For him, it’s not something that you put on when you get to work. How you live shows your values!
“We at Pinpoint live by humility. We don’t know what we don’t know. We have a vision, we’re going to make a lot of mistakes to get to that vision, it’s a big-audacious-change-the-world-idea, but if we knew all the answers, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing. Why humility is important is we have to recognize that we’re going to do a lot of things that don’t work, and it’s ok to not know, but, we’re going to try!”
Jeff Haynie – VC Hunting S1E6
This is the type of leader I would want to work for, and if you noticed, I even exclaimed in a moment of weakness that maybe I should stop investing in Jeff’s companies and start working for him!
Jeff is clearly a leader that I wouldn’t hesitate, given the right circumstances to work for or with. I’m really really happy that this was a great interview of a founder with depth, stories, and humility enough to share them. His feedback around what he learned from previous company Appcelerator and how he’s applying it to his current work was wonderful. Slow down. Make better decisions. Learn from the ‘scar tissue.’ Make sure to tune in during those segments, there is some real juice there!
Make sure to listen to how Jeff answers this question… he’s a time traveler!:
This is why VC Hunting exists. To understand the men and women behind the work, so that the world can know who they are, before investing with them.
I wish Jeff all the best in his current project. Enjoy my retrospective! To the moon!
All the best,
Peter Saddington
Collateral from our conversation:
JEFF HAYNIE SOCIAL MEDIA!
I won’t be forgettin’ that hunt anytime soon!