{"id":6045,"date":"2014-02-14T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2020-03-30T19:09:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T23:09:08","slug":"keeping-it-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/keeping-it-small","title":{"rendered":"Keeping it small: why we take pride in being a two-person team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do What You Love is a series that showcases the entrepreneurs behind emerging companies. In this edition, we sat with Firehawk Creative<\/a>\u2019s co-founders John Petersen and David Lesches.<\/p>\n

In previous jobs, both John and David reached tipping points that pushed them to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Firehawk Creative launched in 2013 as a development shop focused on helping others take their ideas from concepts to successful businesses. John and David take pride in being a two-person team, placing an emphasis on client satisfaction over company growth. Here\u2019s how they got started, what makes them different, and some things they dislike about working in tech:<\/p>\n

What was the tipping point for you? What made you quit?<\/b><\/p>\n

John: <\/b>I take notes on lots of things, and I was going back through an old notebook from four years ago with some goals I had written down. One had a question, \u201cWhat do you do and why are you doing it\u201d? I answered: \u201cI love helping people figure out their finances.\u201d Looking back, working in finance wasn\u2019t what I loved doing at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The NJ Tech Meetup was actually the first tech meetup that I ever went to. I saw a couple companies from TechStars, and one of them built this really cool product in three months. That was a game changer for me, seeing the impact it had made in such a short amount of time. At that moment, I knew I had to get into that space.<\/p>\n

David:\u00a0<\/b>I used to code for an events company, but quickly realized that the work wasn’t challenging enough.\u00a0John and I actually worked in the same building, and he mentioned he was going to get in the development shop scene and I was completely in because you\u2019re never bored in that world. You change projects every month and that was so appealing to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a lot of development shops out there\u2014what makes Firehawk Creative different?<\/b><\/p>\n

John:<\/b> We\u2019ve had positions with other development shops and understand how they work and why they exist. Ultimately, we found that we can deliver the best product as a two-person team. One of our biggest strengths is looking at a problem and figuring out a way to execute it because we\u2019ve done it so many times before.<\/p>\n

It sounds like you measure success a little differently than some.<\/b><\/p>\n

John:<\/b> Yes, it\u2019s about client satisfaction. When people are investing their time, money, effort, and life into something, we want to offer honest feedback to help them and to build out a quality project.<\/p>\n

Do you think it\u2019s beneficial to have worked with someone before starting a company together?<\/b><\/p>\n

John:<\/b> It\u2019s so crucial. It\u2019s one of the biggest problems I see with people trying to get into the startup space. You see people who need a tech founder and give away half the company to someone they met at a meetup because they know how to code. You can\u2019t expect to work well with someone on a project for 10 years if you jumped into doing business together after one meeting at a coffee shop.<\/p>\n

With David, we worked together at the same company for a year before jumping into this new company. If we had gone in together right away, it might not have been the same fit.<\/p>\n

With a two-person team, how important is it to able to disagree? Do you guys often see things differently?<\/b><\/p>\n

John:<\/b> We debate all the time, and we\u2019re brutally honest \u2014 with clients, people we meet, and ourselves. We\u2019ll sit there and straight up say: \u201cThis sucks\u201d. It\u2019s good because we\u2019re always pushing for the highest quality in our work. If you\u2019re not honest with your own team, it won\u2019t show up in the final product.<\/p>\n

You mentioned that you\u2019re \u201cbrutally honest\u201d with people before taking on projects \u2014 do people ever react to that negatively?<\/b><\/p>\n

David:<\/b> I don\u2019t think people respond negatively, but there are some people who listen and some people who are just deaf.\u00a0 A lot of people just refuse to listen.<\/p>\n

John: <\/b>We\u2019ve talked to investors who say some of their peers take the easy road out and tell people who are pitching to them \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s a good idea but come back to me when there\u2019s more traction\u201d. That\u2019s usually code for \u201cI\u2019m not interested at all in your idea, but I don\u2019t want this to be uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

To me, if people are looking to you for guidance and you\u2019re not giving it to them because you don\u2019t want to have a difficult conversation\u2014it\u2019s not right way to do it.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been in the tech space awhile. Is there anything you dislike about it?<\/b><\/p>\n

David:<\/b> I\u2019ll start. This is my favorite rant. I think many entrepreneurs take the MVP concept too far in the wrong places. I think it\u2019s important to hit the core functionality of your product, but you can\u2019t sacrifice design and user experience. Good design invokes trust out of the user. If it looks good, you trust the website with your data. Too many entrepreneurs are cutting corners because of the MVP mindset and it\u2019s negatively affecting UI\/UX.<\/span><\/p>\n

John:<\/b> Can I steal his? (laughs)<\/p>\n

For me, I see too many people get attached to their idea and it puts them in a difficult spot. Any successful company you look at today isn\u2019t doing exactly what they said they were going to do when they started. You have to be open to feedback and be willing to make changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do What You Love is a series that showcases the entrepreneurs behind emerging companies. In this edition, we sat with Firehawk Creative\u2019s co-founders John Petersen and David Lesches. In previous jobs, both John and David reached tipping points that pushed them to take the leap into entrepreneurship. Firehawk Creative launched in 2013 as a development […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":34339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping it small: why we take pride in being a two-person team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do What You Love is a series that showcases the entrepreneurs behind emerging companies. 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