Ned Hill: We're building a platform that not only could deliver packages for residents and buildings but also send notifications to these residents. We needed
Sramana Mitra: This first company, how long did you do it for? Ned Hill: It was five years. I was doing that part-time. Sramana Mitra: You had another job? Ned
Sramana Mitra: What did you do after college? Ned Hill: I had a painting company while in college. That was successful and there was a person who heard about me
I seldom get to interview an entrepreneur who is candid about his mistakes. Yet, people tend to learn more from failures than from successes. In this story, you will see how Ned built technology looking for a problem to solve, an absolute no no.You will also see the negative impact of not validating your product idea upfront. Read on. This is a unique interview. Sramana Mitra: Let's start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background? Ned Hill: I was born in Massachusetts and raised by a single mother. I have an older brother. It was a good upbringing for an entrepreneurial bent. We were poor. I had a father who's a genius. He had a Harvard MBA with full scholarship but never did anything with it. I didn't see him. It was a good lesson to me as a child of what not to become as an adult. It doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't put in the work. I always had that in the back of my mind.
Sramana Mitra: Let's double-click down on what you said. I get the sense that you have a company where you were experimenting with some technology. You were