Justin Ith

The culture of a team is how people behave and make decisions.

When confronted with a challenge, how will the group of people approach this challenge? What is their mindset when faced with the challenge? What are deemed acceptable and unacceptable methods to resolving the challenge? If the attempted resolution to the challenge fails, how will people react?

Behaviors and decisions are the result of a mindset and norms within the team. The mindset leads to the decisions which lead to the behavior.

Notably, the culture of a team is not declared. The culture of a team is evaluated by the historical behavior and decisions of the team.

An executive cannot announce the culture. It must be observed in the reality of how the team behaves.

Therefore, the truest measure of culture is how the staff describes how people make decisions and behave. Not what an executive states is the culture.

The culture of a team is truly tested during the most difficult of times. When things are getting hard, they look to the leaders for examples of what to do. If their leaders react to difficult times by running around with their hair on fire, yelling, and moving erratically, then the team will follow that behavior. If leaders work calmly and steadily, the team will follow that behavior.

The character of a leader is most apparent during difficult times. When everything is running smoothly, everyone is able to be perceived as an easygoing or good leader.

Since being a student at UW in 2012…to now ten years later, I have always been involved in student entrepreneurship. I’ve seen probably hundreds of students enter this space, try things, fail at things, grow, and find joy and passion. I’ve also watched people try it, and realize it’s not for them. And that’s totally okay.

When I look back at the last ten years, I see through lines in cohorts of student entrepreneurs. There are consistencies and reincarnations of people, ideas, and goals. There are the loud students who love the chance to pitch and share, who need to learn to be quiet and listen. There are the timid but strong students, who need to learn to share their ideas and thoughts with conviction. There are the ones who are ping ponging around a dozen ideas a minute, and there’s someone who’s been baking a project for the past three years and want to keep going for the next three. You have technically minded ones, you have business hustling types. You have people who are eager to learn, and those who are more skeptical.

You see a lot of glamour in the idea of entrepreneurship and being a founder. There are dreams of fame, glory, and wealth. There are also dreams of more balanced expectations, following in the steps of their parents. You have those who look down on that. And you occasionally get ones who see the holistic spectrum of entrepreneurs and can appreciate the strength with all.

I have rarely seen student ideas continue past a year, let alone past college and beyond. Few ideas that are started in college will reach the success and conviction needed to forgo a high paying job and cost of living. 

And that’s okay. 

I think there are so many learnings and growth that happens when you try to create a company. Try to build a product. Try to collaborate with others. Try to make sales. Try to handle customer service. Try to design something useful, helpful, delightful. The more chances you take at learning these things, the more you’ll get better at it. You’ll make many mistakes when you try, and you won’t get it right the first time, or the second. But you’ll keep getting better. And it will work with time.

Success comes with applied effort, day by day, week by week. If you trust in your effort and you have high integrity, you’ll succeed at this game. Eventually, you’ll also ask the question if this is the game you want to play. It’s totally okay if it’s not - there are many ways to be happy and fulfilled, entrepreneurial life is just one avenue.

I've actually been meaning to write something about this for a while. This is the quick and dirty version.

All these ideas are assuming it's sunny/not raining/pleasant to be outside (which is a big assumption).

Favorite areas

Downtown waterfront

Capitol Hill

Even though Caphill is known for it's nightlife, I think it's most charming by day. The food, parks, stores, and people are way more fun. Most interesting food in Caphill right now; Malaysian spot called Kedai Makan. The line can be long and they're only doing takeout right now, but it's so good. For specific dish recommendations hit me up. Favorite sushi joint in Seattle is Gokan Sushi, right in the heart of Caphill (Gokan Dragon roll is life (sorry Dermot but I like eel too much)). Tacos Chukis is debatably the best tacos in town (no fish taco though). Rhein Haus has the best German food. 

If you're not eating, Cal Anderson is fun. There's usually pick-up dodgeball that's super friendly, funky, and jovial. Very date-dependent. I'm a big fan of ballroom dancing so I love going to Palace Ballroom for some evening salsa/swing. They have beginner classes that I promise to be super fun and charming dates. 

There's a ton of cool shops and drinks around. Big fan of the Elliot Bay Bookstore, I can spend hours browsing there and talking about books with a date. I like how every aisle could be a conversation starter.

Molly Moons is a classic PNW funky ice cream shop. If you want to be extra hip, Salt & Straw is even funkier and experimental but it's still hella good. Just be prepared going in. For lunchtime snacks/vibes, Bakery Nouveau is the best french bakery in town.

Great Bars

Each watering hole brings its own vibe and flare. Depending on what mood you're going for, here are my favorite bars for a night out:

• Unique Bars
• Flat Stick Pub - South Lake Union - Mini golf in the bar itself. A lively crowd of mostly yuppies. A great transition from here to Art Marble 21, which is a bit more low-key and has games.
• SPIN Seattle - Downtown Shopping District - Ping pong bar. Room full of ping pong tables, drinks, and music. The entrance going downstairs has a hidden, speakeasy feel. 
• Add-A-Ball - Fremont - Pinball and games galore, really fun old school 70's throwback vibe
• Jupiter Bar - Belltown - Pretty much like Add-A-Ball but in Belltown 
• Cowgirls - Pioneer Square - Loud, rambunchous, and so fun. They have a mechanical bull to ride; laughs and shock are ensured.
• Roof Top, Seattle "bougie"
• mBar - South Lake Union - My favorite rooftop bar in Seattle, it has stunning views of the skyline and the water. Higher priced and posher. Modern slick feel.
• The Mountaineering Club - University District - The vibe of a neighborhood bar but within a refined outdoorsman decor placed on a rooftop overlooking north Seattle
• Dive Bars
• White Horse Tavern - Downtown Pike Place area - British-style pub. Dimly lit, less rowdy crowd, and fairly clean for a pub.
• Streamline Tavern - Lower Queen Anne - A fun old-school dive bar, pinball machines, pool tables, and a cash-only food counter. Affordable drinks for a neighborhood bar
• German Beer Hall
• Rhein Haus
• Queen Anne Beer Hall
• Party
• Unicorn

UDistrict, Lower Queen Anne, Greenlake, Old Ballard to come...

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/stsc.2017.0048

Key highlights

"Importantly, we also suggest that in their search for paths to value creation, economic actors are not constrained by their arsenal of existing resources (cf. Barney 1986). Rather, novel questions, novel problem frames, and novel economic theories reveal previously unseen paths to solutions and value in assets."

"Our physical reality and environment has a large if not infinite variety of features, characteristics, and possibilities that remain latent or dormant (Chater et al. 2017). However, theories provide a mechanism that allows for salience and unique observation. Novel theories, sparked by novel questions and novel problem frames, allow us to see, look for, and express that which may previously have escaped awareness. And importantly, the reinterpretation of even mundane objects, events, occurrences, or readily visible factors may take on completely new meaning and insight in light of the novel theories we possess."

"Organisms—humans included—attend to their surroundings not in a computational or camera-like sense (cf. Geisler 2011, Tabachneck-Schijf et al. 1997) but rather through the questions, problems, hypotheses, and theories that they have in mind and impose on the world (Koenderink 2012). Thus salience and observation, in terms of what we are aware of, are driven by theories and questions and not by the inherent characteristics (called “natural assessments” in the literature), presence or even nature of objects (cf. Kahneman 2003). This intuition, intriguingly, was featured in some of Simon’s early work, when he argued that “a subject perceives what he is ‘ready’ to perceive in it; the more complex and ambiguous the stimulus, the more the perception is determined by what is already ‘in’ the subject and less by what is in the stimulus” (Dearborn and Simon 1958, p. 140, emphasis added)."

"What animates our vision are the questions that prompt observation and perception. Therefore, the environment a strategist perceives—the potential resources recognized and the value-tags affixed to assets and resources—is always a reflection of a question asked or a problem framed."

This is incredibly accurate and personally provoking. People with different perceptions of the world can drive down the exact same street and see and notice completely different things. None are wrong, and all are right to that person. Thus, greater value comes in our ability to see through a multiplex of perceptions and stitch together a multi-dimensional view of the world.

"Valuable theories—whether scientific ones or economic theories of value—perform several key sight-giving functions. By effectively framing a problem or a set of problems, a theory provides a coherent, abstract, causal representation of the world. It serves not as a (or the) representation of the world, per se, but rather as a map of what might be observed: a way of seeing things that may not be evident or obvious to others."

"Our approach, on the other hand, is fundamentally about identifying possible discrepancies with widely agreed current or future realities, or creating what we might casually reference as a “reality distortion.” That is, if realities—as discussed in the preceding section (also see Chater et al. 2017)—are multifarious and multistable, then the “distortion” of reality is simply a way of pointing out and making alternative realities, through questions and theories, more salient and possible (cf. Attneave 1954)."

I really enjoy this definition of reality distortion. Basically, reality is simply one perception of the world, and yet you can have multiple perceptions of the world that are all correct. Therefore distorting reality is simply changing the perception of the viewer.

Hi. My name is Justin and I suck at texting.

Why do I suck at texting? I'm not sure. I think it stems from being bad at small talk. I vastly prefer having meaningful conversations or joking conversations. Conversations that are neither meaningful, interesting, or humorous I am just bad at. Generally, I find it difficult to conjure these types of conversation via text messages. So therefore, I'm bad at texting.

Another reason I'm bad at texting is because it takes time throughout the day. One could argue, it's just a few seconds to respond to a message. Which is true, if the text requires only a message or two. But actual conversations take much more than a couple messages. Therefore, I am specifically bad at conversing via text messages.

Also, responding to conversational text messages requires you to not be present wherever you actually are - at work, reading, watching Netflix, being with friends, etc. More often than not, I'm more engrossed in whatever I'm presently doing than conducting a conversation via texts. Therefore, I am bad at texting.

Here are some texts that I freeze up at:

• How are you doing?
• How's life?
• What have you been up to?
• Any remotely open ended question about how I am
• What do you think about [insert philosophical concept]

Here are texts that I'm better at responding to:

• Do you want to go to XYZ event?
• I'm here. ETA?
• Check out this cat video [insert cat video]

Am I also bad at in person conversation? I hope not.

So if you want to have a conversation, let's meet up or hop on a call. Yes, as a 20-something in 2019, I just suggested we hop on a call. Calls are much more efficient for conducting actual conversations. Better yet, a video call. I'd also wager both of us would enjoy it more in the end.

Please accept my apologies for long response times. I wish I didn't suck at texting. But alas, I am bad at texting.

This is that asterisks.

Every piece of advice, view point, or expression should be filtered through the following context:

My upbringing

• I was born into a very stable, loving family environment in a safe neighborhood

• I grew up in a financially stable household

• I grew up in one of the most liberal cities in one of the most liberal states of one of the most historically liberal countries in the world: Seattle, Washington, USA
  

• I was born without any chronic physical, social, or mental impairments 

My career

• I grew up in a deeply entrepreneurial family environment. My parents and both sets of grandparents were lifelong entrepreneurs, working almost exclusively for themselves.

• My parents are calculated risk takers and they encouraged that within their children

• My parents are believers in actively pursuing one’s passions and dreams. They’ve supported my brother and I in all aspects, including financially.

• I was born in a city who is a major epicenter of my career interest (Seattle -> Technology)

My education

• I had a very involved mom who worked hard to expose me to many interests / areas of life

• I went to private catholic school, then public school. I was in honors classes.

• I had no scholarships that were GPA / performance contingent

• I paid in-state tuition with minimal student loans

• I had no employment restrictions throughout college

My world view

• I am a straight, Asian American, cisgender male

• My parents and extended family are all immigrants to the USA

• I am ethnically Cambodian, with a deep influence from Cantonese and French culture. My parents grew up in both Eastern and Western environments.

• Throughout my life, I’ve had the opportunity to travel Europe and Asia through my parents.

• I have family around the world who’s experiences influence me.

• I grew up studying spanish and mandarin and spoke broken Cambodian at home

In the hierarchy of privilege one can be born into, I know I’m a genetic lottery winner. Does that invalidate my outlook? Not at all. It simply adds a step in determining the transferability of my views to your own life. All of this is the context behind my words and views. Even with this listed out, I know there are aspects of my life that I am unaware of how they’ve influenced me.

The best I can do is remind myself that everything we believe to be “true” must be filtered through the life experience that we were born into and nurtured in. For more on this, check out the context behind the advice.

This was originally written for a short keynote talk at a University of Washington mentorship event on 1/29/19.

Hi there. I’ll keep this brief as I know you all are excited to talk with your mentor or mentee.

I want to talk about just one thing; the context behind advice.

I was recently reflecting on a conversation I had with a student who wanted to talk about venture capital and startups. She had reached out to me because of my work experience, but looking back, I realized that so much of what I was saying was actually a reflection of my life experience. A life experience very different than hers. She came from an unstable, single parent household, where meals and housing were consistently as risk, and much of her family was plagued by incarceration.

In contrast, I was blessed into a loving, stable family where, while we weren’t rich, we had our basic needs covered.

And yet this difference in our background wasn’t known to her, but it mattered. It still matters.

I realized that advice comes from our individual experiences, and our individual experiences comes from the world context we were born into and how we handled that.

A great example is the advice to "focus less on grades and more on learning outside the classroom", through side projects and internships. This is how I personally approached college and it worked out for me, but there's so much context behind that advice. This comes from someone who doesn't have a GPA-minimum scholarship, doesn't have to maintain a minimum number of credits for international enrollment, and has open minded parents that can stomach this risk. All these factors are the context I was born into that enabled me to make the choices I did.

This isn’t to say that a difference in context makes one’s advice invalid, but simply that understanding where the advice is rooted from helps you calibrate their words.

Vinod Khosla, a legendary venture capitalist behind over a half dozen billion dollar companies, recently said in an interview that “the single hardest decision you’ll make is who’s advice to trust on what topic.”

The more you know about who is giving you advice, the better you can assess and internalize their words. This plays even more importantly in mentorship, where topics go beyond just how to code or design, and deeper into one’s ambitions, goals, and their definition of success.

Today, whenever I meet a student who wants advice or when I meet with someone I want to learn from, I try to take time to learn about their life story, beyond the resume.

Things like where they grew up and what that was like, to what their values are today, and what their ambitions are for tomorrow. What sculpted their individual worldview.

Tonight, we have a good amount of time. I challenge you to take some time to dig a bit deeper. And while it may feel awkward, or uncomfortable in the beginning, I promise that if you approach it from a place of genuine curiosity, what will result is a stronger, lasting relationship built on trust, understanding, and advice through their context.

Enjoy tonight, and best of luck.

---

Here is the context that influenced my world views and outlook. Your mileage may vary.

For all the pros and cons of working in a startup studio like MVL, I can definitely say there's no shortage of odd days. When you're deep in the weeds of an idea, things make sense. But when you take a step back and look at what's happening out of context, you can't help but realize the unorthodox work environment. For memory safe keeping, I thought I'd record some of ones that have stood out so far.

Today at work, I went to buy live worms, cockroaches, and crickets in order to photograph them on raw bloody meat and produce with a $20,000 camera. The store didn't have any bags so I had to put the critters on the back of my motorcycle and hope a worm wouldn't fly 67mph onto some lady's windshield.

Today at work, I walked around town from funereal home to funereal home, trying to schmooze my way past receptionists to sell funeral directors an AI that would help grieving families. I got unpleasantly familiar with the smell of funeral home lobbies.

Today at work, my coworker and I walked into a beauty salon office holding matching motorcycle helmets looking like a biker gang. I proceeded to leave with a free bag of skin care creams and a sponge that promised me "the most nourished pores".

Today at work, I was sitting at my desk in an open office space, google image searching "toddler swim suits", resulting in a 32" monitor filled with HD pictures of very young children in bikinis and swim trunks. Any passing bystander would then witness me copying these photos and putting them into a folder titled "assets".

Today at work, I had to do an audit of my Facebook chat history and filter through many unsavory high school and college correspondences before giving it to a coworker to do natural language processing over the topics I talked about. Kids are crazy.

Today at work, my coworker put me in contact with a biltong (South African beef jerky) producer. Within a few hours, I was standing in this stranger's home, buying pounds of fresh uncut biltong while learning about how Shakespeare would've responded to the question "Who are you?" by the stranger's mother-in-law. I am now slinging biltong on the side. hmu.

...

Often times, taking a moment to step back and see what's happening around you, things can get weird.

For some reason, I couldn't find an updated list of active investment groups in Seattle -- many lists show groups that have since been out of commission. So for my own use, here's a list of most early-stage investment groups in Seattle.

Anchor institutional firms

• Madrona Venture Group
• Maveron Ventures
• Vulcan Capital
• Voyager Capital
• Founders Co-Op
• Ignition Partners
• Bezos Expeditions

Boutique / newer institutional firms

• Flying Fish Partners 
• SWAN Ventures
• Pioneer Square Ventures 
• WRF Capital
• Unlock Venture Partners 
• Curious Capital 

Angel Investing Groups

• Alliance of Angels
• TIE
• Keiretsu Forum
• Seachange Fund
• Grubstakes
• Puget Sound Venture Club
• WINGS (medical technology focused)

I know I'm missing some, so please let me know: justin.ith12@gmail.com